The Full Screen VP Table That Pays For Itself(-or- The Working Man's Visual Pinball Cabinet 
)Hey, y'all,
Yes, we're all into pinball here, and it would be really great to have a fully decked out pinball cabinet. How cool it would be to go all the way with all the DMDs, full-arcade-size screens, LED-WIZ, the works.
But if you're like me, there may not be the funds, or even the space, to get into it like that.
I had resigned myself for awhile to using desktop VP and FP tables. I already have the equipment that I need, which is my old XP desktop 'puter, and also my Win7 WS laptop. Between all the desktop tables that are availble for VP8 and VP9, I have more pinball than I can play ... right?
But after seeing all these cool things that people are doing with the B2S, I just couldn't resist. So I found a way to improvise, and came up with a cheap, economical way that I could enjoy FS B2S tables, and even help me earn some money at the same time.
Here's my little Corner Arcade / Graphics Studio. To the left is my aging Dell Dimension E510, 1 GB RAM, 225k Radeon Vid Adapter, Win XP. On the table, to the left and right, are the Harmom Kardon desktop speakers, which also has a subwoofer underneath the table; any stereo sounds in the pinball tables, as well as stereo music, sound really great here. Left and right flippers, bumpers and sounds are really cool in stereo, or dead center for mono sounds. It sounds like I'm playing an actual machine. JP's Time Machine sounds particularly awesome, especially with those loud EM-like sounds you get when achieving multiball. For the screens, I have a 21" AOC widescreen monitor I use for the playfield. The backglass is a 17" 4:3 monitor taken from a Dell Optiplex GX620 all-in-one 'puter. I've raised the backglass up on top of a box a bit, and the playfield monitor is rotated on its side and rests against the backglass just right. Although there is no cabinet, this configuration has every bit of the effect of a mini-pinball machine!
Here's a picture of a very interesting table displaying in my Corner Arcade. I've downloaded Itchy's new Distant World FS B2S table. When I look at it in this picture, I'm reminded of the way I used to walk among the 30 or 40 pins that were at my local arcade IRL, looking for an interesting table to play. This backglass certainly would have caught my attention back in the day. So I think I'll insert a coin here and give it a play!
Distant World plays very nicely in full screen. It's nice as a desktop, but it's a pretty big upgrade when it's played the way pinball was meant to be played, with a narrow, vertical playfield and a spectacular flashing backglass! Stay tuned for my review on this table; I'll be writing about this, as well as Itchy's EM recreations, shortly!
Of course, when it comes time to earn the game time by doing some work, this Corner Arcade can be easily converted back to a proper Graphics/Web Dev Studio. The 21" screen is rotated back on its base for photoshop, web dev, and whatever other tasks I'm working on. The 17" 4:3 screen is usually where I monitor emails, social networking, or the weather when a storm is approaching. I also have my WinAMP playlist at the ready.
Having dual monitors is also handy for when you need one screen to look at something while using the other screen to work. For instance, I watch a video tutorial on the backglass while taking notes on the main screen. There's always stuff to learn, and videos are becoming more and more useful for learning on the fly. But now I can also take notes at the same machine without having a laptop crowd into my workspace. Very convenient.
No, this isn't a cab. One day, my pinball addiction will just have to be satisfied, and I'll just have to dive in and build me a masterpiece table.
But for now, this satisfies my FS B2S game time very nicely. The 21" screen was purchased new for $200 (they've since come down in price to about $150 now, sometimes even less). The 17" backglass was already in house. My Dell E510 has outputs for both VGA and DVI. Most later model desktops have the two ports already, but if not, you should be able to get a video card upgrade for less than $50. I'd recommend spending a little bit more and get a decent video card that has at least 1 GB vid ram ... you won't be sorry you did! That's next on my Christmas Shopping List, a video card upgrade. I do get decent pinball gameplay on most tables. But it will be an obvious bonus to have no-stutter playback and crystal-sharp graphics!
Happy Pinballing, y'all!
Rogue Pinball
