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The old guy comes here to say Hello

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shiva:
Well, finally decided to pop in and say hello. been very busy and all, and VP is no longer part of my life, but still, pretty sure Tim is finally happy and doesn't have to bug me any more.
First off, just want to say thank you for everyone's efforts to get Trigon playable in VP9. Reading some of the posts here, there were some pretty big changes made in VP over the years (Trigon was done in VP5) so it's nice to see people still remember it and even play it now after 12 YEARS! As the author, you just can't get a better feeling than that.
I should mention the reason for the 3 scripts. Simple, I split it so I can find things myself while I was writing it.  :)
It's so nice to see things going so strong within the entire pinball community. So many new advances even now, it boggles the mind. When I first opened up my site, right after Williams announced they were closing their doors, I wanted to do my part to keep the (very tiny) spark alive and found wpcmame, and then the original master clean roms for them. Since then, VP came along, then pinmame/Vpinmame, Future pinball, Unit3d, BAM and even now, new things, like VP10, a new Unit3d beta,and improvements to the xml so FP actually plays "right". Some of the new creations are just jaw dropping, and the next couple years will be amazing to see and I will look forward too.
My VP time has come and gone, but always feel free to ask me if you want to redo something, as I might have spares with my resources (like the new pf image, I drew that for a FP release  just to piss off Black)  and a bit of my old stuff is still available here and there. Mostly though, I just now play like everyone else does.
Nice to be here, and just came in to say hello to my friends

Itchigo:
Glad you finally made it!

Trigon was one of those that I would always show off, saying "this looks like it could've been real" when I first started with VP. It was hard to make a DB2S for, but not as hard as you'd think. It's not that I didn't get the code, but more putting things in the right place. With 5,000 lines (approx) across 3 scripts, I thought of combining them all into one. In the end, my old way worked best. Finding the object name (Reel1) and finding where it was called, then add the backglass call.

I did have one I was trying to take the title away from Trigon with, but I suck at graphics, so it may be a while (unless you want it). :Whistle: I have it fully coded and playable too... Needs sounds, graphics, and DMD animations which is really ironic when you realize I don't play many DMD tables. I was never a fan of that era, in fact I left the business about that time.

I haven't really played VP10 yet, once they finish it I guess I'll add it, but I'm invested in VP9 because I have 700+ playing 2 screen tables. VP 10 has that "fake" look that FP does (imho). Nice, but not real.

Maybe AJ will come out and say hey. He is here, but he's incognito because he was worried people are still pissed at him.

shiva:

--- Quote from: Itchigo on August 30, 2015, 04:47:35 AM ---Glad you finally made it!

Trigon was one of those that I would always show off, saying "this looks like it could've been real" when I first started with VP. It was hard to make a DB2S for, but not as hard as you'd think. It's not that I didn't get the code, but more putting things in the right place. With 5,000 lines (approx) across 3 scripts, I thought of combining them all into one. In the end, my old way worked best. Finding the object name (Reel1) and finding where it was called, then add the backglass call.

I did have one I was trying to take the title away from Trigon with, but I suck at graphics, so it may be a while (unless you want it). :Whistle: I have it fully coded and playable too... Needs sounds, graphics, and DMD animations which is really ironic when you realize I don't play many DMD tables. I was never a fan of that era, in fact I left the business about that time.

I haven't really played VP10 yet, once they finish it I guess I'll add it, but I'm invested in VP9 because I have 700+ playing 2 screen tables. VP 10 has that "fake" look that FP does (imho). Nice, but not real.

Maybe AJ will come out and say hey. He is here, but he's incognito because he was worried people are still pissed at him.

--- End quote ---
I gave up on VP. When I had a look at VP10, all I went was WTF, and then put it away. I know some people are very excited about it, and I personally am so looking forward to the 250th separate version of Addams family, but i will stick with FP or pinball arcade. So many years of playing the same damn games will do that, and despite it's various problems, there's that wild creativeness with the FP games that's been lacking in VP for a long time. The Polygame stuff is really pushing the limits, and you never know, I may even drop in a couple more things (under a assumed identity of course) if I ever have the spare time.

Actually, the reason VP now has that fake look is because VP is using the same models that FP uses.  :)

I just like doing my own thing now anyway. Just want to be a hedge designer, dream up and build concepts as that is what I enjoy doing the most. Still, really liking BAM, and the new physics, especially in games like Buccaneer, certainly is starting to relight the old pilot light within me. It certainly helps that the community is so team orientated, you have to beat all the people offering to help off with a stick sometimes.

So sad that VP went off the opposite way, where it became ego, star power and jealously, and I really hope the people there have learned that the more minds behind a game, the better it is, and the greater the rewards. I guess I was the same way, and though I tried to change for the better, a lot of those same people wouldn't let me. Still happens even now, some people just can't forgive me for a  table I did 12 years ago. But that exactly is what it was (and still is judging from the reactions I got) so I just work in something else.

I think the community itself is the reason, a lot of old old VP authors moved over and stayed with FP, and everyone gets along so much better over there. Even Tii is there, and others like AJ or KidC, or Stein, would be welcome with open arms. I'm sure AJ thinks I'm one of those people, but it's years ago, and though I disagreed with him sometimes (okay, a lot) during that time, I still would rather have him running VPF now compared to the alternate. Certainly can't blame him for leaving, and I am sure others who were around that era would tell him the same. Time changes things.

Itchigo:
I saw Stein at vpf a few months ago.

This is from AJ in case you haven't seen. I didn't give away his ID, but it does explain what happened at the old vpf. I can't give his true identity away, but he did say it was ok to post this.

July 09, 2014, 07:00:19 PM »
Wouldn't call myself a Rogue... more like an infamous deserter. You came in just before the original VPForums.com went to it's grave. I say infamous because I'm AJ - the original owner and creator of VPForums.com. I took on a task back in the day when Visual Pinball & VPM were in it's infancy. I think there may have been a total of 15-20 tables when I pulled AJ's Pinball together. There were some familiar names back then... Shiva (from ShivaSite), Destruk, and Randy Davis. Since I couldn't code Visual Basic at the time, I was dedicated to writing forum code and creating the VP community. I did work on several tables since I was pretty decent at Photoshop. The original T2 was a biggie for me - I figured out how to make the metal face look real and 3-D. I spent a non-stop 27 hours testing, touching up, and coding. It looked good for VP4 or 5/dogfood build at the time. Looks nothing like T2 Chrome Edition nowadays!

Anyway, you are the only one who actually knows it's me (and would like to keep it that way for now). I haven't said hello to any of the old crew - I think they would have my head for the disarray I caused in the community! I'm sure they think I abandoned everything, which I did - but for a few good reasons. The headaches of the problem children on the forum were getting to be old. The forum was up for 7 years!  I was also in the middle of a long, bitter divorce. I moved across the country. I spent months trying to find a job. Any money I did have went to my daughter and stacking bills. It took me awhile to recover. In hindsight, I should have handed it off to one of the guys. Instead, the server company wiped everything after 45 days of non-payment. I only had bits and pieces of a backup. I did find a directory of all the old tables from the time just before vpf went down. I'm sure some people would understand. I've read through every post out there about VPF.com and anything that referenced my name. I saw a few were concerned for my health and welfare, but most had the attitude of "fuck that piece of shit!".

shiva:
It's a sad thing to say, but others left for the same reason. Just wasn't worth the effort, and some people seemed so intent to drive out others, others shouted people down, and I guess everyone got what they wanted in the end. As far as I am concerned, they can have it. I look back at the very beginning, and think about what I would do over again, i never would have even started what I started. Just wasn't worth it, and the best decision I ever made was to just turn my back and walk away when I did. The only reason I did all this was because all I ever wanted to do was make pinball tables, and the time I spent doing other things just wasn't worth it to me.

Now I can do that, and far happier doing so, others can take on the stress and unhappiness. My admiration of the FP community and what they managed to accomplish with their spirit and creativity was exactly what I tried to do during my time with VP, and I am so sorry to see VP devolve into just another rom emulator. It wasn't that it could be better, it should have been better. There was so much talent that was frittered away, that's the real shame about all of this.

You know what? It's not even worth talking about anymore. They are happy over there, you are happy over here, I'm happy over some where else, Statler and Waldorf are happy over at PN, so maybe that's the way it should be now. I just want to talk about pinball, and how to make them. I would be happy to talk about that, especially if I get to show off how brilliant I actually am.  ;)

Fire away if you want to, pretty sure my answers may surprise you.

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