It's like discovering a whole new world

[noiseprisoner]

I built a MAME cab many years ago and have remained a casual user since then. I've heard a bit over the years about virtual pinball but thought it looked a bit complicated to setup and maintain.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago...I decided to give my MAME setup a much needed refresh and also discovered GameEX in the process. Being totally impressed with GameEX led me to dive into PinballX and start setting up a few tables just to see what they were like. Man, it's stunning the amount of detail and playability these tables are capable of! I am totally back in my element playing these tables...the sounds, lighting, effects...I love it. Now I'm in the beginnings of a 2 screen setup and having pretty good luck getting things to play well so far. Big thanks to this site for giving me some great info while I'm learning!

[Itchigo]

Thanks! To be honest it can be a pita to setup, and this is coming from someone who was not yet windows literate when I found vp (late 2008). But once you get it up and running it's all good.

The 2- Screen tables are my own personal collection/backup, but for anyone else it's really nice not to have to add 3 lines (for direct b2s) to each table. I believe we have the largest collection of 2-Screen tables. Other people have more tables, but not with working backglasses. Only Randr may have more, but he has a lot of doubles in PM5.

[Shadowsclassic]

randr thinks they are Pokemons, he's got to catch them all 

Seriously though noiseprisoner, I was like you having been into the MAME thing since back when it was Dave Spicer's arcade emulator. I had build a MAME cab (said to be the first ever) and was heavy into emulation until the scene got flooded with Majong. 
Anyway, I remember when they started talking about Pinball, and then they came out with PinMAME , and I played around with it and thought this is never going anywhere.  You could emulate the DMD, but the tables were not electronic they were physical.  Some one would have to recreate the entire table piece by piece in 3D, something like "Pinball Dreams" only real tables with real physics...  It will never happen. 
Then back in '09 I rediscovered pinMAME and VP and oh wow,  I was blown away.  I never in my wildest dreams saw it going this far! 
Thanks to the talent of all these crazy people on these pinball forums, they have done for Pinball what MAME did for video games.  They have preserved for future generations a major part of the history of our electronic youth.   More so than MAME did, as few pins exist in the wild these days and even used, they are too expensive for most of us to be able to afford them for our private game rooms.  VP & FP has allowed me to house more than 700 pins in my game room for my family & friends to enjoy. 
Thank you Itchigo, thank you randr, and thank you to everyone of you mad VP artists and coders out there. You guys ROCK!

[randr]

This is a great hobby no doubt! Itchigo provides some of the neatest oldies I've never played in real life! Love that about vp! Thanks itchy for everything you have done

[noiseprisoner]

You've been a huge help by offering your files Itchy. I didn't really understand the directb2s config until I was able to check it out on some of your tables...I even modified some scripts and got them working how I wanted! Super stoked! I've been having a blast and finding some old favorites, that's for sure.

[BamBam]

Good day folks.  I am checking in from the Great White North after following a link from one of Itchy's posts at the VPU site.   I have been messing with VP and FP for years on a desktop and am slowly starting my cabinet build from an old 1978 Williams widebody cabinet called Contact. I am glad to see the hobby has not died without me :-) Now to decide on Hyperpin or PinballX as an FE for my 3-monitor cabinet build.
Cheers

John

[randr]

I'll suggest pinballx! But hyperspin is just fine also...but pinball x is better. Way better! But both will work to launch the tables

[Itchigo]

Noiseprisoner, any help you need, I can help teach you to create or convert most tables. Even build if you're interested. Or just to make a working backglass for EM's.

BamBam: Welcome! I would go for Pinball X myself, and that's after trying Hyperpin. Hyperpin was a pita if anything was wrong, I had to cntr/alt/del if something didn't work. I stopped using it and just used the editor after that. Then Pinball X came out and worked right out of the box! I don't even care that Hyperpin is isn't supported anymore, and Pinball X is still supported. Means nothing to me. Pinball X does what it's supposed to do- well. That's what's important to me. The fact that it's still being worked on with cool stuff being added is gravy.

I haven't been in your neck of the woods in a long time. I used to drive tractor trailer across the 401 to Windsor to Toronto, but usually not past Ajax. But that was 20 years ago too.