Saturday September 21, 2013

Winning: best game ever! Losing: audio recording flub.

After yesterday�s gameplay video showing JJP�s The Wizard of Oz running v1.21 software, I decided to see if I could improve my audio capture quality by recording directly from the game�s line level output... and during my initial test, ended up having my best-ever game of WOZ at 295,917 points (and yes, that�s with my extra ball problem fixed). The only problem: audio didn�t come out at all good! Seems I was using a cable with a bad connector, and my recording ended up being horribly clipped (while not actually overloading the capture device). That�ll teach me to rely on VU meters without grabbing a pair of headphones to double-check!

I�ve salvaged the track as best I can (mostly by mixing it with the �live� recording I also made), but will only post the most interesting part of the 16-minute game: which is about two-thirds of Ball 3, where I stack more modes and multiballs than I ever have on WOZ!

See more or comment...
Posted by Daniel Tonks on 9/21 at 8:35 AM
Friday September 20, 2013

And I use the term �gameplay� loosely, since my gameplay tends to suck!

While I certainly enjoy pinball, I�m not a particularly good player... which is why I always said I�d never post footage of my gameplay. But, since The Wizard of Oz software v1.21 actually seems to be a much bigger update than at first blush, I decided to try anyways. Watch as I flail away, missing important shots and hitting useless ones... oh well, at least you can see a couple new videos and cool lighting effects!

A few notes about this video:

  1. The game was played in a completely dark room. And I do mean dark! I did this mostly because I was interested in capturing the screen and the colors of the lighting effects as best I could, but it made the ball rather hard to see (for me playing as well!). Next time, I�ll try to have a bit of ambient lighting.
  2. This is quite literally my first full game on the new code, and the extra ball setting was far, far too generous (I enabled the 4 point-based levels, forgetting how low and closely set together the default values are). Rest assured this has been corrected!
  3. I�ve chopped out a few of the more boring parts... and even then it�s still 11 minutes long!

See more or comment...
Posted by Daniel Tonks on 9/20 at 9:56 AM
Thursday September 19, 2013

Learn how to update the software on The Wizard of Oz in 3 minutes!

Yesterday evening, JJP released a long-awaited update for The Wizard of Oz. The new version 1.21 (download here) replaces the former version 1.18, and is what�s known as a �Delta Update�. This means that instead of having to download an almost 4 gigabyte image of the game�s entire file system, the Delta file only includes content that�s new or changed. In this case, that�s about 114 megabytes of goodies � which although still significant, will be a heck of a lot quicker to download than the equivalent of an entire DVD!

Since the process of installing a Delta Update will be new for the vast majority of WOZ owners (it was for me!), I�ve created a quick 3-minute tutorial documenting everything from downloading the update, decompressing it in the proper way on a USB stick, and finally performing the update procedure on the machine.

You�ll find the video below, and after the break I�ve also attached the list of changes in v1.21!

Posted by Daniel Tonks on 9/19 at 9:29 AM
Friday September 13, 2013

Photos, press release, edition comparisons and much more!

One of the things that�s always bugged me about pinball sites � and indeed sites in every industry � is the tendency to provide product photos barely larger than a thumbnail. How am I supposed to see anything with those? For a large, detailed product like a pinball, resolution is what�s important � so give me a photo I can study and sink my teeth into!

And here they are for Stern�s brand new Star Trek pinball, beginning with overviews of the three different editions. On the left is the Pro �Starfleet� model, the center is Premium �Vengeance�, and on the right is the Limited Edition �Enterprise�. These photos may still look like thumbnails... but click a couple of times and ye shall receive incredible resolution!

Pinplay Photo #72
Pinplay Photo #73
Pinplay Photo #74

Next, we have the two different versions of the playfield � on the left with plastic ramps is the Pro playfield, and the right one with chrome wireforms is shared by both the Premium and Limited Edition models.

Pinplay Photo #75
Pinplay Photo #76

Posted by Daniel Tonks on 9/13 at 12:30 AM
Wednesday September 11, 2013

Teaser video for the newest game by famed designer Steve Ritchie!

Earlier today, Stern Pinball officially announced their latest game, Star Trek, through a teaser video posted on YouTube. This new machine is based on the �rebooted� series of movies, and covers both �Star Trek� and �Star Trek Into Darkness�. Check it out below!

Now, as of this moment high-resolution photos and feature details simply haven�t been published yet, so what I�ve done for now is stitch together nine of the long pans as seen in the video, to give you a closer (and non-moving) look at artwork and playfield details. Remember to click on the thumbnail to enlarge, and then again to see the original full-resolution image!

Here are the three cabinet versions, from left to right: Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition. Sorry that they're cut off, but in the video they fade between shots. (Update: improved cabinet photos can be seen in this post.)

Pinplay Photo #63
Pinplay Photo #64
Pinplay Photo #65
Posted by Daniel Tonks on 9/11 at 1:08 AM
Tag Central
Archive
Random Photo
Random Gallery Photo