Star Wars p2k project / Death Star Arcade

[mydentist]

A few years ago we remodeled our basement and built a star wars themed arcade... A few days ago my son and I started work on the inside of a Mameman32 built p2k virtual pinball machine.

We call the arcade the Death Star Arcade. The Font for the text over the entrance is actual star wars font from ROTJ found on the web. The entrance says "Mos Eisley space port docking bay 84." The Han in carbonate was created from the original studio mold when the special edition of ESB was released in the late nineties.

We have 10 xbox 360s and 10 xbox systems networked for system-linked play in addition to the 21 arcade/pinball machines. Above the xboxes are eFX and Master Replicas Star Wars model ships. The crown jewel is the Falcon signed by Harrison Ford. http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_021207b.htm

Our most prized games are Varkon and the 25" Star Wars Cockpit. Soon our Star Wars P2K Virtual Pin will be number three on that list!

Mameman32 built the shell and applied the decals. I also shipped him my three monitors and he built them to spec and fitted them before shipping it to me.

AOC 24" Led for the back glass: AOC E2460SWD http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2898965&CatId=4420

AOC 22" LED for the DMD: AOC E2251SWDN http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2094634&sku=A204-2206

SAMSUNG 40" for the play field: Samsung 6003 http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs/UN40ES6003FXZA-specs

The play field just barely fit into the cab--Greg had to completely de-case it and slot the body so it would fit. He told me it was the nicest looking p2k built he had done to date because of it!

Greg had me purchase the following parts so he could create what you see above:

Part Quantity unit price total Link

side rails (set) 1 36 36 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1142&parent=0

glass channel 2 7.5 15 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2125&parent=0

lockbar 1 55 55 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=2090&parent=0

reciever 1 39.95 39.95 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1285&parent=0

leg (set) 1 47 47 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1117&parent=7

leg bolts 8 0.95 7.6 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=141&parent=7

leg levelers 4 0.95 3.8 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=921&parent=7

Leg bracket 4 4.5 18 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=144&parent=7

coin door 1 55 55 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=628&parent=15

flipper buttons 2 2.5 5 http://virtuapin.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=41

flipper button nuts 2 0.35 0.7 http://virtuapin.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=46

flipper contacts 2 3.5 7 http://virtuapin.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=40

cabinet locks 2 3 6 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1901&parent=45

coin door bolts 4 0.35 1.4 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=16&parent=48

coin door nuts 4 0.17 0.68 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=17&parent=48

p2k glass 1 239 239 http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/04-12739.1

Start Button 1 5 5 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=956&parent=234

williams shooter assy 1 21.95 21.95 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=133

Plunger mount plate 1 1.75 1.75 http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=127&parent=5

I think he built this over a year ago and now I'm finally making time to finish the insides.

Yesterday my son and I put in the speakers, mounted 3 SSD samsung 128 gig drives, installed a 9" exhaust chimney fan, and mounted a smart-power supply to the inside of the cab.

Smart Strip: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006PUDQK/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Samsung SSDs: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NB8WR0/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

SSD mounting plates: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G57BN1M/ref=oh_details_o05_s03_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pyle PLW15BL 10-inch speakers: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HJ9HBI/ref=oh_details_o05_s02_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Rosewill RCA-220-BL 9" whisper quiet fan: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00552Q8GS/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We are planning on using a raid 0 config to stripe all three drives. SSDs are fast--they are 3 times faster if you stripe raid three of them together. That really should eliminate any bottlenecking that is caused from hard drive media.

Over the weekend we are going to put the computer inside the top shelf. A nice feature of a P2K build is that you have so much extra space behind the back glass monitor that you can fit your PC up there away from all of the other electronics that need to go under the monitor in the body of the machine.

I am using the newest version of the i5-4670K that was just recently released: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CO8TBOW/ref=oh_details_o05_s03_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

With this ASUS Maximus VI Hero mother board: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CXIVEA2/ref=oh_details_o05_s03_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and 2 EVGA GeForce GTX760 graphics cards in SLI: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DHW4HXY/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

with 8 gigs of this ram: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00339X1EM/ref=oh_details_o05_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

powered by a Rosewill RBR1000-M 1000 Watt power supply : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003J89V0A/ref=oh_details_o06_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Does anybody have any experience with SLI with these three monitor virtual pinball setups?

[vampirolatino2]

Interesting basement, I like it!

[mydentist]

Thanks... the kids and I have a blast down there with eighties music playing in the background. Feels like I'm a kid again.

[mydentist]

Just ordered the following:

I read somewhere that it is best to mount the mother board on a case instead of using extenders directly into the wood. So I just ordered this:

Lian Li Replacement PC-6X Motherboard Tray: http://www.frozencpu.com/products/20428/cpa-276r/Lian-Li_Replacement_PC-6X_Motherboard_Tray_-_Red.html

It blocks any stray EMF that might be flying around unseen from what I understand. Am I correct? What have others done?

[vampirolatino2]

Mmmm .. I have my PC with PCB Feets in the "bare wood" ... nothing unusual. So is my Arcade Machine too. IMHO it is a waste of money.

[mjrhp]

Just ordered the following: [case tray]. It blocks any stray EMF that might be flying around unseen from what I understand. Am I correct? What have others done?

I'm not a EE, but I don't think a tray alone will actually block much (if any) EMF. I think you essentially need to surround a radio source with grounded conductive metal to accomplish that. A full PC case would do the trick, but I think a tray would at best block radiation in the direction of the tray relative to the motherboard - and it probably wouldn't even do that, since the wavelengths involved are in the 1m range and up (larger than the tray, so they can just diffract around it).

But the tray still has other benefits. The biggest is that it'll keep your video card ridigly anchored. Without the tray you'd need to improvise something to keep the video card from wiggling around, especially if you have a shaker motor or aggressive players. The other day I accidentally bumped my video card just slightly (this is in my testing configuration, with the parts scattered around the floor), and it made the PC do a hard reset. So it's definitely worthwhile to have all the PC parts bolted down firmly - the tray will make that much easy.

[scottpe]

The biggest is that it'll keep your video card ridigly anchored. Without the tray you'd need to improvise something to keep the video card from wiggling around, especially if you have a shaker motor or aggressive players.

Agreed. This is definitely a big (if not the only) reason to go with a tray...

[scottpe]

Very cool arcade! Some nice Master Replicas pieces in your collection too.

As a fellow Star Wars fan, you may appreciate my build as well, if you haven't already seen it: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?23687-STAR-WARS-Pinball-Unleashed-46-quot-32-quot-DMD-Widebody-Build&highlight=pinball+unleashed

Look forward to seeing the finished product!

[vampirolatino2]

Agreed. This is definitely a big (if not the only) reason to go with a tray...

Well ... today cards have a lock at the end that secure the cards. They did that because Video Cards started to have more weigh and are bigger. But buy it, it's your choice

[scottpe]

Well ... today cards have a lock at the end that secure the cards. They did that because Video Cards started to have more weigh and are bigger. But buy it, it's your choice

Are you referring to the little latch on the motherboard that attaches to the bottom of the card at the back of the PCI slot? That's pretty much intended to keep the card from falling out of the slot, not to be the sole means of securing it. A tray will secure the entire assembly, making it rigid and preventing it from moving around at all. This is a PINBALL machine of course... it's going to be vibrating and get pushed around some. IMO, having that big expensive card flopping around in there is a problem waiting to happen.

If there is some other 'lock' you're referring to on modern cards, maybe I'm missing it...

[vampirolatino2]

Are you referring to the little latch on the motherboard that attaches to the bottom of the card at the back of the PCI slot? That's pretty much intended to keep the card from falling out of the slot, not to be the sole means of securing it. A tray will secure the entire assembly, making it rigid and preventing it from moving around at all. This is a PINBALL machine of course... it's going to be vibrating and get pushed around some. IMO, having that big expensive card flopping around in there is a problem waiting to happen.

If there is some other 'lock' you're referring to on modern cards, maybe I'm missing it...

Yes, I agree.... anyways he have money

[mydentist]

I made some more progress over the last week on the star wars p2k project. I had a really difficult time figuring out all the various monitor configurations--but have it working well now with hardly any stutter at all. This only occurs infrequently when I use the directB2S backglass files with some tables. I've figured out a slew of work arounds however to make it work better and I hope that what I share can help someone else save hours of their time.

I've installed coin switches by simply mountain microswitches right behind the coin release buttons. See pictures below. This concept works really well and gives it an authentic arcade feel.

Next I drilled four holes in the front coin box to add more buttons. I didn't want a lot of larger buttons cluttering up the front of the pin, so I decided to mount four smaller non-led buttons.

I think it turned out great.

I then installed the mini-pac that I purchased from here: http://www.ultimarc.com/minipac.html

I really like this little guy. It has all the buttons that I need plus the wires are all stripped. I had to lengthen a few of them, but its working great.

I did have a problem with the switches shorting out (some of the wires not wired up were touching some wire mesh on the cabinet--that caused issues with the mini-pac). That issue was easily fixed.

I did use and wire up some terminal blocks for the power (or ground) wire from the mini-pac that must be connected to every which found here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005I03WOI/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I looped the top wires across so the power would go from terminal to terminal instead of just being isolated at the first terminal. This makes for a really clean looking cab where the mini-pac is positioned and figured.

I then spent about 48 hours (literally) installing and configuring windows 7x64, virtual pinball, b2s server, vhp, and pinmame.

It was a daunting task!

I used the Visual Pinball for Yummies by Tweegster / Godsin guide found here:

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=7003

It was pretty helpful until I reached the DMD section. The guide is a little outdated as well. And I wish it would have taught me a few things about how the virtual pinball system scripts override any registry settings--this little tip would have saved me hours of time searching these forums looking for clues.

[mydentist]

Here is a list of issues I discovered and how I fixed them:

1) I couldn't get the play field to show up on the rotated led tv. Instead it kept showing up on the backglass. Well this was an easy fix. The backglass was set as the primary monitor when installing windows 7 so I wouldn't have to turn my head the entire time at look at the playfield screen rotated 270'. I just needed to set the playfield as the primary monitor. But I read somewhere that in order for the DMD to stay put you should have the primary monitor and the backglass monitor on the same card. This didn't make any sense to me, but I tried it and it worked for a while. But I realized that it was false. You can configure the various monitors to function in different capacities even if they aren't considered monitor 1, 2, or 3. Notice my monitor setup below:

My playfield monitor is actually plugged into my #2 graphics card (the same card as my #1 and my mother board has the same bus for both cards). Because its on card #2, windows says it's monitor 3. I then just needed to make it the "primary" monitor within the NIVIDIA control panel app so the playfield would appear on it. Monitor 1 is the backglass monitor and monitor 2 is the DMD monitor--these are plugged into card #1. I lowered the resolution down to 600 x 800 to help speed things up and keep it clean. Its important that all of the tops of the monitors are aligned, however. I had issues when it wasn't aligned like that--I can't remember what issues I had, but I know I had them.

2) The biggest issue I had that took up at least 32 hours was getting my DMD to stay put on monitor #3. After following the Yummies guide (as described above), I then downloaded the new .dll required to play stern tables from the link below:

http://vpuniverse.com/forums/files/file/2480-vpinmame-sampindmdunity-unified-version/

This guide is a little out of date. I doesn't discuss the B2S server nor how to load STERN tables. I followed their guide but then updated the pinmame dll to play STERN tables. After updating that, I didn't realize that I needed to go back into the pinmame setup and set the mode "cabinet mode" once again for all tables. I had already done that prior to updating the pinmame dll files to play stern tables. You need to go back and do it again. The DMD would work for some tables that I had loaded but them would always switch back to the second screen on others. So I went into the registry and added a new field called "cabinet_mode" with a value of 1 in the default section so it would populate for all tables going forward. This is because this registry key was not set to 1. This little nugget will save you hours of time if followed.

But there is more! You can control which screen the DMD will show up on once cabinet mode is set to 1. You must go into the "setup paths" option within pinmame and set which display the DMD will run on. If cabinet mode is not turned on, the dmd will not show up on the three screen regardless of what you select in this box.

But there is more! Once you've set the cabinet mode on for the rom you are playing, and the dmd display is set within the pinmame setup paths, you then need to do something that just blew my mind to keep the DMD from moving. It is simply crazy if you ask me. AFter you set the DMD to the right place, you MUST WIGGLE IT BACK AND FORTH a few times with your mouse to tell pinmame that you are serious about moving the dmd to this new position. Isn't that just crazy? If you don't do it, you will be burning hours trying to figure out why the dmd won't stay put.

But there is more! After you've set the cabinet mode on for the rom you are playing, and the dmd display is set within the pinmame setup path, and you've wiggled the dmd window, you then must press F3 to restart pinmame and set the new dmd position.

But there is more! After you've done all of this, remember that if the table script has ANY OF THESE REGISTRY SETTINGS HARD CODED in the script, it will override whatever you might have set in the registry. This is key. I wasted over 10 hours at least trying to set the registry settings to stay after a table was loaded. It seems intuitive to me now, but before I understood that hard coded registry settings can and will popup and override anything you've already set. Remember this. Search your scripts for registry key words like "rol" or "position" and erase them.

That finally did it for me! PAIN IN THE REAR I TELL YOU! But so worth it now...

One more quick thing, if you are using a p2k cabinet with a mirrored DMD, you will need to set another registry setting for every rom (I've put it in the default registry rom space so it quickly sets with any new game I add). Look for the "flipy" setting and set it to 1 so the image is mirrored.

Also remember to set the ROL registry setting to either 1 or 0 based on whether or not your screen is rotated or not. 1 means that it is rotated.

[mydentist]

Important safety tip:

After installing a bunch of roms, I wanted to go back and reposition all of them. You can quickly do it by using this dmd mover utility found below:

http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=13862

I ran into on more issue that I solved, but I'm not sure why it worked. After moving the DMD into correct places and seeing it not stick, I changed a bunch of settings somewhere before I figured out all that I've shared above. I think I might have turned direct3D or use directX off for the roms because there was a few days where I couldn't change their proportions. It was locked. After switching the monitor positions like I've described above, the lock disappeared and the dmd is set slightly above the playfield. I think it looks really need on a p2k setup.

[mydentist]

Finally, it is important to tell the B2S server where your backglass screen is. Mine is display 1, so I selected it after running the B2S_SetUP.exe server. Worked like a champ right out of the gate...

All of these setups listed above my monitor placement issues, but from time to time I still had some stuttering issues to deal with. I first thought it might be the settings within VP Itself. But after downloading pinball fx and seeing how incredible those tables are without any stuttering, I began to think that any stuttering issues might be backglass related.

Sure enough, after switching from the B2S to the UVP backglass system, all stuttering went away. But this is not a good long term solution--because in order to run DOF (to power all of my feedback coming) it is best to use B2S server system. So, I dug a little deeper and discovered a few things. They are listed below:

1. Hid the grill, set the DMD to visible, and hid the B2S DMD. This will help a lot.

2. Always click the START THIS BACKGLASS IN EXE MODE button and set the start default mode "In EXE". Of course you can skip frames, etc to eliminate most stuttering. I really saw improvement from STTNG and the blackhole tables aftering starting in EXE mode. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

[Ark Malmeida]

Thanks for taking the time to type all of that out and explain it! I've run into some annoying issues myself with the DMD. I recently had a problem where the DMD would be down about an inch from where I set it each time I started the table. After a lot of trial and error I found out that for some reason the vpinmame software was thinking that Y position 0 was down a few inches from the top of the monitor and I was able to fix it by adjusting the position of the monitor in the windows control panel relative to the other two monitors (by dragging it down a bit). Seems like everyone's setup causes a few different little issues that can be very frustrating to solve!

[Carny_Priest]

The aspect ratio of the DMD in those photos seems off, but maybe that's just an artifact from the camera position versus real life.

The good thing is that it is possible to locate and size the DMD on your screen precisely using the DMD entries in screenres.txt. This works better than dragging and sizing the DMD window with a mouse. It doesn't appear that you are using those fields in the B2S editor, but maybe you are handling that directly in the registry?

I have a Pinball 2000 style cabinet design as well. It looks like you stretched the width of the DMD to be almost side to side with your playfield. Definitely impressive that way as the image will be larger than the standard display. In screenres.txt you can maximize the size of the display and retain the correct aspect ratio. For a standard display with a 32 row and 128 column matrix, the width is 4 times the height. 128 divided by 32 is equal to 4. So, if you are using an HD resolution monitor for the DMD the values for LED Display width would be 1920 and the LED display height would be 480.

It looks like from your screen positioning that the monitor for your DMD is positioned in portrait orientation? Usually I see set ups with all screens in landscape orientation. If oriented in portrait and you are using HD resolution then the width is 1080 and the height is 270.

You would need to position the DMD correctly. In screenres.txt you would count pixel width starting from the upper left corner of the playfield screen. As you are using HD resolutions for both playfield and backglass then the value for LED X Offset for the DMD would be 1920, the width of the playfield screen, plus 1920, the width of the backglass, is equal to 3840. LED Y Offset is set according to what is comfortable for you. It is dependent on your line of sight and how tall you and other players are. If you keep a value of 0 for the Y Offset, then taller players may have their view of the image blocked.

For Pinball 2000, check Y-FLIP.

I'd love to see some photos of colorized DMD on a Pinball 2000 cab with the latest VPinMAME beta. My cab has been down for a while, I haven't had a chance to try out that new feature yet.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mydentist]

Thanks for the tip Carny.

Does the Y-FLIP do the same thing as changing the flipy value to 1 in the registry? I'm assuming so.

Is this an example of the various DMD colors that you were talking about below? It was a great idea. I especially like how the white DMD screen turned out on star wars and the yellow dmd screen on tron.

[mydentist]

One more issue that really bothered me below..

I looked and looked all over the place for any tips on how to make the music louder . I just kept reading push the + or - buttons to raise or lower the volume. That helped a little, but on some tables (i.e. Indy Jones, Medevil Madness, star trek the next generation, etc) the initial rom volume settings are so low that I almost gave up hope enjoying it. Until I stumbled upon a little trick on some post over at the other site.

On many Williams tables and others you can "open the coin door" by pressing END and then lowering or raising the ROM volume (music, sound effects, etc) by pressing 8 or 9.

This is a really big deal and a very important thing to remember. I think I wasted another 2 to 3 hours figuring that out. Hopefully this post helps someone else with the same issues.

(If you don't press END first to "open the coin door" then you'll get the error above..)

[p0giewan]

1. Hid the grill, set the DMD to visible, and hid the B2S DMD. This will help a lot.

2. Always click the START THIS BACKGLASS IN EXE MODE button and set the start default mode "In EXE". Of course you can skip frames, etc to eliminate most stuttering. I really saw improvement from STTNG and the blackhole tables aftering starting in EXE mode. HUGE DIFFERENCE!

Need to check this out tonight. Was pretty much going through the same process setting things up yesterday and noticed some stuttering. You may have saved me some research

[Carny_Priest]

Thanks for the tip Carny.

Does the Y-FLIP do the same thing as changing the flipy value to 1 in the registry? I'm assuming so.

Is this an example of the various DMD colors that you were talking about below? It was a great idea. I especially like how the white DMD screen turned out on star wars and the yellow dmd screen on tron.

[\QUOTE]

Yes, Y-FLIP reverses the DMD image for display on Pinball 2000 style cabinets.

On DMD color, not exactly. Rather than monochrome, the newest VPinMAME beta allows you to separately assign different colors to each shade. Check it out:

http://vpforums.org/index.php?/topic/27440-DMD-panel---monitor-alternative%3F

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mydentist]

Ahh now I see. I'll give it a try tonight.

What version of pinmame do you need to be running? Will this new version break the stern tables?

[Carny_Priest]

Not if you go get the VPinMAME.dll where you got it before.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[MTPPC]

2 Suggestions:

1. SLI and crossfire don't really seem to help. Put the playfield on one 760 and the BG and DMD on the other.

2. Buttons in coin door work good, but I prefer putting a button inside the door that the coin reject button touches.

Sweet VP and mucho sweeter arcade.

[BladeZX]

That is absolutely amazing. I am a HUGE Star Wars fan and you have done Star Wars fans proud.