Difference between revisions of "Pinball"

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(Some minor comparison updates)
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{{WIP}}
 
 
{{Infobox console
 
{{Infobox console
 
|title = Pinball
 
|title = Pinball
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|emulated = {{~}}
 
|emulated = {{~}}
 
}}
 
}}
Pinball is a type of arcade game, in which points are scored by a player manipulating one or more steel balls on a play field inside a glass-covered cabinet called a pinball table (or "pinball machine").
+
'''Pinball''' is a type of arcade game, in which points are scored by a player manipulating one or more steel balls on a play field inside a glass-covered cabinet called a pinball table (or "pinball machine").
  
 
Pinball machines (chiefly, the playfield/balls/flippers/attractions and the physics allowing them to interact) are mechanical elements which cannot be emulated in the strict sense of the word, although they can be re-implemented on simulators such as Visual Pinball.
 
Pinball machines (chiefly, the playfield/balls/flippers/attractions and the physics allowing them to interact) are mechanical elements which cannot be emulated in the strict sense of the word, although they can be re-implemented on simulators such as Visual Pinball.
That said, "solid state" pinball games (the majority of new designs since the mid '70s) do indeed combine the above mechanisms with a fairly conventional microprocessor-based video game (albeit with atypical input and output devices), which can be emulated with the ROM files and an emulator such as Visual PinMAME, which in turn can integrate with the playfield simulation.
+
That said, "solid state" pinball games (the majority of new designs since the mid '70s) do indeed combine the above mechanisms with a fairly conventional microprocessor-based video game (albeit with atypical input and output devices), which can be emulated with the ROM files and an emulator such as PinMAME, which in turn can integrate with the playfield simulation.
  
 
==Simulators==
 
==Simulators==
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! scope="col"|Operating System(s)
 
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 +
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]
 +
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|Active
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]
 
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
|-
 
|-
! colspan="6"|PC
+
! colspan="7"|PC
 
|-
 
|-
|
+
|[https://www.vpforums.org/ Visual Pinball]
[https://www.vpforums.org/ Visual Pinball]
 
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/vpinball/ 10.6.0]
+
|[https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/releases 10.7.0]
|{{}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{}} ||{{✓}}
|{{}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[https://futurepinball.com/ Future Pinball]
 
|[https://futurepinball.com/ Future Pinball]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
 
|[http://members.iinet.net.au/~cleathley/downloads/FuturePinballSetup_v1.9.1.20101231.exe 1.9.1 (2010-12-31)]
 
|[http://members.iinet.net.au/~cleathley/downloads/FuturePinballSetup_v1.9.1.20101231.exe 1.9.1 (2010-12-31)]
|{{✗}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}} ||{{✗}}
|{{✗}}
 
|?
 
 
|}
 
|}
 +
 +
=== Comparisons ===
 +
;Visual Pinball:
 +
A freeware and source-available video game engine and simulator for pinball tables and similar games such as pachinko machines. The software is composed of an editor and the simulator part itself. The program is also able to operate with ''PinMAME'', an emulator for ROM images from real pinball machines. According to project's license file, the team is working to switch it from its proprietary license to the GPLv3+.
 +
 +
;Future Pinball:
 +
A freeware and closed-source 3D pinball editing and gaming application for Windows. The software is similar to Visual Pinball but usage of original pinball ROM code is not allowed, so there is no support for ''PinMAME''. The project discontinued and the last version of Future Pinball was released in 2010.
  
 
==Emulators==
 
==Emulators==
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! scope="col"|Operating System(s)
 
! scope="col"|Operating System(s)
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 
! scope="col"|Latest Version
 +
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]
 +
! scope="col"|<abbr title="Free/Libre and Open-Source Software">FLOSS</abbr>
 
! scope="col"|Active
 
! scope="col"|Active
! scope="col"|[[libretro|Libretro Core]]
 
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
! scope="col"|[[Recommended Emulators|Recommended]]
 
|-
 
|-
! colspan="6"|PC
+
! colspan="7"|PC
 
|-
 
|-
|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinmame/ Visual PinMAME]
+
|[https://github.com/vpinball/pinmame PinMAME]
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows}}
+
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS}}
|[https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinmame/files/latest/download 3.2]
+
|[https://github.com/vpinball/pinmame/releases {{VisualPinMAMEVer}}]
|{{}}
+
|{{✗}} ||{{~}} ||{{}} ||{{✓}}
|{{}}
 
|{{✓}}
 
 
|-
 
|-
 
|[[MAME]]
 
|[[MAME]]
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
 
|align=left|{{Icon|Windows|Linux|macOS|FreeBSD}}
 
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]
 
|[http://www.mamedev.org/release.html {{MAMEVer}}]
|{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}
+
|{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✓}} ||{{✗}}
 
|-
 
|-
 
|}
 
|}
  
 
=== Comparisons ===
 
=== Comparisons ===
;Visual Pinball:
 
A freeware and source-available video game engine and simulator for pinball tables and similar games such as pachinko machines. The software is composed of an editor and the simulator part itself. The program is also able to operate with ''Visual PinMAME'', an emulator for ROM images from real pinball machines.
 
 
;Future Pinball:
 
A freeware and closed-source 3D pinball editing and gaming application for Windows. The software is similar to Visual Pinball but usage of original pinball ROM code is not allowed, so there is no support for ''Visual PinMAME''. The project discontinued and the last version of Future Pinball was released in 2010.
 
 
 
;Visual PinMAME:
 
;Visual PinMAME:
An emulator for the electronics of pinball systems. The simulation of most modern pinball machines (especially those made after 1992, using large portions of DMD animations and digital sound samples) require the Visual PinMAME (sometimes referred to as VPinMAME or VPM) program in order to behave as close to the physical machine as possible. Visual PinMAME is a fork from old MAME code and can be loaded as a DLL in Visual Pinball.
+
An emulator for the electronics of pinball systems. The simulation of most modern pinball machines (especially those made after 1992, using large portions of DMD animations and digital sound samples) require the PinMAME (sometimes referred to as VPinMAME or VPM) program in order to behave as close to the physical machine as possible. PinMAME is a fork from old MAME code and can be loaded as a DLL in Visual Pinball.
  
 
;MAME:
 
;MAME:
Can emulate the electronics for quite a few pinball systems. MAME doesn’t include physics simulation for the pinball table part and no simulator supports using MAME for emulation.  
+
Can emulate the electronics for quite a few pinball systems. MAME doesn’t include physics simulation for the pinball table part and no simulator supports using MAME for emulation.
  
 
==External Links==
 
==External Links==
* [http://www.pinsimdb.org/ PinSimDB.org] - Tables for Future Pinball
+
* [https://www.vpforums.org/ VPForums.org] - Tables for Visual Pinball and Future Pinball.
 +
* [https://vpdb.io/ VPDB] - Tables for Visual Pinball.
 +
* [http://www.pinsimdb.org/ PinSimDB.org] - Tables for Future Pinball.
  
 
[[Category:Not really emulators]]
 
[[Category:Not really emulators]]

Revision as of 17:59, 17 September 2021

Pinball
GhostbustersPro.png
Developer Misc
Type Pinball
Release date 1931
Emulated ~

Pinball is a type of arcade game, in which points are scored by a player manipulating one or more steel balls on a play field inside a glass-covered cabinet called a pinball table (or "pinball machine").

Pinball machines (chiefly, the playfield/balls/flippers/attractions and the physics allowing them to interact) are mechanical elements which cannot be emulated in the strict sense of the word, although they can be re-implemented on simulators such as Visual Pinball. That said, "solid state" pinball games (the majority of new designs since the mid '70s) do indeed combine the above mechanisms with a fairly conventional microprocessor-based video game (albeit with atypical input and output devices), which can be emulated with the ROM files and an emulator such as PinMAME, which in turn can integrate with the playfield simulation.

Simulators

Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Libretro Core FLOSS Active Recommended
PC
Visual Pinball Windows 10.7.0 ~
Future Pinball Windows 1.9.1 (2010-12-31)

Comparisons

Visual Pinball

A freeware and source-available video game engine and simulator for pinball tables and similar games such as pachinko machines. The software is composed of an editor and the simulator part itself. The program is also able to operate with PinMAME, an emulator for ROM images from real pinball machines. According to project's license file, the team is working to switch it from its proprietary license to the GPLv3+.

Future Pinball

A freeware and closed-source 3D pinball editing and gaming application for Windows. The software is similar to Visual Pinball but usage of original pinball ROM code is not allowed, so there is no support for PinMAME. The project discontinued and the last version of Future Pinball was released in 2010.

Emulators

Name Operating System(s) Latest Version Libretro Core FLOSS Active Recommended
PC
PinMAME Windows Linux macOS 3.5 ~
MAME Windows Linux macOS FreeBSD 0.264

Comparisons

Visual PinMAME

An emulator for the electronics of pinball systems. The simulation of most modern pinball machines (especially those made after 1992, using large portions of DMD animations and digital sound samples) require the PinMAME (sometimes referred to as VPinMAME or VPM) program in order to behave as close to the physical machine as possible. PinMAME is a fork from old MAME code and can be loaded as a DLL in Visual Pinball.

MAME

Can emulate the electronics for quite a few pinball systems. MAME doesn’t include physics simulation for the pinball table part and no simulator supports using MAME for emulation.

External Links