@apzpins@mstdn.games
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

apzpins

@apzpins@mstdn.games

A pinball addict. I tend to enjoy working on pins as much as playing them! Owner of Hopeakuula Arcade, apzpins on Twitch and YouTube. Also: cats! 🇫🇮

This account is all about casual and tournament playing, streaming, restoring, repairing and owning pinball. Other casual nostalgia and retro stuff might also sneak in. Feel free to ask me stuff.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

OutofPrintArchive, (edited ) to retrogaming
@OutofPrintArchive@mstdn.games avatar

Review for Pinball Fantasies on PC from CVG 149 - April 1994 (UK)

This issue can be downloaded here:
https://www.outofprintarchive.com/catalogue/computerandvideogames7.html


apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive Curiously enough the engine could do multiball, none of the tables here didn't have it. Pinball Mania, running the same engine, had it in several tables. Also, the multiball physics were even worse than the single ball.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive I think Pinball Fantasies was just right as is, adding the multiball would have just shown the absolutely horrible ball collision physics this game engine had.

We streamed Pinball Mania (the other game with this engine) and all we could do was to laugh. For someone who's good enough to hit moving balls and expect to hit something with them, this game's physics were something pretty sad to watch.

Here's an example: https://www.twitch.tv/apzpins/clip/ElegantJollySandstormVoteYea-eMPDX8Wljq4l2u7C

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive I think the original Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Dreams were best of this series. There's 6 or more games, quite often the second one to use the same engine being the worse game but with better technical solutions.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive Pinbot and Highspeed were insanely good for the NES' hardware. Pretty much anything else had those tired non-scrolling top-view games, whose designers often obviously hadn't played pinball in their lives and had no idea what makes it fun.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive For me, both of them hit hard as those both were in my favorite arcade's lineup at the time and when I ran out of pocket money, I still kinda got to play those even when when in lo-fi.

Highspeed's NES version struggles to bring the same kind of Steve Ritchie loop flow as the real thing does tho.

OutofPrintArchive, to retrogaming
@OutofPrintArchive@mstdn.games avatar

Review for the Star Wars Pinball table by Data East from CVG 133 - December 1992 (UK)

This issue can be downloaded here:
https://www.outofprintarchive.com/catalogue/computerandvideogames7.html



Review for the Star Wars Pinball table by Data East from CVG 133 - December 1992 (UK) score: 89%

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive Someone took this thing and modded a pretty decent looking playable coffee table out of it.

Data-east's Star Wars pinball machine, modded into a coffee table. Side view.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@OutofPrintArchive Typically you don't mod a high value game like Star Wars into something like this for no reason. It's more than likely that this used to be a game with heavily damaged cabinet or if you just happen to find the populated playfield from a parted out machine.

apzpins, to InitialD
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

I love creative toppers from 80s and 90s. This one from Strange Science (Bally, 1986) was one of the most memorable ones from a darkly lit arcade of a local amusement park.

It's a real neon tube.

Video of Strange Science pinball machibe. It has a topper where a neon tube has been bent into a shape of arcing electricity and it flashes purple.

Monsterlady, (edited ) to random
@Monsterlady@masto.ai avatar

I don't understand how anyone can watch the news right before going to bed. Talk about inducing insomnia.

What I like to do before lights out is meditate and read a chapter of a book to take my mind off things.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@Monsterlady It's also fun in a sad way how some people just search for news to get angry about. My old man watches nothing but war, conspiracy and disaster news all day long and gets super worked up about it all, especially when me and my mom aren't instantly taken to a object throwing rage about the latest injustice.

There's a lot in this world to get angry about, but spending your life in a hollow sensationalist news rage isn't serving anyone's cause, save the news networks and advertisers.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@Monsterlady I'd say we need to have a general idea of what's going on in the world, but there's also absolutely no point of burning oneself out mulling over every single bad thing that happens as there's a never ending stream of it.

llamasoft_ox, to random
@llamasoft_ox@toot.wales avatar

This was a joke from a humorous article about "the daft future of video games".

Er...

https://arcadedirect.co.uk/original-red-space-invaders-arcade-machine/

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@llamasoft_ox I'm sad to read the item description when they mention it has been converted into a PC. Might have aswell just built the cabinet out of scratch too.

lukhash, to random
@lukhash@mastodon.social avatar

Only 𝑨𝑴𝑰𝑮𝑨 makes it possible ✅️
https://fanlink.tv/AMIGA

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@lukhash The chaotic evil person puts that disk into an Atari ST.

apzpins, to random
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

One more ! Big Guns' multiball start is so damn satisfying to watch!

Playfield closeup of Big Guns pinball machine. Two catapults shoot balls across the upper playfield onto a wire ramp in slow motion. The action is seen from player's perspective and in reverse point of view.

apzpins, to Cats
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

Digging through old Youtube videos, I found this one of my first cat, Bastet. She grew up with pinball machines around her and never missed a chance to investigate an open machine or removed playfield.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywvTfHLFCpc

apzpins, to nonbinary
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

I hit the local all you can eat pizza place with @quester, they have this every 10th meal for free pass we collect together.

Quester walks away after giving the pass and the cashier offers it to me saying "give this to your .... umm ... uh ... friend....", visibly confused. I assume it was their first meeting with a non-binary person.

The confusion was just so priceless. I can only assume the historians will say "They were very good roommates" about us....

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@dec_hl @quester Yes! Roommates 4ever! ❤️ 😂

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@dec_hl @quester There is no gendered pronouns in Finnish at all. The whole language is completely gender neutral.

This is why Finns, even when relatively proficient in other languages, often call a woman "he". Or at least it happens to me more often than I'd like.

It gets even more frustrating with Spanish and other languages that also like to gender inanimate objects.

root42, to random
@root42@chaos.social avatar

And these are the before and after pictures of the cast metal frame. I used deoxit and an old cloth and cotton buds to remove the dirt and cover the metal at the same time with the deoxit, which usually gives a very thin coating that will protect the metal. Smells horribly though. :)
I think I will need to lube the top and bottom ball bearings of the spindle. The top one I can reach easily. For the bottom one I probably have to unmount the flywheel, but I don't want to...

A much cleaner metal frame, with significantly less visible corrosion

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@root42 Oh, I see I'm not only one doing this mod. I was so glad when I found these things, they run wonderfully cool compared to the real thing that often needs an insanely big heat sink.

This EzSBC's 5V at 3A one is the most common one I use: https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu5-nonoise/

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@root42 Are the sinks necessary after the move to a switching PSU? Or is it just a visual thing?

apzpins, to Electronics
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

It's time for you to leave, dead regulator.

Desoldering tool used to remove solder from a 2 legged part.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@root42 They sure did. It's a manufacturing "feature" of this type of board that's dipped into molten solder from the bottom side.

apzpins, to Electronics
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

Time to take a stab at this thing. The LM338k regulator has finally failed on this WhiteStar platform driver board. I wish there was a switching PSU replacement for it like there is for the LM323K used in WPC games.

The regulator is at the upper left corner with a huge heat sink. It runs quite hot!

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@root42 I still have NOS ones, I stocked them back in the days before the fakes surfaced. But I'd love a switched PSU replacement like the 323K has.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@root42 From what I own, only one platform uses it and it has one of them. It produces 5v, 5A in these games and drives everything from the CPU to external devices that run on 5 volts.

apzpins, to InitialD
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

Apollo 13 has a lot going on. One feature the players rarely get to see is the magnetic moon that captures balls. A lot of owners, yours truly included, have noticed no matter how special balls you use in the game, you'll end up with 13 fridge magnets very soon if the moon is in use. Here you can see it temporarily activated for cleaning. It has no major effect for gameplay, the balls just get returned to inlane instead of plungerlane.

View or Apollo 13 pinball machine's playfield. A moon shaped magnetic toy captures a ball going past it on a ramp, lifts it up and drops it onto a hole on the other side.

apzpins,
@apzpins@mstdn.games avatar

@davespice There are balls for this purpose, but this machine appears to use such a powerful magnet that even those will become magnetized in a lot shorter period than in other games.

I can only assume they used way too powerful magnet there, possibly to ensure they'd grab the ball that's screaming past the moon. This pinball platform can do PWM, but it only appeared in later revisions so this one will always drive the magnet at full blast.

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