Virtual Pinball Project
One project several of Forbes Road CTC's students have been working on is designing, building and programming a "virtual" pinball machine. This prototype will be programmed to play like classic pinball machines of the past.
The objective of this project is to have students from several different programs (Computer Networking and Security, Information Technology, Multimedia, Electrical Technology and Building Construction, Machine Tool, Advertising Design) collaborate through each phase of the project, from concept, design, engineering, construction, programming and testing. The students will then display and discuss with younger students the project and the skills needed to accomplish the task, as part of career fairs and career exploration.
Visual Pinball and PinMame were used as the backend software that will run the virtual pinball machine. Visual Pinball is a freeware video game engine for pinball tables and similar games. The software is composed of an editor and a simulator. The editor uses Microsoft VBScript for user programming and the game itself is written in C++.
PinMAME (Pinball Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is used for emulating CPUs and the connected ROMs used in modern pinball tables, as opposed to tables with solid-state electronics/electro-mechanical mechanisms that contain no ROMs or advanced ICs in their hardware design.
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Project Leaders Kahlil Johnson and Skyler McLeod working on a pinball table |
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PinMame rendition of DMD for Bally's Attack From Mars |
Currently the team has seven working tables on the backend. Work is about to be started on the frontend software which will control the user interface.