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Which PB2k do you own?

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:18 pm
by Andrew
What pb2k machines do you own? Personally, I just own Star Wars. I recognize that it is thought of as the lesser game, but I am a fan of Star Wars generally. I find that out of my four games (Firepower, BK2K, STTNG), that the Star Wars is the most popular for guests. (I am convinced it's the PB2k system).

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:39 pm
by Chuck
Andrew, you really need to find an RFM playfield. I do like episode one but rfm is way better IMO. Plus getting a spare playfield and switching back and forth will get a WHOLE lot easier once we are done.

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:37 am
by Andrew
Chuck wrote:Andrew, you really need to find an RFM playfield. I do like episode one but rfm is way better IMO. Plus getting a spare playfield and switching back and forth will get a WHOLE lot easier once we are done.
A check of ebay yields no results at the moment... this project of course, could raise the demand and price! I'm not sure what they generally go for these days...

Certainly the ease of use of doing the swap would make it more appealing to try.

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 1:51 pm
by nwojedi
I have RFM. I refuse to own the SW because it has something to do with the crappy 1st trillogy. I try to refrain from acknowledging they exsist.

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:26 pm
by ChadTower
No option for neither one. I don't have either yet - haven't come across one I can afford given that they are currently almost unrepairable should the prism card die.

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:39 pm
by Andrew
nwojedi wrote:I have RFM. I refuse to own the SW because it has something to do with the crappy 1st trillogy. I try to refrain from acknowledging they exsist.
Ouch. From a guy with Jedi in his name too. We're almost nine years out from Episode 1, it might be time to "embrace a larger view of the force." :wink:

FWIW (not much I'm sure), I find the game to be integrate it's theme pretty well, and even the use of Jar-Jar is comedic. Who doesn't like tripping him?

From a rules standpoint, obviously I wish it were 'deeper' but guests find it very appealing and I still enjoy playing it.

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:30 pm
by sellenoff
Oddly enough I fell in love with Pinball 2000 from playing Star Wars E1 at a local arcade right around the time it came out. Both machines were side by side, but I couldn't get into RFM at the time for some reason, it didn't do anything for me. Having never seen AFM (it's predecessor) I didn't see it for what it was trying to be.

Being a big SW fan, however, I was blown away by the incredible audio & excellent visuals of the SWE1 game and how amazingly cool the pb2k platform was in general. I of course realized SWE1 wasn't a deep game, but I didn't care, it was the whole sensory experience that sucked me in each time. Helps that it was in dark lighting and I could actually hear the audio.

When the opportunity came to buy a machine NIB, I chose RFM simply from a practical standpoint. I knew I could buy the SWE1 kit for it, and at the time there was no way to convert from SW->RFM, so the choice was clear which cabinet I would purchase. I bought the kit within a few weeks of receiving RFM.

In those short weeks, I fell in love with RFM completely, and came to realize what a great game it is. In fact, when the SWE1 finally came in, I couldn't enjoy it nearly the same, as it's a far inferior game from the gameplay perspective.

Fast forward to 1.5 years ago, and while I was in the midst of working on the emulation, I became re-interested in SWE1, if for no other reason that to validate my emulation to the real deal. I realized I hadn't hardly swapped my games much in the 5+ years I'd owned the cab & kit, so I decided when the right time came along I'd go for the whole game. I was lucky to find one local fairly soon after the decision and managed to get it fairly cheap since it needed a lot of work. Knowing I had a nos field and a new driver board to install in it, I went for it.

Overall, the sound in SWE1 still knocks my socks off every time I play it, and the visuals are excellent, especially some of the light & flash sequences during gameplay. It's definitely a boring game after awhile, but all the little kids love to play it. RFM always makes for an enjoyable game when I fire it up, and is still by far my favorite of the two as it's a much deeper game, and playing for flawless in all modes is in fact a challenge worth trying to repeat.

I love the pinball 2000 concept, not as a replacement to regular pins, but as something I can totally enjoy for what it is.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:48 am
by JMX
I have neither, mostly because of the rarity of replacement prismcards. But I have started too look for a RFM after I found out about this emulation project.

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:53 am
by tanthony
I have both RFM and SWE1 now (well, the SWE1 kit is actually still in transit with Fedex). Looking forward to nucore to ease the swap (and reduce the stress associated with worrying about the PRISM card handling).

RFM / SW

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:00 pm
by djcharlie17
I voted I own both... I have a RFM, with a SW ep. 1 conversion. It's never been used by me because I don't want the hassle of the switch over! I'm ready for the simple playfield swap option. Key word there is SIMPLE. We aren't all computer gods. I held off for a long time on a P2K game for just that reason, but it's so much fun to play RFM I couldn't help myself!!! Keep up the great work guys, and don't let ol' Wayno get to ya.

Re: RFM / SW

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:09 pm
by sellenoff
djcharlie17 wrote:I voted I own both... I have a RFM, with a SW ep. 1 conversion. It's never been used by me because I don't want the hassle of the switch over! I'm ready for the simple playfield swap option. Key word there is SIMPLE. We aren't all computer gods. I held off for a long time on a P2K game for just that reason, but it's so much fun to play RFM I couldn't help myself!!! Keep up the great work guys, and don't let ol' Wayno get to ya.
Yes, it's our goal to make the playfield / game swap as simple as is physically possible.

Here's our vision of the steps (although we're not at the point to finalize or test this yet):

1) With Nucore running your current installed machine - access our config menu and select switch game, select the new game to run, and power off your machine.

2) Pull out the old playfield

3) Install the new playfield and cabinet hardware (plunger / launch button)

4) Turn on the machine and enjoy your new game

I don't think there's anyway to make it easier than that! :)

Making the swap easier

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:12 pm
by sellenoff
I forgot to mention that we're also experimenting with the ability to get rid of the RFM Launch button for people who do swaps. Why? Swapping the plunger with the launch button is a time consuming and annoying process.

We'd like to be able to have it so you can just keep the plunger installed all the time, even for RFM for people who want this ability.

So the logical question is, how would you launch the ball in RFM then?

The answer is we'll have the emulator simulate the launch button by having the player press both feature buttons with the ball sitting in the shooter lane.

We've not tested the feasibility of any of this yet, but we're hoping it will work out, as it will save quite a bit of hassle and time in the 'swap' process..

Of course this feature will be disabled by default for people who don't want or need this option and to keep out of the box compatability to the original the same.

Re: RFM / SW

Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:25 pm
by Chuck
sellenoff wrote:
djcharlie17 wrote:I voted I own both... I have a RFM, with a SW ep. 1 conversion. It's never been used by me because I don't want the hassle of the switch over! I'm ready for the simple playfield swap option. Key word there is SIMPLE. We aren't all computer gods. I held off for a long time on a P2K game for just that reason, but it's so much fun to play RFM I couldn't help myself!!! Keep up the great work guys, and don't let ol' Wayno get to ya.
Yes, it's our goal to make the playfield / game swap as simple as is physically possible.

Here's our vision of the steps (although we're not at the point to finalize or test this yet):

1) With Nucore running your current installed machine - access our config menu and select switch game, select the new game to run, and power off your machine. Then grab a beer from the fridge.

2) Pull out the old playfield. Take a drink of beer.

3) Install the new playfield and cabinet hardware (plunger / launch button). Take another drink of beer.

4) Turn on the machine and enjoy your new game and the rest of your beer.

I don't think there's anyway to make it easier than that! :)
Fixed

It used to be a 5 beer process...

Game swap...

Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 9:06 pm
by djcharlie17
:D Sounds fantastic to me!

As for the shooter / plunger... I think it will be a matter of RFM getting stale, switch to SW ep 1 for 6 months or more. For that, it's worth the half hour of work to change from shooter to plunger. I'll keep both games as the Williams Gods intended.

As for Neo (NWOJedi)... GET OVER IT MAN! Sure it's no comparison to what was "A New Hope", but it's still fun. You just have to use your Jedi mind powers to tune out Jar Jar. :lol:

Hrrmm..

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 1:57 am
by sellenoff
I read up a bit more on Robert's combo shooter/button mech and he said he had to modify the RFM playfield & coil to allow the SWE1 shooter to fit, so I guess it won't be as easy as I'd hoped. I'll continue to investigate this when things slow down some and see what else can be done to improve.