"Solar Ride," released by Gottlieb in February 1979, features a captivating outer space theme and "vibrant" backglass artwork. This machine was produced in two versions: an electro-mechanical model and a solid-state version. (this is the solid state version). Not much to this table, but gameplay is fun and getting bonus early is definitely desirable. Key strategies include shooting the drop targets to light up the special, managing the bonus multiplier, and utilizing the top left lane for a 2X bonus. In the F12 instructions, I have other strategy and tips as well.
Thanks to CainArg for providing a playfield scan as well as the cleanup of it. Then of course thanks to @redbone who scaled it, as well as providing the apron, and upscaling the plastics.
For this table, I updated to the latest VPW standards, physics, alllamps and 3D inserts, backglass for desktop, roth targets, standalone compatibility, sling corrections, optional DIP adjustments, updated flipper physics, VR and fully hybrid, Flupper style bumpers and lighting. Baked GI, walls, and created a playfield mesh for the saucer physics. Many hours were spent studying gameplay videos to match the table shots and action. I put as much detail into the table as I could... animating the upper gates, all the rubber animations, saucers, etc.
Once again, I've included several options in the F12 menu including various balls, ball brightness, flippers, caps, plastic edge colors, LUTs, and other VR stuff, including LED undercab lighting.
For the ROM... since the latest VPinMAME, there is an error with older Gottlieb System 1 ROMs (they were using a bad "CF" spider chip dump all these years). So, if you download that specific ROM off of Pinball Nirvana... you'll likely get an error. The "New Fixed ROMs" can be found in the required software section below. You'll see 17 ROMs in the pack. solaride.zip is one of them, and you'll need that for this table.
Please NOTE there are several items to consider on the ROM settings: The default settings for the ROM options are hard coded into the script and are based on the recommended values from Gottlieb for 3 balls. If you want to change the ROM settings themselves, you need to change the "SetDIPSwitches to 1" in the script, and then use the F6 menu to change. However... I am not able to hard code the ROM menu options. Typically, there are levels of score achievements that award a free play. The default ROM has that set to off. I've included an nvram file you can use that sets that to match the instruction/score cards and Gottlieb's recommendation (170,000, 350,000 and 430,000). Also, there are settings in the menu to set replays, sound, and HSTD. All this has been done for you in the included nvram file. I also have instructions in the script on how to change that if you wish to do yourself.
Required Software (64-bit versions):
VPX 10.8.0 final release or later: https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/releases
VPinMame v3.6.0-1227 or later: https://github.com/vpinball/pinmame/releases
B2S Server 2.1.3 or later (if B2S used): https://github.com/vpinball/b2s-backglass/releases
ROM: https://pinballnirvana.com/forums/resources/new-fixed-roms-for-vpinmame-v3-6-0-963-beta.8379/
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