SlugFest (Williams 1991)

Welcome to SlugFest, a pitch-and-bat baseball game, play ball!  

Lore:
SlugFest was Williams’ final pitch-and-bat baseball game, with only 1,559 machines produced. SlugFest introduced Williams’ first dot-matrix display (DMD). An animated heckler taunted players, who silenced him by launching a ball into the upper balcony. Cabinets could also dispense real baseball cards as prizes.

How to play:

• SlugFest plays like baseball.
• Press a pitch button to throw a pitch. Then, press the bat button as the pitch arrives to swing and hit the ball toward scoring targets, while avoiding targets marked OUT.
• Target hits move your runners around the bases, and each runner who reaches home scores one run.
• Your goal is to score as many runs as possible.

Requirements and Setup Steps:

• VPX - 10.8
• VPinMAME - 3.6 or newer
• ROM: sf_l1
• Card_images: Put the baseball card folder in the same folder as your table. (e.g. Tables folder).
• Included are 2 camera _cabinet.ini and _desktop.ini view files.
  • To use either one, rename the ini file to match the file name of the VPX table. 
  • In other words, remove _desktop or _cabinet from the ini file.

Features:

• Updated physics; animated bat, home-run ramp, and pitching cover.
• Baked lighting, GI, flashers, glowing inserts, and reflective metal.
• Updated images and graphics. Including hand-traced runners and playfield art.
• Positional mechanical and rolling sound.
• One and two-player, four pitch types, pinch hitting, stealing bases, and Throw Out Runner/Boo.
• Desktop and cabinet camera ini files.
• Baseball field environment can be enabled and activates automatically for VR.
• Included are 100 embedded baseball cards, randomly selected when card awards are dispensed and shown one at a time with smooth fades. (The on-table card display can be disabled.)
• DOF features now integrated.

Credits:

• SlugFest integration and tuning by DancingCan.
• Physics and mechanical-sound systems are adapted from VPW Example Table 1.7
• Roccodimarco, Tab, and Destruk — previous SlugFest work.
• VPin Workshop (VPW) — Example Rom and Table 1.7.
• nFozzy and Rothbauerw — physics foundations.
• iaakki, wrd1972, and apophis — Target Bouncer.
• Fleep — mechanical sounds.
• nFozzy — ramp-rolling sounds.
• Visual Pinball, VPinMAME, and VPX Lightmapper teams — development tools.

My Work:

• This is the first VPX table I’ve ever made, building on the work of earlier creators and tables.
• I had a blast putting everything together. 
• Let me know what you think! I’m open to feedback.
• I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Controls:

Start:

• 1 = Start a one-player game.
• 2 = Start a two-player game.

Batter controls (both modes):

• Right flipper = Swing the bat.
• Left MagnaSave = Pinch Hit.
• Right MagnaSave = Steal Base.
• One-player pitching: Left flipper = Pitch; the game chooses the pitch type.

Two-player pitching:

• Left-flipper pitching is disabled.
• Up arrow = Fastball.
• Down arrow = Curveball.
• Left arrow = Changeup.
• Right arrow = Screwball.
• Pitcher: F = Throw Out Runner/Boo, depending on the game state.
• Flipper and MagnaSave buttons follow your VPX assignments.

Table Customization:

To customize the table, open the script, edit the lines below, save, and restart.  These line numbers apply to the 1.0 production release.

Cabinet — line 190: Cabinet = 1

• 1 = Focused playfield.
• 2 = Full cabinet without the ballpark.
• 3 = Full cabinet with the ballpark.

Pitch Buttons and Controls — lines 317–339.

• Const LeftFlipperPitchIn2P
  • 1 = random pitch. Solo behavior stays unchanged.
  • 0 = disabled
• Customize 2nd Player pitch buttons by changing the lines below (default shown): 
  • Const PitchKeyFast = 200       ' Up arrow
  • Const PitchKeyCurve = 208      ' Down arrow
  • Const PitchKeyChangeup = 203   ' Left arrow
  • Const PitchKeyScrew = 205      ' Right arrow
  • For more examples refer to https://www.vpforums.org/Tutorials/KeyCodes.html

WinCardsOnTable — line 121: Const WinCardsOnTable = 1

• 1 = Show the WIN CARDS sign, awarded card images, and their shadows on the right plastic.
• 0 = Hide those visuals.
• Card awards, dispenser operation, card stock, and scoring remain active with either setting.

Apron — line 99: Const Apron = 1

• 1 = Show the apron artwork.
• 0 = Hide the apron artwork.

Fence — line 128: Const Fence = 1

• 1 = Show the front playfield fence.
• 0 = Hide it, with matching shadows and reflections adjusted automatically.

Lockdown bar — line 108: Const Lockbar = 1

• 1 = Show the lockdown bar.
• 0 = Hide the lockdown bar.

BatOnlyAtPitch — line 313: Const BatOnlyAtPitch = 1

• 1 = Allow swings only while a pitch is in flight.
• 0 = Allow free swings.

Selects the presentation outside VR.

• For VR, edit line 191: If RenderingMode = 2 Then Cabinet = 3
• Change the final 3 to 2 for the cabinet without the ballpark. Leave RenderingMode = 2 unchanged.

Baseball Card Customization

Want to put your own cards in the lineup? Use portrait PNG, JPG, or JPEG artwork with a 5:7 aspect ratio.

• Baseball-card source folder — line 322: Const WinCardRelativeFolder = "card_images"
• This identifies the source artwork folder used when building the embedded card set.
• Example 1 — line 325: WinCardFileNames(0) = "Albert Belle — 1992 Donruss.jpg" corresponds to WinCard_001.
• Example 2 — line 326: WinCardFileNames(1) = "Andy Benes — 1989 Topps USA Baseball.jpg" corresponds to WinCard_002.
• To swap artwork, replace the corresponding images in VPX’s Image Manager while keeping their existing names, such as WinCard_001 and WinCard_002, then save the table.
• Changing the folder or catalog filenames alone won’t replace the displayed cards.

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Changelog:
1.0 - VPX Release - DancingCan
1.1 - Pitch button fixes

1.2 - DOF