PinCabView2D : Most old DOS Pinball Games in your Pincab!

[Ammeron]

On 3/24/2023 at 2:56 PM, Turnbull said:

Because i'm still stuggling with the integration of PinCabView2D in my popper frontend, only the intelligence of the VP universe can help me

Attached you can see my mess. So, my questions are:

 

1) What do i put in the red-marked fields? (see image attached)

 

2) How can i add the single pinball tables (e.g. Epic Game has around 13 Tables) using the "Add New Games => Scan for new games"-function? In my understanding of popper, there should be something like a table directory, where all tables of all games should be placed, right? Or do i need one emulator entry per game and then i give the .../epic/ dir as the game folder? An if so, how do i come to the table number, because PinCabView2D_Launcher.exe wants a number as parameter to start with a specific table..

 

Damn, i'm mega-confused. Who can cure me?

 

 

Turnball, im with you. If there is some instructions around popper frontend setup i would be most grateful 

[Bunter2000]

Thats what I thought should happen like everyone else is reporting, when you say extract the full PinCabView2d archive, do I also extract the other files such as ArcCabView_Mame and PinCabView_Run etc into a folder? I extracted all of the .7z files as well. I will try to only unzip PinCabView2D_3.3 and see what happens.

 

Also are the tables stored as .iso files or in original dos format (8.3)?

Edited June 9, 2023 by Bunter2000
additions

[Bunter2000]

Well I tried installing all the archives into the same directory - that did not work, plus it had to overwrite everything so that was not good.

Found another .ini file inside the pincabview2d folder and managed to get the path changed as well as the correct name of the .exe file. I still have a few issues to rectify but all is working so far.

 

I started again and only installed the PinCabView2d archive file (nothing else) and all works, so I guess I now have a windows pinball player for old DOS pinball games.

 

This maybe a silly question as I am totally new to this virtual pinball scene, do I need to extract anything else to integrate into pinup popper configuration? 

 

Thanks again in advance.

 

Bill 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Bunter2000
removed double words

[Aubrel]

Glad you managed to get it working.

About frontends, you need to know how to use your frontend.

If you don't, ask for help to the FE autors or in their support threads.

For my part I don't know anything about Poper as I never tried it.

But I think any Frontend should be able to run an exe with a command...

[Bunter2000]

Thanks again,

The system I am running is an 15-4670 with a 2Gb Nvidia 710 graphics card, 8Gb RAM with win 10 installed on an SSD which I thought would be enough.

It plays (steam) FX3 and Zaccaria as well as Future Pinball and PinballX through Pinup Popper and all pinballs play perfectly including sounds but any of the DOS pinballs are very slow and the sounds and effects badly stutter making the game unplayable , I assume dosbox needs tweaking - can you point me to places I can search for a possible fix.

Or can tell me where to look in the configs. I tried all sound options within the DOS pinballs and the best options I could get were either soundblaster or soundblaster 16. But even with "No Sound" selected the balls travel very slowly with sounds still playing - which I thought odd??

[p80n]

I was googling a way to experience old classic pinball dos games such as Psycho pinball with that authentic feeling of a physical pinball machine. Really impressed with the work that has been put in to this. Is the software still in development?

Im kind of starting from scratch here, what kind of hardware(computer spec) is needed for this?

[CarnyPriest]

My cab is running an Intel i5 3570k CPU @ 3.40GHz (i.e., the technology is from 2012). The games are DOS. I think you'll be fine with whatever you are running. Give it a try. I haven't tried this project yet, but I do run the sister projects PinCabView, PinCabViewWFS, and PinCabViewVPX. They all work impressively! 

[p80n]

Ok, running windows 10? What graphic card(s)? Heard that a few have had problems with stuttering music and graphics with dosbox games

[sanviler]

Hello!

 

Any chance quicklaunch for Epic Pinball, Psycho Pinball, etc. can be added in the future? I tried to mess around with the .ini file, but I can't access to where you assign the 2nd parameter in the exe launcher, to the corresponding function key, which once the assignment has been done, will be linked to the "f" key (so that the .ini file knows what function key to trigger when the "f" key is virtually pressed). Since those games don't allow the table launching trough a specific key (like the funcion keys for pinball dreams, etc. that is why the quicklaunch is working for them), we kinda need a sort of "key-press-sequence" to allow the system to launch a specific table.

For example: if we want to quicklaunch Epic pinball table number 5, we will need to assign a key press sequence to that "f" key that the .ini file is launching, like "SleepTime4=1500, Key4=Down, SleepTime5=1500, Key5=Down, SleepTime6=1500,  Key6=Down, SleepTime7=1500, Key7=Down".

In this way we managed to go down 4 times in the menu, so being able to select the 5th table. Then we will just use a couple of "KeyX=Enter" more to finally launch the table.

All we need to do is to transform the value of the parameter in the exe in a sort of counter which will be used to trigger a given number of "KeyX=Down" events.

That at least would work for Epic Pinball. I don't think this could be working for Psycho Pinball, for example, since the table selection, in the menu, is made by using the 4 different cursor keys: up for north table, right for east table and left for west table (south table is selected by default, so no action is needed here). The whole logic would change from a counter system, which iterate X times to trigger X KeyX=Down events to a switch system or an if/else statement system where we can define one of the following:

• (switch) case 1: KeyX=Up, case 2: KeyX=Left, case 3: KeyX=Right, case 4: just keep pressing enter
• (if/else) if (parameter ==  1){KeyX=Up;} else if (parameter == 2){KeyX=Left} else if(parameter == 3){KeyX=Right} else if(parameter == 4) {//do nothing}} else{//parameter is not valid, handle the exception}

Just throwing some ideas on the table, but I don't have idea on how to implement such things

 

Thank you for the software anyway, it is amazing to run in my PinUpPopper frontend!

 

Cheers!!

[sanviler]

Also I would like to know how can I use the "- "1" (repeat quickly) => F1-F8 (+Yes)" function within my pinball cabinet. I do have an usb zerodelay controller board (which acts as a normal usb joystick) where I have attached 8 buttons. One of these buttons, which I commonly use as start button, has been remapped individually, in each .map file, to act as, for example, "Enter" in Pinball Fantasies or Pinball Illusions (so whenver I press it, the game adds 1 more player to the game). But in Pinball Dreams and Pinball Dreams 2, we don't have that "multiple Enter" feature in the game and we are forced to add them once and for all, at the start of the game, with the funcion keys (F1-F8). This feature has been managed by Abruel somehow and we can smash the "1" button X times to add X players. I didn't understand where this function is hardcoded, but I tried to use JoyToKey to assign "1" key to one of my "joystick" buttons. The assignment works correctly, but once in the game, the - "1" (repeat quickly) => F1-F8 (+Yes) function doesn't work if I use the joystick button, but it works without any problem if I use the "real" "1" key on the keyboard. If I press the "start" button on my joystick it only adds the first player and the game starts. Nothing changes if I press it 2 or more times in a row.

 

Help!  please ❤️
 

[JochenB1980]

This is so cool!!!

 

I've played al those games (I even forgot about Pyscho) so much as a kid. Now enjoying my cabinet with VPX. 

But these games are so great to play!

 

I started with Epic pinball because a friend is coming over and I played this specially a lot with him.

Got it working right away. I only need to fix the DMD (it's stretched out untill the unreadable)

(I have a 3 screen setup)

 

Thank you so much for this work and the support!

 

I will also try to get it working form within Pinup Popper, probably will work, I also integrated Snes9x!

Edited May 24, 2025 by JochenB1980

[gerhard]

4 hours ago, JochenB1980 said:

This is so cool!!!

 

I've played al those games (I even forgot about Pyscho) so much as a kid. Now enjoying my cabinet with VPX. 

But these games are so great to play!

 

I started with Epic pinball because a friend is coming over and I played this specially a lot with him.

Got it working right away. I only need tot fix the DMD (it's stretched out untill the unreadable)

 

QUESTION: How to get my cabinet flippers working?? Now I can only use my keyboard....

Thank you so much for this work and the support!

 

I will also try to get it working form within Pinup Popper, probably will work, I also integrated Snes9x!

You might use a Key mapper like Joy2Key to map your Buttons to the required Keys.

For me it works this way.

For adding Tables to Popper, if made a CMD File for each Table so i can use the CMD-Extension the same way the VPX-Extension is use for VisualPinball.

[Armourking]

Thanks so much for this - I loved these games as teen on the Amiga, so awesome to have them back and looking great on my vpin!
For Popper,I set the Launch EXE folder for the Emul to where this is installed.
I added files called "illusions 1.old" etc in a folder set as the "roms" and scanned for extension ".old", then changed the display names in Popper.
They launch and close great with the following scripts (although I don't know what I'm doing with Popper specifically, I've only picked up the hobby this year)
Launch Script:

START "" "[STARTDIR]Launch\VPXSTARTER.exe" 5 5 20 "AmigaPinball"
cd /d "[DIREMU]"
START "" "PinCabView2D_Launcher" [GAMENAME]

Close Script:

"[STARTDIR]LAUNCH\PUPCLOSER.EXE" WINTIT "DOSBox-PinHackV3x.exe" 4 1
taskkill /f /im "DOSBOX.exe"
taskkill /f /im "PinCabView2D.exe"
taskkill /f /im "PinCabView2D_Launcher.exe"
taskkill /f /im "DOSBox-PinHackV3x.exe"

Also, I've started making some rubbish wheels for the ones I care about, to at least have something:

Digital_Illusions.7z

Edited July 26, 2025 by Armourking

[Mitttt]

Awesome project! 

 

I love Stones 'n Bones. Playing it a lot, right now.  But when I run it with PinCabView2D, I notice a bit of a delay/lag and the ball is a little bit jittery. I'm comparing to just running the game normally.

 

Is this normal or what can i try to fix this? Tried all the settings from the launcher. Running it on a decent computer. 

 

PS: Checked the FPS. The original runs with 60-70FPS. With PinCabView2D i'm getting 20-35 FPS(maxing at 35, like being limited there). I think that's what I'm noticing. 

 

Edited November 10, 2025 by Mitttt

[kragil]

On 6/8/2023 at 11:41 PM, Aubrel said:

???

There is a readme...

Extract the full PinCabView2D archive, put your game in the dedicated folder included and run the launcher. There is nothing more to do.

I tried EXACTLY that and I only get a black screen, the mouse jumps a few times and then the program exits without an error message. Does it have some special hardware requirements? I tried on an Intel Laptop and an Intel Office PC so far.

Edited March 10 by kragil

[OscarSNM]

At first, I used a Ryzen 3400G without a video card and managed to run VPX without any problems, but this emulator was incredibly slow. When I added a video card, it improved significantly and I was able to play smoothly. Beyond that, it's very important to pay attention to which versions of the pinball games you want to emulate you have. There are some that I still can't get to work (I can't remember which ones now, but there are several). The one that worked best for me from the start was Pinball Dreams. Maybe you should start by trying that one. But keep in mind that without a video card, even if you manage to get it to work, it becomes impossible to play.

 

[kragil]

9 hours ago, OscarSNM said:

At first, I used a Ryzen 3400G without a video card and managed to run VPX without any problems, but this emulator was incredibly slow. When I added a video card, it improved significantly and I was able to play smoothly. Beyond that, it's very important to pay attention to which versions of the pinball games you want to emulate you have. There are some that I still can't get to work (I can't remember which ones now, but there are several). The one that worked best for me from the start was Pinball Dreams. Maybe you should start by trying that one. But keep in mind that without a video card, even if you manage to get it to work, it becomes impossible to play.

 

Thanks for the hint.  I have this old all-in-one PC which would be perfect as a main display, but it is old and it can't be upgraded. I thought these are basically really old games so they should work on any still working PC, but maybe I was wrong. It is just really hard to pinpoint what the problem is, when all you get is a black screen and no error message.  Has anyone tried on an Intel iGPU? Is there a log file or something?

Edited March 11 by kragil

[SixOfTwelve]

EDIT: Never mind. 

I had problems with the "Quit y/n" message in Epic Pinball, but turns out the problem was the fact that I'm using a Windows set to English, but a keyboard with a German layout, so Z and Y are swapped - that's why the Y didn't trigger.

I got around the problem by disabling the pincab keys for Epic Pinball and writing a script that, when Escape is pressed, sends "Z" and then "Esc". That way, when I press it once, it will bring up the quit message, and when I press it a second time, it will actually quit.

Edited April 8 by SixOfTwelve

[SixOfTwelve]

Another observation that may hopefully save someone some time in the future:

Electronic Pinball throws up an error stating that a CD is missing, requiring the user to press A to abort.  (The Windows version seems to run fine, but PinCabView requires the DOS version.)

First I thought I had a bad copy - maybe a missing config file, maybe there was a no-CD patch somehwere.... But after having grabbed about half a dozen different copies of the game from just as many different sources, I'm now convinced that there is no version in which the DOS game launches without that error message. Since Electronic Pinball was never released and all we have is a leaked prototype, I guess that's just how it is.

 

I eventually got around it by writing a brief AHK script that sends "A" to abort the error, after which you can continue to select the tables normally.

Edited May 3 by SixOfTwelve