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Road Show (Williams 1994)

WPC build with detailed documentation on mechanism scripting, scoop physics, and kicker parameter tuning. Notable for the gBOT standalone crash fix and GI lighting methodology. Built by apophis79, clarkkent9917, and Skitso.

Table-Specific Details

Mechanisms & Hardware

  • Multiball lock mech: physical switch numbering may need swapping to match real machine ball flow. Lock pin logic may need inversion -- some pins are normally locked (blocking position). Manual may not be clear -- "you literally have to read the fine print to figure it out."
  • Scoop ball rejection: the key factor is the angle of the curved surface where the ball first contacts. Reshaping the scoop's inner surface to ~45 degrees at the impact point virtually eliminates rebounds while keeping proper kick-out. Confirmed against real machine behavior.

Art & Visuals

  • Insert cutout edges must NOT have anti-aliasing -- anti-aliased edges cause visible jaggies with the flasher insert method.
  • GI lighting built from scratch by Skitso (~10 hours for first pass): tackle individual elements (ramps, plastics, details) one at a time, then step back and evaluate as a whole. Repeat for 4-5 passes.

Physics & Gameplay

  • Timer intervals of 1ms (used for dozer rotation and mech animations) changed to 20ms with associated speed adjustments for significant script overhead reduction.
  • Sound volume debugging: a "missing" sound effect (BlastZoneDrop) was set to 0.002 instead of 0.3 -- nearly inaudible but present in the script.

Known Issues

  • gBOT variable in flipper correction code causes sporadic crashes in VPX Standalone Player. Fix: use GetBalls in Cor.Update instead of gBOT. The gBOT variable can remain elsewhere in the script.

Techniques Developed Here

See Also