PC Based Pinball Discussion

[Pop Bumper Pete]

It's amazing how all of you guys who think it's fine and dandy to use personal computers to run commercial equipment like pinballs never put their hands up to buy my mates jukebox run???

If you owned that I can guarantee you would have a very different opinion of things.

Apple OS - PPfftt - useless except for web browsing and graphic design and practically NOTHING else!

SSD - great but expensive and (as yet) fairly unreliable

Anyway - you all rush out and buy these things - I hope I'm proved wrong......

Mike, I can see your point, this issue did make me hesitant in getting on the WoZ bandwagon. Not so much for the PC running the game but the LCD. It will stop working one day, who is to say if a replacement that is the right size will be avakiabe?

[Homepin]

Mike, I can see your point, this issue did make me hesitant in getting on the WoZ bandwagon. Not so much for the PC running the game but the LCD. It will stop working one day, who is to say if a replacement that is the right size will be avakiabe?

I think LCD's shouldn't be too much of a problem as there will pretty well always be something that could be shoehorned into the machine. The PC Motherboard however, that's a different thing......look at the current PC situation, change your mainboard AND then all the drivers, often the RAM, CPU  and power supply as well.....these machines WILL BE NO DIFFERENT - IMO

[Pop Bumper Pete]

I know
I upgraded my PC just before Xmas
The only components that I could use from 6 years ago was the power supply and the cabinet

[Homepin]

I know
I upgraded my PC just before Xmas
The only components that I could use from 6 years ago was the power supply and the cabinet

You were lucky you could use the power supply  - the case and power supply are also the cheapest parts of a PC - LOL

[oldskool1969]

Pure paranoia.
Mr HOMEPIN, my apple is a doing EXACTLY as it was meant to do and doing it very well. If it wasn't for more and more demands by the consumer wanting it to do more then it will be fine.
You are still missing my point, IF this is a PC based product then it is designed to run one thing - a pinball machine - that's it, nothing else, NADA, ZIP, diddly squat.
Therefore maintenance and product life comes into it. We are still maintaining pinball machines now with the boards you and others produce, coil sleeves, coils etc. the list goes on. The $ we spend on them now keeping them going is ridiculous. So what if 1 or 20 years down the road the motherboard shits itself, if it is still FUN we will fix and probably make it better.
I am NOT having a dig at anyone, though you make it appear to me that we will be doing so much more with this than just using it in a pinball machine.
Everything has a use by date , built in or not. Why spread fear for people who may or are buying PC based pinballs?
Maybe it is just Microsoft you don't like   me too! APPLE through and through.
this is my last comment as it seems to go around and around in circles and getting personal. I just wanted to know  

p.s. JUKEBOXES are a dead industry - maybe they will make a comeback too. Another can of worms

[Steevsee]

Go make a system out of bamboo & coconut shells and let us know how you get on  ;-)

Well, The Professor can make a radio out of coconuts so I'll bet he could make a pinball out of them as well - maybe even a Coconut Island re-make  

Professor Homepin!

Hard at work on his latest NON PC based invention.

Sorry Mike, couldn't resist!

[Homepin]

Pure paranoia.

You are still missing my point, IF this is a PC based product then it is designed to run one thing - a pinball machine - that's it, nothing else, NADA, ZIP, diddly squat.
Therefore maintenance and product life comes into it. We are still maintaining pinball machines now with the boards you and others produce, coil sleeves, coils etc. the list goes on.

Absolutely NOT! This is my entire point. I'm not getting personal - it's FACT....

If you fit one of my boards, you screw it into the machine, plug it in and away it goes - JOB FINISHED.....to replace a motherboard you need to install all new SOFTWARE drivers (that suit the new board) and probably replace RAM, micro, power supply etc etc  -

This is VASTLY different to repairing an embedded pinball and will likely be beyond most people.

[ajlaird]

Pure paranoia.

You are still missing my point, IF this is a PC based product then it is designed to run one thing - a pinball machine - that's it, nothing else, NADA, ZIP, diddly squat.
Therefore maintenance and product life comes into it. We are still maintaining pinball machines now with the boards you and others produce, coil sleeves, coils etc. the list goes on.

Absolutely NOT! This is my entire point. I'm not getting personal - it's FACT....

If you fit one of my boards, you screw it into the machine, plug it in and away it goes - JOB FINISHED.....to replace a motherboard you need to install all new SOFTWARE drivers (that suit the new board) and probably replace RAM, micro, power supply etc etc  -

This is VASTLY different to repairing an embedded pinball and will likely be beyond most people.

Where the problem lies is the complexity of a PC - it is made up of a mainboard or motherboard, CPU, RAM, power supply, and some sort of disk. All of these are designed to work together and there is probably an 18-24 month window, sometimes more but sometimes less, before stocks of certain items become unavailable. Intel seem to have numerous CPU form factors which quickly become obsolete - AMD seems to be a lot better in that respect. If a component dies in 4 years time, it is highly likely that you will not be able to easily replace that component unless it is the disk (however, after the disk, the motherboard is most likely to go). You will then be forced to replace the motherboard and CPU, and most likely RAM as the old RAM is unlikely to work in the new motherboard. You are also likely to have to replace the power supply because it won't have the new connectors required.

OK, so you have the computer physically working again. But will the operating system still work on the new computer? Again, unless the manufacturer has kept the operating system up to date and working on current PC technology, this is highly unlikely. Depending on what was used as a base (eg Linux) you may get lucky and be able to update the OS to the point where it does work. Or perhaps some genius can write drivers for you if they are using some other OS. This is what happened to Pin 2000 - it relies on a specific CPU/GPU component (the Cyrix MediaGX CPU) that is no longer available BUT the software is written around it and won't work.

OK, now you have the computer and software working. But what about the interface from the hardware to the PC? Unless the manufacturer has used something generic (such as USB inputs which will still be around) then it is probable they have developed an interface card using PCI or PCI Express. But in 4 years time PCI will be totally gone - PCI Express will still be around and SHOULD be backwards compatible. Fast forward a few more years and PCI Express is a dinosaur.

Whether the PC is running one application or not is totally irrelevant to the lifespan of the PC (although it should stop it from crashing too much due to software issues).