WELCOME TO
RECREATION FOR FUTURE PINBALL
February 2007: tied to play "Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey", I discover Future Pinball. This software allows to design and play pinball tables in a real 3D environment. And the best for the end, Future Pinball is FREE!!
At this time, they're many available (and all free) tables designed for Future Pinball. Some are realistic, other are fictious... Look in particular for famous "Popotte" and "Greywolf" old-style electro-mechanical tables. Look also for Blindmankind Pinball, Ruckage and Pethu about fantastic tables. You can find many hundred of tables from Future Pinball forum (closed ?) or using a search engine.
I'm a Xenon pinball fan since 1981, when I was student... Manufactured by Bally MFG Corp., Xenon was the first pinball to use a transparent tube located above playfield: any ball can "fly" above playfield, from start ramp at right to left side chamber. Xenon was also one of first pinball game to use (sexy female) real voices... Many informations, pictures and documents about real Xenon are available from Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) website. Other favorite pinballs are Williams' Cyclone and Twilight Zone.
Sincerely, Xenon isn't the most exciting machine for gameplay, because the rules are extremely rudimentary: top saucer three times, shooting the tube, then top saucer three times again... But it looks fantastic (they're ton of lights, in particular on the translite).
Unfortunately, I can't find Xenon recreation for Future Pinball. By the way, I'm designing it (IT'S MY FIRST TABLE), as realistic as possible. This "huge" project began during April 2007... For now, Xenon remains in Work in Progress (WIP) development status - until future final 1.0 - but it's fully playable!
Lastest available release: XENON v0.5 - Saturday, April 17th, 2010
REQUIRES FUTURE PINBALL 1.9.20081225 (not compatible with older versions).
FEATURES
CURRENT RELEASE
What's new in this release?
Must be done: TON OF THINGS!!!! like:
SCREEN CAPTURES (click to enlarge - 1920x1200)...
Whole Xenon pinball game & poster.
Table view during game play (Low angle camera), with scoring HUD.
Table view during game play (Camera mode 1), without scoring HUD.
Travelling ball through the Xenon tube and the light strip in action!
Game settings from DIP switches (inside backbox). An interactive "manual-style" HUD will help you for all DIP settings. Don't forget to power off the game prior to open the backbox!
Additional settings and statistics view (bookkeeping), through (simplified) Self-Tests mode. An interactive "manual-style" HUD will help you for any Self-Test position.
Dynamic instructions (left side) and scoring (right side) cards on apron, including official cards references!
DOWNLOAD & INSTALL
Download the lastest release of Xenon for Future Pinball (version 0.5 - April 2010) (this .zip archive contains all required files).
Filesize: 12.4MB
From downloaded .zip archive, extract both Libraries and Tables enclosed folders DIRECTLY INSIDE your FuturePinball folder on hard disk.
SUPPORT
Please use VPForums (an account is necessary for posting, but it's free) for feedbacks and bug reports.
My "username" on VPForums is DoCam.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to thanks in particular:
USEFUL LINKS
Future Pinball official website: http://www.futurepinball.com
Many nice recreated tables can be found from IRPinball: http://irpinball.ztnet.com
Take a look on pretty original tables from Blindmankind Pinball: http://www.pinballhispano.net/blindmankind
Other fine conversions from Pethu/Misaligned Cow Ventures: http://www.pethu.se/misaligned
Pinball infos, tips, pictures from Silverball Magic 2.0: http://www.silverball-magic.com
The "Bible" of real pinball games: IPDB - The Internet Pinball Database, on http://www.ipdb.org
MY CONFIG:
Have fun with Xenon!
Dominique CAMUS.