HOWTO: Pro Pinball: Timeshock! in Dosbox on Rpi3

BobHarris

So I received Timeshock in the mail today. Edmaul69 is right: This version does work.
I used D-Fend reloaded to install the game first on my pc. (The only setting I had to change was the sound card: sound blaster pro.) Then I copied the installed contents to the empty folder pptime on my Retropie card. And I used Imgburn to create a bin and cue file from the game disc and added those two files to the folder. The last file I needed was the sh file.
Music works and sound effects work. But the jerky ball movement stays. I read the jerkyness is inherent to the DOS version, so I guess there is nothing to be done about that. (Changing the ingame graphics settings did not do anything.)
Update1: I also patched the game to version 1.07, which did iron out a few quirks..but the ball movement is still choppy.
Update2: I also tried many different configurations in the Dosbox conf file, but got no improvements.

Djeremaille

@bobharris @edmaul69

Hello,
I bought the GOG version and I'm very frustrated because only music is working... No FX...

I tried another version found on the web but same problem..

Can you give me an indication to find a good version ?

BobHarris

@djeremaille I looked online, but couldn't find it. So I resorted to ebay.

Djeremaille

@bobharris
It's ok I found it !
cue + bin. Installed it on my laptop, copied the files to the pi. Modified names of cue and bin to pptime. Edited script and cue file.
It's working good except when I use my gamepad, the game become unplayable after a minute. I mapped the joypad with ctrl+f1... With the keyboard, it's ok !

BobHarris

@djeremaille Good to hear! No Pi should be without the best pinball game ever. :-)

edmaul69

@djeremaille just an fyi they do not have to be named pptime. You can name them whatever you want.

Djeremaille

@edmaul69
Yes, I know that. Thank you !

mi7chy

If anyone is experiencing the issue where music works but they don't get sound here's the fix. Check your ~/.dosbox/dosbox-SVN.conf file and make sure your soundcard IRQ reads irq=5. If it's set to irq=7 you won't get sound other than music.

Bobby

the web is working too! if somebody know how to big race usa or fantastic journey, i'm interested.
0_1510870610332_Capture d’écran 2017-11-16 à 23.12.12.png

BobHarris

I'm having a rather odd issue with this game.
During the time travel the light sequence is off completely. The lights are first supposed to go up and then downwards. In my game they're all over the place.
I patched it to version 1.07.
Does anybody know why this is happening?
(P.S. The music sounds bad, but that is just my crappy camera.)

UPDATE: never mind; it was a graphics setting in the Timeshock menu (details were set at 'low' , which has an effect on the light show).

darky2003

any youtube vid for this :s ?

BobHarris

@darky2003 No it's quite a niche subject matter. If you really want to get this going you'll have to read through this topic..all the info you need is in here.

BobHarris

@mi7chy You are right! This solves the issue with the GOG Timeshock edition.
Now if we could only get rid of the choppy ball movement..it doesn't seem to be a performance issue as lowering graphics/audio settings does not improve the ball movement.

quicksilver

@bobharris have you tried increasing the emulated CPU speed using cntrl+f12?

BobHarris

@quicksilver Thanks for the suggestion..I tried it, but it had no effect.

edmaul69

@bobharris check your dosbox-SVN.conf and set these settings

language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
vmemsize=8
memsize=63

and

core=dynamic
cputype=pentium_slow
cycles=max 105%
cycleup=10
cycledown=20

the vmemsize or memsize, one of them actually needs to be added as it isnt in it originally. for cycles max or 100% for whatever reason only runs it at 95%.

edmaul69

This post is deleted!

BobHarris

@edmaul69 I made the changes and tested them on both the GOG version as well as the version I created from the original cd. It did not improve ball movement. (version 1.00 or patched to 1.07 did not make a difference either.) Hitting Ctrl F11 did make the ball skip around a lot more, but hitting ctrl F12 could only make it as good as I've seen it before.

Are you positive ball movement in your game is completely smooth? I mean it's quite playable, but I do notice the ball skipping very small distances, most noticably when the ball doesn't have a lot of speed. But I'm sure the skipping is small enough that it would be hard to capture with my camera.
This topic also describes the difference in ball movement between the DOS version and the Windows 1.20 version:
https://www.gog.com/forum/pro_pinball_series/windows_version_of_timeshock
I have the Timeshock 1.20 kickstarter edition (I was a backer for the Ultra version) for Windows on my laptop and there is zero jerky ball movement. (Actually I just checked and I don't see anything about '1.20', the kickstarter windows version shows '1.08')
But I just like playing the game on my hdtv so much more.

If you have completely smooth movement then I'd really like to compare settings:
https://ufile.io/qvu32 (my dosbox-SVN.conf file) I don't know if mem_size=63 was a typo or not, I also tried 64, but did not make a difference.

I have not overclocked my Pi 3. I don't think it would make a difference. Otherwise I think lowering the resolution should have improved ball movement and 4 balls at the same time should have worsened it, but no such things happened.

In game settings:
Table view: widest
Graphics:
Screen flipping: Enabled
Resolution: 1024x768
Colours: 256+
Detail: Custom ( -> Half speed, medium, maximum, minimum, disabled, 100%)
Dot matrix: Intelligent transparent
Nudge scrolling: Two way
Audio:
Mode: Stereo
Quality: Medium
Music restart: Quick

edmaul69

@bobharris vmemsize=63 was not a mistake. take it off of 64. there is an issue with going above 63. i am using a 1.00 version from the web. here are my dosbox config files and a video starting with the settings im using:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wJIpN9JoaMUvLEmaWZp4aBLPdXbvA5su

BobHarris

I copied your config file to my Pi, but I don't see an improvement.
I added a video of me playing, but I can't really see the judder in the YT video..you either have to see it yourself on the tv, or directly record video from the tv. Both things are impossible, so I will just settle with a bit of judder. I guess Cunning developments patched it out of the Windows version, but kept it in the Dos version.