HOWTO: Pro Pinball: Timeshock! in Dosbox on Rpi3

DRB · 6 Oct 2017, 02:07

IT'S WORKING

My bad; I changed to PINBALL.EXE but still having the same error. However, I did find something that may be worthy of mentioning though. On the MS-DOS screen of Retropie, there are 2 PPTIME entries. The first one brings me to the results that I have been talking about (the error message) and the other one actually works now. Prior to this, it would only act like it is starting DOSBox then returns to the menu.

Anyway; any thoughts on how to remove the first (not working) entry? Or why it may be there?

[edit]
Well, I thought it was working. It launches and plays, but now that I hooked it up to my system with speakers I am not getting any sound. Ugh!

edmaul69 · 10 Jun 2017, 01:30

@DRB that is what everyone reports. Was sound working before?

DRB · 10 Jun 2017, 02:05

@edmaul69

OK, I got sound (music) working now. I'm not quite sure but I am going to blame it on operator error (long day). Music is the only sound that I am getting though. No mechanical, sound effects, or voices. They work properly on Windows but not here.

I wonder if @BobHarris ever get his sound working? Maybe he will chime in.

edmaul69 · 10 Jun 2017, 02:30

@DRB start dosbox. Setup the game all manually like you were going to play but dont run pinball.exe. Run setup.exe. Setup all audio, music and sfx to soundblaster. Then boot the game. See if that works.

DRB · 10 Jun 2017, 02:38

@edmaul69

I like where you are going with this, but there is no setup.exe in the pc directory. Are you suggesting running the file downloaded directly from gog?

edmaul69 · 10 Jun 2017, 03:47

@DRB can you post the contents of the game.cfg?

DRB · 10 Jun 2017, 04:25

@edmaul69

I hope this is what you are asking for.

edmaul69 · 10 Jun 2017, 04:40

@DRB i downloaded this from another source and the music, the audio and the sounds work. (I dont have gog) I had to open up the .cue file and rename it from caps to caps and lowercase to match the .bin file name. Inside the game did you turn up all the sounds and audio volumes to 10?

DRB · 10 Jun 2017, 15:46

@edmaul69

Yes, I adjusted and tweaked all the sounds and settings to no avail. I'll try to find another source for download. Where did you find yours?

edmaul69 · 6 Oct 2017, 19:11

@DRB i cant discuss where i found it. You will just have to look around.

edmaul69 · 6 Oct 2017, 19:53

@DRB also the one i go was just bin and cue files. You have to open the cue file and correct the name to match the bin file. You have to run the installation off of the disk. When you run install you need to make it install to the pptime directory. In the sh i changed the .sh to point to Timeshock!.exe. If you name the cue, the bin and the inside of the cue file to pptime, you wont have to edit your .sh file

BobHarris · 17 Jun 2017, 06:35

Hi DRB, just wanted to let you know I never got the mechanical sounds to work. I guess the GOG version is not the right one for Retropie. Also it stutters a little bit, even on my pc. So I dropped the project altogether.

edmaul69 · 17 Jun 2017, 06:47

@BobHarris the ripped original version of timeshock! works great for me. The web however requires an actual cd. You cant use a virtual disc.

BobHarris · 17 Jun 2017, 14:06

@edmaul69 I can't find the version you are using. But I did find a physical copy on ebay, which should include the dos version so I bought that one (it was only 10 euros and included some booklets about the table). I hope I will get that one working. :-)

edmaul69 · 17 Jun 2017, 14:31

@BobHarris man i hate shareware. It has made buying dos games a big pain for me. Do you know how i can tell the difference on this game, including on the cd?

BobHarris · 17 Jun 2017, 14:56

@edmaul69
I just try to look for an original boxed copy. I bought the game similar to this one : http://www.ebay.nl/itm/VTG-game-Pro-Pinball-Timeshock-Empire-interactive-1997-PC-CD-ROM-original-Box-/152476023038?hash=item23804778fe:g:OYsAAOSwxKtYBTJN

On the back of the box I read it includes both the Windows and the Dos version.

BobHarris · 22 Jun 2017, 14:20

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 · 13 Nov 2017, 18:41

@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 · 15 Nov 2017, 09:04

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

Djeremaille · 15 Nov 2017, 22:13

@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 !