Hack Midnight Magic to use paddle controllers?

[The Maxx]

I was answering this question:

 

How many other pinball games are there?

 

Whaaa..?! I don't get it. Bumper Bash isn't a number.

 

only joking. I've been up all night and I'm all sorts of loopy.

[+wongojack]

Did a Video Pinball hack ever get made? I searched but didn't find it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I used a custom joystick with built in paddles for Midnight Magic. I need to rotate the joystick backwards as the paddles are mounted on the sides and per vcs spec, right paddle controls joyleft and leff paddle controls joyright. You still need to flick the joystick or press fire to throttle the ball though. Bumper Bash needs paddles so the controls are backwards if using a stick. Bumper Bash runs fine with my custom joystick in the correct orientation. Sadly Video Pinball won't operate when both L+R are pressed simultaneously, resulting in frequent drains, as only pressing down actuates both flippers.

 

So there's 3 pinball games available, and of those, only Video Pinball disallows L+R. So I normally just hit down on the joystick to operate both in tandem. Video Pinball has sucky physics anyway. Midnight Magic and Bumper Bash are both amazing though. I picked up Bumper Bash on ebay in 2012 for like $50. Good luck finding one at that price now.

 

Video Pinball,

Midnight Magic,

And Bumper Bash.

 

Another solution for Midnight Magic is to use a Starplex style or all button controller.

[+GoldLeader]

I thought I'd mention that this is my Favorite Hack EVER!!

 

But Not for the reasons you might imagine. I wired my X-Arcade to control the flippers in Midnight Magic, as in Left and Right, using the side mounted "Flipper" buttons, but was severely disappointed when I found out that it would only control ONE flipper! You could push Right and the right flipper would work or you could push Left and the left flipper would work, but if you pushed BOTH buttons at the same time, then Neither flipper would work. I tried rewiring it several different ways, but never managed to get it to recognize BOTH Buttons as DOWN (which is what it needs from the joystick)... Anyway this hack works with my X-Arcade! And Left and Right flippers can now be controlled independently and Both can be pressed at the same time!

 

I use a Y-Cable hooked to a joystick and my X-Arcade controller so I can scroll through the Harmony Cart ROMs to get to this hack...

 

As we speak I have a 7800 set up in the basement and hooked up to an older flat screen computer monitor (S-video mod to VGA through a converter), and it along with the X-Arcade stick are set up on milk crates resembling a ghetto fabulous arcade cabinet (but without really being in a cabinet)...Sound is provided by Monster cables from the modded (Stereo, Errr probably Dual Mono) 7800 to an Aiwa Boombox...

 

I Love it!

 

 

P.S. Thanks so much Nukey!!! I owe ya a beer!!

Edited August 24, 2018 by GoldLeader

[+wongojack]

Cool responses guys!

 

I went looking for this MM hack because I wanted a version where pushing the fire button would work one side of the flippers and pushing the stick would work the other. I specifically wanted to be able to flip both R&L at the same time - similar to later era pinball games like NES Pinball. While this hack seems to achieve that, I still think that would be a cool hack for a regular joystick user who doesn't want to be bothered to plug in paddles or find a starplex/special controller.

 

I've never played Bumper Bash, but I have a soft spot for Video Pinball because it was one of my family's original games BITD. I still like to play it every once in a while.