FAQ - dekay/vpinball-wiki GitHub Wiki

My PinMAME based table won't accept coins

Bally MPU A084-91786-AH06 (6803) and Gottlieb System 3 VPM Tables require pre-initialized NVRAM files to accept coins. Download them at: https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=1362

If your table is not in that list of roms pressing F3 (reset PinMAME) or restarting the table should do the trick.

How should I organize all the files for all my tables?

[!NOTE] The 10.8.0 Windows version of VPinball only supports all files within a single directory. The Standalone version is more flexible.

The recommended file layout was changed during the VPinball 10.8.1 development cycle and is now documented on the VPinball Github

I see "Factory Settings Restored" and "Bookkeeping Totals Cleared" but the table won't play

Some tables create a Nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) file on first run and hang at this point. The solution is simply to exit VPinball and restart the table. The table will pick up the NVRAM file created on first run and play normally after that. Examples of tables that do this are Medieval Madness, The Addams Family, and Terminator 2.

The volume on some tables is too low

There is no "standard" volume across all tables so some are louder than others. You can adjust the sound volume from VPinball's F12 menu or use the - and = keyboard shortcuts. When you make these adjustments within the LiveUI in VPinball 10.8.1+, you can choose to save the volume globally or per-table. More on per-table .ini settings is discussed here, here, and here.

In addition, Pinmame-based tables (those that use ROMs) faithfully reproduce the manufacturer's method of setting the volume, and that method was done differently by different manufacturers at different times. This set of tutorials on VPForums covers many different variations.

Let's look at Star Trek: The Next Generation as an example. You would turn up the volume as you would on a real machine.

  • Open the (virtual) coin door with the END key. Mobile users without an End key may need to use a Bluetooth keyboard for this.
  • Adjust the volume with the 8 and 9 keys representing the Volume Down and Volume Up service buttons. It is recommended that you don't set the volume to the maximum value in the ROM to avoid clipping: for a ROM that supports a maximum volume of 30, it is best to go no higher than 26 or 27.
  • Press the End key again to close the (virtual) coin door
  • Exit the table. The settings will be saved to an NVRAM file.
  • Start the table again and the new volume levels should take effect immediately.

Note that just because a table is ROM-based doesn't mean that the ROM supports volume adjustment. Tables like "Diner" just had an analog volume knob for this purpose.

How can I compile VPinball for my platform from source?

Instructions for compiling VPinball for any of its supported platforms are on Github

I use Batocera. How can I get the very latest version of VPinball installed?

See the Batocera Page on this wiki.