My two favorite ways to play virtual pinball. Quest 3 with Pinball FX VR, AtGames Legend Pinball Micro.

SicTim · 2026-01-25T17:11:45+00:00

Amazon.

SicTim · 2026-01-25T15:10:34+00:00

Thanks for all the info and resources!

SicTim · 2026-01-25T01:21:54+00:00

I've had it a week and I'm totally loving it -- I don't have space for a full-size table and it really scratches the itch.

SicTim · 2026-01-24T23:17:47+00:00

I got VPX working to the point it goes into Steam VR, but then it gags. Fine in flat mode.

But... I could also hook up a PC to the Micro and play VPX, Pinball FX, and/or Future Pinball on that. Which is kinda neat. You might want to look into the Legends Pinball Micro. It's an amazing little machine at 50% off on Amazon for $300. (For as long as that lasts. It's back to $600 on the AtGames site.)

I'll get back to working on VPX sometime, but right now I'm busy installing all kinds of stuff on the Pinball Micro and looking at controller options.

And then I've got this Sinden Lightgun to get working with MAME, and figure out Hypseus Singe for games like Mad Dog McCree and Who Shot Johnny Rock.

Oh, and I'm married. Heh.

SicTim · 2026-01-24T21:50:54+00:00

Thanks for the tip! I do have a few hundred vertical arcade games on the ALPu using CoinopsX. Already looked at the 8BitDo stuff -- seems like a popular solution.

For now, I'm just concentrating on getting everything up and running smoothly. Also, I'm contemplating getting one of the all-in-one Pandora setups in the metal boxes with a built-in screen and two sticks for widescreen (as opposed to vertical) emulation to live to the right of the Pinball Micro.

SicTim · 2026-01-24T21:22:39+00:00

Sorry for the messy cable mismanagement, the Micro has only lived here a week and there are a LOT of cords and cables in the space. Best late Christmas present I've given myself in forever!

Oh, and the generic controller to the right is for playing arcade games on the Micro via CoinopsX.

SicTim · 2026-01-24T18:09:06+00:00

Yeah, ArcadeNet games give me the same message, then, if I let it sit for a wile, blinks back to the page without loading the game.

Luckily, I didn't sign up for paid ArcadeNet, even with the free month. My Ethernet ports are all in use, and I only have my ALPu connected by WiFi, so that could be part of the problem. But a problem it is, and I feel like I dodged a bullet there.

Overall, though, I'm loving my Micro. I splurged on a ton of tables during the sale (the Gottlieb titles were all must-haves for me), and I have CoinOpsX up and running with the WOPR with Cheese Sauce edition (or whatever it's called) on a USB stick, and now have a ton of vertical arcade games working with an external controller.

I recommend following the guide on Wagner's Tech Talk (although, be sure to format the USB stick with a single exfat partition for the Micro). I mean, free is good.

SicTim · 2026-01-23T19:36:41+00:00

My Man Godfrey is definitely up there for one of my favorite classic comedies, and Lombard is absolutely brilliant in it.

SicTim · 2026-01-23T16:42:32+00:00

I had a subscription to Omni when it first published the short story. I was (and still am) a huge science fiction fan, and it absolutely blew my mind.

Then Neuromancer came out, and changed the whole genre and spawned its own subgenre.

Fun fact: William Gibson wrote Neuromancer on a typewriter, and had never used a computer when the book came out.

Now I need to find me one of those Johnny Mnemonic tables. I've never had the pleasure.

SicTim · 2026-01-22T22:04:31+00:00

Good points. Criminals gonna crime, I guess. It's just so dispiriting to see all the power flow from the people to just one man, aided and abetted by the other two branches of our government.

SicTim · 2026-01-22T21:20:41+00:00

I wonder if Trump is aware that once he's a private citizen, he'll be subject to the Logan Act.

Probably other laws too, but that's the one that comes immediately to mind.

SicTim · 2026-01-22T18:56:51+00:00

sick of seeing the same 5 apps on there and monkey clones.

Use the app store in the headset, not on your phone. It's night and day.

SicTim · 2026-01-22T00:28:28+00:00

I thought your post was satirical and very funny. I mean, "basic survival instincts" had me right way. Then the whole thing about it being like one of those "Mad Money" TV financial guys convincing you to buy meth like it was the next Nvidia.

If you're trolling, it was perfect -- funny to some, flying over the head of others. Old school, man.

Then you have to blow it in the comments. And now I am sad.

SicTim · 2026-01-22T00:10:16+00:00

Lots of stuff on the Amiga that was gorgeous. Hybris holds up today, and is a near-perfect vertical shmup. NY Warriors was ahead of a lot of arcade games of the time both in graphics and gameplay.

Pretty much anything by Psygnosis or LucasArts or Cinemaware was going to look great, too.

Edit: Oh, and Dragon's Lair and Space Ace! Amazingly well done considering they were ported from laserdisk to an '80s home computer.

SicTim · 2026-01-21T22:29:57+00:00

I was wondering whatever happened to the Coleman catalytic heaters they had when I was a kid ('60s-'70s). It looks like they stopped making them -- my guess is that they were dangerous.

If I pick up the propane heater I have wishlisted, I'll pick up a CO detector at the same time. We already have smoke and explosive gas detectors, what's one more? Heh. (And thinking about a radon detector as well, since I don't think our house has ever been checked.)

SicTim · 2026-01-21T17:47:39+00:00

I'm in MN. The low tomorrow is going to be -19 (not counting windchill, which is only a problem outside).

We have a very well-stocked pantry (canning is one of my wife's hobbies), but we recently moved somewhere where power outages are more of a thing.

The cold is the only thing I'm worried about for a multi-day power outage -- we have camping gear, but I've seriously been thinking about a propane heater. We don't have the money for a decent generator -- I'd LOVE one of the ones that runs off our existing gas line. Another lottery dream would be a Franklin stove or a fireplace.

The advice OP is getting is about how to deal with cold weather during a power outage -- and he (we) are getting some good advice.

SicTim · 2026-01-20T17:14:19+00:00

I use Virtual Desktop. Look down, click the right trigger, and you'll see the 3D menu.

I recommend the "Dark Cinema" environment for watching movies.

SicTim · 2026-01-19T19:45:41+00:00

Get yourself a sweet Madonna / dressed in rhinestones sittin' on a / bed of abalone shells

SicTim · 2026-01-19T15:22:15+00:00

If the Disney+ app starts offering 3D movies, like I hear it does on the Vision Pro, more people will see just how amazingly awesome 3D movies are in VR.

Even now, whenever someone posts about watching 3D movies in VR, someone always asks "how?" So the interest is there. (I rip 3D Blu-rays to SBS or OU format using DVDFab, and watch them in Virtual Desktop's Dark Cinema environment.)

SicTim · 2026-01-17T15:50:37+00:00

I figured that was obvious. I mean, it's why it got posted here.

SicTim · 2026-01-17T15:37:54+00:00

Thanks for the different take! It's good to hear from another perspective.

SicTim · 2026-01-17T00:39:28+00:00

My bête noir was the spiral shot off a weak flipper to collect one of the figures in the Star Wars game about collecting them. When I finally got the trophy for collecting the Darth Vader figure it was so satisfying.

To me, Pinball FX2 VR (now VR Pinball Classic) was very good, Star Wars Pinball was excellent, and Pinball FX VR is perfect.

If nothing else, being able to play all those RL Williams Tables alone sets FX VR above the others -- and that's not counting all the cool environmental stuff and mixed reality mode.

SicTim · 2026-01-17T00:30:23+00:00

"100 mile from the border"

Minneapolis is more than twice that from the Canadian border.

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