theSilverBall.com

If you've stumbled across this site and are wondering whether or not it will ever be opened, the answer is maybe.  I've been taking my time getting it going, hoping to do it right.  I'm really picky about stuff, sometimes prohibitively so, which has certainly slowed the site's development.

There are still some major things that I really want to fix before I even considering opening it.  The number one thing is the download area, which is adequate but I just hate it.  Downloads need to have images for this type of site, and this download manager doesn't support them.  Download managers for SMF are few and far between, so I either have to live with it, mod it or consider writing my own.  None of those things will happen quickly.

Beyond that I keep wondering what things make a site cool, fun, worth revisiting.  Annoying little things like fixing SMF's awful default smileys.  Adding mods like "thanks" and media embedding, maybe shops and the like.  Not important stuff, just stuff that makes it a bit more enjoyable.

If you have some comments and/or ideas for the site, feel free to drop me an email [webmaster at thesilverball dot com].  Just do me a favor, please don't post links to the site on other sites.  I never want this site to be promoted via other people's sites unless the site owner himself chooses to do so.

Version 2.1 (February 1, 2009) - "Keep 'em coming!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK, so six months have passed yet again - amazing how time flies.
Despite the fact that all major manufaturers are emulated by now, there's
still enough to do to iron out all of the bugs and inaccuracies.

From time to time a few new games show up unexpectedly, like the new batch
coming in from tecnopinball.org in January: three new Juegos Populares games,
also Inder Atleta, and another oddball: Videodens "Break".
Some special greetings go to the makers of that invaluable resource site!

Despite the fact there is NO manual or schematics drawing to work with yet,
we managed to get Break working somehow - Spanish manufacturers were pretty
much fixated on the Z80 cpu and the AY-8910 sound chip, so it wasn't
all that hard really...

Jac van Ham, a rare Dutch manufacturer, joins the club with a game called
"Escape", adding a new CPU (TMS9980-A) to our core at the same time.

Some people contributed by providing new dumps for known bad roms as well:
David Seidman finally managed to get good reads off Black Sheep Squadron.
Jerry Clause re-read the U6 speech rom on Flash Gordon's vocalizer set, so
the hissing and stuttering is gone now.

Thanks to all our contributors, especially to Inkochnito for locating some
very hard to find roms over and over again all those years! What would we
do without you? -- Hmm, a lot more vacation, I guess (just kidding)!

On the emulation side of it, sound was improved for Bally games using the
old "Sounds Plus" sound board, so it plays a few more sounds now.
Also, Gottlieb System 80B had another issue with melody playing at game start
which wasn't supposed to happen at all.
In the same vein, Jokerz, Pool Sharks, and Blackwater 100 had their sound
startup issues corrected, meaning that BW100's sound is finally working BTW.

Well, that's basically it. So enjoy our latest feat, and "keep 'em coming!"

Changes:

*** CORE/CPU ***
Fixed a bug for Bally-51 Sounds Plus
Fixed sound issues on Gottlieb System 80B
Fixed Blackwater 100 sound startup
Fixed startup sound for Jokerz / Pool Sharks
Corrected Playmatic Last Lap, game works now
Better working Bally 68701 prototype games
Added TMS9980-A cpu support

*** ROM SUPPORT ***
Added Bally Party Zone L-3  [ipdb.org]
Added WMS Banzai Run G-3 (German)  [ipdb.org]
Added Juegos Populares: Featon, Petaco, Aqualand  [tecnopinball.org]
Added Jac van Ham Escape  [Inkochnito / Ronald Knor]
Added Videodens Break (NVRAM not working yet)  [tecnopinball.org]
Added Inder Atleta  [tecnopinball.org]
Added Flash Gordon Prototype rev. 2 (working)  [pinballjail]
Corrected checksums for Bally Flash Gordon (vocalizer sound)  [Jerry Clause]
Corrected checksums for Astro Black Sheep Squadron  [David Seidman]

Quote from: Simple Machines on January 17, 2009, 07:13:31 PM
Welcome to Simple Machines Forum!

We hope you enjoy using your forum.  If you have any problems, please feel free to ask us for assistance.

Thanks!
Simple Machines

Testing replies.

Welcome to Simple Machines Forum!

We hope you enjoy using your forum.  If you have any problems, please feel free to ask us for assistance.

Thanks!
Simple Machines