Duo Pinball Contoller for Ipad Support

[Tazi007]

Would Zen Pinball work with the Duo Pinball Controller?

http://www.amazon.com/Duo-Games-04-0019ML-Pinball-iPad/dp/B008M0NDRM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362784178&sr=8-1&keywords=ios+pinball

[BarbieBobomb]

Would Zen Pinball work with the Duo Pinball Controller?

http://www.amazon.com/Duo-Games-04-0...ds=ios+pinball

As far as I know it doesn't work with Zen Pinball, sorry!

[Thirdrail]

Seconded...

I would love to see support for that Duo Pinball thing as well. I found it on Amazon a while ago, and was halfway through purchasing it when it occurred to me that I should make sure it worked with the Zen and Farsight tables. Needless to say, that transaction got cancelled.

I know Zen Studios has one million things on the to do list, but it would be great to see that device supported somewhere down the road. Right now the iPad is second only to the Vita in terms of being an amazing pinball platform. With that Duo hooked up, it could turn into the greatest digital pinball machine ever. The people playing that lame little pinball game it is compatible with really seem to adore the Duo, based on the buyer reviews.

[MarkItZeroSmoky]

I recently bought a tab and have been looking into these controllers....this particular one only supports the tables that are available to download to it from purchase. (The duo games tables...and the reviews arent too spectacular) It wont work with any other other pinball apps, and apparently the devs arent interested in making it so..about the only thing that looks good is the iCade but it doesnt have side buttons and/or the plunger to simulate a pinball setup, and currently you need to download some controller app to make it work with zen, or at least on Android its doable. Other than that ive found nothing else out there yet thats close to this. But how cool would that be?

[Flownover]

Thirded!

We just got this as a present for our kids (it's gotten way more reasonably priced).

As a big supporter of all things Zen on both the ps3 and 360 (and sheesh just realized we've bought titles for the 3ds now as well) my kids would flip (pun intended) if the Zen app supported this controller if at all possible. Please keep it in mind as an update for your iPad app.

[LEGO Damashii]

Duo Games is gone, but the request remains

my kids would flip (pun intended) if the Zen app supported this controller if at all possible. Please keep it in mind as an update for your iPad app.

Especially now that Duo Games has gone away, it would be amazing if Zen quietly added support for the Duo Pinball accessory. It can't be that hard to figure out the signal the thing is sending, and write a few lines of code for Zen Pinball games to sense and respond. (Well, maybe it is hard, but my Zen Pinball apps would get a lot more play.)

The Zen tables are superior, and I would really like to have physical flipper buttons for them.

[bodobear]

The iCade Core is also a great and inexpensive hardware that would rock for Zen tables.
I use it for Pinball Arcade and it works very well.. but i love the zen tables much better
Hope they will support icade in the near future.

[Solitude]

I have one of these - got it on Amazon when price cratered. They sure didn't make it easy for other games to support. Might have to hack it at some point because it's pretty nice, but putting effort into supporting a discontinued product by a company no longer in business will be low priority, as I'm sure you can understand.

[LEGO Damashii]

Plan B

I have one of these - got it on Amazon when price cratered. They sure didn't make it easy for other games to support. Might have to hack it at some point because it's pretty nice, but putting effort into supporting a discontinued product by a company no longer in business will be low priority, as I'm sure you can understand.

Hey! Thanks for the reply. I certainly understand what you're saying.

Okay, so here's plan B.

Add some code so that Zen pinball is compatible with the Apple keyboard (ideally with custom mapping, so the user can choose which key is most comfortable).

I would prioritize the controls needed as:
Flipper buttons: 10
Nudge: 7
Plunger: 3

This solves so many problems, and opens so many opportunities...

First, anyone with an Apple (or whatever) keyboard could easily use the physical keys to play pinball.

Second, anyone with a little ingenuity could rig up a holder for the keyboard that mechanically pushes certain keys on the keyboard when they push physical buttons. Think LEGO, wood shop, 3-d printers, etc.

Third, anyone with a MaKey Makey device could use the (approved) iPad hack to turn anything in their home into a pinball controller. (This could get crazy cool. Bananas as flipper buttons! House plants as flipper buttons! Roommates as flipper buttons!)

Fourth (and now we come back around), anyone with the Duo Pinball device could take out the batteries, hook the MaKey MaKey alligator clips to the button contacts, and have a working pinball cradle for their iPad. Bam!

For that matter, anyone with some basic skills could make their own iPad cradle, buy and install a couple flipper buttons, hook up the MaKey MaKey, and play awesome pinball.

This seems like a win-win, and as a bonus, the people requesting support for keyboards on other threads in this forum will thank you, too!

It seems like you guys are seriously committed to Pinball, and that your customers are similarly fanatical about their gameplay experience. I hope keyboard support is a possiblilty.

Thanks!

[Alex Atkin UK]

You might be interested to know that I have gotten this controller to work with PC by writing a C# application to translate it into virtual keyboard presses. As such it would be relatively simple for Zen to support but it would require them to explicitly write support for it.

The controller presents itself as a headset (presumably some hack to get the iPad to pair with it) with a serial port. You simply connect to that serial port and listen for commands in HEX from the controller. They are as follows:

5A A5 01 00 B0 B1 = All Flippers Released
5A A5 01 01 B0 B2 = Left Flipper Pressed
5A A5 01 02 B0 B3 = Right Flipper Pressed
5A A5 01 03 B0 B4 = Both Flippers Pressed

If you hold both flippers then release one it will re-trigger the one still held.

Example when Pulling Plunger

5A A5 02 01 F0 F3
5A A5 02 05 EC F3
5A A5 02 10 C6 D8
5A A5 02 16 AF C7
5A A5 02 19 A1 BC
5A A5 02 1D 94 B3
5A A5 02 21 86 A9
5A A5 02 25 76 9D
5A A5 02 2A 64 90
5A A5 02 2C 5C 8A
5A A5 02 2F 51 82
5A A5 02 32 44 78
5A A5 02 35 3A 71
5A A5 02 38 30 6A
5A A5 02 3A 29 65
5A A5 02 3B 23 60
5A A5 02 3F 1F 60
5A A5 02 3F 1E 5F

I just ignore all characters except the fourth giving me a clean 1-64 range to work with, although its not currently used on my PC wrapper as I would need to emulate an actual controller for Zen/Pinball Arcade to support it. Obviously not the whole 64 range is shown above due to the speed I pulled the plunger.

When you let go of the plunger there is a micro switch that is hit when it returns home which gives:

5A A5 02 00 FF 01 = Launch Ball

This is a nice touch as it hits that switch exactly when it would hit the ball on the real thing, giving a very satisfying tactile response the thing.

Hopefully with this information Zen may consider supporting this controller as its very little effort. The only thing to be aware of is the controller goes to sleep after 280 seconds idle.

I must say I am loving playing Pinball FX2 and Pinball Arcade with this controller, on both my Windows tablet and desktop PC.

[gamer1st]

You might be interested to know that I have gotten this controller to work with PC by writing a C# application to translate it into virtual keyboard presses. As such it would be relatively simple for Zen to support but it would require them to explicitly write support for it.

The controller presents itself as a headset (presumably some hack to get the iPad to pair with it) with a serial port. You simply connect to that serial port and listen for commands in HEX from the controller. They are as follows:

5A A5 01 00 B0 B1 = All Flippers Released
5A A5 01 01 B0 B2 = Left Flipper Pressed
5A A5 01 02 B0 B3 = Right Flipper Pressed
5A A5 01 03 B0 B4 = Both Flippers Pressed

If you hold both flippers then release one it will re-trigger the one still held.

Example when Pulling Plunger

5A A5 02 01 F0 F3
5A A5 02 05 EC F3
5A A5 02 10 C6 D8
5A A5 02 16 AF C7
5A A5 02 19 A1 BC
5A A5 02 1D 94 B3
5A A5 02 21 86 A9
5A A5 02 25 76 9D
5A A5 02 2A 64 90
5A A5 02 2C 5C 8A
5A A5 02 2F 51 82
5A A5 02 32 44 78
5A A5 02 35 3A 71
5A A5 02 38 30 6A
5A A5 02 3A 29 65
5A A5 02 3B 23 60
5A A5 02 3F 1F 60
5A A5 02 3F 1E 5F

I just ignore all characters except the fourth giving me a clean 1-64 range to work with, although its not currently used on my PC wrapper as I would need to emulate an actual controller for Zen/Pinball Arcade to support it. Obviously not the whole 64 range is shown above due to the speed I pulled the plunger.

When you let go of the plunger there is a micro switch that is hit when it returns home which gives:

5A A5 02 00 FF 01 = Launch Ball

This is a nice touch as it hits that switch exactly when it would hit the ball on the real thing, giving a very satisfying tactile response the thing.

Hopefully with this information Zen may consider supporting this controller as its very little effort. The only thing to be aware of is the controller goes to sleep after 280 seconds idle.

I must say I am loving playing Pinball FX2 and Pinball Arcade with this controller, on both my Windows tablet and desktop PC.

I currently have all the Zen pinball tables on PS3 and Xbox 360. If they would add support for this controller I would seriously consider buying all the tables for the iPad as well.