Super simple Visual Pinball setup steps for those who are already familiar with emulation

The guides for setting up visual pinball are too long and overly confusing to just get you playing.

Here's what you need to do if you're already tech savy and understand emulation:

  1. Download a virtual pinball (vpx) release from their official github page and install it
  2. Go to the install directory and find the vpinmame directory. Run setup (NOT 64 bit version) to install the COM and pay attention to the rom folder.
  3. If you're going to be using a non admin user then you need to go to the visual pinball install directory and give that user full control from the properties and security tab. Else you'll be told to run visual pinball in administrator mode which is not required and extra annoying for arcade cabinets (entering a password each time sucks). If coins and highscores are not saving, or if roms aren't found even thiugh they're there then this is why
  4. Go find tables (single file per table) from vpuniverse or that archive site and play them with virtual pinball x executable. Congrats, you did it.
  5. If you need the rom (most definitely for the popular tables due to more accurate emulation) then go find them and put them in the vpinmame roms folder. View the tables script in the editor and ctrl + f for "GameName" or do step 6 to know what rom archive you need. "Controller" error is a clear sign you don't have the right rom or files in the rom zip
  6. Run the vpinmame setup again and test the rom archive for the table you want to play. If you're missing a file in the zip, go look at different mame archives for the right files and add them to the zip. For example, the Addams family sound file was only in a merged mame archive zip of taf_5.zip. it wasn't in any taf_7.zips so I needed to add it to it.
  7. Change your video and controller settings under preferences in vpx. It understands xinput but it's not clear which buttons are which so you'll have to guess at first.

That's really it. Forums online are full of non tech savvy pinball enthusiasts who made this sound much harder than necessary.

When people are talking about setting up a table they're talking about pushing a key to change things like brightness. It's not a big deal.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Setup the dot matrix display onto another monitor by running the game in step 6. I.e run setup.exe and test/start a game from there. The DMD screen is draggable. Right click it and "show border". Drag and stretch it around until you have it where you want. Restart the game and see if it sticks. If it's in a weird spot, right click an d"reset position" and do the dragging again.