Just tried Pinball Construction Set...

[returningmacuser]

The editor, NOT the player!

I've been wanting to try this ever since I first discovered it on the Macintosh Garden. Sure I tried the other versions, but they felt more like a chore than fun to use, due in no small part to the slowness of the cursor (I tried Catakig's mouse as joystick mode, but it didn't really do anything to help matters.). Recently, however, I had a chance encounter with a 400k floppy disk at my local Salvation Army. I went home with the disk, and immediately put PCS and the player on it. I put the disk in my LC, expecting to get sweet pinball editing goodness, but was instead greeted with a crash dialog.

Now, however, I have finally found the final missing piece of the puzzle, a Mac Classic. I put the 400k disk in my Classic, and ran it from there.

I must say, this is probably the best version of Pinball Construction Set. The interface is easy and fun to use, with some truly excellent features (Macpaint pictures as backdrops for the win), and is just a great tool. It really is a crying shame that it's so hard to get working these days. I would highly recommend this excellent piece of software, on the rare chance that you have the tools to run it.

On an ending note, I have a suggestion to the programmers and contributors of Mini Vmac. Floppy drive emulation. Now.

 

[CaryMG]

It's nice ta hear someone have fun with that !

One quick question -- when ya say "... have the tools to use it ...." what exactly do ya mean?

Just putting it in a boxmac's not enough ?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. lol

Thanks In Advance!

:b&w:

 

[returningmacuser]

It's nice ta hear someone have fun with that !
One quick question -- when ya say "... have the tools to use it ...." what exactly do ya mean?

Just putting it in a boxmac's not enough ?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. lol

Thanks In Advance!

:b&w:

The tools in question are a 400k Floppy disk and a Macintosh Classic. (PCS will bomb if you don't use a 400k floppy and possibly a 68000 Mac to run it) I ran Pinball Construction Set on System 6.0.8.

 

[Dog Cow]

I've got some information for you, which you might find interesting:

1.) It doesn't need a 400k disk to run. I've got it on an 800k disk for my Mac Classic. I took an HD disk and put tape over the hole.

2.) You don't have to just "come across" a 400k disk. You can make them any day you want. Take a double-sided disk, or even an HD disk and put tape over the hole. Then when initializing the disk, hold down the option key. You should get a dialog box asking if you want the disk to be one-sided or two-sided. Pick whichever one is most fitting to your desires.

 

[returningmacuser]

I've got some information for you, which you might find interesting:
1.) It doesn't need a 400k disk to run. I've got it on an 800k disk for my Mac Classic. I took an HD disk and put tape over the hole.

I did not know that. Did the disk have to be formatted to 400k?

2.) You don't have to just "come across" a 400k disk. You can make them any day you want. Take a double-sided disk, or even an HD disk and put tape over the hole. Then when initializing the disk, hold down the option key. You should get a dialog box asking if you want the disk to be one-sided or two-sided. Pick whichever one is most fitting to your desires.

I know that. It's just that I thought a real 400k disk would be much more reliable.

 

[II2II]

I know that. It's just that I thought a real 400k disk would be much more reliable.

Than an 800 kB disk formatted as 400 kB, no. In terms of the media, they should be identical.

Than a 1.44 MB disk formatted as 400 kB, probably. In terms of the media, they are different.

 

[Dog Cow]

I've got some information for you, which you might find interesting:
1.) It doesn't need a 400k disk to run. I've got it on an 800k disk for my Mac Classic. I took an HD disk and put tape over the hole.

I did not know that. Did the disk have to be formatted to 400k?

I have a confession to make.... :'( I tried this out last night and it crashed. The program can be on the hard drive, but for some reason , there must be a MFS disk in the drive, because it accesses it for apparently no reason.

Probably what I had gotten awhile ago was a cracked copy. I don't know if I have it any more, but I'll look. In any case, I'll see about what changes are needed to get rid of this restriction.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

heh. I had 'Pinball Construction Set' for PC back in the day.

It was interesting in that it used a custom OS. You booted directly from the disk, and it never loaded anything resembling DOS. Went straight into the game. (Well, into a chooser between build and play.) If you tried to read the disk from DOS, it failed to read, saying it was unformatted.

Wonderful copy protection for the time.