General Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this?

This is a project written in python for a P-ROC board that expands upon the original Cactus Canyon software.

Is this affiliated with or endorsed by Bally/WMS?

No. Not at all. I'm a lone rebel trying to make an awesome tribute to a cool game that deserves it.

When will this be finished?

As of December 17th, I'd say the project is 'done'. By which I mean, perfectly useable, stable and feature complete. I'm sure there will be adjustments and other small things going forward, but as it stands right now, it's fully useable and (IMHO) pretty awesome. Of course, since December 17th, I've continued to work on the project and added several major things like an all new service menu and a custom message systems, and colorized the display -- none of which has altered the gameplay much since I said it was 'done', it's just becoming a lot more well rounded total package. So, maybe it will never be finished. But it's still awesome all day long.

Can't this be run on ROMS?

Nope. My project is written for a P-ROC. There is a framework (FreeWPC) that can be used to write new software for pinball machines that can run on stock hardware, but this is not written for that.

Why didn't you use FreeWPC?

Several reasons, really. It's much more difficult programming (at least as far as my skill set is concerned). That's really the main one, but there are other decent reasons like: You can't use any new sound with FreeWPC, just whatever is in the existing sound ROMs. You're much more limited on storage space and available memory to work in. If the code crashes due to errors, it doesn't have a watchdog circuit like the P-ROC does to cut power.

How can I get in touch with you?

For things concerning this project, it's probably best to contact me either via the Pinball Controllers Forum, or Pinside. I'm 'epthegeek' on both places.

Where can I get a P-ROC?

You can order the P-ROC (with WPC95 mounting plate) from Multimorphic's Pinball Controllers site.

Do they sell computers with the P-ROC?

No. Multimorphic only sells the controller hardware.

How powerful does the computer have to be?

Any decent modern computer should run the code well, but I don't have specifics on what the minimum requirements. I run the game with my Macbook pro (core2duo) when developing. I normally run it on a Pentium G860 CPU in the pin, which is plenty (more than plenty) of power.

Where can I find information about setting up the P-ROC prerequisite software?

All the information you'd need is in the P-ROC forum at PinballControllers.com -- If you're going to run the code on windows, this thread has a full package of all the needed parts, with batch files and instructions to try to make it easier. The software can run on Macs and Linux too, of course -- just check out the forum for more information.

Why did you do this?

I've had a Cactus Canyon of my own since the day they were originally released. The un-finished software has always been kind of a sore spot. Sure the game is decent fun, but the little missing details really bothered me over time. The rule set is kind of simple, there's no real 'wizard mode' challenge, and lots of things that seem like they should be there (like a match animation, or music when you enter your initials) are not. Eventually, since P-ROC boards make this kind of project possible, I decided to get off the fence and do something about it.

How did you do this?

I used some tools available to extract bits from the original ROMS (Dots, Audio) and then re-built the game from square one in pyprocgame.

How long did this take?

I've been working on it since May of 2012. Most of that time I've been working on it pretty regularly, but I don't track the number of hours, specifically. I'm still cranking out work on it pretty regularly, so at this point, over a year.

Can this be set up to take credits?

No. Absolutely not. This project it not meant to be commercial in any way, never will be.

Can this run in Visual Pinball?

Currently, no. Eventually, probably. The code will need some modifications to be visual pinball friendly. It's not there yet.

What's that "Cactus Canyon Continued Gaming Station"?

That's a guy profiting off my work by selling pre-configured systems.

You don't have anything to do with that?

Only in so much as he's ripping off my code, hacking in small tweaks and features I didn't want in the game and repackaging it as a 'new' thing.