Multiball!! Looking awesome, can't wait to play it  

I spent a while looking at pinball websites like http://www.ipdb.org... (thanks aarone) and realized I probably need ramps to do modern style tables. My engine is really not set up for that, so future (non xmas) carts will probably be stuck in the 60s/70s era. Ones I thought looked cool might just be because of the graphics instead of the gameplay like Hulk http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id... Wonder how much the license to Playboy would cost... http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id...

I can actually make the table bigger and have scrolling pretty easily so it would be a set up like High Speed, but I don't think those ones have multiball?

High Speed and Pinbot are two of my favorite Pinball games for NES. I loved the split scrolling they did, since you can see the ball and the flippers at all times. Pinbot definitely has a multiball mode as you lock two balls into the "eyes" of the Pinbot. There are five targets on the door and when you hit them the door opens revealing two holes in which to lock the balls. Getting the second ball in will trigger multiball mode. I forget it it's two or three simultaneous though, and I may be getting the Pinball Arcade and NES versions mixed up. Lotta funky stuff happens in the NES version when you play long enough and advance the planets, the color pallet changes and you eventually get triangular and square balls with outrageous physics! There is a multiball in High Speed too I believe but I can't remember what triggers it. I just love how the superb voice acting on the police dispatch is spot on from the arcade, but they messed up the flow of the table a bit with the ball hazards, bonus items, and minigames.

Then there is Nintendo Pinball (and it's superior VS version), Rollerball (known as Family Pinball in Japan, with Namco licensed characters), and a few others. Stay away from Pinball Quest however; it sucks as a half-assed attempt to shoehorn an RPG/Adventure into a pinball game, with bad physics to add to the misery. Kirby Pinball Land (GB) and Mario Pinball Land (GBA) got the adventure aspect right however. Have you thought of doing multilevel designs? They seem to be popular with 8- and 16-bit pinball sims.

I think for Xmas 2016, a single Christmas themed table for the Xmas cart, and then a full featured game with multiple tables using the pinball engine can come later. We already know you're gonna recycle this like you did for Xmas '11, '13, and '15. Also a GUI stage builder where people can create their own tables on a PC and inject them into the NES ROM for play on a flash cart or emulator would be the bees knees!  

8 BIT XMAS 2016 development video #7.

All objects now connected all objects now connected! Did some layout refinements, and added a ball counter. Finally paid for Screenium too! Next update has more visible changes   Originally recorded on June 2.

https://www.facebook.com/retroUSB...

Can you cradle the ball holding the flipper up?

8 BIT XMAS 2016 development video #8.

Text! And numbers! What a glorious day! Found a cool font from another game (can you guess it?) and added some messages. Started points too, but at this point they are too low for the modern mega millions style. The vertical yellow bar is another status display for points/bonus and extras like double scores. Originally recorded on June 3. I thought I would have caught up to real time by now...

https://www.facebook.com/retroUSB...

Very cool to see the progress. Thanks for continuing to update us all.

What's that? Yup a full blown emotional boner. Updates are looking nice!

Looking great! Love the font.

8 BIT XMAS 2016 development video #9. Lots of work in the points system for this one. Points, bonus, multipliers, and making the number display count instead of just showing the total. Each digit only increments by one each frame, so to go from 6 to 1 it does 6-7-8-9-0-1. This is like the mechanical score displays where it is a cylinder that spins for each digit. Ball catchers are still buggy. Originally recorded on June 8.

https://www.facebook.com/retroUSB...

^^Ball keeps getting stuck above the "Tristar Spin" area. I must have seen the "emulation reset" message at least half a dozen times. Were you doing that? Anyway kudos and keep working at it...

8 BIT XMAS 2016 development video #10.

On the NES you basically have one frame to do all your CPU processing, or the game slows down. Easy way to show how much CPU is used is by adding a gray line when processing is finished for that frame. The lower the line is on the screen, the more CPU time has been used up. If the line reaches the bottom the game slows. Fortunately this shows I have lots of time left for things like music.

Ball catchers and bottom exit are still buggy, and graphics set back to the playfield set so the text is using the wrong tiles. Originally recorded on June 9.

https://www.facebook.com/retroUSB...

Brilliant! It even looks like a real pinball now. I assume there will be plenty of CPU left for audio since the usage bar barely fills half the screen. I'm guessing proper graphical tiles won't increase it much. How is CPU utilization on multiball mode?

This is my favorite video yet due to the good news it brings! Give me a Christmas theme and in-game music, and this will be my favorite 8-bit Xmas yet. I won't even ask for sound effects.