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Cactus Canyon  Backlight Kit

Gaming Play Score: 9.1

Illuminating a pinball in a color does already exist in the pinball modding scene, but the issue is that most of them are static. For example, people are sticking an LED stripe under the pinball so that the pinball will nicely glow in the dark. Another modification is to use an RGB LED stripe, where the player could then change the color or starts a RGB LED show via a remote control, but none of them are directly related to the gameplay.

 

One of our favorite effects for modern televisions is the so called Ambilight effect, where a light effect around the television will be created that corresponds to the video content, so we also wanted to realize such an effect for our pinball. Dominik took over, studied the P-ROC board and finally found a connection place, which we could use for our project, so he created the hardware whereas I modified the CCEE code, and the result is the "Cactus Canyon Backlight kit" : 3 RGB LED stripes, sticked on the backbox and on the back of the pinball. Both are connected via a cable with a plug so that its also possible to drop down the backbox without having any issues with the mod.

 

The backlight kit will produce for every single gaming situation a separate color. For example, when "Cowboys vs Aliens" is running, the CCEE Code will switch the backlight color to green or when Polly Peril - River Rescue is running, the color will be switched to blue and so on. Additionally, when certain situations happen, e.g. you hit Dracula in the "Monster Bash Tribute Mode", the red color will flash and so on. Like that, we implemented more than 20 different light effects, which create a much deeper atmosphere. The code was already finished before 6 months, but due to lots of other stuff like finishing the regular gaming code and the Monster Bash mods, we just didn´t find the time to publish it, but finally, its done ! :-)

 

The Plug´n´Play "Cactus Canyon Backlight Kit" consists of the following components:

 

2x RGB LED Stripes, connected by a plug

1x Controller

1x Wiring

1x Cactus Canyon Extended Edition (CCEE) with Backlight Kit support

 

Installation time : 15 minutes

André Banderas

Cactus Canyon  Rainbow (RGB) - G.I. Mod

Gaming Play Score: 9.8

RGB LEDs are a fantastic implementation in a pinball because programmers have the possibility to control the illumination of the playfield according to the current situation. This feature was very impressively implemented in the "Wizard of Oz" pinball, where you can see that every single LED can be set to a certain color with a certain brightness, which is very well demonstrated in this video. We also wanted to have such an effect since there are also lots of different game modes in Cactus Canyon.

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After around 15 months development time and coding, we are very proud to present you the final version of the RGB GI mods. On the hardware side, Dominik again did a small miracle. Here is a short resume:

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Step 1: Finding the best LEDs
 

  1.  Best color mixing

  2.  Short reaction time

  3.  Big radiation angle

  4.  Fully controllable

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Step 2: Plug´n´Play Installation

 

  1.  Installation must be Plug´n´Play

  2.  Nearly no screwing (just 1 protector and 1 holder)

  3.  Every single LED had to be customized to fulfill the request

 

Step 3: Creating a test play field

 

  1.  Creating a 1:1 original Cactus Canyon playfield made of cardboard (!)

  2.  Installation of the LEDs into the GI holes

  3.  Measuring the distance of every single GI hole to the next one

  4.  When checking all holes onto the playfield, Dominik recognized that there are lots of unused holes, so he used the hole directly under the center ramp to place an additional GI where the ramp now gets much better illuminated and the white steam of the train is better visible.

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Step 4: Creating the RGB GI Stripes

 

  1.  Creation of Ribbon cables with the correct length from one LED to the next 

  2.  Soldering every single LED with the corresponding ribon cable of the correct length

  3.  Testing the created RGB GI LED stripes

 

Step 5: Removing the old GI and installing the RGB GI Stripe into the Cactus Canyon pinball

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At that point, I took over and started programming:

 

  1. Coding of a test routine to check every single LED inclusive blinking, morphing and pulsing

  2. Coding of the default illumination by defining a color for every single LED

  3. Coding of a control module which is responsible for the complete RGB LED stripe

  4. Designing and coding of effects for every single mode - my favorite one is CvA1 / CvA2 :-)

  5. Coding of a configuration menu where you have the possibility for e.g. activating or deactivating every single effect, defining the overall brightness or changing the default illumination

 

What also nerved me was the illumination of the back plastic which is too dim and got only illuminated point by point. So Dominik just extended the RGB LED stripe with 15 additional LEDs and designed a genius Plug´n´Play holder which will simply be plugged behind the back plastic. Now we have a really great illumination,  you can much better see the drawing and we are also able to implement additional effects just for the back plastic...just awesome, so be prepared to encounter a complete new gaming experience !

 

The Plug´n´Play "Cactus Canyon RGB - G.I. Mod" consists of the following components:

 

1x RGB LED Stripe consisting of 50 RGB LEDs
 

  • 35 LEDs for the playfield

  • 15 LEDs for the backplastic
     

1x Connector Controller

1x Power Supply

1x Cabeling

1x Protector

1x Holder for the back plastic RGB LED stripe

1x CCEE with RGB GI support

 

Installation time: ca. 60 minutes

André Banderas

Cactus Canyon  CvA2 Ring Mod

Gaming Play Score: 9.8

The upcoming Cactus Canyon Extended Edition (CCEE) - code version 15.0 includes a lot of new stuff, for example the brand new CvA2 mode. For the best playing experience, we developed especially for this mode the CvA2 ring mod, an LED ring, consisting of 21 green LEDS, which will be placed under each green bumper cap. Both rings are controlled separately according to different game play situations. The following options will be used during gameplay:

 

  1. Ring will be turned on when the mode starts

  2. Ring will be turned off when the spaceship has been destroyed or the mode is over

  3. Ring will pulse which is the default behavior

  4. Ring will flash when the spaceship has been hit

 

Please check out the preview 3 video for the upcoming code version 15 where you can see both rings in action in the CvA2 game mode.

 

The functionality of both rings can be verified via the test menu where we have implemented a full verification routine. There are already the so called "Angel Eye LED rings" out, but our version has 2 specialities:

 

  1. We developed an extra housing for the LED ring. This housing consists of 2 plastics of different sizes which are connected via a spacer. When placing the bumper body into the housing, it will "click" into it so that it´s fixed, which makes it more robust and easier to install. This means that the bumperbody will not be pressed against the plastic, but will dive into the housing for about 2 mm. Congratulations to Dominik who used a CNC milling machine and created the plastic with a tolerance of about one hundredth millimeters.
     

  2. The plastic aligns directly with the bumper cap

 

The Plug´n´Play "Cactus Canyon CvA2 Ring Mod" consists of the following components:

 

2x LED Rings

2x plastic housing sets

2x LEDs

1x Controller

1x wiring

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Installation time : ca. 30 minutes

André Banderas

Cactus Canyon  Red Dead Redemption Mod

Gaming Play Score: 9.8

Maybe you know the fantastic game "Red Dead Redemption" which was programed by Rockstar Games for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the year 2010. We just LOVE this game, the gameplay, sounds, quotes...just everything, so I had the idea to include as much as possible from this game into the Cactus Canyon Extended (CCE) software, which was a challenge. Viewing hundreds of gampleay videos on YouTube and extracting all necessary sounds, music and sound effects onto a SD card was one part. The other big part was customizing the CCEE code so that we are able to switch between the different game play modes, but at the end, everything went fine. 

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When running code version 16 and putting the Red Dead Redemption SD card into the GamingStation, you are able to switch the complete music atmosphere of the pinball into the Red dead Redemption atmosphere, which replaces most of the soundtracks, quotes and sound effects from the original game.

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A Cactus Canyon Extended Edition (CCEE) - Red Dead Redemption gameplay video can be found here.

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SD card contents:

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  • Amount of soundtracks: 16

  • Amount of quotes: 98

  • Amount of SfX: 9

  • Amount of music tracks: 19

  • Conversion software and instruction manual how to convert sound files into the CCEE format

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The Red Dead Redemption Mod consists of the following parts:

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  • 1x Red SD card case

  • 1x SD card with speeds up to 80 MB/sec (NO microSD) and RDR label for the RDR mode

  • 1x SD card with speeds up to 80 MB/sec (NO microSD) and CUS label for the Customized Sound System

  • 1x Red Dead Redemption Key chain

  • 1x SD card reader

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Installation time : - - -

André Banderas

Reviews

 

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CC Rainbow-G.I. Kit
CC CvA2 Ring Mod
RDR Mod
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