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Help and FAQ

FAQ

The things people ask most, from getting your first table running to climbing the leaderboard. If your answer is not here, the guides cover the long version and the Discord covers the rest.

Adding Tables

Roms

Playing

Display and DMD

Audio

Performance

Leaderboard

Device

Troubleshooting

Getting Tables

Getting started

Adding Tables and Files

How do I add a table to the app?
Download the table, and any extras, as a zip or rar. Then hand the whole archive to Pocket Pinball one of two ways: Share it into the app from your browser or Downloads, or open Manage Your Collection from the side menu and use the built-in file manager. The app reads the archive and files the table, ROM, PuP videos, FlexDMD and music into the correct folders for you. You do not have to find or create folders yourself. The full walkthrough is in the Play your first table guide.

Modern Android hides an app’s private folders from outside file managers like Samsung Files, CX or Total Commander, so that is expected. Use one of the three built-in routes instead.

1. Share the zip or rar straight into the app. 2. Manage Your Collection then the file manager, to copy a file into the app folder. 3. Manage Your Collection > Web Server, enable it, then drag and drop files from any computer or browser on the same Wi-Fi.

The table is the .vpx file, the playfield you actually play. A ROM is the original machine’s brain, needed only by recreations of real machines, and it lives as a .zip in pinmame/roms. The extras are companion files such as PuP videos, a FlexDMD folder, music and a backglass.

You do not need to memorise where each goes. Share the download and the app sorts them. The guides explain each one in turn.

Check the archive does not have a folder inside a folder. Some downloads wrap everything in an extra layer, which can confuse the sort. Re-share the original zip or rar rather than a folder you have already opened, and let the app unpack it.

ROMs

Tables that need a ROM

The table says it needs a ROM. What is that?

Tables that recreate a real machine need that machine’s original ROM file, the brain of the pinball. It goes into your pinmame/roms/ folder as a .zip, left zipped. Original tables, the ones designed from scratch like Space Cadet, do not need a ROM at all.

Please note

For legal reasons, we do not provide ROM files, nor do we provide links to ROM files.

The ROM .zip must keep its exact filename and stay zipped in pinmame/roms/. When the name is wrong, the app shows you the ROM name the table is actually looking for. Match that name exactly and it will boot. Do not unzip or rename the file.

Yes. Each .vpx table picks a specific ROM by name. You can keep as many ROMs in pinmame/roms/ as you want, and each table will use whichever .zip matches its expected name.

Most tables boot ready to play, but some come up in a setup state and will not accept credits until that is done. This is most common on Gottlieb System 3 machines like Stargate, which expect saved operator settings before they will start. It is not the ROM, and it is not the app.

The fix is the machine’s saved memory, the NVRAM. These tables are usually shipped with a ready-made .nv file. Copy it into your pinmame/nvram/ folder, alongside where ROMs live, and the table will boot playable. If a download has several .nv files, pick the one whose name matches the ROM you installed.

If a table just needs a credit, you can also open the in-game menu, tap Service, and use the coin-door buttons to add credits or turn on free play.

Playing

Controls and starting a game

How do I start a game?

Insert a coin first, then press start. On touch the top-left zone inserts a coin; on a gamepad the A button starts. If pressing start does nothing, the table may have booted into a setup state, which is covered in the Gottlieb answer above.

Open the side drawer and tap Controls, then tap Show Touch Layout. The 11 touch zones overlay onto a sample screen so you can see what each region does. The same screen lets you remap a gamepad if one is connected.

Yes. Plug in or pair a gamepad, then open the Controls screen to remap pinball functions. The defaults are L1 and R1 for flippers, A for start, and D-pad-down for the plunger. Thumbsticks are reserved for nudging the table; if your controller has no sticks, bind the nudge functions to buttons on the Controls screen.

Display

DMD, backglass and views

The DMD is black or missing
A black or missing DMD usually means a companion file did not come across, most often the table’s FlexDMD folder or its PuP pack. Re-share the table’s full zip or rar so the app files the companion folders for you, and check the archive does not have a folder nested inside another folder. The Add the extras guide covers PuP videos, FlexDMD and music in full.

You do not place these folders by hand. Share the whole download, the zip or rar as it came, and the app sorts the PuP videos, FlexDMD folder and music into place. Putting an unzipped folder somewhere yourself, the way you would on a PC, will not work the same on Android.

This is a known one we are addressing so those companion media files stay out of your photo gallery. It does not affect how the table plays.

Electro-mechanical tables show their score on reels in the backglass area rather than on a dot-matrix display. Make sure you are on a view that includes the score area, and that the table’s backglass or score files came across with it. If the score still does not show, send a report and we will take a look.

Yes. If a table comes with a colourised DMD, the app can drive it. As with the other extras, share the table’s full download so the colour DMD files are filed alongside it.

A real external DMD such as ZeDMD, or the DMDServer protocol over Wi-Fi, can be turned on in Settings under the external DMD options. Sending a full backglass to a separate second screen is not possible over that protocol at the moment, so the backglass stays on the device.

This is almost always the camera angle. Open Settings, find Auto Size Tables and try a different preset, such as Top-Down, 15 or 30. For per-table tweaks, open the in-game menu while playing and use the POV overlay. Adjustments save against that table only.

Pull up from the bottom edge of the screen during play, or press the menu button on a connected controller. That menu holds the Audio sliders, the POV view overlay, Service mode and the option to send a report.

Audio

Sound and volume

The sound is quiet. How do I turn it up?

Start with the in-game menu’s Audio sliders, Music and Sound, both up to 100. If the table is still quiet at full app volume, the simulated machine’s own volume is set low and you need to raise it in service mode. Open the in-game menu, tap Service, enter the machine’s diagnostic and find the volume adjustment.

On Stern and other recreations there is no 8 and 9 key as on a PC, so the Service screen is how you reach that volume. Original, non-recreation tables have no simulated machine, so the Audio sliders are the only volume control.

Real cabinets have buttons inside the coin door that operators use to test the machine, set free-play and adjust volume. The Service screen in the in-game menu replicates those for the simulated machine. The buttons you see depend on the manufacturer. If a table uses a manufacturer the app cannot drive yet, the Service screen shows a not-yet-supported panel.

Performance

Speed, heat and frame rate

My phone gets hot or the frame rate drops
These are PC-grade tables with detailed models and lighting, so phones work hard to run them. Some heat and throttling is normal and will not harm the device. A few things help: open Settings > Performance and try Battery, and switch the GPU Backend between Vulkan and OpenGL ES, as one often runs a given device better than the other. Lowering your screen’s refresh rate can also help on some tables, and if the rate has dropped mid-session, closing the table and reopening it usually restores it. High-refresh, 120Hz screens give the smoothest flipper feel.

Yes, and heavy effects are the main cause of heat and frame drops. In Settings you can lower the graphics quality and turn down effects such as ball reflections, which some tables overdo. Together with the Battery performance mode, that gives the biggest gain on a phone.

Turn on the FPS overlay in Settings. It is also the most useful thing to capture if you are reporting a slowdown, so we can see exactly what is happening.

Leaderboard

Scores and rankings

How do I get on the leaderboard?

Set your initials first, in the Leaderboard section, then play. Qualifying scores are submitted for you. If you have not set initials, scores have nowhere to post.

Scores are checked against the table before they post, which keeps the boards honest. When a score will not submit, it is usually that the table version could not be matched to a leaderboard entry. Trying a widely used release of that table is the best fix.

Scores are grouped per matched table, so the same machine is pooled together rather than split across every minor release.
Rankings live in the cloud leaderboard rather than as a local save file, so your scores follow your account. A table’s own in-machine high scores are held in its NVRAM while you play.

Device

Phones, tablets and install

Is there an iPhone or iOS version?

No. Pocket Pinball is an Android app, and there is no iPhone or iPad version at the moment. It is not on the App Store, and there is no TestFlight or beta to join.

The tables themselves are Visual Pinball X files, built by the community for the desktop version. So on Apple hardware, your route is running Visual Pinball X on a desktop rather than on a phone.

There are two hard requirements: Android 13 or later, and a 64-bit ARM device. Between them that covers effectively every phone sold in the last few years. Installing from Google Play checks both for you, which is why sideloading onto an older device, an emulator or an x86 Chromebook gives the “cannot parse package” error.

Beyond that there is no fixed minimum. These are PC-grade tables, so a recent mid-range phone or better gives the most headroom, and a high-refresh 120Hz screen gives the smoothest flipper feel. Many Android handhelds such as Odin and Retroid run it well. If a table runs hot or drops frames on your device, the Performance answers above cover the settings that make the biggest difference.

Leave yourself a few gigabytes of free storage. Table files are large, and a single table with a PuP pack and music can run past a gigabyte on its own.

Those messages mean the device or its Android version is too old, or it is a different chip architecture than the build expects. Pocket Pinball is a phone app and needs a reasonably modern Android device. Installing from Google Play picks the right build for your device automatically.

It is built and tuned for phones, in portrait or landscape. Many Android handhelds such as Odin and Retroid run it well, and a high-refresh 120Hz screen gives the best flipper feel. Tablets vary with their power. Android TV and TV streaming boxes are not a target at the moment.

No. Pocket Pinball is an Android app, made for phones and Android handhelds. On a desktop, Linux box or Steam Deck you would run Visual Pinball X directly, which is where these tables come from in the first place.

Troubleshooting

When something is off

The table crashes during play

Some tables push the renderer harder than others. Open Settings > Performance and switch to Battery to see if it stabilises. If it still crashes, switch the GPU Backend from Vulkan to OpenGL ES. After a crash, tap Send Report for Last Table Played in Settings, which uploads logs to us.

Washed-out colour is usually baked into that table’s own artwork, from how the playfield image was captured or authored, rather than something the app is doing. A different release of the same table often looks better.

Ball feel comes from each table’s own physics, set by its author, so there is no global slider to change it. Tables built without the modern nFozzy physics can feel floaty. If you prefer a particular feel, you will find certain authors match it, so seek out their tables or an updated version of the one you have.

A few tables can trap the ball in a spot, because the phone’s physics are not bit-for-bit identical to a PC. A firm nudge will usually free it. If a specific table does it reliably, send a report naming the table, as these are fixed one table at a time.

Settings has a Reset Table option that clears a table’s saved state, which can recover one that has got itself into a bad state. Reload the table afterwards and it starts fresh. It will not fix a missing file, so check the answers above first.

The fastest way is in-app. Exit the table, open the side menu, go to Settings and tap Send Report for Last Table Played. That uploads the logs we need. For anything else, the Discord is the place to ask.

Getting tables

Where to find tables

Where can I download tables?

Tables are created and shared by the Visual Pinball community. The two main homes are vpforums.org and vpuniverse.com, where you will find thousands of tables on their own download pages.

We do not host tables or ROMs ourselves. Please support those community sites, as the authors and hosts are who make all of this possible.