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FAQ: Installation

How do I get started?

Start with the Start Here link in the menu. That will explain an overview of how MPF works and then lead you through the features, the tutorial, and so on.

What are the prerequisites?

If you just want to start playing with MPF, you do not need a physical pinball machine. In fact we have a graphical tool (the MPF Monitor) which simulates a real pinball machine, so you can probably build an entire game without having an actual pinball machine.

If you want to use a real pinball machine (or build a real machine), you need to pick a pinball control system. (We have a list of supported control systems here.) If you want to get started as cheaply as possible, the Open Pinball Project hardware is open source which you can build yourself. You can probably build all the hardware you need for under \$100.

What computer hardware do I need?

MPF supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, so pretty much any computer is fine. Most people do their development of MPF on whatever computer they use in their daily lives, then when they're getting close to done with their machine, they install a dedicated computer (or even a Raspberry Pi) in their machine to run MPF.

What Python version can I use with MPF?

The stable version (0.56) of MPF uses Python 3.7 - 3.9. We walk you through getting Python installed in our installation documentation.

The dev branch (0.57) of MPF supports Python 3.8 - 3.11.

Should I use the stable version or development version?

We recommend that people use the latest "stable" (or "release") version of MPF unless you need specific features from the "dev" (next) version.

Where do I find information on older versions of MPF?

If you want information about an older version of MPF, we have prior version documentation bundles.

You can install older versions of MPF with pip, like this:

pip install mpf-mc==0.31

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