The Pinball (digital and physical) ERA |OT| Full Tilt

[FriedConsole]

I used to be a Pinball Arcade fan but they charged upgrade fees for going PS3 to PS4 on tables so I stopped buying seasons. Some of the classic tables aren't as good digital.

Mostly buying Zen tables now. Pinball FX3 has a lot of dumb stuff like powerups but some really great licensed tables.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I used to be a Pinball Arcade fan but they charged upgrade fees for going PS3 to PS4 on tables so I stopped buying seasons. Some of the classic tables aren't as good digital.

Mostly buying Zen tables now. Pinball FX3 has a lot of dumb stuff like powerups but some really great licensed tables.

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To be fair, most digital products don't carry over from one platform to the next.

I own every table on TPA and Zen on my iPad Air 2 It's the best way to go because the screen is big but the device is portable and you can play in portrait mode which mean you get a far better angle on the table and can see it all at once so no need for a roving camera.

When I finally get a new iPad all my tables will be there.

An added bonus of buying Zen Pinball tables on mobile is that they cost a lot less and you don't have to buy them in bundles.

 

[Slam Tilt]

You mean Dave's Midnight Magic was a knockoff of Black Knight ;)

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You're right. I had a senior moment!

Speaking of Ritchie, who's your favorite pinball designer and who do you consider to be the best designers in its history?

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Close race between Ritchie and Lawlor, but in the end I gotta give it to Ritchie — I need that adrenaline boost, that speed, that flow. I love Lawlor's pins for being jammed with stuff, but Ritchie grabbed me with High Speed and never let go.

Also, what's your favorite era of games?

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Mid-80s Williams and Bally, easily. I wasted many hours in college playing pins in the Student Center, and was lucky they had a regular rotation of great pins.

Personally, I think Pat Lawlor is my fav, his games just speak to me. Dialed In was everything I wanted from an untethered Lawlor game. He's followed by Ritchie, but I also love Barry Oursler & Dennis Nordman. And of course John Popadiuk had an incredible stint of 4 of the greatest games ever made.

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Best Lawlor pin - Twilight Zone.
Best Ritchie - Terminator 2.
Best Nordman - Elvira and the Party Monsters.
Best Popadiuk - Theater of Magic

 

[HotHamBoy]

Best Lawlor pin - Twilight Zone.
Best Ritchie - Terminator 2
Best Nordman - Elvira and the Party Monsters.
Best Popadiuk - Theater of Magic

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Best Lawlor - Addams Family but now quite possibly Dialed In
Best Steve Ritchie - Star Trek: The Next Generation
Best Mark Ritchie - Fish Tales
Best Nordman - White Water
Best Popadiuk - Theatre of Magic
Best Oursler - Dracula
Best Borg - Metallica
Best Eddy - Attack From Mars
Best Gomez - Johnny Mnemonic (sorry, Monster Bash!)
Best Trudeau - Creature FTBL but Ghostbusters Premium is in contention

Realllllly sucks about Trudeau, so many good games. I have to seperate art from artist, though, especially considering all the other people who worked hard on those games to make them what they were and had nothing to do with his secret sickness.

(For those of you who don't know, John Trudeau was arrested last year for possesing child porn. Icky shit.)

 

[MattD]

I enjoy playing Pinball FX3 on my Switch. Only have five tables so far but I plan on buying more soon. Hopefully they add the Star Wars tables at some point because I'd really like to play those.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I enjoy playing Pinball FX3 on my Switch. Only have five tables so far but I plan on buying more soon. Hopefully they add the Star Wars tables at some point because I'd really like to play those.

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I did buy the Iron & Steel pack to support them but I won't buy more until they get undocked running at 60fps. Apparently docked is 720p, too. The patch they are working on is supposed to fix both but they said on Twitter they are trying to find a compromise with the graphics to make it all work.

Someone in that Twitter thread said it wasn't worth going from 30fps to 60fps if it meant making the graphics less impressive. SMDH.

IMO the Zen Pinball 2 graphics on the Vita were just fine, looked better than TPA and it ran at 60fps. I don't think whatever fancy new lighting engine they are using is worth losing responsiveness and accuracy.

If nothing else give people a way to toggle the settings they prefer.

 

[MattD]

Yeah, I'd prefer 60 fps but I'm still enjoying it undocked. Vertical mode is neat.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Yeah, I'd prefer 60 fps but I'm still enjoying it undocked. Vertical mode is neat.

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Vertical mode is great, that's why I prefer playing on my iPad. The problem with horizontal 16:9 is that you have a ton of wasted screen space on the sides and none of the camera angles are satisfying. I personally do not like the moving camera when playing pinball games, I want to see the whole playfield at all times. But in horizontal presentation it's either hard to make out the back half of the playfield or everything is too small and hard to see.

The iPad's aspect ratio is by far the best option.

Here's Son of Zeus on Switch:

iPad:

Notice how constrained the 16:9 ratio is, the left outlane is cut off and you don't even see the columns. 16:9 is perfectly playable but the iPad's 4:3 ratio gives the table "breathing room."

Vita also had a vertical mode for Zen Pinball & The Pinball Arcade but I don't know how many people knew that.

 

[Jersey_Tom]

The Pinball Arcade for me is still the definitive Pinball App.

I've had it for years and I could seriously sit and play some of those tables for hours on end. Medieval Madness, Arabian Nights, and Bride of Pinbot being the big standouts for me.

 

[Ge0force]

I've put hundreds of hours in Pinball Arcade. Monster Bash, Dracula and Circus Voltaire are my favorite tables. I also play a lot of Pinball FX3 lately, I own about 50 different tables. I hope to have my own pinball machine at home some day, but decent machines are very expensive in Europe.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I've put hundreds of hours in Pinball Arcade. Monster Bash, Dracula and Circus Voltaire are my favorite tables. I also play a lot of Pinball FX3 lately, I own about 50 different tables. I hope to have my own pinball machine at home some day, but decent machines are very expensive in Europe.

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European pinball is a whole different beast. Lots of Spanish tables that never came to North America.

Pinball Arcade is great but it needs so much work on every platform and instead of fixing all the bugs and improving the product they just keep porting it & Stern Pinball Arcade to more platforms - and the staff is tiny. The most recent major example is Ghostbusters in TPA on mobile. The insert lights that tell you what shots you need to make don't light up and it's been months since the table released (for $10 I might add). That's just one example of many.

Hell, Ghostbusters was supposed to come out last Spring and didn't come out til October. It was the only new table released for Stern Pinball Arcade all year and we were promised a lot more than that. That's with Farsight taking two months off and shorting TPA two tables this season (I don't count Ghostbusters in TPA since it was already coming to SPA and was supposed to be exclusive to that app).

BTW, the next TPA table is Sorcerer and should be out Friday. Like a schmuck I'll be buying it immediately, lol.

 

[Shaneus]

Pro-tip for Switch owners: there's two new LE packs available for purchase, one has two AC/DC LE tables and Star Trek LE, and another with Mustang LE and Ghostbusters LE. These go for $12.75AU each and are meant to be upgrades if you already own the premiums (which cost the same price individually), but you can buy these packs on the eShop and they work without without the base tables. Means they're basically only $6.50ish each :D

Great if you don't want all the filler tables that are already on TPA.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Great to see this thread return for ERA.

As a poor EU/UK user of Pinball Arcade - last week we seemed to finally get some more tables released. The last three of Season 6 and some of Season 7. I own all seasons up to and including 6.

But I have a problem - I've 'purchased' the last 3 tables in Season 6 in the PSN Store - but they don't show in the game at all. The main game shows as up to date. What gives here? I've had so many issues with TPA - but what can you do - when it works it's brilliant. Anyone else having this problem? It's bad enough waiting nearly a whole year for the tables to arrive over here - but then they don't work? I won't be buying Season 7 until those tables start working.

So Sorcerer's coming next week? Loved that table on the old Williams collection. Shame my PS4 might not see it for god knows how long.

EDIT: After whinging about it - got constructive and went to try and find the answer. Seems the patch that should have come with tables got delayed a week. It should be out later today - 23rd of January 2018.

Patch 1.21 NA and 1.22 EU
Hey everyone. So the past couple weeks I've been working on the bugs that were unfortunately introduced into Pinball Arcade on the PS4. And I spent a lot of time on the lighting as well (I will go into that on a different post though). Here's the things that I added:

Patch 1.21
Features Added:
-Presence, which allows you to see what tables your friends are playing
-Added settings menu underneath main menu's options
-Added global table lighting values that change the lighting values for all tables
-Added brighter ball and option to turn off in settings

Bugs Fixed:
-Controller image now shows camera lock button
-Leaving table after beating friend but before posting will no longer prevent beating that friend
-Fixed Fireball crash
-Fixed Elvira and the Party Monsters crashroperly read in now
-Lighting settings are being properly read in
-Bulb brightness saves now
-Fireball doesn't crash on loadup
-Fixed bug where you lighting settings wouldn't save if same as last table's settings
-Friends leaderboards shouldn't show friends who don't play the game
-Fixed Creature from the Black Lagoon's flyer

So before I started working on the bugs, I managed to get a new feature into the game. Presence. You might've seen how one of your friends was playing Fortnite: Battle Royale, and it tells you how many left alive there are in their match. I added something similar to Pinball Arcade, but it says what table you or your friends are playing. Here are some photos showing it off.

Playing a table
https://imgur.com/LRKq254

Playing a challenge
https://imgur.com/h4eUrYp

Participating in a tournament
https://imgur.com/6bq6LPd

So another thing is that I added a lighting menu. This can be found through either the table pause menu or main menu, Options->Settings->Lighting. I decided to add two global lighting sliders, so that if you want all the tables in the game to be a certain value, yet you don't want to go through all 90 tables in the game and manually update them, you can do it through this. I personally like to have all the table on 0 table brightness and 100 bulb brightness.

Another reason I decided to make a dedicated menu was because I added a ball brightness feature. By default, this will be turned on for everyone, but you can change it if you like. It's just like PC where a light follows your ball around. Here are some photos of it.

Unlit
https://imgur.com/d7vrKt3

Lit
https://imgur.com/3OFqMKl

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Sony released all the DLC to purchase, but you aren't able to play those tables until you download the patch that is supposed to come out with it. Things got mixed up unfortunately, so we weren't able to release the patch with the DLC or get them to delay the DLC until the patch was ready. Unfortunately, you cannot play the new tables until I release the new patch for EU. I'm clearing up several bugs and lighting issues that were introduced in the NA patch so that EU doesn't have to worry about the same problems NA had. I expect this patch to come out the 23rd next week. Sorry for the confusion.

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[meppi64]

Pro-tip for Switch owners: there's two new LE packs available for purchase, one has two AC/DC LE tables and Star Trek LE, and another with Mustang LE and Ghostbusters LE. These go for $12.75AU each and are meant to be upgrades if you already own the premiums (which cost the same price individually), but you can buy these packs on the eShop and they work without without the base tables. Means they're basically only $6.50ish each :D

Great if you don't want all the filler tables that are already on TPA.

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Are there any changes to the premium edition of Ghostbusters (or other tables) that warrant buying the LE ones as well?
I've just watched videos on the actual machine as well as the digital adaption, and they do not seem to match perfectly.
Perhaps that's just because the machine was modded with extra parts?

 

[Slam Tilt]

The Pinball Arcade for me is still the definitive Pinball App.

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Hear, hear! If I were stranded on a deserted island with only one game, it would be TPA and my collection of tables, hands down. I've been playing it on my iPhone for ages, and the only complaint now is that the various iOS background tasks occasionally "get in the way," resulting in frame stutters or missed presses -- which are critical problems in a pinball game. That's the biggest incentive I have for double dipping on the Switch.

European pinball is a whole different beast.

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I recommend Zaccaria Pinball for people who like The Pinball Arcade; it's a digital collection of Italian pinball tables. VERY different from what came out of the States, but charming in their own way (I love "Robot" for its simple but effective mechanical gimmick).

BTW, the next TPA table is Sorcerer and should be out Friday. Like a schmuck I'll be buying it immediately, lol.

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I've been waiting for that forever!

 

[Deleted member 22585]

Pinball FX2 in VR is actually pretty amazing. There is stuff happening around you, which adds a lot to the atmosphere. Shame that they stopped supporting it, the player base was just too small. Still, I love to sit down and play a couple rounds.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Pro-tip for Switch owners: there's two new LE packs available for purchase, one has two AC/DC LE tables and Star Trek LE, and another with Mustang LE and Ghostbusters LE. These go for $12.75AU each and are meant to be upgrades if you already own the premiums (which cost the same price individually), but you can buy these packs on the eShop and they work without without the base tables. Means they're basically only $6.50ish each :D

Great if you don't want all the filler tables that are already on TPA.

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Amazing.
I wonder if they'll patch that...

That's $10 USD which comes to $5 per table. So basically 2 for 1.

Just be careful, you might wake up one day to find you can't access those tables anymore because of a patch.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Are there any changes to the premium edition of Ghostbusters (or other tables) that warrant buying the LE ones as well?
I've just watched videos on the actual machine as well as the digital adaption, and they do not seem to match perfectly.
Perhaps that's just because the machine was modded with extra parts?

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This is how Stern approaches their 3 models:

Premium - This is the "full" version and is the one the designers start with.

Pro - Cheaper model stripped of some of the fancier fearures (an entire lower playfield in AC/DC) and tends to use plastic ramps where the Premium might use wireform or metal.

Limited Edition - Literally limited to a set production number, this is the same as the Premium version but with extra cosmetic changes such as different art for backglass/cabinet, powder-coated rails, maybe a different topper or color for the metal frame, etc.

Here's Ghostbusters. Under "Additional Features" is where you'll find what the Limited Edition has over the Premium Model. They are otherwise the same.

Sometimea people actually prefer the Pro because of the way it changes the flow of gameplay. I prefer the Pro Game of Thrones (despite the hideous backglass) because it lacks the upper playfield of the other models and I think that playfield is pointless and slows down the pace and urgency of the game.

 

[meppi64]

Hmm so hardly anything to make a second pickup worth it. Especially with a digital version where the side art and back glass means very little.
Bit disappointing. I was hoping for some extra play modes or something.

PS. Anyone interested in me taking pictures of a whole bunch of video pinball games starting with the NES to put in the OP as a guide for people looking into what system has which games?

 

[HotHamBoy]

Hmm so hardly anything to make a second pickup worth it. Especially with a digital version where the side art and back glass means very little.
Bit disappointing. I was hoping for some extra play modes or something.

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Extra play modes would be unfair to people who can't get the Limited Edition IRL because it sold out.

The Batman 66 limited edition only had 250 units and you had to make a video submission to get in, lol.

Oh, the other thing about Stern games, they are just like video game developers - they release the game with unfinished code and update it over the years to add new game modes and features and balance scoring and even change how game modes work.

So I wonder if Ghostbusters will get code updates in Stern Pinball Arcade...

It sucks when you find a Stern pin only to discover it's running a shittier old code because the owners don't give a fuck.

 

[meppi64]

Extra play modes would be unfair to people who can't get the Limited Edition IRL because it sold out.

The Batman 66 limited edition only had 250 units and you had to make a video submission to get in, lol.

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Oh yeah. Didn't thing about it like that. Makes a lot more sense that way.

 

[HotHamBoy]

PS. Anyone interested in me taking pictures of a whole bunch of video pinball games starting with the NES to put in the OP as a guide for people looking into what system has which games?

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Do it! I started something like that on my megapost on page 1 but if you wanna do that you absolutely should.

 

[meppi64]

Do it! I started something like that on my megapost on page 1 but if you wanna do that you absolutely should.

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It'll take a while to sort through a couple of thousand games, but I'll try to get pictures of all my pinball games then. :)

 

[Mezentine]

Batman 66 was set up at CES and I played a few balls, if I knew how limited it was I would have spent more time with it goddamnit. It seemed like a fine table though

 

[HotHamBoy]

It'll take a while to sort through a couple of thousand games, but I'll try to get pictures of all my pinball games then. :)

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I recommend starting with the best games and uploading those, then going back for the lesser known & obscure stuff.

 

[Slam Tilt]

Be sure to include Pinball Construction Set, that breakout hit from a small publisher called Electronic Arts...

 

[meppi64]

That's one I actually don't have. Was that PC/micro only?
I only have consoles and handhelds, no speccy, Amiga, PC stuff or anything like that I'm afraid.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Batman 66 was set up at CES and I played a few balls, if I knew how limited it was I would have spent more time with it goddamnit. It seemed like a fine table though

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Batman 66 had no Pro. The Premium is still in production and you can buy it for a crisp $8,600 but it's only cosmetically different from the Limited and the coolest feature of the Limited Ed is the Batman & Robin topper that projects a Bat-signal on the ceiling, which is sold seperately and a lot of Premium owners buy it.

I don't own the game (or any pinball table) but I'm mighty tempted to buy that topper.

There was a Super Limited Edition of 30 units that was invitation-only...

 

[Mezentine]

I really want to like Pinball FX3, I've enjoyed some of their table designs in the past and they remind me a bit more of the "computer game pinball" I used to play as a kid, like that Lost World game, but man looking at videos why is their sound design still so limp? They've been doing this for years, why do their tables still feel so inert?

 

[Futaleufu]

Getting the UI in Stern Pinball Arcade (Steam) to select Last Action Hero is a mini game itself. Worst UI interface ever.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Getting the UI in Stern Pinball Arcade (Steam) to select Last Action Hero is a mini game itself. Worst UI interface ever.

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Farsight are masters of awful UI. They are terrible designers and their graphic design is also gabrage.

Their coding is incompetent and they often break things everytime they release an update (definitely true for iOS). The Pinball Arcade has well-documented bugs that have existed for years.

 

[Slam Tilt]

That's one I actually don't have. Was that PC/micro only?

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Yeah, PC, Apple II, Atari, the usual suspects.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I really want to like Pinball FX3, I've enjoyed some of their table designs in the past and they remind me a bit more of the "computer game pinball" I used to play as a kid, like that Lost World game, but man looking at videos why is their sound design still so limp? They've been doing this for years, why do their tables still feel so inert?

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Yeah, I'm not sure. It's not just the sound design, there's something off.

But their designs are generally good these days.

I was unimpresed with the Universal Pack. Beyond lacking the licensed music (what!?) the tables are just very bland and not at all exciting. Of the 3 I'd rate Back to the Future the best and thank god you can buy the tables individually on iOS.

But Adventure Land & Son of Zeus are fantastic tables and some of the best they've ever made, IMO. Can't believe they gave them away for free.

For those curious, I'll make a list of what I consider to be the best tables, maybe even just rank them all.

Or we can have a vote!

 

[Mezentine]

Ah that's right, when I was a kid my jam was 3D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent

I would love to see a modern digital pinball game that adopted this structure of 12 to 15 (admittedly simple) different tables with discrete objectives that you progress through as part of a story

 

[Dash Kappei]

Pro-tip for Switch owners: there's two new LE packs available for purchase, one has two AC/DC LE tables and Star Trek LE, and another with Mustang LE and Ghostbusters LE. These go for $12.75AU each and are meant to be upgrades if you already own the premiums (which cost the same price individually), but you can buy these packs on the eShop and they work without without the base tables. Means they're basically only $6.50ish each :D

Great if you don't want all the filler tables that are already on TPA.

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What's the difference between the LEs and the Premiums? Worth it if you already own the latter?

Edit: thanks Meppi! Missed your post before.

 

[HotHamBoy]

Ah that's right, when I was a kid my jam was 3D Ultra Pinball: The Lost Continent

I would love to see a modern digital pinball game that adopted this structure of 12 to 15 (admittedly simple) different tables with discrete objectives that you progress through as part of a story

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I had an idea similar to that.

You ever play Nex Machina? Progress through a voxel-based series of playfields in a similar manner. Some playfields are big and complex, others are simple and small. Navigate through the playfields, completing objectives & modes and progressing through the main stages, unlocking pathways, finding rewards & power-ups, playing minigames like Breakout, Casino games, Bowling, Soccer, etc. fight bosses as if they were mobile bash toys. Bosses can mess with magnets on the table, disable a flipper, reverse the flippers, etc but you can stop their attack if you can make the hurry up shot. Some bosses are like puzzles where you need to shoot specific things to unlock a weak spot, etc.

I thought would be cool if, say, there was a door blocking a ramp and everytime you hit it voxels would scatter off until on the third hit the whole door shattered giving access to the ramp or kick out hole or whatever.

Pinball Adventures

There would be 3 different themed "tables" example - Fantasy, Sci-Fi & World of Sports. Each would be similar to an arcade mode run of the length of a classic Shmup like Ikaruga and could be released as seperate DLC.

Tbh, this is my dream digital pinball game but I'm a graphic artist and visual designer. I could draw out the playfields and design all the elements, concieve the modes and features, etc. what I can't do is program.

I thought about learning a program like Game Maker Studio (hell, I already own it) and trying to do something like that in 2D with sprites but I have no idea how to do the ball physics and good physics are absolutely key. It's hard to find a guide on something as specific as pinball physics in GMS and most guides on pinball physics for any program have example physics that look like shit.

Speaking of Switch & pinball adventures... I cannot WAIT for Yoku's Island Express!

One of my most-anticipated games of the year.

What's the difference between the LEs and the Premiums? Worth it if you already own the latter?

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See my post below theirs. The one with the Ghostbusters flyer.

Shaneus we should should put that in the OP. Also, feel free to merge my megapost on page one with the OP post. That's what it's for.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Thanks for the tip Shaneus, just bought the LE pack for ST and AC-DC, I don't like Starship Troopers anyway and I own Ripley on multiple TPA, so €8.50 for those two (well 3) LEs was fine by me. But I think considering Ghostsbusters alone was $10 on other platforms that the Premium Pack 2 with GB, Mustang, TLA, HRC, Phantom, HD 3rd is worth €16 to play it right now on Switch

 

[HotHamBoy]

Thanks for the tip Shaneus, just bought the LE pack for ST and AC-DC, I don't like Starship Troopers anyway and I own Ripley on multiple TPA. I think considering Ghostsbusters alone was $10 on other platforms that the Premium Pack 2 with GB, Mustang, TLA, HRC, Phantom, HD 3rd is worth €16 to play it right now on Switch

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I agree, and Harley Davidson is total garbage.

Last Action Hero is one of the best tables on Stern Pinball Arcade (and TPA) and for whatever reason I really like High Roller Casino. Phantom of the Opera isn't a great game but it sure looks cool.

Mustang I'm pretty so-so on and I hate half the music, but it's not a bad table. Ghostbusters is awesome.

One thing about pinball that is different than video games is personal taste. A lot of video games are universally considered bad but with pinball any given game most people don't like is probably someone's favorite. And unlike video games, shitty pinball is still better than no pinball at all (at least IRL) because the basic action is still the same on every game.

When I do my list of best Zen/Pinball FX tables it will definitely be a YMMV situation. Everyone's list of favorite tables is going to be fairly different. I'm going to try to approach them objectively and consider things like theme implementation, visual design, etc.

 

[Runner]

I have a soft nostalgic spot for Radical and I'm sad its never been digitalled

 

[HotHamBoy]

Holy shit, I just now realized you can use the face buttons to flip when playing Zen vertically on PS Vita. It's also much more comfortable to play that way than it is on Switch.

I have a soft nostalgic spot for Radical and I'm sad its never been digitalled

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We've been begging for it on pinballarcadefans.com for years.

There's still hope, though. This season we got World Cup Soccer & Fathom and Sorcerer & Banzai Run are the next two tables. We've been pounding on the table for all of those since TPA began.

 

[Deleted member 13506]

Didn't realize this thread existed - nice!

Anyone been to the Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame? I was there in December 2016 while visiting Vegas, and it was the highlight of the trip which I did not anticipate. It's about a 10 minute cab ride from the strip, and is away from all the Vegas excitement in an industrial/commercial area.

The Pinball Hall of Fame is an attempt by the members of the Las Vegas Pinball Collectors Club to house and display the world's largest pinball collection, open to the public. A not-for-profit corporation was established to further this cause. The games belong to one club member (Tim Arnold), and range from 1950s up to 1990s pinball machines. Since it is a non-profit museum, older games from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are the prevelant, as this was the 'heyday' of pinball. There are no 'ticket spitters' here (aka kiddie casinos or redemption). It's all pure pinball (and a few arcade novelty games) from the past. And since it's a non-profit, excess revenues go to non-denominational charities.

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Highly recommended!


I own a 1990 Bally Pool Sharks Pinball Machine (Vegas Hall of Fame has it too), and hope to maybe get a Metallica machine at some point.

 

[meppi64]

Allright, this is going to be image heavy, but since it's almost at the end of a page, I'm not gonna put it in quotes since that tends to mess up in certain browsers.
If you want that changed, let me know.

I missed a couple of games, I'm sure. Since my PAL MD stuff is all boxed up still and I didn't come across my Virtual Boy games for instance.
But I think it's a good start for people looking to see what is out there on a bunch of platforms.
I kept Powershot Pinball on PS2 in there even though it's probably really terrible, keep that in mind. ;)

 

[HotHamBoy]

Great stuff, meppi! If you have more you should keep'em coming!

It's amazing you still have the complete boxes, I sure wish I did.

The crazy thing is that when I was a kid I DID save all my Game Boy & SNES boxes and manuals and they were well-kept. At some point as a teen I threw the boxes away and just kept the manuals and then they wer gone, too. Then over the years the carts were sold for new games.

What a stupid fucking idiot I was. But hindsight is 20/20 (especially after you've seen the prices for that stuff). But that's what happens when you want to purge your attachment to material things.

 

[Mezentine]

I had no idea they made High Speed and Pin Bot for the NES and looking at video I'm sort of astounded at how much this looks like a functional version of Pin Bot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AYtvyfiyY0

 

[HotHamBoy]

I had no idea they made High Speed and Pin Bot for the NES and looking at video I'm sort of astounded at how much this looks like a functional version of Pin Bot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AYtvyfiyY0

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They made The Getaway for Game Boy!

Sadly, no 8-bit La Grange

 

[HotHamBoy]

Oops, dupe post. Ill turn it into something.

Hey, for my Zen Pinball FX ratings would it be better to judge the tables individually or by pack? On mobile you can buy each table seperately.

I can tell you right now that if you are playing on Switch the best three table packs are:

1. Carnivals & Legends
2. Iron & Steel
3. Aliens vs Pinball

The other packs are a mixture of good and no so good tables. Walking Dead & Portal aren't bad but they aren't my favorites.

Hopefully the Star Wars, Marvel and Bethesda tables come soon. That Bethesda 3-pack is excellent.

It's a bummer South Park didn't get re-licensed because those are two of the best tables IMO.

Hey, they should be releasing a Last Jedi table soon, right? They released the Force Awakens 2 pack that following January, same for the solo Rogue One table.

 

[xir]

History. As far as I know, the first videogame pinball: Raster Blaster. Those shapes on the thumper bumbers are Apple logos since this was on the Apple ][.

Click to shrink...

very interested in finding earliest video pinball, again Gee Bee (1978) is not exactly pinball, but it's very much like pinball.

Not a cart, but hardware is 1977's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Pinball

The microvision had pinball in 1979, along with the atari 2600 pinball, along with thunderball on the odyssey 2.

Anyone have anything earlier?

 

[Dynamite Cop]

I went to California Extreme for the first time last year and played a game called Hardbody. I don't know if it was modified, but it was super fast-paced and the flippers felt like they were stronger than other machines. I guess to match the fitness theme of the game, but it was pretty impressive and very 80s.

 

[meppi64]

Edit : Wow, blast from the past there! I did have pinball on the microvision!
Totally forgot about that. It was technically my sisters machine since she's 8 years older, but I was the one always playing it.
Sadly it got lost when we moved along with my Popeye Game and Watch.

I'm gonna see if I can find the couple of others tomorrow but with the move I did a while ago, things might have gotten misplaced somewhat.

I was lucky enough to realise I should take more care with my games at an early stage.
When the SNES came out here I sold my MD and NES to buy more SNES games. About 2 years later I missed them so much that I rebought a new MegaDrive and NES as they were still very easy to get a hold of.
So I started building my collection and took down great care of it, barely ever getting rid of anything unless I really hated a certain game.
Ultraman comes to mind. ;)

Pinbot on NES is actually one of my most played pinball games of all time.
It has a limited set of preprogrammed physics, if you can even call them that, so you know how the ball will react on certain shots, but that's just part of the fun of it. Absolutely brilliant table and dare I say it, I even prefer the NES version to the actual table!

Necronomicon on Saturn is also brilliant. Quite possibly one of the best video pinball releases ever made.
Really love True Pinball as well. Used to play a ton of Vickings on it. I really should boot it back up as its been years since I played it.

I grew up in a small pub during all of the 80s and the first couple of years of the 90s so we always had an arcade cabinet as well as a pinball machine in my home so to speak. :)
Can't remember any of the tables that were there though, despite playing them as much as the arcade games.
Perhaps that's part of why I love watching the TNT YouTube show so much.
I always wonder when a table will pop up that will suddenly click with me and bring back a flood of memories of 35 years ago. :)

 

[HotHamBoy]

I went to California Extreme for the first time last year and played a game called Hardbody. I don't know if it was modified, but it was super fast-paced and the flippers felt like they were stronger than other machines. I guess to match the fitness theme of the game, but it was pretty impressive and very 80s.

Click to shrink...

Hardbody is a fast game for the era. There's not much room for the ball to travel and you need to be quick on the flex save. We have one by me and I've grown to like it quite a bit.