The Pinball Megathread [Physical and Virtual]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Pinball Megathread [Physical and Virtual]

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Sizone posted:

The rule sheets for PFX2 are garbage. I have a respectable score on Secrets of the Deep, it's one the tables I have a better understanding of and I still don't really know what half the poo poo on it does. So I propose, and it will be a daunting task, that we write our own, exacting, detailed goon-friendly rule sheets to the Zen tables. This seems like a good place to start so...

I think I've got a pretty good handle on the Tesla table. I could do a write-up on doing all of the experiments and whatnot, if people are interested. I'll let somebody tell me they would actually want that before I spend a bunch of time on it, though.

# ¿ Nov 27, 2010 23:08

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:03

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

I added a whole bunch of people from the list in the OP for PFX2. If you didn't get an invite and want another pinball friend, my GT is DuckBlur.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2011 05:53

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

TheMcD posted:

So, what's the verdict on TPA's No Fear?

Personally, I'm not a fan. I like the table in general, but the TPA version is just hell. It's very fast and very unforgiving. The ramps and Asphalt loop all have tendencies to STDM on rollbacks, the outlanes are incredibly hungry, and shots like the Skydive, Skull and Asphalt loop are very stingy and need to be nailed juuuust right or they'll brick on the post and get sent out of control (towards Hungry Hungry Outlanes). Losing lit extra balls if you don't collect them on the same ball sucks too. I find myself constantly restarting just to attempt a Grand Champion score, let alone a leaderboard score. I feel like I need to 1) get the Raceway extra ball, 2) get at least two challenges going and 3) make progress towards the Asphalt extra ball, and I very rarely manage to do all three.

Also, the sound quality sucks rear end again. God loving damnit, Farsight.

I'm also really disappointed in the TPA No Fear table. As opposed to every other machine that I've played on both TPA and in real life, the virtual version is more difficult than the real thing. I think the most annoying part is that the Jump ramp plastic hides a significant chunk of the table when using the most overhead view option available (does anyone actually normally play with any of those low angles?). I have no problem seeing things on the real table, though the angle of view is nearly identical.

I switched to a lower view, but that made the Jump ramp nearly impossible to hit. I get disoriented and dizzy and play like poo poo if I use a non-locked view, so that means this table is basically unplayable for me. Which is a shame, because I quite like the real thing.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2015 14:21

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Awesome! posted:

apparently pba judge dredd is gonna use the production ball lock behavior rather than the orbiting locks unfortunately

I think their licensing agreements are incredibly strict, and they have to do exactly what the production games did. I think on F-14 Tomcat, there are some lights that exist, but were disabled on the production table, because it turned out they were a fire hazard or something if the targets around them got too damaged. Of course, this isn't an issue on a virtual table, but they were forced to disable the lights anyway, because that's how the production table was delivered. They have no choice in the matter. What came out the door of the factory is what gets replicated.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2015 15:17

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Anybody else trying the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens tables for Zen?

My first impressions are generally positive, though I like the First Order table a lot more than the TFA table.

I didn't get an intuitive feel for the rules for TFA. Modes just kept starting seemingly randomly, and the ones I saw weren't particularly fun - the fight against the freighter where you need to hit a moving crosshair a bunch of times was probably the worst. At one point, I got to control BB8 for a few seconds at the start of a new mode, which seemed like it would be cool, but I couldn't figure out how to control him in the three seconds before he was covered in a net. Later, Rey tries to get him out of the net, and you need to rapid-fire on the flipper buttons for like fifteen seconds, which is one of my least favorite things to do in a video game.

There are also several places where the ball falls into a hole in the middle or top playfield area, and then suddenly re-appears coming down one of the inlanes. I lost a few balls, before I got a good feel for when to expect them. And there is a magnet in the middle playfield that is constantly throwing things off, and not in a good way.

With all that said, I do like the layout of the table, and think it could be quite fun, once I learn the rules.

The First Order table is pretty good right from the start. It's difficult to gauge the skill shot, but no big deal. My biggest complaint is that it's very easy to confuse the lower playfield flippers with the normal flippers when the ball is screaming down from the top of the playfield, and it's also somewhat hard to tell when a ball is actually on the lower playfield rather than the normal playfield, at least when using my preferred View 2. It would be better with a more heavily tinted "glass". But I like when the ball is set on fire, and the shots feel good.

The most interesting thing is probably the lower playfield mechanism for locking balls. I can see it getting old, but I quite like it right now. And trying to moved the captured ball on the lower playfield during multiball is :stare:

.

Probably the biggest disappointment for both tables is the lack of new music.

Overall, I'd give TFA a 5.5/10, and First Order a 7/10 as my initial assessments. But I've only played each of them two or three times so far, so these could easily change as I get to know them better.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2016 23:32

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

I really want to see Dr. Who in Pinball Arcade, but I can't support FarSight still using Kickstarter. If they don't have the cash up front for it, they have enough of a history that they can walk into any bank and come out ten minutes later with a check for $72000 to cover the licensing fees, and then they can try to recoup that when they sell the finished product. They want to pocket any profits if it does well, but not risk losing money if it doesn't. I understand the need for community involvement to bring about a project with an unknown potential market (that is, a project that needs something to "kickstart" it, if you will), but established companies should use traditional financial services, so that the stakeholders who stand to benefit are also the ones taking on the risk.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 15:19

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

TheMcD posted:

they're easily at the top of the pack by a long shot when it comes to virtualizations of real tables, which is a much more lucrative market than creation of original virtual pinball tables (i.E. Zen Pinball et al).

Is it? From the pinball podcasts that I've heard, Zen has more than double the amount of staff dedicated to pinball than FarSight. FarSight also has a lot more issues and costs with licensing, and they have a natural limit on how much they can expand (there are only so many real tables that people are willing to pay for in virtual form).

Zen and FarSight have both carved out profitable niches for themselves, but I think Zen has the more lucrative niche. And when FarSight starts running out of quality tables in the next few years, I bet they'll start trying to move into Zen's territory by creating original tables with licensed themes.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 15:44

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

djfooboo posted:

They partnered with Stern to do modern tables with the possibility of co-releasing. They aren't running out of tables for a while. The only thing I could see making an issue is if Zen has an e-pinball exclusivity license for all those comic pinball tables or Walking Dead, Family Guy, etc. where there is a Stern version and a Zen version of the same IP.

The pace of release for virtual tables is much faster than real tables. And whenever the Stern app comes out, it's going to need to have at least four or five tables already at launch to entice people to get it at all. Yeah, they've got maybe three years or so left of backlog, but they'll eventually burn through them. They've already acquired equipment and talent and an office. They're not just going to go "welp, guess it was fun while it lasted", and fire everyone. They'll try something new, with original tables being the obvious choice.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 16:29

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Cirqus Voltaire is one of my favorites. I think it is better at building atmosphere than any other pinball machine. There is a definite sinister and creepy vibe that it gives off, and not just from the obvious ringmaster head on a spring, but things like the cadence and inflection of the voiceover and the weird font. The extensive use of secondary colors (green, purple, orange) also gives it a subconscious unsettling feel, like the Watchmen graphic novel.

I also really like the build up to the wizard mode. You need to do nine things, but about half of them can be completed pretty much by accident just by batting the ball around, to give a nice sense of accomplishment to anyone that can keep the ball alive for awhile. And the other half aren't so difficult that you feel you've lost a lot of progress if you get a game over and need to start again from scratch. It's really easy to play over and over without getting frustrated. And then the actual multi-stage wizard mode is fun as balls, and a good payoff.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 14:53

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

LordPants posted:

afaik it's within Kickstarting reach, unlike LOTR which is apparently "lol, just, lol"

FarSight is developing a new TPAish app specifically for Stern games. There aren't many details released other than the announcement last fall, but it wouldn't be surprising to see LOTR for it. It's entirely possible that Stern secured the rights, or at least the option at a set price, to produce virtual versions of the table in their agreement with the LOTR people way back when. It's not really publicly known whether Stern had such foresight.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 11:03

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Clouseau posted:

They could ostensibly put LOTR on TPA, because it's on the Whitestar system, which is currently emulated in TPA (Ripleys, High Roller, etc). In addition to the licences stuff (which, given that Farsight definitely has the Ghostbusters licence, should hopefully be a positive sign) one of the big reasons to gate off the newest Stern releases is because the SAM/SPIKE systems are too system intensive for older phones.

I would say it's tremendously unlikely that Stern would have guessed in 2003 that they'd be making a virtual version of LOTR, or farming it out to another company. In any case, Stern can't manufacture any more LOTRs right now because their licencing has lapsed, and they'd have to renew it. Of course, if Stern puts out a LOTR Vault edition soon, maybe they did throw it into the contract.

I doubt we'd see LOTR on vanilla TPA. If they get the LOTR license for the virtual table, they'd most probably use it as the flagship for the new Stern/Farsight app.

And I would be so happy if we got a LOTR Vault edition that replaced the live action movie art with drawings, like they did for Spiderman. Hell, I'd take the 70s cartoon movie LOTR art over what they've got now.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2016 22:06

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

So this is a rough layout of what I hope will be my new pin-controller. Top, sides, and front views. Illuminated IL's for the flipper/magnasave buttons, illuminated 24mm Sanwa/Seimitsus on the top, whatever even smaller buttons on the front. Custom (fake) lockdown bar on top, hopefully with chrome trim as well. Illuminated coin reject assemblies for looks, and either a Virtuapin or Zebs plunger assembly handling plunger, nudge, and buttons. Basic paint scheme harkening back to the 70's/80's era of pinball machines with cheap sideart.

Are you making an external controller, or making a whole virtual pin? If external, what are you using for the LED power supply?

# ¿ Apr 6, 2016 13:45

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

This is just an external controller for playing Pinball FX2, Pinball Arcade, and some Visual Pinball. I'd love to do a whole virtual pin, but that's out of my price range for now.

If you care more about function than form, you can put together at least a mini virtual pin for about the same as you're spending on your external controller. I'm in the process right now of making a mini virtual pin on the cheap, and I'm really satisfied with the results so far. Obviously, I'm running it from my laptop; no dedicated computer for it. I've set up the main monitor so that it can be lifted up and out easily, so I'm just using the computer monitor that I already have, and I can set it back as my desk monitor within a few seconds. I'm working on the backbox still, but I grabbed a spare old monitor from work for it. Since it is mainly displaying static art and scores, the backbox monitor doesn't really need to be high res or large or have fast response times or anything, so it's pretty easy to find something workable for free or super cheap. My external arcade/pin controller I'm using for testing runs on an encoder I yanked from a broken keyboard. It can't do plunging or nudging (at least not physical nudging; most pinball programs let you assign buttons for nudging), so I'm going with the PinScape controller for my virtual pin ($15 for the FRDM-KL25Z microcontroller, which has a built-in accelerometer for nudging, and $7 for the slide potentiometer for the plunger). I'm just using a long bolt with a ball glued on top for the plunger itself. I had trouble finding proper springs for it, so I'm using the metal binding from some old spiral notebooks, which works surprisingly well (still works after about 200 test plunges, but I'm not sure if it will really be durable in the long run). I also spoiled myself a little, and spent a few dollars on some ribbon cables and connectors for easy disconnection and button reassignment/expansion. I've spent probably about $35 altogether.

It's obviously not much to look at compared to some of the more sleek virtual pins you see posted, but it's a blast to play. Just looking down at the monitor at the correct angle instead of straight ahead at a desk monitor or TV is a major improvement to the enjoyability of playing.

I'll post more pictures as I progress, if people are interested.

quote:

Since there's only going to be about 9 LED's in the whole thing, I'm just going to use to use some low-power surface mounts with integrated resistors and wire them in parallel into the USB cables power line. I've had some conflicting reports if USB power will be enough for the LED's and the plunger control board, but I'll just wire them up with female to male quick disconnects on the power lines, and if it's too much I can just unplug them and go without the lighting.

LEDs use a tiny amount of current, so I can't imagine it would be a problem. The problem I've faced is that 5V LED buttons are not as common as the 12V ones, so it's difficult to find something that will work from USB power. Since I'm running from my laptop, I don't have easy access to a 12V supply, so I'd obviously like to use USB power.

Inferior Third Season fucked around with this message at 10:09 on Apr 8, 2016

# ¿ Apr 8, 2016 10:04

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Nurge posted:

This is a bit late but as a reminder to the guys who aren't sure about the magnetic slings on ghostbusters, getting a ball into the slingshots at all is a potential death sentence on a vast majority of the machines out there. Just because it happens to be via magnets instead of the normal kickers just changes the way in which that happens, not the certainty of total doom.

Aren't most people's concern not the actual playability when they are working as intended, but whether they will be robust and reliable over time? There are a lot of complaints from people with tables that heavily feature magnets about them ruining the playfield or permanently magnetizing the balls way too fast or just never working properly. From what I hear, magnets are a huge pain to deal with for pinball maintenance and durability.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2016 14:16

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

I finished building my mini cab. Not super fancy or anything compared to others, but it works well and was cheap and is my own design.

A question for fellow virtual cabinet owners that utilize accelerometers for nudge: how do you get the calibration right? With a controller, you can usually do a small nudge that doesn't set off the tilt warning, a bigger nudge that does set off the tilt warning, or a huge bump that slam tilts it (actually, I can't recall if you can slam tilt with a controller in most programs, or if it will only do the nudge that sets off the tilt warning). With the accelerometers, depending on how I calibrated it, it either doesn't work at all, or always sets off the tilt warning (meaning I can only do two nudges per ball, and then tilt). What can I do to get that sweet spot back, where I can just do a little nudging without setting off the danger warning, and still allow a bigger nudge for desperation save attempts? Bonus points if I can have slam tilt functionality, but it's not necessary. I'm running Pinball FX2, TPA, and Visual Pinball, if any solution is program-specific.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2016 12:14

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

You might be able to use x360ce to adjust the sensitivity and deadzone.

Yeah, I'm already using this because the PinScape controller gives DirectInput style signals, and The Pinball Arcade requires XInput. I've tried playing around with some of the sensitivity and deadzone with it, but haven't had any luck finding the magic mix yet.

cosmicjim posted:

About how much did that cost you to build? It never occurred to me to make a small version to save space and money.

It was about $15 for the FRDM-KL25Z microcontroller, which the Pinscape controller is based on (it has built-in accelerometers). $7 for the slide potentiometer for the plunger sensor. About $15 in buttons. Another maybe $15 for fancy ribbon cables and connectors so I can easily add and disconnect buttons, but someone could easily just solder permanent connections with spare wire they've got laying around. I added some USB-powered PC speakers to the inside, which were about $15. About $20 in wood (bought from the surplus pile at the local hardware store). Maybe $10 for screws and nuts and bolts (all of the main components are held together with bolts and nuts, so that I can easily disassemble and re-assemble the whole thing for transport). The plunger itself is just a large bolt that cost about $1. I'm using the spiral binding from a spiral notebook for the plunger spring, because I can't find any springs for sale here in Denmark, despite wasting a lot of time looking. Also had to spend about $10 for the shipping of the microcontroller, potentiometer, and buttons, because there is no Amazon Prime equivalent here with free shipping.

I'm using the laptop I already own (I've set it up so that I can either put the laptop inside the cabinet, so that everything is a single unit with only a power cord coming out, or I can have all of the wires to the laptop come out and connect to the laptop externally), so that was no additional cost. Obviously, if someone doesn't already have a computer for running it, or wanted a dedicated computer for it, that would be the main cost driver.

I made it so that the main playfield monitor can easily be taken out and put back in, so it wouldn't have been that hard for me to use one of my desk monitors, but I decided to splurge a little, and bought a $100 monitor just for it. The backglass/DMD monitor in the backbox doesn't really need to be particularly good or high resolution, so I simply took one of the old ones we have laying around at work. Obviously, not everyone has access to free old monitors, so count on maybe another $30 or so on craigslist or something.

So that would be $107 for the cabinetry, wiring, controller, and speakers. And then another $100 for the playfield monitor.

I spent $207 altogether then, as an estimate. If I'd really, really tried to build it on the super-cheap, and re-used my desk monitor and had just soldered permanent connections with spare wire, I could have had it all done for under $100.

I still need to buy and add a few more buttons (magna-save, volume +/- and mute, dedicated exit-to-PinballX button, etc.), so I'll spend a little bit more when all is said and done.

Another angle, to show the buttons and plunger, too:

# ¿ Apr 26, 2016 13:31

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Invalid Validation posted:

How rad is playing pinball on the those small home made virtual cabinets? I really wanna make me one.

Pretty drat rad, though you can get the majority of the effect by laying a monitor down in portrait orientation, and propping up one side under some books. Just looking down at the playfield is a huge step up from looking straight ahead at a TV/monitor. So give that a try before you commit to the project.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2016 10:06

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

It's sort of weird, because by their own admission, they won't make a profit if they have to front the licensing fees themselves. It doesn't make any sense that there would be an "investor".

The only thing it could be is that the licensing fees are much less than they thought, or it is already covered by Stern's contract, which just brings up questions of why they didn't have all of these things squared away before posting the kickstarter.

# ¿ May 7, 2016 18:08

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

She Bangs the Drums posted:

Holy poo poo I think I am finally starting to understand V12.
It even has a skill shot mode!!! It's crap I mostly ignore it, but it actually exists!!

And I finally managed to Upgrade two parts, the suspension, which is ridiculously easy if you are just patient and wait, though hard to trigger, and tires which is actually pretty easy if you can shoot a specific upper loop.
however, upgrading the manifold is tedious and the crank shaft is still difficult, but I am getting the hang of it.

Upgrading Turbo is pretty much next to impossible, having triggered the mode only once.

Upgrading points is good because one upgrade nets you 5 million points. which basically the only way to earn big points in this game. Upgrading also triggers a test run which is a good multi ball where you can tack on another 1-3 million if you are good.

Too bad this poo poo loves to drain the left lane.

So do you actually like the table at this point? V12 is probably the table that is most generally agreed upon as as being the worst. But I've never put considerable time into it, and maybe it is deeper and more enjoyable when you learn it.

That was my experience with Tesla, anyway, which is probably my favorite of all the Zen tables. I see it a lot on "worst-of" lists, but at least a good portion of people also list it as being pretty good, so I think it just has to do mostly with learning the table, which I don't think many people have bothered to do with V12.

# ¿ May 13, 2016 10:30

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Tony Phillips posted:

Medieval Madness? Start castle multiball. Hit five ramps, hit the castle door - done.

I wish I was skilled enough that I could start multiball and then bang out five ramp shots and then a castle shot during multiball so reliably that I could consider it an "exploit".

:smith:

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 20:58

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Are there any bugs with with the TNG table's "Shuttle Simulation" dmd mission? You have to pick up score boxes and avoid walls, but the wall came up faster than seems possible to avoid.

It's the same in real life. It's a fixed maze, though, so you can memorize your way through.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2016 11:22

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

LawfulWaffle posted:

Too bad we'll never have another non-licensed pinbal table with this new technology.

JJP gave Pat Lawlor free reign over their next game. He can do a licensed table if he wants, but I would guess he's going to do something original.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2016 10:34

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

prefect posted:

How common is it for the table tilt to be modified from factory-standard? More or less common than replacement/retuned flippers?

I don't even know if they have a factory standard for tilt. I know that tournament players, if given a chance to get familiar with a table, one of the first things they do is toss it around to see how much they can get away with. The tilt bob is an extremely simple but sensitive device, so it is very difficult to replicate tilting behavior exactly across seemingly identical machines.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 16:46

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

prefect posted:

Oh, hell. I used the wrong word. I think I meant "slope" instead of "tilt". My bad. I also refer to nudging as "tilting".

(Interesting info, though.)

No worries.

Table slope is pretty common to be different from factory default. Most tables have legs that can be adjusted up or down an inch or two, which makes a huge difference.

# ¿ Jun 6, 2016 16:57

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Ugh. We're having some guests over at our place for a few weeks, so I set up a guest user account on my laptop so they could watch movies and play some virtual pinball while I'm at work, and doing this somehow deleted my Pinball Arcade goals and high scores. Any way to get these back, for someone who has not been particularly vigilant lately in backing up my Steam files?

# ¿ Jun 15, 2016 14:24

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Invalid Validation posted:

Does pinball arcade have a virtual cabinet mode? I could never find a setting but a quick Google search said they might?

I also really want a Jurassic park table to be added, I don't know if it's a good table but I have a lot of fond memories of it.

You can manually set the width and height in the settings to put it in portrait mode, which works well enough for the playfield in a cabinet. But FarSight doesn't support full cabinet mode, which would allow the DMD to be moved to a separate monitor and display a backglass.

However, you can get the noex mod, which is not official but which FarSight is clearly aware of and hasn't interfered with, and get full cabinet support. I've tried it myself, and it was quite a pain to get set up, but seemed to work for the most part. I've since disabled it for my mini-cab, because the mod requires PBA to be run in windowed mode, which causes noticeable slowdown on my setup compared to fullscreen. But it should be fine if you have a more powerful computer, and you're willing to sink the time into getting it up and running.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2016 21:51

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Awesome! posted:

still my only thought is like the ceo's kid is in graphic design school and this was a class project

He should have failed for those Black Knight, Black Knight 2000, and Bride of Pinbot icons alone.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2016 09:27

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Magic Hate Ball posted:

I have no FX2 tables at all, where's a good place to start?

I'd recommend Epic Quest as the first table, and see how you like it. I think the South Park Butters table is also a good start, as it has a more classic pinball feel than a lot of the other tables.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2016 12:31

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Awesome! posted:

i want a munsters pinball table

Monster Bash is basically an episode of the munsters where they form a band.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2016 13:40

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

I don't know what the internal structure of Farsight is at this point, but I'm starting to suspect they've lost their lead programmer or something, and are just coasting with junior programmers.

I think they've just stretched themselves too thin with the number of tables they have to maintain, the number of platforms they're on (especially the new VR platform), the Stern app, the new UI, and their monthly new table release schedule.

And the underlying code seems to be put together with duct tape and bubble gum and unicorn wishes, so everything just falls apart when the slightest thing changes.

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 13:38

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Awesome! posted:

best table theme in all of pinball?

I still really want a real-life table like Tesla. The 19th century electromechanical gadget theme really fits with pinball, I think. Except for the dumb ball save by steam cannon. I don't want steampunk.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2016 12:12

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

pisshead posted:

I've just got back into pinball games after discovering the delights of vertical monitors. What are the essential tables to get on Pinball Arcade?

The majority of their great tables are in Season 1. It's definitely worth getting the whole season pack, even at full price (if you're willing to wait until December, you can probably get it for 50% off during the Christmas sale).

Beyond Season 1, there are still definitely some good tables (T2, Dracula, Champion Pub, TAF, etc.), but I don't think any other season is worth full price.

And, of course, most of us probably have at least one table that is objectively kind of lovely, but we play regularly due to nostalgia because we played them a lot as kids/teenagers.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 13:57

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

If you're keeping it down to only a few tables, in addition to Attack from Mars, you should also consider Medieval Madness and Monster Bash at the top of your list (though they are all similar "fan" layouts, so maybe two of them that you like best, and then something a bit different like Twilight Zone or Taxi or ST:TNG).

Also, you can try demo all of the tables for free, so just play around, and find which ones have a theme you like and play well during the trial. You can play until you hit a default high score - on some tables, this is almost nothing, but on others you can play for quite a while for free.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 14:44

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

The thing I like about advanced pinball skills is that they can be somewhat impressive when they work, but the player looks like a goddam idiot when they don't. To the casual observer, the player is not making a calculated attempt at ball control with a dead flipper bounce, he just assumes the player didn't notice the ball coming right over the middle of the playfield, and now it's going down the drain after hitting the flipper and rolling off.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2016 21:26

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

ninja alamode posted:

Most likely driving 2.5 hrs to visit CP Pinball for the first time tomorrow, anything I should know beforehand? How crowded does it get afternoon vs evening? Looking forward to trying out Medieval Madness after logging the most time in Pinball Arcade on that, what other tables should I try?

If it's anything like the MM's I've played in real life, hitting the castle nearly always results in a SDTM, and attempts to nudge it toward a flipper tilt the machine. I think my highest irl score is about 40m, when my highest PBA score is somewhere around 350m.

:smith:

# ¿ Aug 27, 2016 12:57

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Clouseau posted:

Gotta say, didn't see that coming at all. Certainly not for the first all LCD'd.

Doing it on a vault edition lets them focus their resources on getting experience with developing LCD rather than mixing it in with designing a table from scratch.

I hope this sells well. After the Spiderman comic book style vault edition, and now this, I'm really hoping they do Lord of the Rings with cartoonish art.

Speaking of which, the guy at the local pinball place had a falling out with his partner, and Twilight Zone and LotR was taken away. He replaced them with Theater of Magic and WoZ, so it's not all bad, but I miss the old tables. I also need to figure out wtf is going on with WoZ. So many colors, and I have no idea what's happening.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 13:37

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

prefect posted:

Better than the live action movie art.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 14:12

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Ugh. I don't think this is going to sell well, even if it is fun. It's a terrible theme, and I think it will be outdated in two or three years. And not in the enjoyable blast-from-the-past, stuck-in-time way that you get from something like Johnny Mnemonic, but more like playing an old video game with extensive online features that had all of its servers taken offline several years ago.

And I think the industry will take it as an indication that non-licensed theme tables are terrible and they shouldn't do them at all, rather than realize the last few non-licensed tables had terrible themes (Big Juicy Melons and this are the only ones in the past several years) and they should do better ones.

And I was really excited for the new Lawlor table.

jivjov posted:

Speaking of costs of machines...what's a good amount to budget if I want to consider building my own digital cabinet? Assuming I'm starting from scratch, with no supplies other than already owning FX2 and Pinball Arcade on Steam

It depends. Are you going for a full-sized cabinet? Do you want to dedicate an entire computer specifically to it? Earlier in the thread, I showed how I built a mini-cab for about $200. It's not much to look at, but it plays well. You're probably looking at considerably more if you want a full-sized cab with all the bells and whistles.

Inferior Third Season fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Oct 14, 2016

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 13:31

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

Minidust posted:

I feel like if I had never seen a pinball machine in my life, "Dialed In" would seem no worse a theme than "Diner" or "Junkyard" or "Whirlwind" or a ton of other stuff really. Especially if we're thinking in terms of dramatic reveals.

I mean, it might be fun. Who knows? But Lawlor had free rein to do as he pleased, and he made a theme that is not exciting with a name that says nothing. It's like telling someone that they can go on an all-expenses-paid trip to anywhere they want in the world, and they choose to go to Cincinnati, Ohio. It's just a bit disappointing. Hopefully, the gameplay reviews will make up for some of it.

EDIT: Also, the price tag suggests that they are trying to cut open the goose that laid the golden eggs. There has been a resurgence of pinball in the past few years, but price increases are going to kill it.

Inferior Third Season fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Oct 14, 2016

# ¿ Oct 14, 2016 16:11

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:03

Inferior Third Season: Jan 15, 2005

MajorMarcus posted:

lets out a blood-curdling scream at max volume, no matter what volume the game is set at

This is the worst idea ever.

# ¿ Oct 24, 2016 20:49

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Pinball Megathread [Physical and Virtual]

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