The Pinball Arcade |OT| play them all from Soho to Brighton

So I may have found the key to getting myself new high scores. Weeks ago, I started playing games on mute while listening to some music, and decided one night to play TPA like that. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I've been setting a few new personal high scores and been getting a few Wizard goals done, like BftK in MM and Video Mode in AFM. And now most recently, not only did I get the 2 final goals needed for Taxi, but did this:
qlRwMwO.jpg


It's a few million short of Parallax Scroll, but I'm still happy with it.
 
Wow, those website prices certainly are NYC priced accordingly. A friend bought Whitewater in good shape at an auction for less than $1500, website price $15,000. This auction was almost 15 years ago though.
 
Few things:

* Mike on PAF confirmed that Black Rose should be available on Steam this Friday.

* Stern posted this on their Facebook page:
KbWELMK.png


Is Muppets going to be their next pin after Mustang (or even before)? God, I hope so (and that it's not shit).

So I may have found the key to getting myself new high scores. Weeks ago, I started playing games on mute while listening to some music, and decided one night to play TPA like that. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I've been setting a few new personal high scores and been getting a few Wizard goals done, like BftK in MM and Video Mode in AFM. And now most recently, not only did I get the 2 final goals needed for Taxi, but did this:
http://i.imgur.com/qlRwMwO.jpg[IMG]

It's a few million short of Parallax Scroll, but I'm still happy with it.[/QUOTE]
FWIW, I play tournaments while listening to podcasts on headphones. The only disadvantage is that you can't tell when you're getting a little too happy with the nudging to hear the Danger sounds, but I tend to play far better when I can't hear the sounds the machine puts out.
 
How the hell does someone score 3 million in Genie for the wizard goal? Getting 500k was difficult enough for the standard goal. The ball goes all over the place, there's not a lot of scoring opportunities and it's easy for balls to shoot down the flipper gap so you gotta tilt like crazy.
 
How the hell does someone score 3 million in Genie for the wizard goal? Getting 500k was difficult enough for the standard goal. The ball goes all over the place, there's not a lot of scoring opportunities and it's easy for balls to shoot down the flipper gap so you gotta tilt like crazy.
By getting extra balls as often as possible and making the most of them. I think I had 4 of them with my current high score of 1.7m.
 
By getting extra balls as often as possible and making the most of them. I think I had 4 of them with my current high score of 1.7m.

Yeah, I don't think I'm ever getting 3 million. It's not a bad table (I mean it's not great either), but the scoring goals are kind of ridiculous.


Which reminds me, scoring goals on the tables are stupid and often the most frustrating, especially since they're so random as to whether a table will make a goal a scoring goal. It's basically like the older tables don't have enough systems to them for 10 goals so they use scoring goals. But since the old tables are also usually the hardest to score on because of wide flipper gaps and sidelanes and not many systems for scoring opportunities it's just frustrating when they set an abnormally high scoring goal.
 
So, finally played a physical Monster Bash at lunchtime today. My (random) thoughts:
* Game feels like it's easy, but my score was quite shit compared to the replay score. Very odd feeling.
* Sound design is great on this machine.
* LEDs don't suit it, IMO. Probably look better with the sepia-esque tinge of regular globes.
* Good flow to the game, but any sense of speed the game would've had is bled dry by the ramps. Somehow they slow it down far too much, IMO.
* For some reason, didn't feel as solid as the other DMD WMS games I'd played recently on location, Fish Tales and The Getaway. Still felt nice compared to the almost exclusive Stern diet I've been on. But nowhere near as chunky or built-like-a-brick-shithouse-y as my own High Speed. Coming to appreciate how solid it is more and more.

Honestly, didn't feel like the sort of game that is up there with MM and AfM in terms of the premium prices they usually fetch. I can see why it gets the adoration it does, it's a great theme and a good looking machine that doesn't play horribly... but there's not much that keeps me excited about it like MM and AfM do (let alone Fish Tales, Getaway etc.). Hell, I don't even think I'd buy myself one if I saw it going for less than 3 grand here in Australia. Only would if I could make some money from it.

Lesson for today: Most games probably aren't as great as the posters on Pinside or their Top 100 may indicate. Personal preference etc., but don't get your hopes up if you have a chance to play something a lot of people like, because chances are you might not like it as much as they do :)
 
Takeaway from the livestream:

You can really knock the shit out of Black Rose before you get a tilt warning
They were very very pleased with the Steam sales for TPA.
They just hired 2(?) new QA guys, which is a relief.
 
I'm going to take a punt and say they're contractually obliged to charge what they charge as part of an agreement with Williams/Stern/Gottlieb etc.

I don't think that's true - didn't the devs fought Valve to have Season Passes purchasable in-store, so that they could put them on Steam Sales?
 
They're not licensed. They're referred to as "the Lamborghini" (even though as the story goes, Ritchie was speeding in a Porsche... just that the Lambo styling is more disnct)) but they're just generic cars. The only thing that would stop anything is the licensing of La Grange for Getaway. But nothing on the original High Speed would cause any license issues whatsoever.

Which is funny because that song is a ripoff of a ripoff.
 
I don't think that's true - didn't the devs fought Valve to have Season Passes purchasable in-store, so that they could put them on Steam Sales?
Vice versa. The only reason the seasons are available on the Steam store are because people begged FarSight for them.

Which is funny because that song is a ripoff of a ripoff.
Yeah, I know. John Lee Hooker :P

Maybe they could get away with using it because the pinball version sounds bugger-all like the real song? ;) Seriously one of the worst sounding songs used in a game. Incredible, when you consider that an entire pinball generation prior (although not that much different, hardware-wise) we got this. Still the best IMO. Can't wait for it to appear on TPA. Steve Ritchie is a musical genius.
 
Vice versa. The only reason the seasons are available on the Steam store are because people begged FarSight for them.


Yeah, I know. John Lee Hooker :P

Maybe they could get away with using it because the pinball version sounds bugger-all like the real song? ;) Seriously one of the worst sounding songs used in a game. Incredible, when you consider that an entire pinball generation prior (although not that much different, hardware-wise) we got this. Still the best IMO. Can't wait for it to appear on TPA. Steve Ritchie is a musical genius.

I can no longer hear this music without thinking of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enl9Frc9mX8

edit - wait, actually this one is better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vUotXxd3q0
 
I can no longer hear this music without thinking of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enl9Frc9mX8
Haha, I've never seen that before. I'm so glad they know what it is, not every pinball fan would. Do they play it again in that video? Fake edit: Oh, it's through the whole thing. Love it. When was that from?

On that note, I cannot hear the song without hearing this.

Funny thing is though, you listen to that music, I cannot think of anything more grandiose in any kind of video game at that point (and even shortly after). Certainly no pinball music (that wasn't pre-recorded) has ever been as genuinely epic. God bless those guys for having the balls to do music like that for a pinball machine.
 
Haha, I've never seen that before. I'm so glad they know what it is, not every pinball fan would. Do they play it again in that video? Fake edit: Oh, it's through the whole thing. Love it. When was that from?

On that note, I cannot hear the song without hearing this.

Added a second video above. It was from one of the Load our Last Souls streams - maybe several. It started on the 5th one from Oct 22, 2013.

fucking LOL at that Kanye mashup.
 
Added a second video above. It was from one of the Load our Last Souls streams - maybe several. It started on the 5th one from Oct 22, 2013.

fucking LOL at that Kanye mashup.
It was actually *for* Giantbomb. I guess Black Knight 2000 had been a running gag for GB for a while, then when they did that thing about every game trailer using Kanye's Power, Dain did that mashup.

It's all starting to click now!
 
It was actually *for* Giantbomb. I guess Black Knight 2000 had been a running gag for GB for a while, then when they did that thing about every game trailer using Kanye's Power, Dain did that mashup.

It's all starting to click now!

And we've come full circle. Now back to our regularly-scheduled pinball thread.
 
Takeaway from the livestream:

You can really knock the shit out of Black Rose before you get a tilt warning
They were very very pleased with the Steam sales for TPA.
They just hired 2(?) new QA guys, which is a relief.

Kinda glad to hear its selling well even though this will keep the packs from going on sale right away. I remember most of the talk about why TPA wasn't on Steam and had to go through Greenlight was the market wasn't big enough on Steam.
 
Downloading a 720mb update as of now on Steam. It can't only be the new table. Black Rose can't be that big, can it?

It was mentioned earlier they finally res'd up all the table fliers so they don't look like 320x240 thumbnails anymore.
 
It was mentioned earlier they finally res'd up all the table fliers so they don't look like 320x240 thumbnails anymore.
The bigger change was that they now have animated rollovers for *all* tables, which requires updating all tables... but the flyers obviously take up space too!

Black Rose looks *fantastic*. Tables are looking so much better overall this season than any other. Black Knight 2000 should look hot (and hopefully High Speed!).
 
Goddamn, Black Rose is going to be brutal with a capital B. Arrrrr...

Finally got that standard goal achievement for No Good Gofers in the Steam version to unlock. I just wish it didn't come at the expense of my save file being wiped, because I had collected the super jackpot wizard goal, and I don't think I'll get it again unless I come by some fluke or something.

Wow, those website prices certainly are NYC priced accordingly. A friend bought Whitewater in good shape at an auction for less than $1500, website price $15,000. This auction was almost 15 years ago though.

At the price they're asking for Punchy the Clown, Banzai Run or Cactus Canyon, I can buy a nice used car. I know those games are rare, but jesus...
 
Should I feel guilty if I use the shortcut to get Lymen's Lament in MB? Because honestly, after getting the Special and having the goal not register, I feel like I'm owed a completed wizard goal. And if I can't have that, I'll have the other.
 
Should I feel guilty if I use the shortcut to get Lymen's Lament in MB? Because honestly, after getting the Special and having the goal not register, I feel like I'm owed a completed wizard goal. And if I can't have that, I'll have the other.

I've used the shortcut and it didn't flag the Wizard Goal for me. Not sure if its supposed to or not. Doing it manually seems like a realy PITA.
 
Are the tables here different than the Williams HoF? Like did they change any of the goals for the tables that are in both? I remember Gorgar being one of, if not "the", hardest in Williams HoF, but went through at least the standard goals last night and it was pretty cake, in fact the table was waaaay easier than I remembered it being, with the only real danger being the outlanes but you can tilt out of that a lot of the time. Had some great runs.

On the other hand, I did Funhouse and I remembered loving that in Williams HoF, but holy shit the plunger goals in the standard goals (skill shot & crazy steps -> funhouse frenzy -> trapdoor) were infuriating. Especially the skill shot. Took me like 100 tries of plunge -> restart -> plunge -> restart. I feel like the plunger controls are really hard to be accurate with on at least the PS4 version of Funhouse. I don't remember dealing with that at all in HoF Funhouse.
 
I feel like that table has a glitch, in the sense that there's just something wrong about getting your 100th extra ball on the same game. I got bored with the table and forced myself to lose at some point lol.
 
Did it on the Steam version. And yes this was another case of me putting the game on mute and listening to music.
Thought so! Did you read what I posted about entering comps and listening to podcasts? Same thing.

I should play more TPA like that. As it is, I play it with the in-game sound.
 
Does anyone else feel like the right upper flipper on Black Knight is always clipping through the ball (especially when the flipper is moving back down)? Also, pretty sure one of my balls on 3 ball multiball disappeared once on the upper playfield and all I could see was its shadow.
 
Black Knight always seemed kind of glitchy. I had a ball fly out of the table there.

I feel like that table has a glitch, in the sense that there's just something wrong about getting your 100th extra ball on the same game. I got bored with the table and forced myself to lose at some point lol.

How do you get extra balls? I always found Black Hole to be a tough table since Williams HoF, though mostly because I can't do the upside part as it breaks my brain and sometimes I lose balls there.
 
BK is still a scripted table, so I have a feeling that any glitches it still has will get fixed when that has emulation up and running. I know that table glitches are different from emulation/script glitches, but I reckon they'll tidy everything up on that table, not just the rules.
 
Just did the standard goals for Harley-Davidson so I can just play for score and try to get the wizard goals as I'm doing so, and that table has a severe flaw, THE DROP TARGETS RESET EVERYTIME YOU START A MULTI-BALL.

This makes the 5th goal to hit all drop targets incredibly frustrating since like every ramp activates some sort of multiball, and there's no real good angle to hit the drop targets (especially on the RIDE side) since all angles tend to go into ramps which activate multi-balls and resets the drop targets. It's like, the best way to do it is to let the ball hit the flipper bumpers and bounce into the drop targets but that also makes it drain down the outlanes a ton of the time.

Most frustrating goal I've done in a few tables. Was at the throw the controller part when I finally got it. And it's not the goal's fault, it's the dumb design of the table! >_<

*edit* oh and I hate video modes in every table that has them. I want to be playing pinball! Not stop and do some dumb videogame mini-game :( Takes me out of the zone.
 
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