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[Remy]

Found three bad bugs so far.

HD has an issue with some of the multiball modes where it zooms down to the plunger, disables the right flipper, and dumps all four balls into play. You can flail with the left flipper and the ball saver until there's one ball left and the camera resets.

Taxi, if you beat the high score (around 4M), zooms into the plunger and gives you the high score entry UI - except there are no letters and hitting Select basically adds another player to the game.

And CV still has weird lock camera issues despite the update.

 

[plagiarize]

Found three bad bugs so far.

HD has an issue with some of the multiball modes where it zooms down to the plunger, disables the right flipper, and dumps all four balls into play. You can flail with the left flipper and the ball saver until there's one ball left and the camera resets.

Taxi, if you beat the high score (around 4M), zooms into the plunger and gives you the high score entry UI - except there are no letters and hitting Select basically adds another player to the game.

And CV still has weird lock camera issues despite the update.

that Taxi issue has happened to me a few times on other tables. I think it happens if you keep hitting A on the text entry screen once you've finished your initials. The last table it happened to me on was Voltaire. I'm not 100% certain what other table it happened to me on. This is 360 version.

Also, http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95907686 no longer works. That used to be the Steam Greenlight page for TPA. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Anyone have any ideas?

 

[Shaneus]

that Taxi issue has happened to me a few times on other tables. I think it happens if you keep hitting A on the text entry screen once you've finished your initials. The last table it happened to me on was Voltaire. I'm not 100% certain what other table it happened to me on. This is 360 version.

Also, http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95907686 no longer works. That used to be the Steam Greenlight page for TPA. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Anyone have any ideas?

I got to that page just fine. Clicked on it, up came the PA Greenlight page

 

[plagiarize]

I got to that page just fine. Clicked on it, up came the PA Greenlight page

yeah it's working now. they were probably just tweaking it or something. i had a really good Medieval Madness yesterday (finally beat Royal Madness, now I just need to work on taking down castles to reach that wizard mode) and had one of those horrible games where you're literally just a fraction of a degree away from breaking your best score on Monster Bash.

I drained on my last ball when shooting to start Monster Bash multiball just fourty million short of my previous heighest score *with extra ball lit* on the damn thing.

 

[Minsc]

I got to that page just fine. Clicked on it, up came the PA Greenlight page

Is that video new? Looks pretty nice the way they run down every table, including the recently released ones. And they are still promising tables for "years to come," which means this thing could see upwards of 60-70 tables in it in a couple years!

 

[plagiarize]

Is that video new? Looks pretty nice the way they run down every table, including the recently released ones. And they are still promising tables for "years to come," which means this thing could see upwards of 60-70 tables in it in a couple years!

it seems like it was posted on their youtube channel september 13th.

 

[microtubule]

Spotted at the news and information thread on the Pinball Arcade forums (thanks PiN WiZ!)

DLC Tables Pack #2 featuring Cirqus Voltaire and Funhouse is AVAILABLE NOW! on PS3/PS Vita (EU) (single purchase for both platforms) for £3.99, €4.99 and AU$8.45.

Cross-Play is AVAILABLE NOW! for DLC Tables Pack #1 as well.

 

[Shaneus]

iOS app update, just for bug fixes. Not sure if any tables have been updated yet, haven't had a chance to check. Hopefully there's a lot.

Also, here's your one opportunity to try and sell me on Harley-Davidson, PinGAF. If it's no better than Ripley's, then no dice... can't stand that table. If there's a table (IRL or on PA) it's similar to, tell me!

 

[VALIS]

iOS app update, just for bug fixes. Not sure if any tables have been updated yet, haven't had a chance to check. Hopefully there's a lot.

Was just coming here to post about this, the fixes are just for Taxi and No Good Gofers, apparently. Hopefully NGG's ramps are translucent blue now instead of opaque. It really makes the table look cluttered and ugly, not to mention it's just incorrect. For Taxi hopefully the fix has to do with the ball occasionally rolling off the table!

Also, here's your one opportunity to try and sell me on Harley-Davidson, PinGAF. If it's no better than Ripley's, then no dice... can't stand that table. If there's a table (IRL or on PA) it's similar to, tell me!

It's not a very good table, but it's $2.99 and it's pinball! And, ah, the 4-ball multiballs are pretty fun. But honestly I can't recommend it at all. It's very simple and shallow and there are easily 500 other tables FarSight should have picked over this. But I assume they believe branded tables are going to sell more than unbranded ones.

 

[Shaneus]

Gofer's tables still opaque, that's all I've tried on that one, not sure of the other fixes there. Taxi has fixed the joyride camera bug and seems to play a lot smoother. Elvira got an update as well, but couldn't tell you what was fixed. For some reason as well, Taxi still has a weird graphical issue where each of the passengers flash a blank, grey texture. Very odd.

And thanks for the tip, Valis. I figured as much, and TBH I don't even know why they're wasting their time with the newer Stern tables when there are so many more that wouldn't have half the licensing issues and would sell a truckload more (if quality dictated sales, obviously). Hopefully at least, HD will bring in a few new customers to them (I doubt it though).

 

[plagiarize]

given that HD kept getting rereleased with tweaks and different versions and what not through the years, i can only imagine that it's quite popular with certain people. there's something like 3 versions of the table isn't there?

 

[Shaneus]

Maybe they just kept trying to get it right. As it is, it's Stern and all their games have this really weird, crappy Chinese knock-off look about them, so I stay clear. The only one that hasn't so far (IMO) is AC/DC and that sure as hell ain't on PA.

I just want Farsight to know that there's a reason why HD and Ripley's have exactly two sales less on iOS than every other game on there.

 

[plagiarize]

Maybe they just kept trying to get it right. As it is, it's Stern and all their games have this really weird, crappy Chinese knock-off look about them, so I stay clear. The only one that hasn't so far (IMO) is AC/DC and that sure as hell ain't on PA.

I just want Farsight to know that there's a reason why HD and Ripley's have exactly two sales less on iOS than every other game on there.

Ripley's is easily my least favorite table so far. it just feels like a poor imitation of Twilight Zone to me. i enjoyed Iron Man when I got to play it, and Tron looked pretty cool too. I think they're improving, but apparently the current ROMS are too complicated to be fully emulated.

Wizard of Oz from Jersey Jack is looking really cool, but I'm a bit worried it's too high budget for a first table and that if it doesn't succeed they'll be out of business. Stern are staying in business... you've got to give them that.

hey, did anyone else see that alpha numeric version of transformers they're putting out for homes? i thought that looked pretty cool. a new alpha numeric!

 

[Shaneus]

hey, did anyone else see that alpha numeric version of transformers they're putting out for homes? i thought that looked pretty cool. a new alpha numeric!

I... what?!? Are they doing that thing I thought of where they take DMD games and convert them into alpha-numeric ones? That's totally my idea.

No, I haven't seen it. Link perhaps?

Speaking of pinball mods, have you seen this? So good. But yeah, I want the same thing but done in reverse for all the tables that rely far too heavily on DMD.


Edit: Wow, those look bad. Really, really, really bad. I thought they may have even had a retro vibe to them... but no. And they're asking $4k bahahahahaha


Wait. I need a good laugh. Let's post some pictures here:

Wow. Just... no. That page also says that it's 80% smaller in each dimension of the full-size pin, but I think they meant it's 80% OF the size. Still, it looks like a slight gust of wind could make that thing tilt.

$4,000?

AHAHAHAHA

If they back that seriously, they'll go out of business. No-one would buy that over a second-hand, quality, ACTUAL pin.

 

[plagiarize]

it's $3000 shipped from Amazon apparently. not that it's going to really change anyones minds. i still think it's cool that they made an alpha numeric version.

 

[Shaneus]

It is kinda cool, but you know it's only alpha-numeric just because it's cheaper owing to parts and ROM programming, not because it's in any way a throwback to the old tables. The whole thing just looks cheap as hell and the segmented display doesn't even have that classic glow that the real ones did... it just looks kinda cheap.

 

[VALIS]

I was looking at that yesterday on Amazon and marveling at how ass it looks. It's like they copied the design of a $29.99 plastic tabletop pinball from Toys 'R Us circa 1986.

 

[Shaneus]

I have a super-duper exclusive picture of their next home table:

While looking for that, I also found the coolest picture ever:

 

[The Technomancer]

Wait. I need a good laugh. Let's post some pictures here:

That looks like a toy I would assemble from Happy Meal prizes

 

[Parallax Scroll]

it's $3000 shipped from Amazon apparently. not that it's going to really change anyones minds. i still think it's cool that they made an alpha numeric version.

For that kind of money, you'd be crazy not to just buy a real pin.

 

[Shaneus]

$2,300

$2,700

$1,350

$2,344

$1,000

$3,000

About $20 I guess?

 

[Agent X]

I encountered a strange new glitch on Black Hole on PS3 today. While playing on the lower playfield, one of my quick flipper shots caused the ball to rocket at high speed toward the lower right corner of the TV screen. It then acted as if it passed upward through the glass and landed onto the upper playfield. At this point I was playing the ball on the upper playfield, although the camera was still zoomed toward the lower playfield. Eventually I was able to flip the ball "the old fashioned way" (upper left pathway) back onto the lower playfield again. After that, the game behaved normally, and when the ball drained out of the lower playfield, it came back into play on the upper playfield just like it normally does.

It was actually somewhat fun playing around with this kind of glitch, but I hope they do fix it soon.

 

[BomberMouse]

Crossbuy for PS3/Vita is fine but I sure wish this was like ZP2 and was buy once, play in all platforms. If only ZP2 tables were any good.

*goes back to play theater of magic*

 

[Maastricht]

I have the opposite experience - I really like most of the Zen Pinball tables a lot (got all 26 of them) and when I got back to Arcade because of new DLC, I found the Vita version unplayable in comparison - ball physics are teally, really bad on the mobile versions. I will still occasionally play on PS3, but the combination of having to force 720p to get rid of lag and Stereo 3D mode being so cool, makes it hard to imagine I will go back to it much.

And the Vita version of Zen 2 is just so good. Response and framerates are just so insanely good, average quality and diversity of tables is fantastic and physics are pretty much identical to the console version.

 

[BomberMouse]

Really? I really really dislike the physics of Zen Pinball 2, it feels like the ball has no mass at all. Every time I hit the ball, it just teleports to the end of the table. It just doesn't feel like the real thing at all.

 

[Shaneus]

Are the achievements getting cleared out every update or is it just me? I've just had a look through all the tables on iOS and... none. At all. Fuck's sake.

 

[plagiarize]

I encountered a strange new glitch on Black Hole on PS3 today. While playing on the lower playfield, one of my quick flipper shots caused the ball to rocket at high speed toward the lower right corner of the TV screen. It then acted as if it passed upward through the glass and landed onto the upper playfield. At this point I was playing the ball on the upper playfield, although the camera was still zoomed toward the lower playfield. Eventually I was able to flip the ball "the old fashioned way" (upper left pathway) back onto the lower playfield again. After that, the game behaved normally, and when the ball drained out of the lower playfield, it came back into play on the upper playfield just like it normally does.

It was actually somewhat fun playing around with this kind of glitch, but I hope they do fix it soon.

I was playing a three player game last night with my brother in law and one of his friends on Bride of Pinbot, and the camera got stuck in the plunger view on my brother in law's third ball meaning he was playing pretty blind. he kept the ball in play for over a minute, pretty amazingly.

i'm not a fan of Zen's physics either, but yeah, stereo 3D is really cool. given that the game runs at 1080p just fine (on 360 at least) The Pinball Arcade should be able to maintain 60 at 720p stereo. I hope they have plans of implementing this, because it's the one thing right now that occasionally gets me playing Zen 2. 3D + pinball really does work great.

and yeah, if and when i buy a table, it won't be that transformers one. but i still think it's neat that for whatever reason, we got a new alpha numeric here in 2012.

 

[Elvin Atombender]

I don't have any problems with the physics in Zen Pinball 2 - I think it feels fine. Better than the "bounciness" of Pinball Arcade (I don't know if this has been patched - I'm on version 1.02 on the PS3).

I'd love to have a combination of the Zen engine with the PA tables.

 

[Wonko_C]

I don't have any problems with the physics in Zen Pinball 2 - I think it feels fine. Better than the "bounciness" of Pinball Arcade (I don't know if this has been patched - I'm on version 1.02 on the PS3).

I'd love to have a combination of the Zen engine with the PA tables.

There are times when you shoot the ball a certain way and when going up it suddenly stops and goes down in a very artificial way, like it's being pulled by a magnet. That is the only thing from Zen that irks me. In that aspect PA feels just right, but it's been more than 20 years since I've ever touched a real pinball machine so I don't know which one has the most realistic "gravity".

 

[The Technomancer]

There are times when you shoot the ball a certain way and when going up it suddenly stops and goes down in a very artificial way, like it's being pulled by a magnet. That is the only thing from Zen that irks me. In that aspect PA feels just right, but it's been more than 20 years since I've ever touched a real pinball machine so I don't know which one has the most realistic "gravity".

The only real problem I have with Zen physics (on the 3DS version anyway) is that the ramps are very obviously scripted past a certain threshold. It does feel a bit more "artificial" in terms of general ball motion but its still fun.

 

[BomberMouse]

t's been more than 20 years since I've ever touched a real pinball machine so I don't know which one has the most realistic "gravity".

You ought to fix that soon.

 

[Wonko_C]

You ought to fix that soon.

I know, right? When I was younger I was not much of a "going to the arcades" person, and the very few times I went I had only enough for 3-5 games, and always ended up inserting coins in video games instead.

Now that I wisened up there's not even one pinball machine around. It has been all about Pump-it Up and bootlegs of KOF 2002 "Plus" (the one with infinite supers) for like, forever.

 

[The Technomancer]

You ought to fix that soon.

When I get a stable career and my own house one of my hobbies is going to be buying pinball machines. Its not like they're extraordinarily expensive, and I'd love to have my own pinball arcade in my basement

 

[VALIS]

The Pinball Arcade
We're still trying to get the PC version of the Pinball Arcade greenlit on Steam. Our progress bar now shows that we're at 82%! We're not sure if that's 82% to being greenlit or 82% to being in contention, but please take a moment and register your vote by following the link below. Please leave a comment for Valve there too if you haven't already!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95907686&searchtext

Sounds good... I think.

 

[Shaneus]

When I get a stable career and my own house one of my hobbies is going to be buying pinball machines. Its not like they're extraordinarily expensive, and I'd love to have my own pinball arcade in my basement

Your hobby will then also be maintaining those machines. Just sayin'

Sounds good... I think.

This is good. It's better than not. I guess.

Maybe they'll look at games that are that high anyway. I mean, how many votes does it take to get to 82%?

Also, the Pro Pinball KS failed *miserably*, FYI.

 

[Cardigan]

Sounds good... I think.

82% sounds great to me, I didn't think they would get that close. Now let's just hope they can finish it and get this puppy on Steam!

 

[jvm]

Your hobby will then also be maintaining those machines. Just sayin'



This is good. It's better than not. I guess.

Maybe they'll look at games that are that high anyway. I mean, how many votes does it take to get to 82%?

Also, the Pro Pinball KS failed *miserably*, FYI.

Wow. Just ... wow. I wasn't interested, but still kind of floored at that. They even managed to fill out their top pledge tiers pretty well.

Is there discussion of this here on GAF?

 

[microtubule]

Sounds good... I think.

At this point, who knows but Valve if it's a good percentage. I know myself and many people sent the request e-mail to Valve, voted on Greenlight and left a comment on the Greenlight page.

 

[Minsc]

Wow. Just ... wow. I wasn't interested, but still kind of floored at that. They even managed to fill out their top pledge tiers pretty well.

Is there discussion of this here on GAF?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=489346

I still go by my post here, way too high a goal. They'd have been better off going with a 100K goal, just to recreate 1 table or something, and adding the other 3 at 200K and the new table at 400K or something like that.

But I guess they're making it anyway? So no loss lol, except some time. Doesn't matter, I'll buy it for sure, and look forward to it. The detail in the renders made me think they got pretty far along too.

There's a sorta neat, but boring after a few seconds lighting demo you can download on iOS or PC/Mac as well, showing how the lighting was going to act, which is pretty nice.

 

[Shaneus]

Yeah, going by their webpage it looks like it's still "coming in 2013". So I don't know what the point of having a KS would be... unless they've basically followed the model of KS basically being a preorder site.

Kinda shitty thing to do IMO.

 

[jgkspsx]

I think they're continuing remaking their old tables, but I don't think they're moving forward with the new Pat Lawlor table. Which is a shame. $400K was way too much, though, and maybe making all five tables was too much to bite off anyway.

 

[microtubule]

Spotted this on the official forums:

There are unfortunately some unique challenges with the Xbox 360 platform. First, Microsoft is the only 1st party who charges for each game patch (even if the purpose of the patch is to add additional DLC that will make money for them). That means we have no choice but to wait and submit several table packs in the same patch.

Second, Microsoft refuses to have a direct relationship with XBLA developers- they insist that we go through a publisher. This makes it more difficult for us to make money on 360, but also makes it harder to have a dialog with Microsoft about anything. We understand your frustration, and we are even more frustrated than you are. We've made a large investment in licenses and development so when we can't make money on a platform by selling tables it hurts us a lot more than it hurts our customers. The 360 is one of our favorite platforms to play pinball on- it's a shame things have to be so complicated!

 

[Minsc]

Interesting (and there's a follow-up in that thread by one of the FarSight members), though I don't doubt for a minute they were rejected nearly every time they tried to submit patches / updates for the various reasons they claimed. But we sorta knew it would come to this eventually... XBLA DLC / patch fees eventually grow to be too much for products to sustain to costs, so the only solution becomes to release a new product, TPA2, and start fresh again.

They really should get on the PC though! All this stuff is non-existent then and the patches can release instantly, assuming they don't jump on GFWL or anything.

 

[plagiarize]

no surprises there really. the whole situation is frustrating right now. i can either play the game on PS3 at lower resolution and get the new tables, or play it on my preferred pad at 1080p on 360 and put up with some glitches and lack of tables.

the PC version would side step every one of those issues... but they don't want to put it out on anything other than Steam so we wait for god knows how long for it to get a greenlight, or not. the Wii U version would likely side step the issues too (if rumours about certification on Wii U are true) and being able to play just on the Wii U pad would be cool too, but again we have no firm release date and no idea of how long we'd be waiting for the tables already available elsewhere.

right now i'm just in a holding pattern. i want those new tables, but i'm not going to buy them for PS3... and everything else, who knows.

the more tables they stuff together into one patch on 360 the higher the probability of ONE of them having an issue and the whole patch failing certification. i love this game. Farsight clearly love pinball. they've clearly put a whole bunch of time and effort into this... they need to sort out their QA, or get better programmers or *something* though.

i have my fingers crossed for some news about the Wii U port or the PC release between now and the eventual release of new tables for the 360. i'm not particularly optimistic that any of those things will happen any time soon though.

le sigh.

 

[jgkspsx]

Yeah, I agree with about everything. I'm looking forward to giving them money again, someday.

 

[Shaneus]

Spotted this on the official forums:

http://pinballarcadefans.com/showthread.php/2189-Farsight-comes-clean-on-issues-with-360-platform

Is that the whole post, or is there more? I can't get to PAF from work

It's an interesting situation, but it's pretty obvious that a potentially massive revenue stream could be from the PC market. Maybe that's why they need to go through Greenlight on Steam... because they don't have an official publisher? Would make sense.

But once that door is open for them and they're on there, that's basically a guaranteed, almost overhead-free revenue stream. And they can pull a Codies and patch as much as they want on there to test before they release patches on consoles that take forever to be approved (given their "universal" development/emulation technique for all the tables).

They just need to make sure that it's one of the games that's visible on Steam comfy-couch mode. If they do that, I'm fucking set.

 

[microtubule]

@Shaneus, yup that was it.

I really hope the Steam Greenlight goes through but it almost seems like the bar is really high for Farsight to vault over. There are a few obscure titles on there that are already greenlighted and not Pinball Arcade???!!

 

[Kai Dracon]

@Shaneus, yup that was it.

I really hope the Steam Greenlight goes through but it almost seems like the bar is really high for Farsight to vault over. There are a few obscure titles on there that are already greenlighted and not Pinball Arcade???!!

Lotta people are calling bullshit on someone inside Valve - obscure PC pinball games from the 90s are getting published on Steam without comment but Pinball Arcade is not approved.

You should see the comments on PA's greenlight page itself. Hundreds of supporters, nobody understands what the problem is.

 

[Minsc]

Lotta people are calling bullshit on someone inside Valve - obscure PC pinball games from the 90s are getting published on Steam without comment but Pinball Arcade is not approved.

You should see the comments on PA's greenlight page itself. Hundreds of supporters, nobody understands what the problem is.

3 Pinball games, and all of them aren't really classics. It's possible Worms was part of a deal with their other games, leaving 2. And those 2 games could be exactly why Valve isn't thrilled with the idea of more (because they have awful sales most likely).

I think you'd have more of a point if the Pro Pinball games were on there, or Pinball Fantasies/Illusion/Mania. Or the Balls of Steel collection, etc.

It's very possible that as someone suggested, they just interpreted Steam's generic rejection letter incorrectly, as it does sound a little unwelcoming the way it says "your game would not be a good fit for our service," etc.

 

[plagiarize]

3 Pinball games, and all of them aren't really classics. It's possible Worms was part of a deal with their other games, leaving 2. And those 2 games could be exactly why Valve isn't thrilled with the idea of more (because they have awful sales most likely).

I think you'd have more of a point if the Pro Pinball games were on there, or Pinball Fantasies/Illusion/Mania. Or the Balls of Steel collection, etc.

It's very possible that as someone suggested, they just interpreted Steam's generic rejection letter incorrectly, as it does sound a little unwelcoming the way it says "your game would not be a good fit for our service," etc.

it just seems crazy to me that a game which is a success on other platforms, and that had the support they had for the Kickstarter tables got turned down, why ever it got turned down. i can't come up with a good justification. is it the DLC model? it's baffling.

i really wish Farsight would get it out there some other way though. yeah, steam is nice and all, but it's not the only option.