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

S

Shaneus

Member
So this is good news!

700 Members; TPA/Steam Update
News on Steam will be announced shortly after GDC on March 29th.

Thank you everyone, for the support!

In the meantime:

Mobile and Mac users: Enjoy Cactus Canyon and Central Park :)

Since Gottlieb ROMulation is possible, we'll be able to see Tee'd Off soon, better than the Gottlieb Collection version!

Here's the riddle for next month's tables: "It's opposite day! Table Pack 13 will include a new table that has the opposite of a space theme and a re-released table with a theme that will take you to into the darkness."
Click to expand...

Steam news :D

As for "opposite of space", the only thing I could think of was something water/sea related... so maybe White Water or Fish Tales? As for the other one, I have no idea (but I haven't gone through the back catalogue yet... it should be fairly obvious).
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Haunted House (the sister release to Black Hole) and Firepower? I don't think I understand where to flip the verbs and/or adjectives with the whole opposite day effect.
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
The best things I can think of for "opposite of space" are "time" or "under ground" (since space is high up in the sky). I'm not sure what tables would correspond to those though.
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
After spending a few days with the PS3 version, I'm not a fan of using the stock PS3 controller for this. The PS3 version uses the pressure-sensitive L1/R1 buttons to simulate the pressure-sensitive flipper buttons some tables have. This means that for example in Twilight Zone, if you push L1 lightly it only flips the bottom left flipper, but if you push L1 harder it flips both the bottom left and top left flippers. While this is more realistic, having to push the button harder instead of giving it a light tap is hell on my wrists after a long game session. I don't see any way to turn this feature off.

This is less important, but I also prefer the shape of the 360 controller and location of the analog sticks, and I'm able to nudge more precisely with the 360 analog than the PS3 analog.

So I'm looking into alternative controller options for the PS3 version of PA. I'll probably end up just using a 360 wired controller with an adapter. Has anyone used these or have any recommendations? Someone suggested this adapter, which looks pretty good and is $22 on Amazon: http://www.mayflash.com/Products/XBOXXBOX360/MF001.html
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
Parallax Scroll said:
After spending a few days with the PS3 version, I'm not a fan of using the stock PS3 controller for this. The PS3 version uses the pressure-sensitive L1/R1 buttons to simulate the pressure-sensitive flipper buttons some tables have. This means that for example in Twilight Zone, if you push L1 lightly it only flips the bottom left flipper, but if you push L1 harder it flips both the bottom left and top left flippers. While this is more realistic, having to push the button harder instead of giving it a light tap is hell on my wrists after a long game session. I don't see any way to turn this feature off.

This is less important, but I also prefer the shape of the 360 controller and location of the analog sticks, and I'm able to nudge more precisely with the 360 analog than the PS3 analog.

So I'm looking into alternative controller options for the PS3 version of PA. I'll probably end up just using a 360 wired controller with an adapter. Has anyone used these or have any recommendations? Someone suggested this adapter, which looks pretty good and is $22 on Amazon: http://www.mayflash.com/Products/XBOXXBOX360/MF001.html
Click to expand...

why not just PC it in a few weeks, and get the best of all worlds? If the steam version really is so close, I'm probably going to make my bed there rather than on Wii U... but we shall see... Zen Pinball 2 is heading to Wii U very soon also... so many choices.

PC version could bring oculus support, and call me mad as a box of cats for wanting that, but, well... I do.
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
plagiarize said:
why not just PC it in a few weeks, and get the best of all worlds? If the steam version really is so close, I'm probably going to make my bed there rather than on Wii U... but we shall see... Zen Pinball 2 is heading to Wii U very soon also... so many choices.

PC version could bring oculus support, and call me mad as a box of cats for wanting that, but, well... I do.
Click to expand...

I already own the PS3 version of the game and don't have a gaming PC.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
Parallax Scroll said:
I already own the PS3 version of the game and don't have a gaming PC.
Click to expand...

I already own the PS3 version too... but I really doubt you'll need a 'gaming PC' to play this. at the very least you'll be able to play with better graphics, quicker table releases (probably, at least after they catch up) on a 360 pad. At least check out the trial, presuming they still have a demo/trial.
 
V

vg260

Member
Man, I hope the Steam version is coming soon. I was buying the tables on both the 360 and PS3/Vita, but I'll happily dump the 360 version to pick them up on the PC.

I want Gottlieb's Cue Ball Wizard badly.
 
E

eggwolio

Member
plagiarize said:
PC version could bring oculus support, and call me mad as a box of cats for wanting that, but, well... I do.
Click to expand...

Oculus support would be kinda incredible. I imagine the interface being a virtual arcade with all of your purchased tables lined up together and you can walk up and choose a table. You could open the tables to tweak operator settings. You could look left and right and see your friends playing tables next to you in real time. I know it's daydreaming, but it would really be something. Wow. Thanks for planting that seed.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
eggwolio said:
Oculus support would be kinda incredible. I imagine the interface being a virtual arcade with all of your purchased tables lined up together and you can walk up and choose a table. You could open the tables to tweak operator settings. You could look left and right and see your friends playing tables next to you in real time. I know it's daydreaming, but it would really be something. Wow. Thanks for planting that seed.
Click to expand...

I was just imagining having a VR view of a single table at a time, so it felt like I was looking at a real table, but yeah, that all sounds pretty awesome too.
 
D

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
eggwolio said:
I was at the Texas Pinball Festival yesterday and talked to Scott Shelton and some other guy from Farsight who didn't introduce himself and was kinda a jerk. I talked to otherguy first, as their booth was just past the entrance, I made it my first stop. He was kinda unfriendly in general and seemed moreso when I asked if we were still getting a 3DS version. He just kept commenting on how weak the 3DS is.

Several hours of pinball playing later, I returned and met Scott. He said they really do want to release as many of the tables as the 3DS can handle, but it's not an easy process. He also mentioned the meeting with Steam next week and seemed very excited about it. I played the TNG table on their 360 and it was pretty cool. Another guy asked what was going on with the 360 stuff and Scott was very apologetic and sincere and said that it will be up as soon as it possibly can be.

They also had the PS3 version running on a Sony 3D display, but I didnt give it a try. Those who did seemed impressed. I also asked him about the likelihood of their game ever running on a Hyperpin machine or something like it and he got excited and said that they were going to do a lot of cool stuff after the Steam meeting. Not a confirmation, but still pretty cool. The idea of a Hyperpin fascinates me, but the two I played at the show really failed to deliver. The images had no depth. He also gave me a Cactus Canyon shirt, so that was kinda neat.

Oh, and to the guy who jokingly suggested they port the Hercules table. it's neat to say I've played it, but it left a LOT to be desired. A cue ball just doesn't work for pinball. It was a pretty boring table.
Click to expand...

Thanks, awesome post really :)
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Parallax Scroll said:
The best things I can think of for "opposite of space" are "time" or "under ground" (since space is high up in the sky). I'm not sure what tables would correspond to those though.
Click to expand...
Underground could correspond with "El Dorado City of Gold", which I assume is to do with mining (I haven't looked it up, just looked under the wiki for PHOF Gottlieb):
zaSU7bel.jpg

Okay, so not mining as such... but it may still fit. It's not as "loopy" as I'd like, but it still looks damn fast, with lots of drop targets and no ball holding/sitting (as well as being a fairly open layout). If it's that... I'll be happy, I think! It's also a Premier table using a Gottlieb chipset, and given they've recently said their emulation for Gottlieb tables is practically perfect, it'd fit in to their releases quite well.
I can't see anything else in either collection that even comes close, so that would probably have to be it (for the re-release).

Best I could come up with for "opposite of space" would be Fathom:
z9N0CK3l.jpg

Just found it by going through the top 300 on IPDB.org and looking for the best fit. It's #66. There are some others that might fit that are in the top 300 (Time Machine and Time Warp) but neither look like likely candidates... they both look kinda average. Fathom looks a little too similar to Black Hole, too.

Also, keep in mind that I haven't checked FB for what other people think it might be so both could be something else entirely. Personally, I'm hanging for more Ritchie goodness with maybe F14 or even No Fear. But I'd be happy with another obscure license along the lines of Elvira... like Baywatch or The Shadow. Something that wouldn't really cost a lot of money but is still considered a good machine (even Last Action Hero would fit there).
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
The new UI is miles better to use than the old one, but the actual table menu is the same. Low-res, but a huge improvement. Needs to be a full screen grid view option, like Zen/FX is by default, IMO. Saw Genie and Attack from Mars along with Star Trek TNG listed on leaderboards, so I guess it's all this week?
 
E

eggwolio

Member
I have a kinda strange question. I have a UK PSN account with PS+ on my US PS3. I play my PS3 on my US account and only sign into my UK account to get the downloads from PS+. Can I download additional tables from my US account and have them work with the game, and if I do, will I have access to the US tables or the UK ones?

I guess that was a few questions.
 
S

Shaneus

Member
Have codes been sent out for both TZ and TNG yet? Because my brother said I could have his PSN TZ one and I'm eagerly awaiting my own TNG code.

On that note... given there's been an update to the backend on PS3, has the responsiveness improved at all?
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
Looks like I got four emails today from FS. The first two refer to Twilight Zone in the subject line but refer to TNG in the body. They contain PSN codes.

Then I got two emails from them with TNG in the subject line and in the body, and also have PSN codes, same codes as the first two.

Now, do I have two sets of codes for TNG? Can I give them away to people, or what?
 
S

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
jvm said:
Looks like I got four emails today from FS. The first two refer to Twilight Zone in the subject line but refer to TNG in the body. They contain PSN codes.

Then I got two emails from them with TNG in the subject line and in the body, and also have PSN codes, same codes as the first two.

Now, do I have two sets of codes for TNG? Can I give them away to people, or what?
Click to expand...

If you're giving away codes, I'd take ST:TNG. :lol I was going to buy it for myself but bills hit extra hard this month. =/

It's cool if not though, heh. I can just play the Android demo over and over like I have been doing. :lol
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
I should add, the two emails that mistakenly refer to TZ in the subject line but TNG in the body have different PSN codes. So... I get two?
 
S

Shaneus

Member
I haven't received any codes for anything. Are they going to Kickstarter email addresses or Farsight email addresses?

I have a hunch my brother should've gotten his TZ one but insists he hasn't, and I definitely haven't gotten one for TNG (unless it went to spam... but I can't see it there at all).
 
S

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
Okay, so PSN finally came back up, and I can report that the code jvm gave me did work. Got TNG and the Pro upgrade. So if any of you get double codes like he did, they both do indeed work.

And thanks, jvm! :D
 
S

Shaneus

Member
So TZ codes have definitely been sent? I wanna know if I should pester my brother for his code or not :D


And can someone confirm whether the codes were sent to Kickstarter email addresses or Farsight ones? Want to know which account I should monitor.

Edit: I just realised I only posted this same thing two posts above, but I already wrote out this post so I'm leaving the question in there :p
 
E

eggwolio

Member
Seraphis Cain said:
Okay, so PSN finally came back up, and I can report that the code jvm gave me did work. Got TNG and the Pro upgrade. So if any of you get double codes like he did, they both do indeed work.

And thanks, jvm! :D
Click to expand...

Lucky you! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad disappointed that they weren't giving any codes out at the convention.
 
J

jvm

Gamasutra.
Seraphis Cain said:
Okay, so PSN finally came back up, and I can report that the code jvm gave me did work. Got TNG and the Pro upgrade. So if any of you get double codes like he did, they both do indeed work.

And thanks, jvm! :D
Click to expand...
Yay! I'm so happy to be able to do something nice for a friend. Enjoy!
 
E

Elvin Atombender

Member
plagiarize said:
how is that a bad thing? :(
Click to expand...

I love old Amiga games and I'm more than happy about old "Amiga menus" in those games, I'm not sure they look good in new games though.

I'll say that it looks like the menus in old multi-media CDs mounted on magazine covers in the mid-nineties if that sounds better... :)

Well, at least it's a bit easier to change table even if the backgrounds look awful.
 
C

Chiaroscuro

Member
How the hell they could make the UI even worse in the Vita? The new main menu is horrible, and the tables on the "my tables" section are really small.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
Chiaroscuro said:
How the hell they could make the UI even worse in the Vita? The new main menu is horrible, and the tables on the "my tables" section are really small.
Click to expand...

They have quite the talent at making awful UIs. And I mean awful. I really hope they do another revision at some point. Actually, no I don't. It'd probably get even worse.

Also, they need a complete rewrite of their camera rules, it's almost unimaginable how many times they've released a table that gets the camera stuck zoomed in somewhere. It doesn't really sound like something that should ever happen to me, yet it seems to happen with great regularity.

And while we're complaining on bugs, this is the second build in a row on iOS they've released that flat-out crashes the app 100% (yes 100%) of the time you nudge the table on any and every table with the swipe to nudge option. Heh, they have some work to do.
 
B

BolognaSoup

Member
This is what happens every time I try to launch the Cactus Canyon table demo on iOS. lol James Manning is the senior programmer at Farsight according to LinkedIn.

oO5DanE.jpg
 
B

BolognaSoup

Member
Here's the landscape version of the Pinball Arcade BSOD. Never thought I'd see a BSOD on my iphone but if anyone could pull it off it would be Farsight. I also love how the music restarts every time you rotate between portrait and landscape.

xexdZWX.jpg
 
P

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Does anybody know why we haven't seen High Speed or High Speed 2 in any collection recently?
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Feels like the new post-new UI PS3 update released today tweaks the lighting and better communicates the varying levels of depth each feature and toy on the table has. Wonder if this is a consequence of them implementing S3D eventually or if it's just a long overdue follow-up pass to get the tables looking closer to the real thing. UI looks higher res and less shitty because of it now, but then I was playing the ST TNG table yesterday in 1080p instead of the usual 720p for latency issues. Also seems like general speed on most tables is faster and bounces are heavier. Maybe it's just me noticing now or imagining the differences after expecting something after the update. Whatever happened, it's good so far, and I never noticed the ball reflection so strongly on the table surfaces before, either.
 
B

BolognaSoup

Member
The should start a Kickstarter to hire a guy that knows how to do build a presentable UI. It is literally the worst I've seen on any game this generation.
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
I've had TNG for less than a day and I've already played a multiball mode where I couldn't see the playfield because the camera was stuck zoomed in on the plunger six separate times. Does Farsight just not care, or are they really this incompetent? Have they heard of testing?
 
S

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
1,415,214,450 on TNG thus far. Definitely my favorite TPA table thus far. Haven't had any issues with it either. Thanks so much again, jvm! :D
 
S

Seraphis Cain

bad gameplay lol
Sorry for the double post here, but I'm wondering something...some of these top scores on the leaderboard simply can't be legit. Like Elvira Party Monsters, for instance. The top score is 143,202,037,800. And the second place score is 97,365,930 (set by our own Parallax Scroll!). How the hell is the top score so many orders of magnitude higher than Parallax's score? That just seems...well, almost impossible, really.
 
P

Parallax Scroll

Banned
Seraphis Cain said:
Sorry for the double post here, but I'm wondering something...some of these top scores on the leaderboard simply can't be legit. Like Elvira Party Monsters, for instance. The top score is 143,202,037,800. And the second place score is 97,365,930 (set by our own Parallax Scroll!). How the hell is the top score so many orders of magnitude higher than Parallax's score? That just seems...well, almost impossible, really.
Click to expand...

Some of the extremely high mobile scores are hacked I think. Also I'm not second, I'm #32 right now.

Edit: Actually I'm second on weekly/monthly boards so that's probably what you were looking at. But yeah, that 143 billion score is still a lot higher than the second all-time high, which is only 631 million.
 
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