Zen Pinball/FX2 and Pinball Arcade

[BrianC]

Video up of the first DLC tables for Pinball Arcade and, sure enough, it's Medieval Madness and Bride of Pinbot.
DLC tables video

Edit: I read some posts on Pinball Arcade's facebook page asking about the PC version and it sounds like it's delayed due to problems finding a distribution channel. They mentioned that Valve was skeptical about pinball. I think Valve is being silly. Worms Pinball is being sold by itself for 8 dollars when Addiction Pinball can be found cheap. The other pinball game they sell, Slamit Pinball, is buggy with no developer support.

[Zeether]

I heard that too. I posted on the Steam forums about it but that may not do much to help. Valve needs convincing.

[szycag]

Pinball Arcade is now up on Xbox Marketplace!!!

Not the least bit disappointed, this plays shockingly well. Just as well/better than FX2. That's only from the 5 minutes I gave it since it juuust went up. Need to get some sleep and play the hell out of this tomorrow. Report in if you picked this up!

[iconoclast]

Cool, almost forgot about this. I played one credit of Arabian Nights and had an amazingly terrible run. First impression: it seems like they changed the physics a little bit from The Williams Collection. The nudge doesn't seem to give you as much control over the ball any more, but I haven't played in a long time so I'm probably just horrible right now. (My Arabian Nights HS on TWC was 114m; on my first credit in TPA I got 5m before losing )

[Austin]

I picked this up earlier. All in all it looks and plays great. Physics are mostly the same as before, except there is a little more pull on the ball. The new shiny silver ball model is great as well.

My only complaints: the bland interface. I really liked the arcade and original music from the retail disc games. Also, I really hope this isn't going to be a common thing, but my end score for Theatre of Magic did not take. I had a 10 billion+ score, and it only registered 272 million on my save and on the leaderboards.

*edit: I spent a few more hours with it after making this post last night. I only played ToM, but I thought I would report another glitch. Sometimes when you press "A" to start a new game, it won't start, load a ball and take you to plunger like it is supposed to. It just sits there with its up-close, floating camera (that is normally for show). It's like it gets stuck and you can't do anything. You have to exit, then start a new game (or possibly call the attendant, but I didn't try that). Also (this is the big one here), I nailed another 10 billion point game last night. And guess what? My score reset again. It's as if the game cannot handle a score that large. Maybe it's a quirk of the original pinball game ROMs, but I really hope not, otherwise there's not much point in playing for the rankings on this one (current best on the leaderboards as of going to bed last night is about 9.5 billion). Basically, after I hit the 10 billion mark, the "10" in the digits of my score disappear, leaving me only with what millions are on the board. I ended up with a score that was around 2.5 billion (after forcing myself to drain, realizing my score I had worked on for 45 minutes was mostly wiped away), when it should have been 12.5 billion.

Has anyone experienced any other glitches on the other tables? I will be trying those out tonight.

[E. Randy Dupre]

The 360 version looks bland as hell. The tables themselves look stark and seem to lack lighting detail, which makes it difficult to make out ramps from the tables' background images, and certain menu items have clearly been drawn for lower resolutions, then zoomed up.

The thing that annoys me are the physics glitches I've come across in a very short amount of play. I've had one of the flippers stick for a few seconds, I've had the ball hover over an area of a table that, afaik, isn't supposed to be magnetic, I've had the most bizarre rebound off a neutral flipper and I just had the ball disappear into the Bazaar hole on Arabian Nights and stay in there for almost a minute.

There's an overall lack of polish and, I think, effort on display here that makes it look like a really low budget release, ported from a previous gen console. It's pretty shoddy, especially next to the presentation in FX2.

[szycag]

Watching the teaser on their site and it's production value, I knew the interface would be a letdown just like PHOF was. They're good at getting the tables down perfect, but the presentation has no taste whatsoever. The way the menu options and text look feels stuck in the PS1 era. At least it's not as bad as Pinball FX 1's, but I wish they wouldn't have such a utilitarian attitude about that because it goes a long way. Even my fiance spoke up about how ugly the PHOF menus looked.

[Vexorg]

Videos of announced tables for Pinball Arcade (real tables):

Monster Bash
Cirqus Voltaire
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Attack from Mars
The Machine: Bride of Pinbot

BoP was only hinted at, but I couldn't resist linking to a video.

Dang. That's one heck of a lineup there. Aside from CFTBL I've put quite a bit of time into those ones. I'd love to see a good port of Twilight Zone, but I imagine the licensing issues would get in the way.

[BrianC]

I'd love to see a good port of Twilight Zone, but I imagine the licensing issues would get in the way.

They are trying for licenses, so I hope they get it. Very nice pinball. I have a feeling that may have something lined up since they hinted at some surprises with the Stern license. I played some recent sterns a few days ago and I found Tron Legacy LE, Simpsons Pinball Party, The Dark Knight, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Family Guy to be very fun. I like Ripley's in the Pinball Arcade collection, as well. The most recent Sterns, aside from licensing, also use a new system, so they have to work on the emulation before it comes. Simpsons and Lord of the Rings use Whitestar, which is what Ripley's uses.

I just picked up the Xbox 360 version a couple days ago and I love it. Lighting wasn't what I expected due to videos, but it still looks alright and plays much better than PHOF. I heard the 360/PS3 versions of Bride of Pinbot and Medieval Madness for Pinball Arcade aren't coming until May, but the iOS and Android ones are supposed to come very soon. Medieval Madness was a bit off in PHOF, but the version for Pinball Arcade looks to be much more accurate to the original (which I played a few days ago. Incredible table. I can't believe it has Tina Fey's voice!).

Ripley's iOS has been stabalized for older iOS devices and plays better now, but I heard the update broke the game for New iPad. The update with Bride of Pinbot and Medival Madness is supposed to fix the issues, though.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

What's neat about the Stern Tron Legacy LE pin is, it uses actual die-cast metal TL toys from Spin Master placed throughout the table itself that you could buy at retail back in October of 2010. Target used to sell them until around January of 2012 (when they were finally pulled from retail shelving for good). Sure would've nice if that mini Tron arcade cab (featured on the TL LE pin itself) was sold at retail though...but it wasn't.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[blackoak]

Hahaha. PCEFX, my buddy owns Tron and was going on and on about that mini arcade inside there, and all the different mods people have done to get it more "authentic" including running mame on a tiny chip/screen on it. Crazy.

[Vexorg]

I haven't played a lot of Stern games, but of the ones I've played I think Monopoly (another Pat Lawlor table) is my favorite. I also spent a decent amount of time on the Austin Powers table, and thought that one was decent, but I'm not a big fan of the subject matter. Most of the Pre-Stern Sega pinballs were pretty forgettable though.

[MadScientist]

Played the PS3 version a bit - enough to get all the standard goals on each table. Thankfully the Arabian Nights table doesn't have the bug that was on the Williams Collection version that made it really difficult to activate the Harem multiball. The table also looks sharper as well - seemed easier for some reason as I was able to rescue the princess a few times in the handful of games I played, which I don't remember doing that often on the Williams Collection.

Slightly put-off by some odd physics in the Black Hole table - noticed a few weird moments when the ball seemed to behave strangely around the flippers when travelling at high speeds. The other tables seem fine though.

[szycag]

Harem multiball is the only standard goal I'm still missing. There have still been some times where it didn't seem like I got the letter even though I went up the loop while it was lit, but maybe that's just because another event triggered before it could show it. Mostly it's just that the Harem light is hardly ever lit, I've gotten so close so many times. The skill shot holes seem to like to not register a lot too in ToTAN. It's my least favorite table, seems the worst about shooting it down the middle and sides, and I'm never quick enough with the nudge.

[szycag]

Yes, there is for sure still some kind of bug with the Harem multiball letters. I just shot straight up there while it was lit and didn't get anything. I've gotten a ton of other bugs to show up too, maybe because I've been restarting so much... but the game just stopped doing anything for a second while I was frozen on the magnet in front of the genie, and after a minute it eventually spit me out the Bazaar hole like nothing happened instead of starting a mission.

Getting kind of discouraged by all the bugs. Hard to recommend this game until a few more tables and bug patches come out. If somebody asked for good pinball on the 360 I think I'd recommend Pinball FX2 with the Marvel tables over this right now.

[MadScientist]

Hmm, I didn't pay too close attention to when I was lighting up the HAREM letters - all I know is it's a lot easier to light them all up than it was in the Williams Collection (2nd game here as opposed to... um... never in the Williams collection). Maybe it's still bugged to some extent, but, if so, it's not as bad as before.

[Phoenix]

Great topic. 2 decades ago i was playing the real deal in the arcades. ANd a few years ago i was into pinmame. It has almost every real pinball machine ever made simulated. Some of them are ok, some of them bad. But some are so great.

I stopped cause at that time i had frame rate problems on my old pc. But i am buying new ipad and then i will play pinball again.

I like these the best

- Arabian nights
- Terminator 2
- Leathal weapon 3
- circus voltaire
- Theatre of magic
- getaway 2

I played the ios version of arabian nights on a mates ipad 1. And it was great. No stutter or framerateproblems. Original rom i think (not sure). Cant wait to play this on the new ipad.

I will be playing alot of this.


Although i like pinball fx tables, i dont like the ''fake'' tables. For some reason i find the old ones, which i played myself for real, more interesting. Can play those for hours. But pinball fx, mwa.... getting bored quite fast. (had fx 1 on 360)

[Vexorg]

Great topic. 2 decades ago i was playing the real deal in the arcades. ANd a few years ago i was into pinmame. It has almost every real pinball machine ever made simulated. Some of them are ok, some of them bad. But some are so great.

I stopped cause at that time i had frame rate problems on my old pc. But i am buying new ipad and then i will play pinball again.

I like these the best

- Arabian nights
- Terminator 2
- Leathal weapon 3
- circus voltaire
- Theatre of magic
- getaway 2

I played the ios version of arabian nights on a mates ipad 1. And it was great. No stutter or framerateproblems. Original rom i think (not sure). Cant wait to play this on the new ipad.

I will be playing alot of this.


Although i like pinball fx tables, i dont like the ''fake'' tables. For some reason i find the old ones, which i played myself for real, more interesting. Can play those for hours. But pinball fx, mwa.... getting bored quite fast. (had fx 1 on 360)

It definitely has the real ROMs in it, I suspect emulation is going to be a lot easier than trying to recreate the complex ruleset for a modern pinball table. I haven't kept up with the Visual Pinball/Pinmame scene all that much, but back in the day I did a handful of table recreations (Excalibur from the old Epic Pinball PC game, and a couple of electromechanical machines.) I'm half-tempted to start messing with Future Pinball again one of these days, but I'd have a hard time going back to VBScript after spending years coding in C#.

Enjoying the Pinball arcade tables on my iPad so far, looking forward to Medieval Madness and AFM.

[Vexorg]

By the way, it looks like the Medieval Madness and Bride of Pinbot tables are live now, at least on the iOS version. Medieval Madness is free (with ads) through April, and the tables are $3 each or $5 for both. I'm pretty sure I've blown far more than that on Medieval Madness over the years...

[szycag]

I wish the content rolled out faster across platforms. Consoles aren't getting the new tables until early May.

EDIT: Finally got all the standard goals, and an awesome score at ToTAN! Decided to write about it here: http://gamingjournals.com/2012/04/18/th ... multiball/

[Klatrymadon]

I managed to start Harem Multiball in my last game, and got the achievement for completing the standard goals, but it hasn't been crossed off the list, for some reason, so I haven't unlocked the wizard goals. Boo-urns!

Ed: nice blog, szycag! Clearly, I'm facing many of the same trials and tribulations.

[sjoecool1991]

I managed to complete all the standard goals, and all the wizard goals in a single game of Ripley's, in a game scoring 210 million.

[Klatrymadon]

Nice one! Oddly, I've just started another Harem Multiball by locking the balls the normal way, so now I can attempt the wizard goals!

[szycag]

I've only managed the Black Hole wizard goals so far.

[Klatrymadon]

I've only done a couple of 'em on each table, so far, apart from Theatre of Magic, on which I've nailed four! I haven't really been chasing them, though...

Ed: more weird stuff. I've just cleared the "win the great camel race" goal, even though the race wasn't activated. Perhaps I won it in a previous game and it's only just registered?

[Klatrymadon]

Pinball Arcade has been updated. I haven't a clue what changes have been made, as I've only just switched it on, but I see the dot matrix display is actually made up of dots, now.

Also, there's an Infinity Gauntlet tournament on PFX this week! You can win Zen slippers!

[drunkninja24]

Wonder if that means we'll actually see the DLC tables soon on consoles.

[Klatrymadon]

Hopefully, aye. They've had the DLC cock-blocked by MS a few times - last time it was because the game would cause a crash if you removed a USB stick while saving to it, or something. (Surely you'd expect that to happen anyway...)

[szycag]

Twilight Zone and now Star Trek TNG funded... let's get some more momentum for Pinball Arcade, i.e. getting on a platform where it truly belongs! Every last one of you needs to thumbs up Pinball Arcade for Steam! It's been way too long without a PC version and the console versions can't keep up with the smartphone versions because of horrible digital content policies and wait times. Help get TPA on PC already!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... d=95907686

[MadScientist]

The last update on PS3 crippled a couple of the launch tables for me - both Ripley's and Theater of Magic have frequent game ruining slow-down now which they didn't have before. Don't think there have been any patches since, though FarSight have said that running the game at 720p instead of 1080p solves this issue. Nice job.

The two new tables both have bugs as well; Monster Bash - nudging during the Frankenstein Multiball awards jackpots, Gorgar - after lighting up the 2x bonus some sound-effects disappear.

I wouldn't mind seeing them on Steam, but with the various problems these tables have, it seems they're stretched pretty thin as it is.

Been playing a fair bit of Zen Pinball 2 though, which seems generally more accomplished all round. If anything the game seems to play so smoothly that it almost seems too easy - I've already beat most of my previous scores from ZP1/Marvel Pinball quite comfortably. Not sure if that's the new physics engine or something else. Some of the tables, e.g. Mars, definitely have new scoring systems as racking up 100 mill+ scores on that table is now relatively easy, where as before it took a while just to get over 10 mill.