Preserving Pinball: Twilight Zone & ST:TNG on Pinball Arcade

[szycag]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/106 ... light-zone

Kickstarter really is a wonderful thing. Farsight has now raised enough with fan support to put Twilight Zone into Pinball Arcade, one of the most popular and complex tables of all time. They raised the license fees needed with only about 50% of the time alloted for the goal. But now with the overflow they're trying to raise enough to put another super popular table, Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the game as well. I'm worried because the goal value doesn't seem to be climbing to double nearly as fast, and there's only about a week and a half left. I got a chance to play that table at the National Pinball Museum and it certainly deserves the ranking it has on IPDB, both do really. If you pitch in $10 you would get copies of both tables free when they finally release sometime late in the fall. I'm hoping if they don't meet the $110,000 goal they decide to just start another Kickstarter to get the remaining funds. Maybe Indiana Jones and Addams Family could be next if they're successful? Just trying to get the word out and hoping there's some shmups/pinball fan crossover lurking in off topic.

Also, initially they weren't able to offer the 360 versions for free as a reward, but they've rectified that since then.

[Ed Oscuro]

Man, I remember seeing that ST:NG table somewhere years back. "Make it so."

[szycag]

I was under the impression there were some pinball fans here, but this got buried pretty fast. Don't tell me you guys settle for the crappy Future Pinball remakes.

Pinball has always driven me crazy because you'll encounter awesome machines but the flippers are beaten to hell, the table can't realize the ball drained, and stuff like that. If that's the fate of those mid 90's tables, imagine how hard it will be to play a decent game of one of those tables in ten more years. That's why I'm really excited about what Farsight is doing... it's taking forever for the DLC to get to consoles (because of a slow certification process from MS/Sony) but just with the core pack, announced DLC, and the funding of these two, they'll have knocked out eight of the top ten on IPDB, and that's a pretty damn good start at preserving them for generations to come. Not to mention you can actually take the time to practice and score well at these unforgiving machines without going broke. I guess I'm almost canvassing here, but as many of you that mourn the death of the arcade... where better to do it?

Anyways, they added some new donation tiers because the number of backers hasn't really picked up at all since passing the goal. Most people are just waiting for them to start another, I'm sure.

[sven666]

I was under the impression there were some pinball fans here, but this got buried pretty fast. Don't tell me you guys settle for the crappy Future Pinball remakes.

oh there are, if this was a petition to make a new physical table id be all over it, but to make some crappy emulation - no thanx.

the only way pinball works in the virtual world is if you add a bunch of unrealistic elements like the crush games or metroid pinball.

also theres a kickstarter thing for everything, im still witing to see any payoff on any project before i lay down any more cash (people are donating millions in good faith, this system is so vounerable its ridiculous, im sure half of the funds already are scams).

[drunkninja24]

I was under the impression there were some pinball fans here, but this got buried pretty fast. Don't tell me you guys settle for the crappy Future Pinball remakes.

oh there are, if this was a petition to make a new physical table id be all over it, but to make some crappy emulation - no thanx.

the only way pinball works in the virtual world is if you add a bunch of unrealistic elements like the crush games or metroid pinball.

also theres a kickstarter thing for everything, im still witing to see any payoff on any project before i lay down any more cash (people are donating millions in good faith, this system is so vounerable its ridiculous, im sure half of the funds already are scams).

I think it's worth funding projects like this. New physical tables would be nice, sure, but there's still plenty of value in preserving classic tables like this in some form. Even though they may not be perfect, I certain applaud what Farsight aims to do with these projects.

As far as kickstarter itself, considering how much it's blown up with gaming-related stuff as of late, it's still going to be a bit before any actual projects see results. But I don't think Farsight is the type of people/company that would take Kickstarter funds and run.

[szycag]

They've done pretty damn well with the ones I've played so far (only the core four.) If you were going by the Williams Collection I might be inclined to shrug off the crappy emulation thing, but they really raised the bar with TPA and you should try it if you haven't. Like drunkninja said, emulations can't be perfect, but at least they're aiming for perfection.

[FIL]

Bride of Pinbot is coming to 360 in the not so distant future, the makers of pinball arcade have managed to twist their arm and let them break the update size rules.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I can easily go to my local Funworks arcade joint in Modesto, CA just to go play the ST:TNG pinball machine...so no need to resort to playing it on the PA compilation. Sure, ain't no comparision with a real pinball table compared to emulation. Plus the fact that no two "real" pinball sessions are the same -- on one ball, you could be doing well and the next ball, it'd "go down the drain" rather quickly. Therein lies the greatest challenge to make each ball last as long as possible.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Gozer]

Still waiting on that PC release.

[Vexorg]

I was under the impression there were some pinball fans here, but this got buried pretty fast. Don't tell me you guys settle for the crappy Future Pinball remakes.

Hey, I actually made a couple of those crappy remakes, although it was quite a long time ago in Visual Pinball. The ones I did were Excalibur (from the old DOS Epic Pinball game,) Nip-It (70s Bally EM table, this one was a collaboration) and some obscure 40s flipper game called 10th Inning. Visual Pinball was a pretty nice tool back in the day when I used it (I haven't messed enough with FP to know how well it works under the hood) but came with some pretty significant limitations. I think I'd have a hard time going back to the stuff, mostly because I think I'd have a hard time going back to VBScript after spending years coding in C# without spending half the time banging my head against the wall.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

I'm really looking forward to playing the new tables. I have nostalgia for these Pinball machines just like with video games, but I don't have access to them. I think its great getting another chance to play these tables. I got to play Twilight Zone once and the table was pretty much busted. It will be nice to get to play it again even if it is the virtual version.

[DJ Incompetent]

They've done pretty damn well with the ones I've played so far (only the core four.) If you were going by the Williams Collection I might be inclined to shrug off the crappy emulation thing, but they really raised the bar with TPA and you should try it if you haven't. Like drunkninja said, emulations can't be perfect, but at least they're aiming for perfection.

They really need to fix the tables they have. The ball can warp through the flippers on all four tables, there's other gamebreaking glitches on three of the four other tables. Leaderboards can't even detect a score rollover on Theater of Magic. Fuck all that noise.

[Gozer]

I don't even own pinball arcade yet and I can already tell Farsight has a lot of work ahead of them.

They obviously bit off more then they can chew.

[szycag]

The TOM score thing is actually a bug in the way the table's ROM itself handles scores. They have already fixed it but Microsoft continues to reject their title update for being too big. I am getting frustrated trying to stick up for Farsight when so many things keep going wrong, although it's not all their fault. Thanks to Microsoft, 360 owners are STILL without fixes or any of the DLC. So I wouldn't blame someone for thinking they were getting ahead of themselves with the Kickstarter stuff.

[Frederik]

That´s funny, I remember seeing you on the Pinball Arcade forum, szycag I´m "mmmagnetic" on there, by the way!

I pledged for TZ and I´m really happy it´s going to be made. I LOVE Pat Lawlors style, to me he is the Raizing of the pinball world, with his wacky, sometimes obtuse design.

On a sidenote, I don´t really consider my iPad as a gaming device, but TPA is just an absolute dream on the portrait orientation, hi-res iPad 3. Now, if only the light effects would be like in the 360 version... I know the way Farsight deals with the multiplatform releases can be a bit messy, with bugs here and there, and some seriously delayed DLC on some platforms, but after seeing their "making of TPA" I feel these guys have their hearts in the right place, and this is such an ambitious project that I´m happy they got it working at all - to make these fantastic tables commerically available, to preserve them, and to bring them to as many platforms as possible. I mean, there´s also Visual Pinball, but as somebody who gets MAME just barely working, the installating process is seriously confusing, and it´s only on Windows too.

I already mentioned that in a different thread, but I just can´t help but fantasize about shmups-themed pinball, something that could easily happen in my ideal parallel universe where we had both pinball and shmups happening in the same country.

Parodius Pinball Paradise? Mushihimesama Multiball Madness? Batrider Badass Bumpers? Ah, to wish impossible things...

[Vamos]

i wish they would hurry up with the damn pc release of pinball arcade .

[BrianC]

That´s funny, I remember seeing you on the Pinball Arcade forum, szycag I´m "mmmagnetic" on there, by the way!

oh cool. I have posted there too. I hope the 360 version gets a date soon. At least the reason is now known and they convinced microsoft to let them do an update over 4MB. I can't wait to play Cirqus Voltaire on 360.