Digital Pinball Help and Recommendations

[Moniker]

Public Service Announcement:

Before buying any tables on Pinball FX2: Steam, make sure you do a trial run. There's massive input lag for me and apparently many others.


That is all.

Really? Can't say I've noticed any...

You'd know it if you had it. It's really bad. Looks like it's something to do with v-sync or gpus. Here's the ongoing discussion: http://steamcommunity.com/app/226980/di ... 670772917/

[ZellSF]

If you want a fix, install MSI afterburner and enable its OSD. It has a framerate limiter, which is what you need if you want to reduce input lag. You must set the limit to 60 (shitty port is locked to 60 FPS).

If you have framerate limiting set up, I don't think vsync adds much input lag. So it's pretty irrelevant if it's on or off. Turn it on if tearing bothers you, otherwise leave it off.

[BrianC]

Does Revenge of the 'Gator mark the point when some digital pinballs gave up on simulating the real deal? I'm not sure how popular the genre was on computers and consoles before 1989.

Given up? Similar games to Revenge of the Gator have been around since Nintendo's Famicom Pinball in 1983 (which was also developed by HAL with involvement Satoru Iwata) and Rollerball on MSX. Games also had varying degrees of realism with games not getting more realistic physics until the 90s. Pinball has always had a limited number of games on console. I also found out that the majority of Pinball titles on the Saturn are the ones that try to be more realistic (a few of them being PC ports) and that Fantasic Pinball is one of the few video pinball style ones.

[Austin]

Well, I finally did it! I found a copy of Last Gladiators 9.7 for a reasonable price. Hopefully it should arrive here sometime next week. I'm really curious to experience the differences first-hand.

On that note, I actually revisited both Last Gladiators and Necronomicon pretty heavily a couple of months back. While in the past I thought Necronomicon was the worse of the two (I know, I must have been smoking crack or something), I now realize it's the exact opposite. In playing both relatively seriously for a good amount of time, I can rightfully say that Necronomicon is the superior of the two. The shot placement is excellent (and actually makes sense), the flow of each table is much smoother than in Last Gladiators, and the game as a whole is just a lot more controllable (in a flow sense) than before, making for a much more enjoyable experience.

Interestingly, playing both heavily back to back, I see now why I initially preferred Last Gladiators. Obviously for one, it has more tables, but two, the playfields are more detailed in a certain regard. Whereas Necronomicon uses the same bland shot arrows between each table, in Last Gladiators there is very specific art used for your shot arrows, which lends each table to stand out a little bit better. Unfortunately though, the that's about the only area Last Gladiators does things better. Still a great game (all things considered), but with some of the poor shot placements and some of the wonky physics, it's tough to go back to after getting sucked into Necronomicon.

For anyone curious, I did let's plays of both of these games when I was practicing them a ways back. I rocked Necronomicon, but I was destroyed in Last Gladiators (the Gladiator table notwithstanding, I killed it there!). I may do one for 9.7 as well once I familiarize myself with it. Necronomicon: http://youtu.be/edpG_EGYEEU ; Last Gladiators: http://youtu.be/UtWT_th-prs

[DJ Incompetent]

Not really digital, but there is a Pink Bullets-ish full magazine called Pinball Magazine

I have one and it is wonderful.

[Aguraki]

I recentely got pinballfx2 on steam and games works fine for me and I spent tons of time on it.
Just bought 4 tables (zen pack with rome pasha secret of the deep and biolab) and wait for the other packs to be on sale cause it aint cheap.
found myself super interested in pinball and read tons of guides about it.
I played mainly the Rome table and have 46M I think on it which put me in top 100 on the leaderboard (top 60 I think).
Im lacking skills but as every game scores increase with learning (b4 I just randomly stroke the ball when it was on my flippers D ).

love it so far.

[ZellSF]

Input lag should easily be fixable and if you do have the problem and have to fix it... You will learn things that will definitely be helpful with other games in the future.

[MadScientist]

The Sorceror's Lair table was released for free on the Steam version of PFX2 yesterday. The Steam summer sale should be soon, so I'd expect the other tables to get a 50%-75% discount in the near future.

[BrianC]

The surprising thing is that my video card isn't the best, but Pinball FX2 Steam still runs at a constant 60 FPS.

[Aguraki]

The Sorceror's Lair table was released for free on the Steam version of PFX2 yesterday. The Steam summer sale should be soon, so I'd expect the other tables to get a 50%-75% discount in the near future.

woohoo didnt see that.
cant wait for sales I really like this game and want more tables.

[Austin]

The surprising thing is that my video card isn't the best, but Pinball FX2 Steam still runs at a constant 60 FPS.

Same here. My hardware is at least a few years old now, but Pinball FX2 is running flawlessly.

[Danny]

Pinball Arcade, I just brought this months new twin pack featuring Pin*Bot and Centaur. I purchased for the Pin*Bot but stayed for the Centaur, god damn is that an awesome table. Can't belive I never played it before this week, feeling like I have been missing out. Also in other news there is a kickstarter for Pinball Arcade, this time to get the Terminator 2 table on to the service. They also strongly hinted at getting Adams Family (sqeeeeee!) if they are sucessful with this one.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Zen Studios recently released the Star Wars Pinball compliation on the 3DS on the USA region Nintendo eShop site for a mere $5.99 USD (9/19/13). It's saved on an SD/SDHC card for posterity. Unfortunately, it crashes (and returns you to the 3DS 'Home' screen instead) if you enable wireless communication to gain access to the leaderboards and if you finish a gaming session with Wi-Fi turned on as well. Hope that the 3DS port of SW-Pinball gets a much needed patch to fix those issues. Hmmm.....

The dot matrix visuals are impressive, especially when the cloud car speeds by in the Bespin City scene which is super silky-smooth. The playfield is shown on the upper screen while the scoring and dot matrix display is shown on the lower screen. However, there's no option to swap the screen to your liking (which would be nice a nice option though).

I'd imagine if one of the SW-Pinball tables was reproduced as a real one-off pinball machine, a Color DMD layout would be ace rather than using a monochromatic dot-matrix setup.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stern gets the approval from Disney/Lucasfilm to make a Star Wars Episode VII pinball machine for the 2015 timeline to coincide with the movie debut. You might recall Williams released both a T2 pinball machine & dedicated arcade fixed X/Y gun cab simulateneously when the T2 film debuted on the July 4th, 1991 opening weekend.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Vamos]

I wouldn't be surprised if Stern gets the approval from Disney/Lucasfilm to make a Star Wars Episode VII pinball machine for the 2015 timeline to coincide with the movie debut. You might recall Williams released both a T2 pinball machine & dedicated arcade fixed X/Y gun cab simulateneously when the T2 film debuted on the July 4th, 1991 opening weekend.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I cant find where i read it now but im pretty sure jerseyjackpinball are going to be making the star wars vii table they just done a wizard of oz and hobbit to.

http://www.jerseyjackpinball.com/default.aspx

[DJ Incompetent]

Color DMD layout would be ace rather than using a monochromatic dot-matrix setup.

heh. I was waiting for this mod to become an expectation.

I dunno man. After playing the sloppy Wizard of Oz, I think I can stick with monochromatic.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yeah, I recall seeing that Wizard of Oz pinball machine at the 2013 California Extreme show...didn't realize that it was another pinball company that made it. The asking price of $7,000 USD is mighty high...come to think of it, most brand new Stern pinball machines are $6,000 or thereabouts from the distributors.

That's cool to hear that JersyJack Pinball will be making the upcoming Star Wars VII pinball machine...I'm sure it'll sell like hotcakes indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Gozer]

PC version of The Pinball Arcade is being released via Steam on November 1st.

The pro version Tales of the Arabian Nights will be free.

Core pack will consist of Ripley's Believe it or Not, Black Hole and Theater of Magic for $8.99.
EDIT: The core pack is included with season 1 pack.
$29.99 for season packs
$39.99 for pro season packs
$4.99 for table packs
$7.99 for pro table packs
$3.99 for pro upgrades

Pack 1
Medieval Madness (Williams 1997)
Bride of Pin*Bot (Williams 1991)

Pack 2
Cirqus Voltaire (Bally 1997)
FunHouse (Williams 1990)

Pack 3
Monster Bash (Williams 1998)
Gorgar (Williams 1979)

Pack 4
Creature From the Black Lagoon (Bally 1992)
Black Knight (Williams 1980)

Pack 5
Harley Davidson 3rd Edition (Stern 2003)
Taxi (Williams 1988)

Pack 6
Elvira and the Party Monsters (Bally 1989)
No Good Gofers (Williams 1997)

Pack 7
Scared Stiff (Bally 1996)
Big Shot (Gottlieb 1973)

Pack 8/Premium 1
Twilight Zone (Bally 1992)

Pack 9/Premium 2
Star Trek: The Next Generation (Williams 1993)

Pack 10
Attack From Mars (Bally 1995)
Genie (Gottlieb 1979)

Season Two

Pack 11
Dr. Dude (Bally 1990)
Firepower (Williams 1980)

Pack 12
Central Park (Gottlieb 1966)
Cactus Canyon (Bally 1998)

Pack 13
White Water (Williams 1993)
Space Shuttle (Williams 1984)

Pack 14
Centaur (Bally 1981)
Pin*Bot (Williams 1986)

Pack 15
Champion Pub (Bally 1998)
Whirlwind (Williams 1990)

Pack 16
Flight 2000 (Stern 1980)
Goin' Nuts (Gottlieb 1983)

Pack 17/Premium 3
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Williams 1991)

Pack 18
Haunted House (Gottlieb 1982)
Tee'd Off (Gottlieb 1993)

Pack 19
Victory (Gottlieb 1987)
Class of 1812 (Gottlieb 1991)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Zen Studios finally released an update to it's 3DS Star Wars Pinball DL game off of the USA region Nintendo eShop site...so if you bought it when it first appeared up for sale, the patch is free for the taking. Just wasn't sure if such an update would be release with the known issue of it suddenly stopping during gameplay if playing a wi-fi enabled gaming session and forcing the player to return back to the Home screen.

The dot matrix display featured within this 3DS SW Pinball port is super silky-smooth and none of that jerky animation either. Makes me wonder if Zen Studios will go with a colorized DMD setup for their future pinball sim releases for that extra added dramatic visual flair/punch.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[shmuppyLove]

Sweet jesus, I'm so glad I haven't bought any of these already

https://www.humblebundle.com/weekly

u go buy nao

[professor ganson]

So The Pinball Arcade for PS4 has completely revived my interest in digital pinball. So many good tables in this package. I hope they plan to make more available for purchase at the Playstation Store. The Star Trek Next Gen table is probably my favorite so far, but some of the other tables seem like they will ultimately prove to be better gameplay-wise.

With my interest renewed, I've charged up the Gameboy and played a credit of Kirby's Pinball Land. Still my favorite.

[antares]

I know the answer is likely no but does the PS4 version of PA support Tate orientation?

[BrianC]

I know the answer is likely no but does the PS4 version of PA support Tate orientation?

As far as I know, only PC, iOS, and Android versions support it.

[professor ganson]

I will double check on that. Honestly haven't had a chance yet.

[Austin]

Glad this thread was bumped, I just spent a few hours last night downloading a bunch of pinball titles to my new iPad. Figured I'd post some thoughts on them:

Last Gladiators - Basically the Saturn .97 release. However, the initial buy-in price is $5, and you only get the Gladiators table. I didn't bother checking the prices for the other ones, but I'm guessing they are probably five bucks a piece as well. Visuals are a little ugly on the iPad (they weren't polished up for the release), but the game is still good. Couldn't figure out how to nudge though (not that it ever really did that much in LG).. A little expensive and considering most of us here probably have a Saturn, the only perk to it is the portable factor and using the .97 tweaks (which can be good or bad depending on how you want to look at it).

Zaccaria Pinball (by ASK Homework) - A compilation of real-world machines created by Zaccaria. Visually the game is great, but the physics leave a lot to be desired (the ball doesn't even bounce off the flippers; so much for doing a dead flipper bounce). Also, 90% of the options are blocked off via a pay wall. Even things like adjusting the brightness of the room are blocked off. The table recreations seem fine for the most part, but the game feels like a moneygrab to me. They don't even tell you how much it will cost to unlock the extra features when you go to purchase them. Lame. There is a five table bundle for $1 right now. Total, I think there are at least 15 tables available, maybe more. I still don't know how much the other (kind of necessary) options are, like the ones that allow you to tweak the physics.

B.I.T.S. - An interesting pinball game that features seemingly unlimited balls being able to be added to the playfield. Gets a little ridiculous actually, as you end up just wailing on each flipper as quickly as you can. I had so many balls appear the game crashed on me. Or at least I'd like to think that's what caused the crash. May be fun for a few minutes, but it's one that is probably best avoided. I think it's free though.

Pinball Dreams HD - Pinball Dreams upgraded into 3D. Like, polygons making up the playfield. This would be cool and all, except that the physics weren't tweaked at all. The ball feels absurdly slow, and on the Nightmare table it's still nearly impossible to make the left orbit shot and actually hit the hole at the top of the playfield. Just like in the standard 2D Pinball Dreams. Except in 3D, the effect seems ten times worse. It's $4 in the store. May be worth trying if you don't already have the original PD (which I have, but it doesn't seem to want to run on my iPad).

[spadgy]

So The Pinball Arcade for PS4 has completely revived my interest in digital pinball. So many good tables in this package. I hope they plan to make more available for purchase at the Playstation Store. The Star Trek Next Gen table is probably my favorite so far, but some of the other tables seem like they will ultimately prove to be better gameplay-wise.

With my interest renewed, I've charged up the Gameboy and played a credit of Kirby's Pinball Land. Still my favorite.

I'm loving Pinball Arcae for PS4 too. I went to a press launch event where they had a handful of the original tables, which was great. They told me every table is 'ported' into the virtual realm to offer different flippers feels and so on specific to the table. Certainly feels that way. Lots of fun, and all available on disk now.

Pinball Dreams Amiga will always be my favourite. But I fired up the iOS port a few days back, and it seems now to to be working with my recently updates iPhone 4S. Same with Pinball Fantasies. Dies at boot.

[Austin]

Pinball Dreams Amiga will always be my favourite. But I fired up the iOS port a few days back, and it seems now to to be working with my recently updates iPhone 4S. Same with Pinball Fantasies. Dies at boot.

Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies do not load for me on my iPad either (most current update). They crash right at the boot screen as well.

The 3D remakes are available now and they work fine, but in my opinion the originals are more enjoyable to play. Here's to hoping they can fix this.

[professor ganson]

Ok, I finally had a chance to check the menus, and I didn't see any interesting screen options for the PS4 version of Arcade Pinball. No surprise there, but that would've been awesome to provide a tate option.

[BrianC]

Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies do not load for me on my iPad either (most current update). They crash right at the boot screen as well.

They still work for me on my iPad 1. I wonder if it's an issue with iOS 6.

[spadgy]

Well - while I'm glad to hear it's not just me, it's a shame to hear it's effecting other people. Fingers crossed for an update!

[antares]

Seems like PD and PF aren't compatible with iOS 7 and I highly doubt they will be patched now that the 3D versions are out. I've encountered numerous old games which crash on iOS 7. That's the digital age, these games are made for quick cash and quickly forgotten :/