Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (got it today)

[+Random Terrain]

I got Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection for the Xbox 360 as an early Christmas present today.

 

I thought it might look real, like somebody pointed a video camera at a real pinball game. It looks better than the version for the PS2, but it doesn't look as real as I hoped. It's almost there, but not quite. Pinball on the next generation consoles should look like what I was hoping for.

 

If you don't have it yet because of worries about credits, you can stop worrying. I played it for a few hours today, just goofing around, and already have 243 credits.

 

 

These are my favorite games so far:

 

• Medieval Madness
  
• Funhouse
  
• Taxi
  
• Arabian Nights
  

Edited December 8, 2009 by Random Terrain

[+save2600]

Space Shuttle is a great game, as is Black Knight. I hear you about the look of the play fields though. They're not quite there and scrolling tables suck too IMHO. Visual Pinball or PinMAME, now we're talking.

[FastRobPlus]

I'm a big fan of Medieval Madness. We had this for years where I work and it's odd hearing all the sound samples again.

[chrisbid]

i love the wii version, and will pick up the 360 version with the new tables as soon as i find a used copy or if i see a copy on sale.

 

30 dollars for a few extra tables is a bit much

[+Random Terrain]

I'm a big fan of Medieval Madness. We had this for years where I work and it's odd hearing all the sound samples again.

I never got to see most of the games in real life. I remember seeing Black Knight and Pin*Bot, but I think those are the only two in this batch of games. I rarely got to go to the arcade, so I missed years of stuff. Too bad I didn't get to see games like Medieval Madness at the arcade.

[+save2600]

I'll tell you as someone who deals in pinball machines, MM is a crazy popular game. I sort of get why that is, but as a tenured collector/player - I find it rather boring (easy) and not worth its street price which is around $5k-$7k. The mainstream sure has changed the landscape of collecting to be sure. Attack From Mars is another title that Williams produced purposely to be "easy" and entry level gameplay to attract the masses. Guess you have to do what you have to do, but therein lies the compromise(s). They folded (stopped producing pins) anyway shortly after their last ditch attempt which was Pinball 2000 and Attack From Mars. Actually, Pinball2K was relatively popular, but Williams pulled the plug anyway

 

The older machines (or tables for the console people) will always have better replay value because their play field designs were superior - IMO. Revenue on the street has proven that time and time again, but too many variables have changed for most people to "get" what I'm trying to say. The world's pretty much upside down right now. Relish what you've got while you've got it I guess

[+Random Terrain]

I never wanted to be a video game or pinball nerd who is all wrapped up in high score white-knuckle challenges to prove I'm good at something so daddy will love me or to have a feeling of superiority over my friends and family. If I become good at a game because I play it a lot, that's OK, but that's not the reason for playing. The reason for playing is to have fun.

 

If games with ramps, habitrails and other cool stuff are too easy, that's OK with me because I'm a casual player. I play to have fun and to help me think about other things. It's kind of like a form of meditation. I slap the ball around and think about game ideas and solutions to problems. I'm not interested in super-hard Drain-o-Matic pinball games. One thing I don't like is overuse of the dot matrix display. I'm here to play pinball, not to play games on a crappy little dot matrix display. If I want to play a video game, I'll play a video game that has a large, colorful screen.

[EricDeLee]

I was worried about the credit thing as well... but that was easily not a problem once you start playing the game. I think I racked up most of my free credits playing Gorgar. I love that game! I hope to have a real one sometime.

 

This game also got me interested in possibly doing one of those Hyperpin cabinets.

[DaveD]

I just picked this title up for myself on the PS2. By far one of the better classic games compilations I've seen. The games are very playable, the graphics are great, and I love the arcade you walk through to select the games. The video games in the arcade, while unplayable and generic, are based on actual titles and completely recognizable. There's a Tron, Asteroids, Pac-Man, and many more. There are a lot of nice little touches in the arcade like the "help wanted" sign in the window, the coin machine, etc. Overall a very entertaining collection.

[+Zeptari]

I got Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection for the Xbox 360 as an early Christmas present today.

 

 

 

I'm surprised i havn't seen this in my travels to gamestop/bestbuy. How much is

it going for these days? Is this the same as the one on XBLA?

 

-rick

[+Random Terrain]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this in my travels to gamestop/bestbuy. How much is it going for these days? Is this the same as the one on XBLA?

Nope, I think the game you're talking about is Pinball FX. I went looking before, but Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection isn't in any store I have visited. I think stores have decided that the average person doesn't like pinball. You have to buy it online at places like Amazon. It costs around 30 bucks.

[+Zeptari]

ok i just found it... looks really good.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001L8DKM0?ie=UTF8&tag=atariage&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B001L8DKM0

 

next time i get an amazon gift card i'll be all over this!

 

-rick

[BenG76]

Just got this the other day at Walmart for $30. I have it for the Wii and liked it. I will probably trade or sell the Wii one now. Its pretty fun I think.

[Albert]

I still need to get my hands on this!!

 

..Al

[Austin]

I wanted to buy this on Wii a day or two before Christmas while shopping.. Best Buy had about 30 copies of the Gottlieb collection, but zero copies of the Williams Collection.. T'was nowhere to be found... bummer.

[yuppicide]

Medieval Madness was a great game in real arcades also. I played this one a lot.

[jhd]

I picked up the PS 2 version on closge-out at TRU in November for only Cdn$10! I don't recall havin ever seen it anywhere else.

 

My review of the game, in the current issue of Retrogaming Times Monthly.

Edited January 8, 2010 by jhd

[StormSurge]

I picked it up at Wal Mart this weekend for $19.96. Fun game!

[Crazy Climber]

I'll tell you as someone who deals in pinball machines, MM is a crazy popular game. I sort of get why that is, but as a tenured collector/player - I find it rather boring (easy) and not worth its street price which is around $5k-$7k. The mainstream sure has changed the landscape of collecting to be sure. Attack From Mars is another title that Williams produced purposely to be "easy" and entry level gameplay to attract the masses. Guess you have to do what you have to do, but therein lies the compromise(s). They folded (stopped producing pins) anyway shortly after their last ditch attempt which was Pinball 2000 and Attack From Mars. Actually, Pinball2K was relatively popular, but Williams pulled the plug anyway

 

The older machines (or tables for the console people) will always have better replay value because their play field designs were superior - IMO. Revenue on the street has proven that time and time again, but too many variables have changed for most people to "get" what I'm trying to say. The world's pretty much upside down right now. Relish what you've got while you've got it I guess

I agree that Medieval Madness is crazy overpriced but I wouldn't say it's easy. I think MM has one of the deepest rule sets out there (aside from Simpsons by Stern), probably why it's so damn sought after for route and home use. AFM has a very similar rule set but does suffer from "pinflation" scoring. I still wouldn't say either of them are easy, I have yet to destroy every castle in MM or save every city in Mars but have rolled space shuttle and "beat the black knight" several times (closest 80's games I could think of for comparison). I am a fan of older games also so I'm not trying to say either one is better or superior. They are different yes but honestly when you are talking pinball 90% of people are going to like what they grew up with, no matter how much you try to convince them otherwise