New Pinball Arcade from makers of Williams Collection

[onlysublime]

washed out? The colors really pop out for me.

 

 

Alright finally got around to really playing The Pinball Arcade version of Tales of the Arabian Nights. Here's some 720P gameplay:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slUPrUzz_ck

start of gameplay: 0:26

 

And for comparison to the original Pinball Hall of Fame version:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf9JXJKQMOI

 

 

Some notes... I no longer had the raw footage for the Pinball Hall of Fame version so I was working from the MP4 version. So to be fair, I used the MP4 version of The Pinball Arcade version. I record for fun and to have a living gaming history (kind of a like a picture album that I can look back on years from now). So as a result, I don't get paid for it and I'm not going to do multiple takes to get it right or to try to show off or get a high score. So you'll notice that the camera angles don't match and I didn't make an effort to get them to match (because I just want to play the games).

 

Also, Youtube's transcoder really compressed the heck out of the videos. But even through that, I don't know how anyone can say that PHoF looks the same as PA. The lighting is much more impressive (there's actually bloom instead of flat shading). It's also a sharper game than PHoF. Also note that PA and PHoF are 60 fps games but Youtube caps videos at 30 fps so you're losing smoothness of animation and speed.

[onlysublime]

I managed to get the 10billion reset issue on video. Skip to the 45:00 mark to see it reset.

 

 

Maybe it's a bug in the game logic of the original ROMs that the game has? Maybe the original pinball makers didn't anticipate people scoring so much. Is this problem across the platforms?

[Austin]

washed out? The colors really pop out for me.

 

Yeah, the colors are definitely nicer here than in the past collections. Tales of the Arabian Nights especially looks colorful, much more so than the Williams collection that came before. The colors really do pop out on that one!

 

 

I managed to get the 10billion reset issue on video. Skip to the 45:00 mark to see it reset.

 

 

Maybe it's a bug in the game logic of the original ROMs that the game has? Maybe the original pinball makers didn't anticipate people scoring so much. Is this problem across the platforms?

 

I posted it on Facebook and others have stated that certain ROM revisions on the actual machine won't account for over 10 billion either. I believe it's an issue in the handheld versions as well.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

I posted it on Facebook and others have stated that certain ROM revisions on the actual machine won't account for over 10 billion either. I believe it's an issue in the handheld versions as well.

 

According to this forum thread, it's a glitch of the Theater of Magic original pinball table. (by the way is that your YouTube video Austin?). But also on this page it is mentioned that the iOS versions do allow scores over 10 billion.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

Downloaded it from PSN the minute I got home last night.

A few observations.

 

The graphics do look really good. The framerate is silky smoothe and the art does look much better than in previous versions. I personally think Tales of the Arabian Nights looks better on this downloaded title than it did in the PS3 version of Williams Hall of Fame. For example, the ramp on the right side looked almost translucent, practically invisible in the disk version of the Hall of Fame whereas now in the download version it looks more like an actual plastic ramp.

And I have the Gottleib Collection on GameCube, the Black Hole table on that disk was very difficult to play and didn't look very nice. I don't mean the resolution was lesser, obviously that's the case, but no I mean the lamps did not bloom and glow as nicely as they do on this downloaded version.

Some people complained about the locked views. Personally I find the defaults work just fine. I can see everything very well. Then again I have a 42" HDTV so maybe for people on smaller or standard def TV this is a problem. One reviewer had said he couldn't make out the upper playfield of Ripley's Believe It or Not, I can see it just fine when using the default view.

 

But all is not great.

Every time I launch the game it asks me if I want to log in to Facebook. I have gone into my PlayStation Account Settings as it says to do so and turned off the option yet every time I launch the game it still asks me to log in to Facebook. No doubt a patch will fix this.

Here's a weird one: when looking at the leaderboards they have decided to list all versions of the game, including the mobile versions. I was sort of hoping I would be high on the boards, given this just came out for PSN yesterday, but my dreams were crushed when I saw some of the scores people had achieved on their iPads. It would have been nice for the mobile version to have separate leaderboards from console versions. But that's a minor complaint.

Also, I find launching the ball in Tales of the Arabian Nights is pure luck which is a shame because you have to hit one of three targets in order to get the lucky shot bonus. In the Williams Hall of Fame disk version, pulling the plunger was pretty easy to apply enough pressure to get the correct target. Now in this download version, if I have to hit the nearest target, even if I just pull back a very small amount, I usually miss it. Maybe they decided that was more of a challenge? Not sure.

And maybe my connection to PSN was flakey yesterday but after unlocking four trophies in the game I tried synching them with PSN like I always do and none of my four trophies showed up in my PSN profile. I sure hope that's a connection problem and not broken trophy support in the game.

 

Anyway, really enjoying it so far, despite a few wrinkles.

Next week Bride of Pinbot comes out and that is one of my three favorite tables so already this is a must-have download game for me. And as the months go by and more tables become available, I think I'll be playing this one for a long time to come.

[keilbaca]

Wait, the scores on the facebook logins go across all platforms? Now THAT is cool. Sounds like I need to blow up Bride of Pinbot, even though it has the glitch.

 

I'm still upset about that glitch.. got two billionaire clubs, ball 1, 3 extra balls ready to go, and the thing glitches. I hope the ps3 doesn't have the same glitch, but even if it does, it wouldn't matter to the ps3 version. The consoles have an analog stick to relaunch the ball, so that won't matter. To the androids, it wouldn't kick over to let me launch the ball, and it was stuck in a perma lock. Had to quit the game, not even a tilt kicked it into working.

 

Looks like the console people have a small advantage then on Medieval Madness, as we can't hold the left flipper, as we launch the ball to get the advanced skill shots. :/

[cimerians]

Downloaded it last night. To me this has improved on the Williams collection. I think they did a great job. Some of the little things that were annoying in other pinball games (williams and FX) have been cleared up. I love the highscore screen. Its clear and readable. Jumping from game to game and the load times are good. My big beef with other compilations is the "Arcade" rooms which you need to navigate. I like the atmosphere of them but after a while I just want to play the pinball games and not roam around an arcade. Speeding up accessibility to just play is a big plus for me. I felt the scoreboard (on the PS3) version is a bit washed out. The boards themselves are perfect and very bright, granted I'm playing on a 1080P 55 inch. I also like the default views but more variety would be welcome.

 

Nothing beats the feel of playing the real thing. I had the chance to do so a few months back at a local arcade here and I was shocked at how "different" it was. Its been a VERY long time for me (since the 1990's maybe)

[Rex Dart]

washed out? The colors really pop out for me.

 

Yeah, the tables seem overly-lit. I can't read the text on things when they're lit up, and the cloud behind the girl on Arabian is just an indistinct glowing pink mass...

 

Oh well. Maybe they'll add options to tweak brightness.

[onlysublime]

washed out? The colors really pop out for me.

 

Yeah, the tables seem overly-lit. I can't read the text on things when they're lit up, and the cloud behind the girl on Arabian is just an indistinct glowing pink mass...

 

Oh well. Maybe they'll add options to tweak brightness.

 

I like the little details that they added. LIke in Tales of the Arabian Nights, the genie's eyes flash depending on certain events in The Pinball Arcade version. But in Pinball Hall of Fame, they're solid black all the time.

[Austin]

(by the way is that your YouTube video Austin?).

 

Yep, it's mine.

[ComputerSpaceFan]

And maybe my connection to PSN was flakey yesterday but after unlocking four trophies in the game I tried synching them with PSN like I always do and none of my four trophies showed up in my PSN profile. I sure hope that's a connection problem and not broken trophy support in the game.

 

Update, I was able to synch my four trophies just fine so it's not broken, my connection to PSN was just faulty last night.

[+Random Terrain]

I finally figured out how to keep from losing the ball in Black Hole. When the ball goes down to the interior playfield, it needs to say Gate Open or you'll lose the ball. I totally didn't get that about the first 10 times I played it.

[onlysublime]

I finally figured out how to keep from losing the ball in Black Hole. When the ball goes down to the interior playfield, it needs to say Gate Open or you'll lose the ball. I totally didn't get that about the first 10 times I played it.

how do you get it to change to gate open? where does it say gate open? I've been too busy trying to keep the ball from draining to notice.

[+Random Terrain]

I finally figured out how to keep from losing the ball in Black Hole. When the ball goes down to the interior playfield, it needs to say Gate Open or you'll lose the ball. I totally didn't get that about the first 10 times I played it.

 

how do you get it to change to gate open? where does it say gate open? I've been too busy trying to keep the ball from draining to notice.

 

Right behind (above) the flippers, it says Gate Closed, then after whacking away at the ball, the words Gate Closed will change to Gate Open. If you whack the ball again into something, it will switch back to Gate Closed and it will flip back and forth like that between Gate Open and Gate Closed each time you hit something with the ball, so I just whack the ball until I feel like I'm probably going to lose it, then let it fall between the flippers when it says Gate Open. If I don't lose it on purpose when the gate is open, there is a good chance I'll lose it when the gate is closed and the ball will be lost.

[onlysublime]

umm... I may actually be contributing to Kickstarter for the first time ever...

 

 

from the facebook page:

 

We have good news and bad news to report on the issue of licensed tables. We’ve finally succeeded in negotiating all of the licenses we’d need to bring the Twilight Zone to the Pinball Arcade. This is unquestionably one of the greatest pinball tables of all time (and is currently #1 in IPDB’s user rankings). However the licenses are VEY expensive- so expensive that the table probably isn’t commercially viable. Some of you have suggested a Kickstarter project to raise money for the license costs and we’re considering this. We’d like to ask your opinion- is this a good idea? If we did it what should the rewards be for backers, and at what contribution levels? We’d appreciate your thoughts!

[Austin]

I'd help out with it. I'd love to play TTZ on the Pinball Arcade!

[onlysublime]

the only thing I worry about with this is it kind of opens Pandora's box. this means that license holders can hold out for extravagant amounts if they know that people will fork it over. Artful negotiation comes from the unknown. If you already tip your hand, you already are going to lose.

 

And if let's say they start a Kickstarter for this table. Does that mean the owners of STNG will hold out for Kickstarter numbers as well? Will every table end up costing $15-25 individually?

 

I know FarSight is trying to act like and side with the fans. But open negotiation doesn't usually end well. And if things fall through, FarSight comes out looking really bad. At least behind closed doors, if the licenses fell through, no one would know the better of it.

[Rex Dart]

Haha, what? It's not THAT good a table. Gimme Getaway, Swords of Fury, Black Night 2000, or Starship Troopers first, then worry about the ho-hum tables with undeserved acclaim.

[Austin]

the only thing I worry about with this is it kind of opens Pandora's box. this means that license holders can hold out for extravagant amounts if they know that people will fork it over. Artful negotiation comes from the unknown. If you already tip your hand, you already are going to lose.

 

And if let's say they start a Kickstarter for this table. Does that mean the owners of STNG will hold out for Kickstarter numbers as well? Will every table end up costing $15-25 individually?

 

You make a good point. I didn't think of that. Hm. I guess if that potentially happens, then I'm really not all that desperate for this table.

 

Haha, what? It's not THAT good a table. Gimme Getaway, Swords of Fury, Black Night 2000, or Starship Troopers first, then worry about the ho-hum tables with undeserved acclaim.

 

I'm all for your suggestions as well, but to be honest, if Farsight doesn't fix how their damn physics engine works (i.e., make it more realistic), you will be able to have endless games of Black Knight 2000 (it already feels that way on the real thing). Same thing with other more simplistic tables like The Getaway. Swords of Fury--that would make an interesting digital table. Got to play that at a local tournament back in December--pretty fun game. It has a lot going on with the multiple playfields and I think that would mix things up more with their current [extremely lenient] engine.

[HammR25]

If the table isn't commercially viable they should leave it alone. Going the kickstarter route for one small part of a project is beyond tacky.

[Atariboy]

^{I vote to forget about it for now.}

 

^{Sometimes just such a move can cause IP holders to revaluate their asking prices since some money is better than none. And The Twilight Zone isn't exactly a huge property with a lot of opportunities to make money off it. It's an old tv anthology series from 50 years ago with a small but diehard fan base. But it's not quite a license to print money (Heck, it even took a 3rd party independent studio licensing the title to even get it out there on DVD and now Blu-Ray).}

 

^{And interest is waning every year as those fans continue to die out. I would think it would be in the IP holders' best interest to expose a younger generation to the franchise in a roundabout way that just might get their interest piqued enough to want to learn more about it. Things like that are needed if they want to improve the long-term commercial viability of the tv episodes and franchise in general. And Pinball Arcade just might become the hit they're hoping it will be. A large userbase of potential customers surely won't hurt the financial viability of this release if this thing takes off. Something that is difficult to accomplish now might not be so outlandish down the road if they manage to have a few hundred thousand loyal customers across platforms regularly buying content.}

 

^{Time might be all it takes to change the financial prospects of this if they're willing to wait a while.}

[+Random Terrain]

How will we know when there are more pinball games to buy and add to the rest? Doesn't seem obvious like it does with Pinball FX 2.

[chris_lynx1989]

Yeah,also PHOF:TWC/TGC has an update option from the UMD/Mem stick load screen.Do we just pray or guess more just suddenly "pop up" for more fun for us,or do we get PA/SEN/Farsight emails,or what?

 

 

 

[mckafka99]

At least where iOS devices are concerned, new tables become available as an app update (at least they did with the first dlc)

 

[Austin]

The only thing I can think of is that there will be an update to download once new tables are actually available.