The Pinball (digital and physical) ERA |OT| Full Tilt

Man, I was missing the pinball OT thread. Thanks for bringing it over here!

Video time! All vetted & recommended!

(List is still being updated, please recommend more great vids)


Great Feature Pinball Documentaries:
Tilt: The Battle To Save Pinball (2008)
Special When Lit (2009)
Wizard Mode (2016)



How To Play/Tips & Tricks/Tutorials:

Timballs' Pinball Tips: How To Aim Correctly
https://youtu.be/bCxgUPfVsjc

Pinball Techniques
https://youtu.be/kowB0HmJ1wY

PAPA Official Channel (tons of fantastic tutorials ons specific tables & tournament videos)
https://www.youtube.com/user/PAPApinball



Modern Era Documentation:

Associated Press: Tilt! Old School Pinball Finds New Fans (Dec. 25 2017)
https://youtu.be/XLRB9KFi3HM

DigitalTrends: Stern Pinball Machines Are Helping Fuel Pinball's Big Comeback at CES 2018
https://youtu.be/sI3LZxE1XWY

HBO Real Sports: Pinball Wizard Robert Gagno (2017)
https://youtu.be/qB3Dy4XXaU0

Motherboard: The Last Arcade Technicians in NYC
https://youtu.be/MAytSqet_Zs

VICE - Pinball: From Illegal Gambling Game to American Obsession
https://youtu.be/-IAwLj6XKR8

Under the Glass (Short Documentary 2016)
https://youtu.be/JIDTn7v6pGY

12 for 12 - Episode 7: Stern Pinball (2016)
https://youtu.be/ckq0BM4zN7w

AOL/Huffington Post: How I Did It - Jersey Jack Pinball
https://youtu.be/9b9qSW-KmZQ

Replay (2013)
https://youtu.be/soL6IVF8FEY

Flippers (2016)
https://youtu.be/P7IZM09EYqU

Storyhive: The Top 5 Secret Skills of Pinball
https://youtu.be/8Gsw7lamnmM

SubCultures - Episode 11: Pinball
https://youtu.be/HLcjsSfAHeA

TechCrunch Makers: Pinball Hall of Fame
https://youtu.be/TUsMFLX38xU

La Vida Local: Chicago's Pinball Passion (2015)
https://youtu.be/Js2rpRXOHkM

Add-A-Ball (Short Documentary 2015)
https://youtu.be/Ze9y8QGx6WE

National Geographic - Inside the Extraordinary Mind of a Pinball World Champion (2017)
https://youtu.be/EPJQ1QTxbBQ

CNN: Meet The Best Pinball Player In The World (2014)
https://youtu.be/VOy0y3Co-gQ

WTNH News 8 - The Resurgence of Pinball (2017)
https://youtu.be/_H5T-SWomow

WJLP "Jersey Matters" - Jersey Jack (2017)
https://youtu.be/Bh4Qr4K0A28

CBS News - Pinball is back and running full tilt!
https://youtu.be/iH5bhaRz39Q

Made Right Here: Featuring Stern Pinball
https://youtu.be/Vczknj-C3aI

Medieval Madness Remake w/ Roger Sharpe
https://youtu.be/SNid7uMhDFw

Heighway Entertainment's Alien Pinball Feature
https://youtu.be/r8a2g_gH0ys

KSDK News - Pinball Machines Are Making A Comeback (2017)
https://youtu.be/Ba0GOauiYIs

News 5 Cleveland - Pinball Makes A Comeback (2014)
https://youtu.be/OqoGgf_k2g0



Pinball History:

Coin Operated (2007)
https://youtu.be/0JqkWGLQHNQ

Made In America: Stern Pinball (2007)
https://youtu.be/xqs7oLm8Igs

NBC Nightly News - Stern Pinball (2008)
https://youtu.be/IHbsXZRs4i0

Wild Chicago visits Williams (1992)
https://youtu.be/oMilCuI6cgk

How Pinball Machines are Developed At Williams (1993)
https://youtu.be/oZHEDSpMnfA

How It's Made: Pinball Machine (early 2000s?)
https://youtu.be/4DtLTIsuEf0

"The Fonz" Home Pinball Machine Commercial (aaayyyyyy!)
https://youtu.be/ddLZwrqMaVE

"Pinball Champ" Home Pinball Machine Commercial (1977)
https://youtu.be/5wED99rJblc

Sears Pinball Game Commercial (1976)
https://youtu.be/9oEsEjAzK18

Arcade Attack: Silverball Heroes vs Video Invaders (late 1970s?)
https://youtu.be/5cWbG4ovfzw

Williams Factory Tour (1991)
https://youtu.be/5wXq-WraO1Q

Dream Jobs: Pat Lawlor (1990)
https://youtu.be/Gj8UJvdeau0

1998 Chicago Pinball Expo Floor Tour
Part 1 https://youtu.be/GeqQFuAcQak
Part 2 https://youtu.be/vEJklzuly8s

Roger Sharpe on the Today Show 1990
https://youtu.be/mJb2-f9jZE0

Famous Pinball Programmer Lyman Sheats on the Today Show 1993
https://youtu.be/6rBxIJPe8VY

History Channel: Making A Pinball Machine (at the Stern Factory) ~2004
https://youtu.be/KalpCpsRT1U

The History of Pinball (1998 Documentary)
https://youtu.be/JIDTn7v6pGY

Alvin G. Factory Tour (1993)
https://youtu.be/clsGVAB5znU

ABC News LA - Video Fever: Games People Play (1982 - mostly arcade games, some pinball)
https://youtu.be/P3sqUrX83Yg

Chicago Tonight visits Stern Pinball (2003)
https://youtu.be/C2aszDOhQzo



Buying & Collecting:

Metal Jesus: Pinball Machine Collecting - What You Need To Know To Get Started
https://youtu.be/EdveWQjtnww

Pinball Expert: How To Avoid Losing Big Money Buying A Used Pinball Machine
https://youtu.be/EszFbs19r-k

Pinball Expert: Top 12 FAQs From First Time Pinball Machine Buyers
https://youtu.be/g4p6z4E_zrg

TNT Amusements' Channel (Reseller/Restorer w/ tons of awesome & trivia-heavy feature tour videos of restored & modded games)
https://www.youtube.com/user/tntamusements



Stern Pinball "Making Of" Short-Form Documentaries:
Uhh. So Stern has erased John Trudeau and removed the Making Of videos for Ghostbusters & Mustang. Understandable but too bad as the GB one was pretty cool.

Star Wars
https://youtu.be/xof3c6jsnGQ

Aerosmith
https://youtu.be/0yoX1rGx3_4

Game of Thrones
https://youtu.be/gKECwPs2PBg

KISS
https://youtu.be/6qKSKwHqZ_w

The Walking Dead
https://youtu.be/x6q3WCQfres

Metallica
https://youtu.be/hgKWYwFZNFA

AC/DC
https://youtu.be/fzc3kSrdroo

WWE Wrestemania
https://youtu.be/9Rg5I2-5ID8

Transformers
Part 1 https://youtu.be/cfLjJM7RSr4
Part 2 https://youtu.be/Jil9nzP6OP4

The Avengers
https://youtu.be/gzbExfIPhUw

X-Men
https://youtu.be/sgGxOEjec_g

X-Men: Wolverine Edition Feature Tour with Designer John Borg
https://youtu.be/kCTm2IMceZ4

Stern: Spike Pinball System Overview
https://youtu.be/MvefdrNaAPg

For the curious, here are two video interviews with John Trudeau

PaperFlock, Inc: Ghostbusters
https://youtu.be/H69Dtbh8fNg

PinGame Journal: Mustang
https://youtu.be/2lEdh3cKlqM



Vintage Company Promo Videos
These are all very dated & pretty cheesy but many feature the game designers and are fascinating curios!


Williams Road Show Promo Video w/ Designer Pat Lawlor
https://youtu.be/WJS_wbDjs-o

Williams Medival Madness Promo w/ Designer Brian Eddy
https://youtu.be/LFq2s8HuCHg

Bally Scared Stiff Promo w/ Elvira
https://youtu.be/nMcVuMD-qrk

Bally Attack From Mars Promo
https://youtu.be/7lZH8jHCzUg

Bally Addams Family
https://youtu.be/FsnzDXXSURU

Twilight Zone
https://youtu.be/LyI0c4sRN_w

Williams Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Promo
https://youtu.be/mT-WrbpW5Js

Black Rose
https://youtu.be/p6wTc1RoVpA

Popeye Saves The Earth
https://youtu.be/rHehj0WxofY

Jack*bot
https://youtu.be/BH3FKdQB1-A

Dr. Who
https://youtu.be/XIyneuOUapM

Cirqus Voltaire
https://youtu.be/q-2wvvIDxIk

The Shadow
https://youtu.be/Hd283tFgkvE

Star Trek The Next Generation
https://youtu.be/UFvAS8ltIXU

Judge Dredd
https://youtu.be/LKUr8QYRp1c

Pinball 2000 Platform
https://youtu.be/dAyBz8XIMsU

Revenge From Mars
https://youtu.be/UUSzSHNEv2g

Star Wars Episode 1
https://youtu.be/92bdp3w9D00

I got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Switch version of Stern Pinball just received an update to include TATE mode!

The bad news is. The mode doesn't actually work.... lol

meppi64 said:

I got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Switch version of Stern Pinball just received an update to include TATE mode!

The bad news is. The mode doesn't actually work.... lol

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Slam Tilt said:

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But it comes with a free frogurt!

Ah man, now I wanna try the X-Men one!

I saw a thread on someone making the Switch into a docked table at home in TATE mode and it's got me into a Pinball kick.

I really love the HD rumble for the Zen Pinball FX3 but preferred the look and play of the real Stern Pinball Arcade games (although I only tried Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) which was great fun and looked nice and clean. I picked up the Portal Pinball which had some neat ideas but I'm kind of eh on it after playing it for a while. Frankenstein just got better the more I learned the table. I unlocked a ultraball with 6 balls and it was the most fun I've had with a digital pinball game, and it feels close enough to the real game that it brought up some dormant memories of when I had played the real thing back in the day.

The price of the Stern machines seem a bit more expensive and it still doesn't have some of the machines I remember playing, so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations of machines to play.

Cuburger said:

I saw a thread on someone making the Switch into a docked table at home in TATE mode and it's got me into a Pinball kick.

I really love the HD rumble for the Zen Pinball FX3 but preferred the look and play of the real Stern Pinball Arcade games (although I only tried Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) which was great fun and looked nice and clean. I picked up the Portal Pinball which had some neat ideas but I'm kind of eh on it after playing it for a while. Frankenstein just got better the more I learned the table. I unlocked a ultraball with 6 balls and it was the most fun I've had with a digital pinball game, and it feels close enough to the real game that it brought up some dormant memories of when I had played the real thing back in the day.

The price of the Stern machines seem a bit more expensive and it still doesn't have some of the machines I remember playing, so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations of machines to play.

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I would love to hear any Stern machine suggestions as well. I just picked up a few on steam.

My favourite Stern tables at this point at in the following order:

1: Ghostbusters - no surprise there at this point. ;) About 15 hours in and I'm still learning new things about the table. Not even close to mastering it.
2: Ripley's Believe it to Not
3: AC/DC
4: Star Trek

I need to put a bit more time into the others to get a better feel for them.

meppi64 said:

I got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Switch version of Stern Pinball just received an update to include TATE mode!

The bad news is. The mode doesn't actually work.... lol

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Farsight finally Farsight the Switch version.

meppi64 said:

My favourite Stern tables at this point at in the following order:

1: Ghostbusters - no surprise there at this point. ;) About 15 hours in and I'm still learning new things about the table. Not even close to mastering it.
2: Ripley's Believe it to Not
3: AC/DC
4: Star Trek

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Oddly enough, my list is almost reversed:

1. Star Trek
2. AC/DC
3. Mustang
4. Ghostbusters
5. Starship Troopers
6. Ripley's

Are we talking actual Stern tables of just the tables in Stern Pinball Arcade? If the latter:

1) Star Trek
2) Ghostbusters
3) Ripley's BION
4) Last Action Hero
5) AC/DC
6) Mustang
7) High Roller Casino
8) Phantom of the Opera
9) Starship Troopers
10) Harley Davidson

meppi64 said:

I got some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the Switch version of Stern Pinball just received an update to include TATE mode!

The bad news is. The mode doesn't actually work.... lol

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Classic Farsight!

Welcome to our club, Switch owners! We go through this shit with every patch.

I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.


Still chipping away at Last Action Hero. Still having a rough time. lol
Looks like I need to put some decent amount of time into Mustang as well then. he only problem there is that for some reason that first song that plays seems to eat away at my soul bit by bit. ;)

Surprised Start Trek in on top for both of you. But in a good way.
I love Star Trek, so the theme alone should click with me, although I despise the new films. ;)
Really like the table, but haven't gone as deep into it as with Ghostbusters, so that's another one on my to-do list to see if it can switch places with the others.

I played a terminator 2 pinball machine regularly in a bar in the 90s. I was really good at it and held the top spot on the high score list.

Does someone know if that machine got an digital version? My platforms right now are PC, ps4 and switch....

Buddy said:

I played a terminator 2 pinball machine regularly in a bar in the 90s. I was really good at it and held the top spot on the high score list.

Does someone know if that machine got an digital version? My platforms right now are PC, ps4 and switch....

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You're in luck!



It's not yet on Switch though since we only have Stern Pinball Arcade at this moment.
But they are working on getting the regular Pinball Arcade on the system in the coming months.
Hopefully it'll launch with a ton of tables.

meppi64 said:

You're in luck!



It's not yet on Switch though since we only have Stern Pinball Arcade at this moment.
But they are working on getting the regular Pinball Arcade on the system in the coming months.
Hopefully it'll launch with a ton of tables.

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Ohh boy that's the one. thx buddy

I played that thing so much over the years, I think I could have bought the machine for my home^^

Will look it up and buy it tonight after I get home

Buddy said:

Ohh boy that's the one. thx buddy

I played that thing so much over the years, I think I could have bought the machine for my home^^

Will look it up and buy it tonight after I get home

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No problem. ;)

I'm hoping we'll one day see Solar Fire in TPA as it's the single pinball game that I remember from my childhood, even though we had a whole bunch come through the bar over the decade I grew up there.
I'm sure, the more videos I watch, there's a good chance some others might come back to me.



So strange to hear that they only made 782 of these and one ended up in my small insignificant corner of the world back in the day...

Bought Bob's Burgers and Family Guy tables for Zen Pinball and the visuals are bugged, heavy aliasing and there's blocks around the ball and bumpers :(

https://i.imgur.com/bUJDb83.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bgnm0Lw.jpg

My other tables are fine, I reported the issue weeks ago and it still hasn't been fixed, even though they told me they've had many reports of the problem. I guess it's a case of "fuck you, got yo money".

MrH said:

Bought Bob's Burgers and Family Guy tables for Zen Pinball and the visuals are bugged, heavy aliasing and there's blocks around the ball and bumpers :(

https://i.imgur.com/bUJDb83.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bgnm0Lw.jpg

My other tables are fine, I reported the issue weeks ago and it still hasn't been fixed, even though they told me they've had many reports of the problem. I guess it's a case of "fuck you, got yo money".

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Is that for Switch I assume? Zen isn't actually much better than Farsight. Their tables are loaded with bugs and things like that, fixes take forever, and the only real edge they have is in the meta game and UI. The Switch launch state is horrible, docked gameplay is 720p while it's 1080p on the Wii U, and handheld gameplay frequently drops frames and is only 30fps while again, it's 60 fps on the Wii U. Not to mention they're missing a ton of tables the other platforms have. We need a better company doing the pinball games than these two, they deserve better.

Minsc said:

Is that for Switch I assume? Zen isn't actually much better than Farsight. Their tables are loaded with bugs and things like that, fixes take forever, and the only real edge they have is in the meta game and UI. The Switch launch state is horrible, docked gameplay is 720p while it's 1080p on the Wii U, and handheld gameplay frequently drops frames and is only 30fps while again, it's 60 fps on the Wii U. Not to mention they're missing a ton of tables the other platforms have. We need a better company doing the pinball games than these two, they deserve better.

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Nah Android, I'm using the new Lenovo Tab 10 Plus. My other tables don't have heavy aliasing nor the blocky bumper/ball issue so it seems to only affect certain tables.

In comparison the Doom table which is perfect, the graphics actually have AA applied: https://i.imgur.com/z4QwPqN.jpg

Hey guys, AC/DC doesn't have a kickback feature in neither the left or right drain lane??

As far as licenses that will NEVER get picked up... anime stuff.

I'd fork the money no doubt for a great GO NAGAI table featuring Mazinger, Grendizer, Getter, Kotetsu Jeeg, Devilman... it would be glorious!

Dragon Ball would have a ton of potential but I imagine it's too costly.

Another that would make me cry would be a Series 1&2 Fist of the North Star table. It would translate perfectly into pinball. Man. What a dream :'-(

meppi64
Solar Fire wouldn't look that cool in TPA tho, right? There's a lot of custom lighting done on that table in the video afaik.

TATE update in Stern for Switch

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It's less funny this time because it shines a light on how the Farsight Team is going to handle the Switch version and their m.o. in general.
It's obvious they didn't even bother to try the update on a proper console before pushing it out.
You replicare the "bug" 100% of the times, just push On for Portrait Mode and it'll flash back to horizontal position in a fraction of a second. It flats out doesn't work, not a matter of "if". Disgusting.

And they still haven't fixed the multiball camera bug where after multiball the camera will stop following the ball on the table and to unlock it you need to back and forth to a different camera angle. This happens >50% of the times, annoying to say the least if you don't play with a locked camera angle.

Dash Kappei said:

Hey guys, AC/DC doesn't have a kickback feature in neither the left or right drain lane??

As far as licenses that will NEVER get picked up... anime stuff.

I'd fork the money no doubt for a great GO NAGAI table featuring Mazinger, Grendizer, Getter, Kotetsu Jeeg, Devilman... it would be glorious!

Dragon Ball would have a ton of potential but I imagine it's too costly.

Another that would make me cry would be a Series 1&2 Fist of the North Star table. It would translate perfectly into pinball. Man. What a dream :'-(

meppi64
Solar Fire wouldn't look that cool in TPA tho, right? There's a lot of custom lighting done on that table in the video afaik.

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Yeah, the table would look a lot less flashy. It's from the 80's after all.
So all those LED strips and hole lights and such would not be there at all. Even some of the lighting underneath certain parts was adjusted or added, so the table would be quite a bit dimmer that what you're seeing there.

I'm actually of two minds on those kinds of mods.
On the one hand, they look absolutely gorgeous, but on the other, it loses a bit of the charm and everything starts blending together between tables as that new stuff starts to get overused.
But I guess the customer is always right...

This one is original as far as I can tell:



I actually prefer it like that.

Oh and thinking of animated licences, now I really want a M.A.S.K pinball table!

MrH said:

Bought Bob's Burgers and Family Guy tables for Zen Pinball and the visuals are bugged, heavy aliasing and there's blocks around the ball and bumpers :(

https://i.imgur.com/bUJDb83.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/bgnm0Lw.jpg

My other tables are fine, I reported the issue weeks ago and it still hasn't been fixed, even though they told me they've had many reports of the problem. I guess it's a case of "fuck you, got yo money".

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I'm not really sure what the issue is, I have the same problem in Bob's Burgers & The Force Awakens.

I reported that the iOS version of Champions has an issue where the ball accelerates when entering the inlanes (it doesn't happen on other versions ive tried) in the Mavel Pinball app and it's never been fixed. That was a year and a half ago (the app hasn't been patched since).

meppi64 said:

Surprised Start Trek in on top for both of you. But in a good way.

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Like I said before, the objectives get a little repetitive, but I enjoy it in a quasi-retraux sort of way. Fewer ramps and rails, more mastery of making a handful of shots and being able to execute them when needed.

I just wish they had put as much effort to make at the very least Ghostbusters, huge license, look as good as The Addams Family, especially considering they were asking freaking $10 for it. It's such a missed opportunity.
Seriously fire up tables from TPA's previous seasons and compare it graphically to Ghostbusters or AC/DC.

Anyone else besides me and meppi playing on Switch?
Also, anyone familiar with the AC/DC table irl? As I've said above, is it supposed to NOT have left/right lane kickbacks?

Dash Kappei said:

Anyone else besides me and meppi playing on Switch?

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I'm playing on iOS until TPA gets on the Switch.

Dash Kappei said:

Anyone else besides me and meppi playing on Switch?

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I'm playing Pinball FX3 on Switch. I'm not very good but I've enjoyed pinball since I was a kid (EM days) regardless of my lack of skill.

Factory 1.21 said:

I'm playing Pinball FX3 on Switch. I'm not very good but I've enjoyed pinball since I was a kid (EM days) regardless of my lack of skill.

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You should play docked until they get the 60fps patch out for handheld mode.

Super bummed out about the PBFX3 port, honestly. 720p docked & 30 fps undocked and missing half of the tables with no timeline for any of it.

I can deal with the low resolution but 30 fps is unacceptable for pinball. It's sluggish and less responsive.

Zen said on Twitter they are trying not to sacrifice too much graphically to get things up to where they should be but it's really disappointing that any graphical concessions need to be made at all.

I'm not sure why so many developers are struggling with performance on Switch but I feel like the blame is honestly on Nintendo, I just don't know why exactly. If it were just some outlier cases I'd say it's just poorly optimized code but it's too big of a trend.

HotHamBoy said:

I'm not sure why so many developers are struggling with performance on Switch

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Switch gold rush. Gotta get on the customers' horizon before the market gets crowded.

I mean they had it on the Wii U, and the Switch (docked) is significantly faster than the Wii U, with much more modern architecture. It ran 1080p 60fps on the Wii U. So now on a faster system, it runs 720p? No, they just didn't optimize well. I am not even convinced it looks much different from the Wii U. Sure the mobile/iPad ports are dialed back graphically, but then they also run at 60fps, even on like 5 year old phones.

We've seen plenty of other games get patches to double the framerate or raise the resolution, and heavy hitters like Doom and TESIV runs on the device, so you'd think pinball would be a piece of cake. Disgaea Complete runs perfectly, that's a PS4 port, and many other things to, not everything needs to be dialed back. Not to mention Stern Pinball Arcade runs at 60fps docked/handheld, so at least there's one thing Farsight did correctly.

Yeah, it's pretty much what Slam Tilt said. Developers were caught with their pants down and when they saw how well games were selling, everyone jumped on board as fast as possible and had to have their game up by Christmas, no matter how well it ran.
Luckily the majority seems to actually care about putting out a product that runs in an acceptable state before dumping it on the eshop.

Here's a fun thought experiment!

You're building an arcade specifically for kids and you have room for 12 pins. What do you put in?

My list:
Super Mario Bros.
Rocky & Bullwinkle
The Flintstones (cartoon mod)
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Attack From Mars
Monster Bash
The Hobbit
The Wizard of Oz
Spider-Man Vault Edition
The Avengers
Simpsons Pinball Party
World Cup Soccer 94

I went heavy on toys and I tried to have a good balance of recognizable themes. I thought about putting a Star Wars game in there, maybe swap Data East SW for Rocky & Bullwinkle or The Flintstones but I just prefer the latter two, honestly. Stern SW is just too complex and crazy fast.

I also really want to put in Space Shuttle because it's a good beginner game but I think kids would find it boring compared to other games on the list.

Minsc said:

I mean they had it on the Wii U, and the Switch (docked) is significantly faster than the Wii U, with much more modern architecture. It ran 1080p 60fps on the Wii U. So now on a faster system, it runs 720p? No, they just didn't optimize well. I am not even convinced it looks much different from the Wii U. Sure the mobile/iPad ports are dialed back graphically, but then they also run at 60fps, even on like 5 year old phones.

We've seen plenty of other games get patches to double the framerate or raise the resolution, and heavy hitters like Doom and TESIV runs on the device, so you'd think pinball would be a piece of cake. Disgaea Complete runs perfectly, that's a PS4 port, and many other things to, not everything needs to be dialed back. Not to mention Stern Pinball Arcade runs at 60fps docked/handheld, so at least there's one thing Farsight did correctly.

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The Vita version also runs at 60fps ans I think it looks good.

Graphically, as far I can tell the main difference seems to be the lighting and the tables benefiting the most from the new engine are Son of Zeus and Adventire Land, which makes sense since they were built from the statt with the new engine.

Compare the character models of Hercules & weirdos on Adventure Land and you'll see a big difference between Pinball FX3 and Zen Pinball 2.

I still think the iOS version looks good on my iPad and the difference is not as stark as the difference between iOS Pinball Arcade and other versions.

Pinball FX/Zen Pinball Table Pack ratings

Packs are rated on a scale of 1-6.

Please note that Marvel, Bethesda & Star Wars packs are not yet available on Switch. South Park, Plants vs Zombies, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter & Ms Splosion Man (Ms.SM not on Playstation, MS Exclusive) are not available in any version of Pinball FX3 but can be purchased in Zen Pinball 2/PBFX2. PvZ, Ninja Gaiden, SF & MsSM are not available on mobile.

Super League Football is no longer available on any platform unless you already purchased it before it was delisted. Zen's rights to the team liscenses expired (you could purchase individual versions of the table themed after your favorite team). There was a generic Zen Studios team version that was pulled with it and the game was supposed to return with all licensing removed but this happened some time ago and the table has yet to resurface with no word from Zen.

On mobile each table is sold individually so don't necessarily apply the table pack rating to a singled-out table from that pack, especially the 3-4 rated packs.

I tried to write a description of what each rating generally implies, however there were some cases where I thought the pack rating was seriously dragged down by the crappiness of one or two tables. The one I had the hardest time with was Marvel Origins. Spider-Man is a fantastic table and Blade is quite good, but Wolverine is mediocre and Iron Man is one of the worst tables they've ever put out. Core Collection was another tough one. Rome & Secrets of the Deep are incredibly boring IMO and Biolab is perfectly average but Pasha is great and a personal favorite.


People will have different opinions about these tables, pinball can be divisive so YMMV. I really just wanted to give people a barometer of value, especially if they don't know where to start. That said, packs rated 6 & 5 are easily recommended to all without hesitation. A lot of these tables are easier to recommend on mobile where the price is 50% lower.


6: Every table is great

Bethesda - Fallout, Doom, Skyrim
Carnivals & Legends - Son of Zeus, Adventure Land
Star Wars Pinball - The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett, Clone Wars
South Park - South Park, Butters Very Own Pinball Game
Super League Football (single table, great quality)

5: One of the tables is average-good but not great, otherwise excellent pack

Aliens vs Pinball - Aliens, Predator, Alien Isolation
Marvel Vengeance & Virtue - Ghost Rider, Thor, X-Men, Moon Knight
Marvel Avengers - The Avengers, Fear Itself, World War Hulk, Infinity Gauntlet
Marvel Women of Power - A-Force, Champions
Star Wars: The Force Awakens Pack - The Force Awakens, The First Order
Zen: Iron & Steel - Wild West Rampage, CastleStorm
Plants vs Zombies (single table, very good quality)

4: One or two tables are mediocre, maybe even bad, but the others are good to great

Balls of Glory - Family Guy, American Dad, Archer, Bob's Burgers
Marvel Legends - Captain America, Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange
Marvel Pinball Origins - Spider-Man, Blade, Iron Man, Wolverine
Star Wars Unsung Heroes - Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One
Star Wars Balance of the Force - Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader, Star Fighter Assault
Star Wars Heroes Within - A New Hope, Droids, Han Solo, Masters of the Force
Zen: Medieval - Epic Quest, Excalibur



3: Most tables are average at best but at least one is good

Marvel Cinematic - Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man
Marvel Heavy Hitters - Venom, Civil War, Deadpool
Universal Studios - Back to the Future, Jaws, E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Zen: Core Collection - Secrets of the Deep, Biolab, Pasha, Rome
The Walking Dead (single table, average quality)
Portal (single table, average quality)


2: All of the tables are average at best and at least one is below average

Zen: Sci-Fi - Mars, Paranormal, Earth Defense
Ninja Gaiden (single table, below average quality)
Ms. Splosion Man (single table, below average quality)


1: All of the tables are below average to bad

Zen: Classics - V12, Shaman, El Dorado, Tesla
Street Fighter (single table, bad quality)


These are the worst tables, very boring & uninspired:

V12
Rome
Darth Vader
Iron Man
Shaman
Mars
Dr. Strange
Street Fighter

This Week In Pinball has a good news round up including this shot of the Thunderbirds pin being built for shipping:


deeproot Pinball recently hired several big names in pinball, including:

• Barry Oursler
• Dennis Nordman
• Jon Norris
• David Thiel

And apparently Circus Maximus is getting ready to reveal their 2nd game which is heavily implied to be a remake of Capcom's Kingpin.

Here's the full post which also includes info about Alice Cooper

http://thisweekinpinball.com/twip-a...wn-kingpin-rumors-artwork-thunderbirds-built/

HotHamBoy really can't wait for that Star Wars pack to release on switch, hopefully it's soon as that'd be my first fx3 purchase. That and Marvel vengeance and virtue are probably the most appealing.. although I'm a big F4 fan. Wish we had some news on more boards. Although, I'll definitely ask for advice when TPA comes around, some good trainer non-licensed tables would be nice, although it'll be cool if they have some great classic licensed ones like old school trek

I missed the newsletter, do we know the hint for next month's table?

Shaneus said:

So finally, a bunch of updates have come out for TPA on iOS. I haven't verified exactly what was fixed yet, but the following tables were updated:

Ghostbusters
Twilight Zone
Pistol Poker
Wipeout
Scared Stiff
and of course Sorcerer is there too.

Fake edit: The GB mode arrows are finally working! Only took... fucking months :/

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Oh shit, on q Wednesday? The Sorcerer reveal stream isn't until tomorrow afternoon!

Twilight Zone and SS prolly got the "new" flipper physics, I'll check.

Still haven't bought Ghostbusters, debating TPA vs Stern. I've heard it runs better on Stern? But only TPA has a trial.

All I know is the video mode in TPA is fucked up.

twinturbo2 said:

I missed the newsletter, do we know the hint for next month's table?

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I don't think the newsletter will drop until friday night/saturday.

The leaker who was right about the last few table packs, including Pistol Poker and Sorcerer, says Banzai Run is the last table this season.

Season 8 is not confirmed to be happening!!

Update:

Hoooookay, well I'm on iOS playing on my iPad Air 2 and I have to agree with other users on pinballarcadefans.com - Sorcerer is one of the worst looking tables on the mobile version. IRL the table is striking and the art pops. This looks flat and bland.

It's also missing all the metal textures.

TPA Ghostbusters has the insert lights, finally. The sound is still low bitrate garbled garbage. Haven't play video mode yet.

TZ and SS got the flipper update. Don't know what PP & WO updates fixed.

Update 2:

Sorcerer may not be much to look at but it does play well and I'm enjoying it. I don't have a lot of experience with the real thing, I've only played it a few times between a couple of examples so I can't say if anything isn't working right.

People on the TPA forums are saying the Williams HoF version looks better, I haven't seen it in a long time though.

Funny, I never noticed until now just how similar it is to Firepower 2 but I dig the upper flipper section. It does sort of feel like we have 3 versions of the same game, though.

Hold on, I'm confused. So Season 8 isn't happening, or we just don't know yet? I'd like one more season for the Bally Corvette table and maybe the Capcom games too.

twinturbo2 said:

Hold on, I'm confused. So Season 8 isn't happening, or we just don't know yet? I'd like one more season for the Bally Corvette table and maybe the Capcom games too.

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We don't know yet but this is the longest they've waited to tell us, IIRC.

Big Buck Hunter and Whoa Nellie are supposed to still be happening for Stern Pinball Arcade (some of the worst tables they could have gone with lol). Actually, the new TPA update added Stern themed balls, including Whoa Nelli.

I mostly stick with Zen these days on PS3 & PS4. Some really fun tables on there with some great diversity.

Pinball Arcade Newsletter

From the table hint, it looks like Banzai Run is finally coming to Pinball Arcade.

I've been playing this game on my SNES Mini Classic and it's super good. Four imaginative tables that are packed with features and physics that are probably the best of the 16-bit games. Holds up very well, you guys should play it. No Japanese required!

Shaneus said:

Honestly, they could do themselves such a big favour by having a few months off TPA, fix as many bugs on as many platforms as possible and come out with an official relaunch or something later in the year. Get a proper UI happening too, would be nice.

So many other titles they could've gone with for the SPA, though. I'd be pretty happy with something like Spidey VE, Wheel of Fortune or even WPT would be great additions with fuck-all licensing costs (I'd imagine).

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Farsight confirmed they are taking a month off after the next table, Banzai Run, so there's that.

Gah. It is soooo frustrating to see these Pinball FX3 tournaments on every platform but the one I actually own all the tables on: mobile. I was really hoping they'd have an announcement for a release date by now.

Judge said:

Quantic Pinball is out on Xbox this Friday

http://store.steampowered.com/app/577320/Quantic_Pinball/

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Quantic Pinball has been available on mobile for years. I think I tried it and wasn't real impressed.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quantic-pinball/id675523488?mt=8

There's another game they made called Zombie Pinball that's basically the same thing with a zombie theme and you can buy both games together for $5
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app-bundle/quantic-pinball-zombie-pinball/id1062821543?mt=8

Man, this thread is disappointingly slow. Let's kick it up!



Announcing the Official ResetEra Pinball Tournament Series!

This first tournament will be a trial run but if it works out well enough we can set up regular intervals (weekly/monthly), formats, prizes etc.

The first tournament is starting NOW and it ends FRIDAY at 11:59 EST.

The software is The Pinball Arcade/Stern Pinball Arcade, any platform of your choosing.

Winner of THIS tournament will get to choose one of the tables for the next tournament (no repeats). In the future we can make an avatar trophy that the winner can carry and defend until they lose a tournament, like a badge of honor, and maybe even something more exciting.

This tournament will consist of 3 tables:

Last Action Hero
Ripley's Believe It Or Not
High Roller Casino

I chose these because they are found in both TPA and SPA so more people can participate.

At the end of the tournament the players who earned a highest score will be rewarded points per table as follows:

Highest Score: 5 points
Second Highest Score: 2 points
Third Highest Score: 1 point
Everything else: 0 points

Whoever has the most points wins the tournament!

Example scoring:

Player 1
Last Action Hero #1 = 5 points
Ripley's #3 = 1 point
Casino #5 = 0 points

Total score = 6 points

Player 2
LAH #2 = 2 points
Ripley's #2 = 2 points
Casino #1 = 5 points

Total Score = 9 points

Player 2 wins.

To submit your score simply take a screenshot of your device when your game ends during the screen that tells you what your final score was - NOT a screenshot of your local high score table.

Example:

The Pinball Arcade


Stern Pinball Arcade



You can submit scores as many times as you want up until the cut off! This is super low stakes though so maybe play honest and don't be a cheater...

If you forsee any issues or have any suggestions please share.


...So let's give it a go!

Btw, sorry if you don't own the tables in this tourney but they're pretty good ones if you want to pick them up ;-)

Just started playing Casino - so I can join in the tournament, but you can't take snapshots on Switch SPA - at score screen. Unless I'm doing something wrong?

Hopefully I can still join in on some kind of honesty policy - I'm not going to be challenging any of you guys for scores anyway, just wanted to join in.

EDIT: Actually, can just take a pic of screen with phone.