Cheers for the update - which platform do you play it on? I was thinking of checking out the Switch version to play on my Switch Lite a bit before bed.
@siebold_magnolia#10242 I have it on Switch and PC. The Switch version is pretty good. It has all the Williams Tables that the PC has, and is one of the few Switch games that supports screen rotation. On the Switch lite that would be a bit awkward but I can‘t think of anything it’s really lacking in, although some of the Zen Studios licensed tables are either missing (Marvel) or are in a separate app (Star Wars).
One thing I'd like to play one day. Apollo 13 pinball, complete with a totally bonkers 13 ball multiball https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44_MzpVxoIU
The other big option is Pinball Arcade. It lost the Williams license to Pinball FX3 but before it did it had quite a few more tables ported. Most are inexplicably still on the WiiU store if you have one, but the Switch version has only non Williams tables including some pretty good ones from Stern. The fidelity to the tables seems a bit worse for me, there tends to be a little less variance in the physics compared with FX3, so some shots and feeds seem just a bit too consistent.
Beyond that there's Zaccaria pinball which is definitely an older feel with EM and early solid state tables from Italy. They have a whole lot of them though, and full VR support on the PC.
Finally there's the freeware emulators on PC like Visual Pinball. You can get pretty much anything running on those but it's a bit of a hassle to set up.
Oh, I just remembered that if you get the Switch version of Pinball FX3, it supports vertical orientation hand-held game play.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pinball/comments/a324ih/got_my_kickstarter_flipgrip_for_the_switch_today/
Oh that looks pretty cool - I have a Lite though, so have yet to see the benefit of this one yet haha - do you recommend any tables in particular though? I will admit my curiosity is leaning towards the Bethesda pack, interested to see how those will be readapted.
I would like to discuss a bit more of one of the initial posts from OP - what game design lessons could be learned from Pinball. I found this pdf of a ‘Bally Theory of Operation’ document, but I believe it is more for the mechanical operations rather than Game Theory discussions. It would be cool to hear some more ideas on the design aspects that could perhaps be learned.
The 'instanced' nature of pinball seems rather nice I think in some regards, there is so much to do but it is similar enough that I do not mind if I am missing on some aspects while focusing on hitting one ramp (or following one 'story' in the game if you will). I am not sure if I am making much sense here, but would love to also hear thoughts about this topic.
@marlfuchs2#10246 Wow! I too need to play this, I was obsessed with that movie as a kid. And the idea of a pinball machine based on a huge disaster is quite humorous to me.
Where is the World Trade Center featuring Nick Cage pinball experience? 🤣
I miss pinball. I‘ve been playing in a local league since like the end of 2017, but obviously that’s on hiatus. A lot of the more hardcore players still get to play since they all own machines or find places that allow them, but I haven‘t touched a machine since March and I’m rusty af lol.
there is a place in Southern California, the Museum of Pinball. They open publicly like 3 or 4 times a year, and unfortunately they had to cancel their March event. That sucked coz I absolutely love going there, it's such a magical place and I highly recommend everybody get this place on their radar and find a way to visit one day! During one of their events. I saw Billy Mitchell and Walter Day bear witness to a couple getting married lol.
http://www.museumofpinball.org/
http://www.arcadeexpo.com/
I don't like “real” pinball that much, though I do like funhouse and that uhhh barhouse brawl one?? the one where you hit the guy in the stomach with the ball and jump rope.
BUT!!!
I do like fake pretend weirdo pinball, and so, here are my top ones of those:
Devil's crush
Fantastic pinball (spelled fantasic pinball in the saturn release)
Demon's Tilt
Metroid pinball
The soundtrack to Necronomicon
I even like dumb ole pinball quest. I wish there were more fantasy/fantastical pinball games out there - sonic spinball is a really cool idea even if the actual game isn't great. it feels like an under-explored arena, but maybe with good (financial) reason.
https://youtu.be/LTWVWCd1_Vg?t=134
Steve Ritchie has a new table coming from Stern:
https://twitter.com/ledzeppelin/status/1338846344384032771?s=19
I forgot to mention I know a guy who has worked on A LOT of these new pinball machines… maybe all of them. it‘s an interesting cottage business where the main thing is less to sell to arcades/bars etc, though that’s still part of it, but more to sell to private collectors who can afford to put a $2,500 machine in their den.
@exodus#10907 it does feel like a shame that that is the market for these games nowadays. A lot of the newer tables look really interesting and cool but they're kind of nowhere to be found.
I understand that that's kind of just the only way for them to make things meet at the moment, but it would be cool to have a new Stern table in place of Buck Hunter 37 at the bar.
Out here in the wilds of california you do see the new machines sometimes in bars or similar, and of course at the game shows - but yeah, it‘s a dying vector as they say! maybe they don’t say that
Much like how I can’t remember the first time I fired a gun, I can’t remember the first time I played pinball. I think I love pinball more than videogames, but I know part of that is not having consistent access to them, and having to search them out where they are is a big part of the thrill.
I did have Sonic Spinball, I did beat it as a child, I do remember it being tortuous.
Shout out to Flipnic on the PS2, one of the only good pinball games.
Call me a purist but ive never seen a virtual table that found a to make up for the loss of the physicality of a pinball machine, The nudging, the way to ball can pop up and loundly tap the glass on a wild hit. The physics never seem right. Though I do still have fun with them.
The one virtual table I’d recommend is Safecracker.
https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/safe-cracker
Safecracker moves away from a 3 ball system and instead uses a timer you can build up, that gets docked seconds when you lose a ball. This is much more forgiving, if you can keep the timer filled, but still presents just as much of a challenge.
The “add a ball” thing now common in all of pinball was originally part of how the simple ancestors of pinball machines were used as gambling machines, with some places willing to “buy back” your extra balls if you banked enough.
Its harder for me to explain but I also feel like the free game “match” that happens at the end of a credit and the free game “replay” you can earn (earning a free game through either method is traditionally accompanied by a loud knock, crack, or pop [like a gunshot or a champagne cork]) are also vestigial relics of these things history as gambling devices. What other games do this? Many times I have scooped up unused free games just by being observant for the noise, because often people will walk away during the “match” and not realize they’ve won it.
Safecracker also has a sort of meta-game to it, a big boardgame on the backglass that you roll spaces to move across. You are trying to make it to the center. There are various hazard on the board, some of which can be deactivated before you enter the board game section, and some of which can be negated if responded to quickly enough. The hazards kick you out of the board game section and back onto the regular field. If you get to the center of the board game, the cabinet spits out an oversized coin. Which can be used to activate an alternative form of gameplay. When you play the virtual version release, at least. The one time I got to play Safecracker in the wild, it did not spit out a coin like the virtual version had pavlovian like trained me to expect. I figured they probably didn't want to keep a bunch of coins in stock.
https://twitter.com/Moonsoother/status/1335776923457265665?s=20
It’s available on FX3 pinball, in a bundle with the Pub Championship one. Here is my high score.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/IubqJfO.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/IubqJfOh.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
I would appreciate some friendly rivalry IF someone out there can beat it and become my personal nemesis, but if you can just pass $1,000,000 I’ll be impressed. Bug: in all my playing on this table, I have never, NEVER not even ONCE been able to hit the left veri-target. My advice is that to be aware that the TNT bonus is an important way of scoring back time on your clock.
Here’s my high score for the Pub
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/M43l71A.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/M43l71Ah.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
The bug on this one is that the “door prize” you can select at launch will ONLY give “lite jackpots”, and not any of the other options its also supposed to also pick from. This sucks if you arnt hitting your jackpots, but can be useful if you’re hitting your targets since in this game the jackpots build.
https://twitter.com/Moonsoother/status/1335754606328999939?s=20
(3.5 mil to 7 mil in 30 seconds, bay bee
Listen to the way this thing sings. Youd think you were standing next to a slot machine)
All scores were earned in the classic single player, tournament set up
I hate the FX3 app and the matchmaking mode it pushes on you as the default experience in insane. INFINITE BALLS ON A FIXED TIMER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? One of the clearest sign a game of pinball is going successfully is longevity so I felt insulted and shut down the fist time I tried the mode and it told me "no, thats enough, thank you!"
What are some videogames with "jackpots?" Seems like weve moved away from that as we moved away from score attack games. I guess finding a good loot drop feels like a jackpot, but that's randomized. Opening a treasure chest? Collecting a sizable quest reward?
if I can own my own pinball machine, I have two choices.
one is Baywatch, coz the theme is ridiculous lol. There was actually one for sale locally here for $5K, but I guess someone bought it. Not that I'd have the money and space anyways.
the other one I want is Pink Panther, it's an old Gottlieb from 1981. Apparently most of the machines that exist are in Europe, but there is one at the aforementioned Museum of Pinball in Banning CA.
I'm all about the aesthetic on this one. If one ever went on sale locally I would make the money and space for it on impulse!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgdCwG9uY_c
ah heck. Remember when I said this?
>
@p3ters#10973 If one ever went on sale locally I would make the money and space for it on impulse!!
well... local shop up and got one.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/Bv5rtP0.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Bv5rtP0h.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
price blacked out so yallz dont know how much I paid coz yah... I bought it haha.
my goal over the next few days is to completely rearrange my furniture to accommodate this into my 1BR condo haha
seriously tho, I never thought one of these would ever show up. I really could not pass it up.
1 Like
That Butt!
Those legs!
you were true to your word!! (congratulations!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrQAMsnm8gg
This game ran smooth as silk on my shitty little 286 and I've heard those sound effects in my dreams.