Pinball Arcade - the ultimate pinball simulator! - Page 9

Electro Mechanical vs. Solid State?

They are usually considered to be two different eras of machines. I think he just meant from that era.

EM tables use switches and wiring. The next generation of tables, which are Solid State or SS, added a circuit board or boards. All pinball tables are just fancy adding machines that you use a pinball to input the numbers instead your fingers. Solid state electronics allowed pinball tables to get more complex. Any SS table could, in theory, be done using EM technology. Forgetting the DMD (dot matrix display - the usually orange display on newer pinball tables) in theory Medieval Madness could be made by using wires and switches. However there would need to be so many switches and so much wire that it would take up a very large room to contain it all. On an EM table you might have a row of targets that once lit lights and activates another target that once hit increases your multiplier and lights the corresponding X light. Just doing that will take up a fair amount of space under the table. EM tables are thereby limited in how complex they can be. I think this is why some people don't like them and others love them. They are simpler but that doesn't mean easier. The good ones really were designed to hook you with well designed game play. Some newer tables forsake good game play for fancy doo dads and gizmos. In my opinion a table like Medieval Madness has a great show and really good game play. The best EM tables have good game play and good art. They can't compete with really deep rule sets and fancy toys.

My first impressions of table pack 7 are that Scared Stiff is fun but easy and Big Shot is fun but hard. I've never, to my knowledge anyway, played either table. My first game of Scared Stiff lasted over half an hour and I finished all of the standard goals. My first game of Big Shot wasn't so good. Took me most of the evening to finish the standard goals and I think my best score of the night was around 100k. Big Shot has targets on the sides of the upper playing field with a large bumper in the middle top. Large expanses in between which is common in a lot of EM games. This makes SDTM and random bounces to the outlanes common. You have to be nudging on this table to have a chance to do well. With 5 balls per game I was titling about once a game just to keep some control over the ball.

I have played Big Shot before, back when it was new. It is very hard in this version, I don't remember what it was like on the real table, that was a LONG time ago. Scared Stiff is fun. I was starting to feel the lag might be very minimal or gone in these two tables, but firing up Zen 2 right after reminded me how much more reactive it seems to be. I'll be playing these two tables more though, I like them both.

Been playing Ripleys and Black Hole. Not really digging Ripleys all that much, but have really been enjoying Black Hole which I was surprised by since I figured it would be the opposite. Hit 6.3 million on Black Hole last night which seemed like a pretty good score. Going to try Theater of Magic next.

Thanks man! I definitely had some sort of breakthrough that game as my previous high was about 1.2 mil. Figured out a few things that boosted the score, mainly spelling out BLACK and HOLE in order which doubles and triples your points on the lower table and then making sure to run around the circle down below until you get to the max 5x multiplier. Besides that, I think I just had a lucky game!

Having a blast though and this is money VERY well spent.

Wondering if we will have to re-buy the DLC tables.

If I want the Star Trek table on my Vita, I have to buy the whole game for $10?

Don't do it. You'll end up buying all 12 DLC tables and wasting hours and hours of your life having fun.

I finally remembered the name of one of my favorite Williams games. It's an old EM machine called Strato-Flite. I must have put a million hours on that machine. VERY FAST gameplay. Would love to see that one come to Pinball Arcade, with realistic gameplay.

I had the chance to play TPA in 3D at the FarSight booth last weekend at the Midwest Gaming Classic in Milwaukee. It looked great even though they said it was still a work in progress. I played it on their dev PS3 and played AFM. 3D will be added as a game patch probably with the update for Space Shuttle (which was an interesting confirmation) or possibly the patch after. It will be a free option and the one patch will apply 3D to all tables.

FarSight has received their PS4 dev kit and they say that the system is sweet.

One of their guys said that in the last week they found the cause and probable fix for the remaining PS3 lag and will push out the fix asap. This probably means June since FS hasn't even implemented or tested it yet.

I've done the fake 3D thing also. It really looks pretty much just like the real 3D effect but the depth is optimized and you don't get any weird effects like the graphics on the flat table taking on 3 dimensions. I imagine that playing TOTAN in fake 3D is as close as one can get to video LSD!

This is huge. Not only can I not wait to see the last of the lag out, but it confirms I'm not on drugs.

I really like Attack From Mars and Genie but the lighting on Genie is really bad. Overly bright with no shadows. I really wish FarSight could get some consistent quality with the table builds. I also hope they can work something out with Sony so that they can patch the DLC tables.

I read the article about their new indie dev rules for the PS4. They didn't say in that if they would start to allow DLC patching. That's FS' biggest problem with fixing table bugs is that you simply cannot patch DLC on the PS3. Of course the other problem is that I am concerned about the here and now. FS said that they are inquiring to their Sony rep if there is a way that Sony will allow them to patch the DLC. If not then we're stuck with tables that will always have some bugs.

By improved you mean allowed, right?

Not sure what corners they cut on Dr.Dude trying to rush it out..

but it's easily the worst looking table of them all.

It so blurry and pixelated you cant even read the artwork next to the ball laucher "hold button for blah blah"

Disappointed.