The Pinball Arcade on XBLA - Page 2

Yes...some people like when a nearly trapped ball suddenly rolls up the flipper ...

Only on crappy, unmaintained tables...and even then, they don't disobey the laws of gravity.

I'm glad someone else saw that...

At risk of beating a dead horse... I think the physics issue is just a perception issue. On a real table if the slope of the table is fairly low when the flippers are "up" they are just barely beyond level. So a ball can most certainly "roll up" the flipper because it's not really that much "up". It's like the tilted house illusion. Oriented to the plane of the table, they are up, but oriented to the floor (that you can't see through the table) they are slightly above level.

If you watch a master play pinball (disclaimer: I am not a master) then you can see they frequently pop the flipper out at the exact moment the ball hits it and then let go so as to cushion the ball and grab it. You can see this move many times on the Vimeo links I posted above. Pinball Arcade is probably the only virtual pinball where this move is doable. I know that one move doesn't mean the physics are 100% better in every way, but it's a small example of why "real" pinball fans like the physics and "virtual" pinball fans are saying it's (ironically) "not realistic".

I just spent about an hour playing it today, and the ball never did anything that seemed to defy physics (that did not involve an electro-magnet). But I absolutely agree 100% that trapping the ball is harder than it is in Pinball FX2. But trapping the ball on a real table is also harder than FX2 (unless slope is cranked up).

Very cool... never heard of that... so I did some research.

Wikipedia has something on it under "Trivia":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Magic


Then I found a YouTube video that confirms it, though he doesn't go so far as to spell T-H-E-A-T-R-E so I still haven't seen the actual cheat code:



My assumption is it just tells you a code on the screen that you can use on MK3. So probably not all that useful...

I have this game on my iPhone... and I just got it to work! I first tried holding the right side of the screen when I pressed start, but it wouldn't push... but then I pressed start, and then immediately held down on the right side of the screen a voila! I'll try it on my Xbox next time I'm on it.

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


start of gameplay: 0:26

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




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.

I've been playing the arabian nights table, and it just doesn't have a good feel, and seems to be missing some gameplay polish.
Most obviously, the lamp spins around way too much on mediocre ball hits. It just doesn't do that in real life.
There have been times my ball goes through the flipper. This happens when I perform a late hit with one flipper barely tipping it to the other side, and the ball and other flipper are both travelling fast enough that it doesn't register a collision between the two.
It often gets trapped in the plastic spiral of the genie ramp, I have to nudge it out of position; this doesn't happen in the real table in my experience, it just drops onto the table if there isn't enough force.

The graphics are all there, but gameplay is king and I feel it's lacking in this version.

I did confirm that holding right flipper when starting Theatre of Magic on Xbox does in fact enable the MK3 codes. However, it seems kind of random when it actually gives you a symbol. It’s not when you actually spell T-H-E-A-T-R-E. It seems to occasionally decide to give you one each time you light a letter. I have not played MK3 in so long that I don’t even understand what the “symbols” are telling me. LOL But I still think it’s cool that this Easter egg made its way into this version (which makes sense since the original ROMs were used).

From all I'm reading, it seems there needs to be work done to polish up the game. The fact this game is "on-line," I'm sure there could be updates to fix related problems.

Good thing this is being talked about before multiplayer arrives.


I've got my fingers crossed there can be two choices of multiplayer. One where one plays then the other player plays (like as in a real game.) While the other player is playing, the other can see how the ball is moving around like their watching the game.

And of course a multiplayer setup like they have in FX. Where both (or more) play at the same time.

Just purchased this based on the fact that I used to play theatre of magic back in the day and cannot believe how good of a job they did copying the original. Funny thing is I played theatre of magic back in 1999 when I was going to high school in Barcelona. Holy hell playing this now brought back some FRUSTRATING memories of trying to get that ball to magnetize against the trunk. Is it just me or does it seem that you score WAY more points in this xbla version then the real deal?

That may be so. I noticed playing "Black Hole" seems much faster with more action than some recent games I've played on it in the last couple years...and I'm talking about "Black Hole" games that have been kept in good shape.

I remember playing "Black Hole" when it first came out, however it's been way too long to remember if the game was really that fast or not.

I'm playing on iPad3, the initial release looked ok. The first update completely broke the app. The second update just got approved and now it looks fantastic.

So looks like some bumps in the road launching this on so many platforms but they do seem to be headed in the right direction.

So far I bought Black Hole (Gottlieb), Bride of Pinbot (Williams), Medieval Madness (Williams)

I can't understand all the love for Pinball FX. After playing William's Pinball Hall of Fame, FX seemed like a complete joke. HoF gave me classics that I played again and again for hundreds upon hundreds of hours in my youth; the details, gameplay, and physics of each and every table were 100% spot-on...including some of the wonky things that would/could happen on those tables from time to time.

FX, on the other hand, offered me absolutely nothing realistic at all, in any way whatsoever. Poorly designed tables, horrible physics, waaaaaaayyy too steep of a slope, etc. I always appreciate any attempt to (re)introduce pinball to the console crowd, but FX failed in so many ways. Don't get me wrong, the tables can definitely be fun, but to say that they represent anything near realistic is positively absurd.

It appears that Pinball Arcade is far more like HoF than FX. That's a GREAT thing, imo.

I HATE that little b*stard Rudy in Funhouse...

I much prefer Pinball Arcade to FX. It's not even close. I don't think FX simulates real pinball even as well as Hall of Fame did, and PA seems to be a big improvement on HoF.
Black Hole is a terrible table though. Not sure what people see in it.

I always gravitated towards the Williams tables growing up in the arcades in the mid to late 80s/early 90s. Fingers crossed for Taxi, PinBot...maybe even FIRE! would be sweet.

took me a bit to realize that these pics aren't from the 360 version.

ahhh, Funhouse was actually one of my favorite tables in PHOF. loved making the guy eat the ball. But I don't know about buying it again right away.

Are they selling tables individually? Or only in packages? I'll probably end up getting Funhouse again anyway.

The only other PHOF table I really really love and can't wait for is Whirlwind. That was one of my favorites of my youth and I loved it in PHOF as well.

Medieval Madness was my fave by a mile. Soooooo much to do on that table and it was insanely more difficult than any of the others...at least in terms of getting EVERYTHING accomplished in a single game.

After that, it's Funhouse. Hated Whirlwind. Gorgar was infuriating. Taxi was a cakewalk. Black Knight was boring. Space Shuttle and Firestorm were both pretty bland. Never liked Tales of Arabian Nights layout much. That Gopher game was fun, but too crowded. Any others I forgot?

how can you hate Whirlwind??? that spinning platform that would change the trajectory of the ball... the guy saying ominously, "the storm is coming..." The fan blowing in your face from above the pinball machine (the real machine, that is).

though Medieval Madness is awesome, with the shaking tower, cool graphics, etc.

The fan was pretty cool...pretty funny to watch some kid's face when he was watching me play and got blasted by a shot of air upside the head. However, I'm not a fan of things that randomly change the trajectory of a ball that way. I prefer skill to luck in all things.

Since I've beaten every one of the these machines on actual tables, I can easily say that Medieval Madness was, without a doubt, the biggest bitch to complete ALL tasks on. That last damn castle took far too many hits to destroy...and those f'ing Trolls were ball-killing a-holes at times. Sometimes, I still randomly hear "I am the Duke of Burbon!...I think..." in my head for no reason. I probably spent a good hundred hours or more trying to complete "Battle for the Kingdom." (Each game taking upwards of a full hour to complete...the one where I actually did it, they timed me at 1 hour, 39 minutes. That's 50 cents worth, for sure! )

I'll never be able to do it on HoF though. An emulator can never compare to the tactile repsonse of the cabinet and environment to the movements of my body...though I'd still find myself leaning back and forth and side-to-side while playing on Xbox.

I might pass out from overjoy if they announce "The Addams Family Pinball".

I was playing this while walking at a nice clip on the treadmill last week...almost fell off the stupid thing b/c of my use of body english

Or Twilight Zone. I'd bet the licensing is even harder for those two though because of the properties they're based on.

Edit: Also wouldn't mind seeing Banzai Run, but I don't remember if that was actually a good table or they just got me with the backglass gimmick.

Very true, based on this, I would assume getting an Indiana Jones or Playboy pinball version would be outta the question

Banzai Run was a decent table. The backglass gimmick was the draw...but a total pain in the arse.

I finally got around to trying this a little last night, and it reminded me that every time I play these licensed tables, it makes me want more to set up a VisualPinball-type cabinet setup for these games.

Hmmmm.... that's a case where one of those 21:9 tvs would come in handy.

I'm also excited about all of this. However, I'm also really looking forward to some of the older Electro-Mechanical (EM) games such as "Spirit of 76." I'd love to see that one re-released since the "Spirit of 76" version from Microsoft Pinball really sucks!