Decker

Damn straight.

Decker

Hidden at the bottom of a recent Pinball Arcade Facebook post:

And if there's any question as to what I meant about Pinball Arcade not marketing well, I suggest checking out their official website http://www.pinballarcade.com where the Latest News was last updated Jan 18th.

flashburn

Dr. Dude, such an odd, random choice.

Decker

And more than a bit dated. That's still four or more releases away on PS3 though. God knows how many on the 360.

flashburn

Dated? It's pinball, pretty much every release is retro on some level. Dr. Dude is from 1990, Firepower is 1980. I just found it an odd choice since it isn't a very popular title.

Decker

Not dated in the sense that it's an old pinball table, but rather dated in the sense that the table spoofs Wayne & Garth, Bill & Ted sort of dynamics and that is something that has fallen way far out of favor. Their dialog is super-annoying, at least based on the clips they've shown. It's different than Tales of Arabian Nights or Bride of Pinbot. I just thought it was a weird choice.

Here's the trailer:
<iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wDnoUGE2oWY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Decker

Also just noticed that Pinball Arcade is trying to get on Steam via Greenlight. I have no idea why it isn't already on Steam; it's a finished, high-quality product that's already a well-known quantity on numerous platforms. It almost seems beneath them to be competing with amateur indie games and the like. Anyway, I voted for it even though I'm unlikely to re-buy everything on another platform. I also saw that the Pro Pinball game that didn't get Kickstarted was also there. Don't know where they are in development, but it's certainly not at the same level as Pinball Arcade. I don't know how that would work; I though games had to be finished before they get Greenlighted.

flashburn

For whatever reason Valve has shit on Pinball for a while now, which makes no sense, since they have pin's in their offices! They told Farsight that it isn't popular enough and won't sell. So that is why they went the Greenlight route, and have been trying to for like 4+ months. At this point, I doubt TPA will be on Steam at any point in the near future. I don't get why Valve gives a fuck, they have tons of shit for sale that is well... shit, so what's the problem?

Decker

That's mind-boggling. They don't think TPA, which has sold very well on iOS, won't sell at least as well as some of the dreck they bundle into Indie bundles on a routine basis? That's so counter-intuitive.

chuckd21

Universal is quite loose with the licensing for the "monsters". Terminator will definitely cost way more than that license did.

Decker

Bought table pack 7 tonight. Tried it just for a few minutes. Elvira Scared Stiff is a cool table. Lots of stuff to do. Ranked #14 on the Internet Pinball Database. I'm going to enjoy it a lot more than the last Elvira table which I wasn't into at all. The other table is old. Big Shot is very simple, but it's a nice change of pace to have an EM table in the collection. Won't play it much, but it's cool to have at least one from the "Old Days".

My patient with the table collection invited me to his house to check his collection out. Really excited to play a real TZ table. Apparently his pride & joy is a Big Bang Bar table that is very rare. It was initially a prototype made by Capcom before they abandoned the idea after making 14 of them. In 2006 Gene Cunningham made a run of 181 tables. So I guess it's super-rare. Looking forward to trying it out. He's also having me over for the unveiling of Wizard of Oz table next month. That table looks amazing. I read a great article about it and the future of pinball in Slate.

Jcheckel

I grabbed the new pack too and ended up playing quite a bit of Big Shot. The last few weeks I've been playing quite a bit of PA on the PS3 and its gotten a lot better with the lighting effects since it first came out.

Just got done playing Scared Stiff a few times. I like it a lot, but it's definitely the easiest table on PA. So many free balls, the one from points is only at 6 million, and hitting the right ramp I think it's 8 times lights the extra ball. That's 8 times on the game, not in a row or even on one ball.

Spiderbite

I'll quote myself again for any Microsoft assholes who happen to be reading this thread. Fuckers.

flashburn

... Blame their old publisher going bankrupt.

flashburn

Yeah, an original Big Bang Bar is extremely rare, like you said only 14 of them were made. Gene is actually selling the original Serial #1 for only... $50,000!

Decker

Honestly, I don't know if he has an original or a reproduction. I'll let you know. I might stop over this afternoon. $50K. Wow,

pinata242

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rOajo2uBvbE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

pinata242

I was hoping for fewer "sound-alike" audio clips, but they aren't bad. Probably less noticeable in the heat of a game with all the other noises anyway.

Decker

They blow the pants off the Avengers' sound-alikes.

Here's a hands-on preview of the Star Wars table pack : link

flashburn

So, all those pin's at Valve... say goodbye. Apparently they are all owned by Jeri Ellsworth and she was just fired/laid off this week:


Further proof that Valve hates pinball!

Decker

Hey, if she brings all her machines with her, I'll hire her. I wonder if she knows how to give shots...

pinata242

Body shots? What kind of clinic are you running?!

Decker

Well, my patient with the 23 machines is out of town, so I took my son and finally hit the Pinball Hall of Fame today. I guess they moved it from that strip mall location. It's now just a half-mile down from the Thomas & Mack center at UNLV. It's very, very cool. In a stand-alone building that looks like it might have been a bank when it was built. There are maybe 300 or so pinball machines there. Lots of EM machines that are only 25 cents each, classic SS machines are 50 cents/play and the newest machines are 75 cents for a 5 ball play -- very fair in my book. I guess it's not-for-profit apparently. $20 will go a long way there.

I know there's zero nostalgia or respect for the new Stern machines, but a lot of them are really good. I liked the Avatar one a lot, Tron Legacy had a sleek cool look that matched the feel of the movie, and my son had a blast with Iron Man (I know this is damning with faint praise, but the real machine is miles better than the Zen-created one). I didn't see any of those Pinball 2000 machines I've heard about, but I forgot to ask so maybe they had one anyway. I had no idea that Sega made so many pins; some were really very good -- I liked The X-Files one. I tried several of the Pinball Arcade ones for comparison. Scared Stiff is a pretty good recreation, but they really botched the Skill Shot which is pretty hard to hit on the real machine and nearly impossible to miss on the video game. Others like Ripley's Believe It Or Not look way different than their video game counterpart. As a preview I played some Dr Dude and actually liked it a lot. Looking forward to that DLC. Unfortunately their TNG wasn't working so I didn't get to try that out, but did play the legendary T2 and Addams Family tables. While they're probably over-rated, I did like them both.
As far as tables I'd never seen before, I think my favorite was the Indianapolis 500 table by Bally (1995). That one was a total blast. Hope they can get the licensing for it because it was really fun. In honor of MJ's 50th birthday today, I played Space Jam and really liked it (especially the basket Skill Shot). It's another Sega table, so no chance of TPA tackling that one (even if they could secure licensing).

Anyway, it was a fun way to spend a couple of hours and I'll probably visit a lot more often now that I know where it is (and since it's so close to Vegas' only Yoshinoya Beef Bowl).

Spiderbite

I didn't know they had moved it. That's a good thing since the place it was at seemed a little seedy and didn't appear to be a nice part of town (I visited there a few years ago). I look forward to visiting again the next time I am out there.

Decker

It's in essentially the same part of town, but maybe a mile or two closer to the strip. Basically college town.

If you (or any other regular in this thread) come out to Vegas, please let me know and I'll meet you there. It's only a 35 minute drive for me (which makes it even more amazing that I've never been there before). It was not crowded, but fairly busy. I guess they must do okay business there.