Pinball thread

[Smues]

I've been playing Williams Pinball Hall of Fame on my 3DS for the last few weeks and really enjoying it. I'm no pinball wizard but as far as I can tell they play like a real machine would. Then I found out yesterday that the same company that worked on that has another game out for iOS with the Theatre of Magic table available. FUCK YES. Bought it for my iPad and it's nostalgia heaven. Supposed to be out soon for consoles and handhelds so I can play it with something with an actual controller. Happy happy happy days. Now if they'd just release Scared Stiff.

 

[Thoth]

I've been playing Williams Pinball Hall of Fame on my 3DS for the last few weeks and really enjoying it. I'm no pinball wizard but as far as I can tell they play like a real machine would. Then I found out yesterday that the same company that worked on that has another game out for iOS with the Theatre of Magic table available. FUCK YES. Bought it for my iPad and it's nostalgia heaven. Supposed to be out soon for consoles and handhelds so I can play it with something with an actual controller. Happy happy happy days. Now if they'd just release Scared Stiff.

I picked this up for Android over the weekend; it's on iOS and Android, and will probably come to XBLA as a comeptitior to Pinball FX 2, since it has the same approach with ala carte tables. Of course, having licensed tables is a big advantage for pinball nostalgia nuts like myself. It's also confirmed for the PS Vita, and I can't remember other platforms.

 

[Smues]

Decided pinball could use it's own thread. Use this for real pinball machines and the video game versions. Of course, I've seen exactly 1 pinball machine in the 6 years I've lived in Alaska, so I'm pretty much stuck with the video game versions. On the upside they've gotten to be really good and realistic.

I forgot how damn hard Theatre of Magic is. Getting a scared stiff in Scared Stiff was a bitch, but I could at least get to the point where I was going for one fairly frequently. I was never able to activate the Grand Finale on the Theatre of Magic machine I used to play (though the machine being partially broken might have contributed to that). I've activated it twice so far on the iOS version but haven't even gotten close to finishing it. The port is really damn good though. I played the shit out of Theatre of Magic my junior and senior years of college, so this really takes me back. All the original music and sound effects are in there perfectly. My wife even recognized the sounds and she never played the machine. Just always found me playing it when it was time to leave campus.

Oh you can tell they used the original rom, because the Mortal Kombat 3 hints are still in there! Although I haven't seen it tell me to go see the Mortal Kombat movie yet.

 

[Thoth]

Agreed this needs a thread.

In Pinball FX2, am I kicking all your asses or not? It is important that I be above everyone in all leaderboards in all tables that I own.

 

[Smues]

Does Pinball FX2 use real world tables, or new ones created for the game? Because I'm mostly just interested in real world tables, but not just ones I've played. The Williams collection for 3DS is a lot of fun and the only table on there I had ever played from Whirlwind (Chuck E Cheese FTW.) I've become a big fan of Gorgar and Taxi. Black Knight can fuck right off though.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Addams Family was a really good one. I liked Terminator 2 and Elvira's Party Monsters, as well.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I used to play Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure and Jurassic Park to death back in the day.

 

[SFH]

I used to play this Monday Night Football inspired pinball machine in the rec hall at this campground I visited every summer. I'm not sure how old it was but Larry Csonka was featured as a commentator on it.

 

[The Amazing Rando]

Riverboat Gambler FTW. Was kicked out of an arcade at closing with 16 free games just sitting there.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Loving "The Pinball Arcade", though I really suck at Black Hole. Getting the achievement for getting a high score seemed like a small miracle.

 

[bps21]

Black hole is the fucking worst. I love the Ripley's Believe it or not table.

 

[Smues]

Since Pinball Arcade you have to buy the individual tables on the iOS version I hadn't bothered to get Blackhole or Ripleys. Got the XBLA version last night and Ripleys seems like it could be fun, but yeah Black Hole blows. And as usual I'll mostly be playing Theater of Magic. Almost completed the grand finale last night in my second game but ran out of time. They'll be releasing DLC tables for this over time (first two were announced last month but I forget what they are.) If they ever release Scared Stiff I might actually die of joy.

 

[Smues]

Also, the description of Black Hole says it was the first machine to be widely accepted to cost 50 cents a play, so it made a ton of money. Were people in the early 80's that desperate for pinball they'd pay extra to play that thing?

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Cirqus Voltaire and Medieval Madness - the latter of which I'm interested in since I read that Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock) wrote the dialogue and does voice work with Tina Fey.

 

[Smues]

Medieval Madness is fun, but I've already got it on the Williams Pinball collection. On the other hand, I'm lazy and it'd be nice to not have to pop that disc in to play. Damnit!

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Don't tell Sony that.

 

[Smues]

Cirqus Voltaire and Medieval Madness - the latter of which I'm interested in since I read that Scott Adsit (Pete from 30 Rock) wrote the dialogue and does voice work with Tina Fey.

Where did you see that Cirqus Voltaire was the other one? Is that an X-box version specific thing, because going back and reading their announcements they said it was Medieval Madness and Bride of Pinbot. I absolutely hated Pinbot, but I've never played bride so hopefully it's better.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I noticed that on the facebook page too. I was just going by wikipedia, which sourced a facebook post I don't see.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I guess it's based on a real problem with the actual table, but the fact that multiball totally breaks the Ripley's table is annoying. It also created an odd problem where getting multiball was the last "standard goal" I had to accomplish, and I got the achievement points for doing so, but it seems me exiting the game stopped it from switching over to wizard goals. Weirder, when I went to play Arabian Nights, it claimed I cleared all the standard goals and gave me the list of wizard goals. I did NOT clear the standard goals (never got the Harem Multiball) and this glitch didn't give me the GP either, so I don't know if I'm now unable to ever achieve that goal.

 

[bps21]

I've got one more standard goal on Black Hole left...and it can go fuck itself.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I can't escape the lower floor for the life of me.

I see other message board posts raving about it, so I guess it's popular among pinball aficionados. I still hate it.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I did... something in Arabian Nights (I think I got one of the Wizard goals I never should have had available) that acknowledged I should have received an achievement for clearing standard goals (even though I didn't). That was nice. I still can't get the game to acknowledge that I did legitimately clear the standard goals on Ripley's though.

I like the fact that the guy playing Ripley sounds like the voice from the Silver Shamrock commercials.

 

[Rendclaw]

Virtual Pinball is better. Bride of Pinbot is my all time favorite machine, and when I found an identical setup, a quick edit of the table and I am scoring 800 million.

 

[CookieMueller]

I used to love that Elvira pinball machine...I actually think there were 2 different Elvira pinball games, clearly she had the market cornered. But I think it was the newer one that one of the movie theatres (surely the backbone of American pinball providers) had.

A friend of mine had a pretty old pinball machine (late 60s/early 70s) in his basement that I used to play all the time. I remember the first time I went down there after years of knowing him and he was pretty nonchalant about it. I was like "Why didn't you lead off with 'I have a pinball machine in my basement'? Why am I JUST NOW finding this out??"

 

[Smues]

I used to love that Elvira pinball machine...I actually think there were 2 different Elvira pinball games, clearly she had the market cornered. But I think it was the newer one that one of the movie theatres (surely the backbone of American pinball providers) had.

Scared Stiff, the best pinball machine ever made.

 

[CookieMueller]

Ok, yeah, should have looked it up. It was really the best I've ever played. Once, when I was about 13 my parents went to see some movie I didn't want to see, and instead of going to another movie like I'd usually do, I got a pocketful of quarters and played it for the 2 hours they were in the theatre.

 

[CookieMueller]

Also: one theatre around here had Apollo 13, which for whatever reason, you could play for about 45 minutes on one quarter. It couldn't WAIT to give you a free game for everything you did.

Blew up the space station? That's a free game. Killed Tom Hanks? That's a free game. Ball went straight through without you even touching it? You better believe that's a free game.

 

[Thoth]

Suppose it's relevant here to say that Pinball Arcade is coming out for PS3/PSVita as a crossplay title today (Buy one, get the other free). Zen Pinball 2 is coming out next month or so and is basically Pinball FX 2 for the Playstation. It is also a crossplay title.

The devs of Pinball Arcade said that Terminator 2 could conceivably come out if they can tie up the licenses. Then they were asked about Addams Family, and they said the licensing for that game is really tough, but they know people want it, and the devs want it too.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I became addicted to Tommy for a period of time in 1999 when it was at a local video store, but it looks like it was a Data East license. Maybe they can strike a deal with (quick trip to wikipedia) "G-Mode" for some tables - though I imagine licensing that game with the music would be too costly. Well, make a deal with G-Mode and WWE to get Royal Rumble on there.

 

[Baby Shoes]

I don't know how many people would remember this game, but my favorite pinball game used to be this baseball themed table where you could win baseball cards. I remember my family used to take day trips to a city up north from where we live sometimes in the summers. On the way home, we'd stop at this mini-golf place, do golf and then play in the arcade. I used to spend the whole night and come home with piles of new cards.