In the world of fake pinball

[mmcirvin]

So all sorts of fascinating, often infuriating drama has been going on with The Pinball Arcade, Farsight Software's classic-pinball simulator. As of last night, both of the famous tables with media licenses funded from successful Kickstarters, Twilight Zone and Star Trek: The Next Generation, are out on iOS and Android and, I think, Macintosh, and

Comments

[agent_mimi]

The K-State Union had Twilight Zone, and if there was any bizarre stuff in it, I never got that far. Man, that was a freakin' hard table, and by the time I was at uni I wasn't very good at pinball anymore so I sucked more than usual.

I loved Scared Stiff; the hardcore nerds in the basement pinball-foosball-video game room rolled their eyes at it, either because it was "for girls" or too boob-y. But it was pretty easy, so I loved it.

I'm thinking about trying the Android sim because it's the only platform I have that would work. We might get a PS3 or XBox early next year, so maybe I'll wait.

[mmcirvin]

In the real world, most pinball fans seem to like Scared Stiff more than Party Monsters, but the consensus seems to be that TPA's version has been nerfed, which makes for long boring games. They also put it in the mode where some of the more (very mildly) salacious jokes are censored, I guess for the sake of their content rating. Party Monsters, on the other hand, seems to be a pretty close rendition of the real table. I don't have any real-world experience with either.

[agent_mimi]

The best part was the naughty things Elvira said! Okay, truth be told, I don't remember what they were, but they made me smile.

But knowing that TZ is easier still makes me want to get a sim.

[mmcirvin]

...In general, difficulty levels seem to be the number-one subject of controversy on game forums: there's the eternal battle between casual players who don't want to be put off entirely, and hardcore gamer nerds who want their superior skills to be seriously challenged (and want to have guaranteed leaderboard dominance against inferior players).

The Twilight Zone pin is an excellent example. If they tuned the physics to make it as hard as the real one, I guarantee 90% of people who downloaded it would be going "what is this crap, one star, do not buy" within ten minutes. There are different standards for mobile games than there were for 1990s pinballs.

I think one or two of the other sims (Harley-Davidson, possibly Scared Stiff) may actually be tuned too easy to be interesting. With Twilight Zone, they've got it in a state where it's actually quite fun for general players, but the pinheads are upset. I could probably stand for it to be a little harder, but I do like the fact that I can actually get to Lost In The Zone.

[cdk]

The new menus don't just look awful - I'm finding it nearly impossible to scroll the game selection. Definitely bad to worse.a

[mmcirvin]

I don't know what they were thinking.

[mmcirvin]

On the bright side, when the ball hits a held flipper in Medieval Madness it no longer bounces halfway up the table to an outlane drain.

[derspatchel]

Had you propelled the ball along the proper traTHANK YOU MR. DATA

Ten million points!

[mmcirvin]

"Bonjour, mon capitan!"
"Q! What are you doing here?"
"Let's play a little game."
"Q! We don't have time for your games!!"

[derspatchel]

"Here's your settlement, Picard!"