To be honest, I'd pick the 4 plays on a real Ripley's any day, but I don't have a good condition one to play, and can't afford to buy one (not that it would be terribly high on my list to buy anyway), so that's right out.
the only table I have RW experience with in PHOF is Firepower, but the way it played in the videogame version was very very familiar to me. I never found the ball to be all that slow in HOF though in general. I find the ball speed in Zen feels considerably juiced up...
The physics aren't necessarily "floaty", as such, but they are more arcade in nature than realistic; the closest parallel would probably be to Zen Pinball, or a slightly less smooth version of Gameprom's Pinball HD. AoP has a metric puddingload of tables for an app that only costs a dollar, but I've found that they're all rather clunky and unsatisfying to play in comparison to the others on the market. Gameprom's Pinball HD and War Pinball are a lot of fun (and still possess the best camera implementation of any pinball app I've played thus far, one I wish would turn up in other pinball games), and the Da Vinci table outshines most of the others around. Pinball Arcade has the huge and immediately obvious draw of being based on real physical tables, rather than invented ones, but the engine is currently slightly weaker than that of HD or Zen. The potential in this one is massive, though, and I expect refinements before too long.
You may have been playing a Firepower that was set up too flat and perhaps dirty too. Both will slow it down. Older games often were flatter and slower anyway, but newer games have a steeper pitch and play much faster than they do in HoF. HoF plays like the games are too shallow and/or are dirty. I play RW pinball every week and have one in my house (Fish Tales).
I'm not saying it was perfect, but it felt pretty damned close to the real Firepower tables I've played. I mean we're talking about digital representations of real tables here. I'd like to see how "realistic" the physics engines in Zen or Gameprom's games would feel if you actually built rw versions of the table designs in their games (if possible) and compared how they played to the digital versions. I'd be willing to bet all sorts of problems would arise.
Not exactly enamoured with the texture quality on iPad 2. The draw of real tables is nice but there are unmistakably more beautiful looking tables available on the app store.
Real tables are more than nice, they are everything. Zen pinball is fun, but to say the physics come even close to real pinball is kinda nuts. If your game has real tables, you can go to a physical machine and use that as a basis about how it's suppose to act. I'm someone who plays real pinball a lot, so maybe my view is biased, but there is a reason collectors are paying multiple thousands of dollars for classic pinball machines. The classic machines are fun time and time again, not so much with the original tables. From the vids I've seen, nothing comes close to this in terms of quality graphics.
OK, the only question for me is to stay awake until its released or to buy it first thing tomorrow. Good thing That Arabian Nights is the table I want the most, so I'm getting this one on the cheap. One thing I haven't been able to find in the specifications or the comments here: Is this Universal or pure iPhone only blown up on iPad? I will buy it anyway, but maybe no additional tables if its not Universal. I am one of you "Old Guys" too, but I could not care less about Leaderboards or Highscores other than my own, so I don't have a problem if thats only FB or anything else ... @Sanuku: I love your gameplay-videos, but are you really from Vienna/Austria or is the forum playing tricks on me? Just curious ...
I'm not sure if purchasing all remaining tables at a discount right now will give me an disadvantage in the future when new tables are released. I will no doubt snap up every new table but will I be buying them individually at full price (no discount)?
Exactly. I have the iPad 2 beta and the physics are quite realistic when compared to a new pinball machine. In fact, Farsight actually said that when they go to the real Tales of The Arabian Nights in their office and let the ball drop from the genie to the flippers, it actually bounces off the flippers exactly how it does in the game.
Hey guys, I was one of the beta testers for the game, so I'll answer some questions: -Universl App - buy the app, or unlock a table once and use it on any iOS device -I was testing on a 3GS, and it ran really well (detail is obviously limited, but that didn't stop me from posting some good scores) -Facebook integration is for the high scores, and it DOES NOT post anything to your FB page. This allows them to do cross-platform scoring, but they DO have plans to implement Game Center in the future. -There are local leaderboards (3 initials like on the actual table) -Prices will be $0.99, $1.99, $2.99 and $3.99 depending on their license costs -You can play in either landscape or portrait, but the view is LOCKED for the entire game (you can't switch part-way through, but can after that game is over. -There are 3 table views, each with "locked" or "tracking" modes (hold to lock) -Physics are better than Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection, and more realistic. After playing Pinball Arcade I went back to PHoF and the balls are very floaty there. -I *think* there's a table pack that costs $1 more than buying them separately because it would equal out to the same if you downloaded the free app, then bought all the tables. I may be wrong, that's just my guess based on comments in the thread (and knowing there's both a free app and a paid $0.99 app which includes Arabian Nights). After playing this for weeks of my 3GS, I can't WAIT to play it on my iPad2 and 4S.
These physics are much closer to the real thing than Zen's. Zen makes the physics easier and "less bouncy" on purpose to appeal to casual gamers. Farsight doesn't water it down. You have to remember Black Hole is from 1981, when it was cutting edge for its time. It's still a great table, IMO, but I guess not enough bells and whistles for some. I find it to be a refreshing change of pace from the newer, more cluttered tables. The ball moves quite a bit faster in this than it does in HoF. The overall physics have been significantly improved.
That is exactly what I wanted to hear. As far as whether or not I've been playing on properly adjusted games in the RW, I'm fortunate enough to have good locations with games operated by pinball enthusiasts. They don't have dead rubber, the playfields are clean, balls are in good shape, and their playfields are (generally) all set to the recommended slope. Also I have one in my house as noted, and yes I set it up properly. Pinball Hall of Fame played absolutely nothing like they do. I will be very happy indeed if The Pinball Arcade does a better job of simulating a well maintained and set up machine. Also, I'm happy to see they are including older games. I love them all, old and new. I hope we get lots of EMs too, not just new games.
Y'know, as much as I respect your opinion regarding that statement, I have to point out that there are an awful lot of knowledgable pinball people who disagree with you...PHOF is pretty well-respected overall (allowing that its a few years old now of course.)
I find it a bit hard to believe that anyone who has played at least reasonably well set up (and maintained) pinball machines on a fairly regular basis would disagree that the PHOF was moonball-esque, though I'll take your word for it. Anyway, it's neither here nor there. That's in the past. The replacement is here and I hope to find that it plays faster and better.
The physics of Pinball Hall of Fame were pretty decent. Some of the best on any platform. Perhaps only the last table from the Pro Pinball series on PC had better physics. The latest vPinball + vPinMame has good physics as well. How "floaty" a ball feels depends very much on two things on a real table: - The angle of the table - How new the paint job is Both have quite a dramatic effect on how the ball moves on the table. The gameprom ball movement is actually pretty decent simulation wise but their modeling of the flippers themselves is very bad. Cheers!
