Recently I visited a local bar that had a decent selection of Pinball tables, and I realized how much I enjoyed it. Can anyone recommend good ways to play pinball digitally?
Pinball Videogames
Recently I visited a local bar that had a decent selection of Pinball tables, and I realized how much I enjoyed it. Can anyone recommend good ways to play pinball digitally?
Yeah, Pinball FX for PC or Williams Pinball for tablet. They both have Williams tables so you're likely to find whatever you want (Medieval Madness, Monster Bash, etc.). Although, Williams Pinball has lootboxes and you'll have to pay to unlock tables or grind a lot. It has good physics for a mobile game though, it feels like the real thing.
Enjoy, I love Pinball too and it's pretty hard finding tables where I live so I know it's good to have a digital alternative even if it's not the same.
>Although, Williams Pinball has lootboxes
How does a pinball game have lootboxes?
Basically you get daily challenges and when you complete them you can either get a special skin for your flippers, some of the in game currency or mechanical parts, which is the currency needed to unlock more tables or customize the ones you have
Pinball FX3, yes, I don't know about the one on Epic
I love me some Williams and it's legit the only phone game I play, but goddamn some of this freemium shit drives me up the wall
>Have to upgrade a table to grade 3 in order to unlock the third daily challenge slot
>third challenge costs tickets (free currency) just to attempt (the other two slots don't do this)
>card packs littered with ugly cosmetics that are ONE TIME USE
>Upgrading a table to grade 4 (the one that gets you full feature access like in the console/pc versions) requires 50 table parts of that specific table and 100 premium coins, and you'll get maybe 1 or 2 after grinding for a long time
>Overall the real money cost per table is much more expensive than the console/pc version
And I have yet to get a single table part for Indiana Jones. Is it even possible or do I need to buy card packs because I'm not doin that
No, Indiana Jones can only be attained through paying unfortunately
I don't bother going above level 2, honestly even if some features are missing, I feel like it's not worth the hassle. You can easily cheese the system though, some tables like Getaway or the Fishing one give you free points if you just let the ball fall and use the automatic saves so you can get the easy and medium challenges without doing anything.
Of course, it's still miles easier to just run the PC version
Yeah all I do is grind the challenge modes, just wish that I could get the full fledged challenge modes for my fav tables without paying out the nose. I own all the Williams tables on Steam but I ain't lugging my pc around
Now tell me with a straight face that the owner never had to do maintenance after hours on it
Yea I saw both of these, is the Pinball FX FX3 or the one on Epic?
Buy or build a virtual pinball machine and play them all
I don't have the money to do that, but can that program be run on a normal desktop PC and played with a controller?
Here is a rabbit hole for you to go down
https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads
Thanks for this, looks like this is what I was looking for.
Use this link I posted here
instead. It's way easier and installs Future Pinball, multiple versions of Visual Pinball etc. in just a few clicks.
I see, thanks. I also managed to find a download for Pinball Arcade, so ill check out both. Thanks to everyone who posted advice and recommendations for a pinball zoomer like myself.
I would love to but shit is like $8k dollars man
>digital pinball
if you really have played the real deal, you wouldn't be asking for this
Yeah man I'm definitely lying about playing pinball once at a bar.
what are you? what is this kind of person even called?
Gatekeeper/snob. He has a point though. Once you get good at nudging, playing virtual pinball is not fun anymore.
I know how to nudge, its not some crazy skill. I still enjoy pinball arcade. theres nudging in virtual pinball too
There is but it doesn't have the nuance, I like the feeling that I can subtly tap constantly for maximum control, not just hit "nudge" when I'm in trouble like you can virtually.
I get what you mean and I agree that a real machine feels infinitely better than a digital machine, but prices for actual machines are insane right now.
>Large
>Expensive
>Breaks if you look at it dirty
Does it really surprise you that there's a demand for something a little more portable?
>Breaks if you look at it dirty
The arcade i went to as a kid and early teen had a working Gorgar machine until it closed, 1984-2002
I would imagine that Gorgar received maintenance though.
Im sorry, fellow boomer. But a shitload of Williams, Bally, and Gottlieb machines will essentially never be played again outside of some autist's garage. Pushing for as many as possible to be converted to virtual machines is the most we can hope for.
but the virtual version is boring, you don't get the feeling o launching the ball or the gentle tap of the paddles
There are lots of places that have EMs. But there are so many EMs that some of them are hard to find.
Old themes were so fricking bizarrely low effort. It's like they would have a five minute meeting and make a list of all the new themes for the next year
You're not wrong.
When Gottlieb invented the flipper, he made a bunch of nursery rhyme machines that all had the exact same layout.
The biggest thing to keep in mind about early machines is that they weren't made for kids or teenagers. I don't really know when it changed, but they were designed for adults in bars for a while.
meant to reply
It's like an unholy union of a Pachinko machine and a pinball machine
Pretty much, and pre-flipper pinball machines were bagatelle machines with kinda cool mechanisms. Purely games of luck since you had no way to control the ball once you launched it.
It's interesting seeing how bagatelle evolved into both pinball and pachinko at the same time on opposite sides of the world. No clue if Japan ever had a pinball scene.
I love the art, very classic. If the backglasses weren't so fragile, I'd collect and frame them.
Isn't lucky hand just Jack's Open? Or something completely different? I was lucky enough to play one of those in Toronto a while ago
Indeed it is. During the electromechanical era, you'll see multiple versions of games with different names.
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1281
Usually it'd be like, a single player version, a 4 player version, and an "add-a-ball" version which was made to circumvent New York's gambling laws where you could win extra balls to play (someone correct me if I'm wrong on that)
More info on Add-A-Ball
Wow that's pretty cool thanks anon
No problem. I'm still learning a lot myself, but ipdb, pinside, and pinwiki have taught me a lot over the past few months.
Definitely an example of something being old and nostalgic but at the same time soulless as frick. They put ZERO effort into this shit back in the day.
>ok so the theme for this next one is Tennessee
>what the hell is in Tennessee?
>idk, frick it just put a horny bawd on there like usual
I'm still mad that pinball arcade on switch was released right after they lost the license.
Pinball Arcade had the best and most complete collection of tables but they lost all the licenses so you have to pirate it to get them now
Pinball FX3 now has a bunch of Williams tables but still not nearly as many as Pinball Arcade used to have and pretty much none of the licensed stuff
However FX3 also has a mode with more realistic physics which I like better than Arcades physics
You don't have to spoonfeed but is there a pack floating around somewhere with Pinball Arcade and all the Williams tables?
Yes just find one that has seasons 1-7 pro packs and it should have pretty much everything
You can just download the free version from Steam, apply a crack and all the delisted tables will be there.
anybody has a bigass updated visual pinball/virtual pinball pack?
How to find pinball and pinball tournaments in your area:
US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Finland, UK
https://pinballmap.com/
Worldwide:
https://pinside.com/pinball/map
Europe:
https://findapinball.com/en/browse/
Tournaments:
Depending on where you live, there may be a facebook group for players in your area.
You can also find tournaments near you here and here:
https://www.ifpapinball.com/calendar/
https://matchplay.events/live
Pinball Simulators that will give you a free virtual pin or two as a sample:
Pinball Fx 3 (Sorcerer's Lair, Fish Tales)
Zaccaria (Time Machine)
Pinball Arcade (Mary Shelley's Frankenstein)
Stern Pinball Arcade (Also Frankenstein)
There's also Visual Pinball, which is a freeware pinball simulator.
How to become Good at Pinball (wholly optional):
https://www.deadflip.com/tutorials/ (techniques in gif form)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-WQLGFMr97DnxeE1Rmi-wAwa-Vm7D-7i
There's a pinball arcade an hour away but I can't convince my dad to go with me.
Frick Stern, frick Black folk, and frick jannies.
Stern are the only guys making good games these days. Jersey Jack lost the magic, miss me with that Toy Story 4 shit. Spooky was never consistent, they've had some gems but Halloween sucked ass. American games are generally clunky. Meanwhile Elwin's Sterns are some of the best games ever made.
BASED
Stern is fricking souless dog shit
I'll give you a Stern punishment if you don't stop being a homosexual
I'm sorry Stern enjoyer won't happen again also kek
I think the free table changes every month so this is outdated
On which? The old Pinball FX 3 for consoles still has fish tales as the free table.
Just checked TBA and the free table this month is Ghostbusters.
Abe Flips has much better tutorial videos than PAPA
Set up Baller Installer for however many screens your desktop has, one is fine but 2 is better so you can turn one vertically. Download tables from VPforums. You'll need to create accounts for both but you can use throwaway emails. It's all free and also the best approximation of real pinball you can get anywhere.
https://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=baller_installer
PinballFX sucks in comparison.
Boomers give us such shit for our taste but imagine paying to hit a metal ball kek
>wandering around the mall killing time before I have to be somewhere
>wander past the cinema
>old pinball machines set up near the entrance
>only accept tokens
>put in $5 get three tokens
>two tokens per play
>smack balls around for 2 minutes until they fall into the hole
>waste $5
I don't get it. I could have bought a magazine or something instead.
>$3+ per play
Christ, I hope that's a joke anon.
Inflation is fricked and bar/venue operators don't understand that games are a draw to make you spend on food and drink. The longer I can sit around playing games, the more goods I am apt to buy for the duration.
Instead they want to get a direct return on the investment so they'll frick you around and even jack up the difficulty and neglect to service controls like the old arcade israelites used to.
That's a shame. The place near me has you pay for a day pass and everything's on free play. I didn't realize pay-per-play rates were that awful now.
EMs are neat. I've recently found myself watching videos on 50s and 60s machines. I wish some of them had more action though.
How bout you git gud
What location is this? I've literally never seen prices that high, most I've seen is like $1.50 at the type of shitty arcades that use swipe cards with points. $1.00 is generally the standard for new games but I still find many classics on route for $0.50
>Black Knight
Unbelievably based taste, BK2000 is the best table ever made
They didn't actually have this one where I went, but I had that Williams Pinball collection on my Wii when I was a kid, and this one and Fun house were my favorites.
Say what you will about Pinball Arcade's physics but those guys at Farsight were pumping out a new table every MONTH meanwhile the FX guys are dragging their feet, what gives?
the pinball arcade is all you need, op. pirate it though because many great tables aren't for sale anymore.
cool table but that fricking rotating disk would always stick out just a little bit and frick up your shots
I only remember a Halloween-themed Pinball from Sierra, back from 2000s, for PC. Good times, I still have the original disc, but I don't remember the name.
3D Ultra Pinball Creepnight. I had great memories of it as well but found it years later and realized it sucks ass. Slow, bad framerate, bad collision, just sloppy and imprecise feeling in general.
PinBot for the NES, probably one of the best goddamned simulations of a pinball machine ever made.
High Speed was the superior NES pinball
>both made by Rare
>both use the same engine apparently
>even the same vocoded voice
I'd argue that pinbot wins but only because it has a superior theme
I live in Seattle, which sucks, but it's like the pinball capital of America and picking it up as a hobby was great.
Anybody own one of those shitty 1up pinball machines? How is it? I know its a lesser experience but its better than nothing
I played one before its ok, they're really small tables, more meant for kids honestly.
I have this table though and it's actually nice to play on, full size wide body and actually plays pretty smooth, but costs double the 1 up machines depending where you go. So if you were gonna go digital table I'd go with one of these instead of 1up.
https://www.atgames.net/arcades/legends-pinball/
just install windows xp
Williams Pinball is probably the best overall
Stern Pinball Arcade has some of the best tables but the physics are very floaty/buggy
Zaccaria Pinball has the prettiest most realistic graphics where you can tweak almost everything, including the location and lighting, but most tables are extremely old and simple compared to the above 2
If you have a nintendo switch, all of them can be played vertically I think. Zaccaria on pc supports multiple monitors so you can have the table on one monitor and the display/backbox on another, really neat.
There's also pinball table simulators you can build yourself and make it functino like a real pinball machine.
That thing where gravity gets all out of whack once you shoot up the hyperspace lane enough times was cool as hell
3ds has a couple pinball titles that are decent for on the go pinball.
I'd love to get a real pinball machine but I suspect the maintenance is an expensive nightmare.
It depends. I can't speak on the later machines or electromechanical machines, but early solid states (late 70s, early 80s) aren't the worst. The circuit boards can be a few hundred bucks if you can find them, but some have modern replacements.
The maintenance is really not bad if it's just played by mainly one person. Games on location can rack up thousands of plays pretty quick, which causes things to need maintenance. A new game played an hour a day by one guy will be basically fine for a long time. Not that you won't want to make minor adjustments here and there but nothing major should conk out for a while.
This game was strangely addicting. Way more fun than it had any right to be.
Based. This was great, and the ruby and sapphire version was so fricking addictive. Wish they made more of them.
Post your favorite machines.
I'm the only one I know who's ever loved this game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYB6VslVHQ
Based. This is my favorite game on Williams Pinball for mobile. If I could get one irl table, it would probably be this, unless Sega made a classic Sonic-themed one.
There are rumors that Sega gave the Sonic license to some pinball manufacturer recently
It's basically confirmed. American Pinball went to Sega to buy the license and Sega said it was already bought. They wouldn't say who by, but they said it wasn't Stern. So:
Jersey Jack Pinball
Spooky Pinball
I guess it could also be Chicago Gaming.
I doubt it's The Pinball Brothers or Homepin.
Could be Multimorphic
Are you the same guy I talked about this with last thread though. I feel like this always happens
Oh right, I forgot about Multimorphic. Which is funny because I'm really into that company.
I'm probably that guy.
There's a new podcast interview with the guy from American Pinball where they talk about not being able to buy the license and other stuff. I haven't listened to it yet.
It's the one I started with (if you don't count Space Cadet for Win xp) so it will always be my favorite
I love the taunts (You'll learn why they call me Lord Hurtz... Howard Hurtz!)
pinball machines were never used for gambling. Only bingo machines were used for gambling.
I won't claim to be an expert on the subject by any means, but here's an article from the History channel saying otherwise. https://www.history.com/news/that-time-america-outlawed-pinball
It is a common misconception that I am correcting.
Ah okay.
How many companies are actually making machines currently?
Stern
Jersey Jack Pinball
Spooky Pinball
American Pinball
Multimorphic
The Pinball Brothers
Homepin
That's more than I thought, I assumed it was just Stern and Jersey.
Homepin and The Pinball Brothers have only manufactured one game each so far, but have plans to make more.
There's also Haggis Pinball out of Australia. I forgot them.
Might also say Chicago Gaming Company but they only do remakes
Right, they certainly count. Next time I'll include them. The reason I forgot this time may have something to do with the fact that their games are manufactured in Stern's factory. (I think)
>tfw have a big pinball convention near me every year along with a huge arcade
Feels good man
I played a gold finger pinball game a lot.