Tournament Leader is a real Pinball Wizard

It is about time that we tie Pinball Wizard tournament leader Roy Wils; so he gives us mortals back some points back in the tournament. He is standing in the leadershipd by 40 points off the second place which is a huge advantage. He is first place on 4 of 8 tables; this is unbelievable.

Actually my suggestion is that the Pinball Arcade should step on this momentum and start a campaign along with Roy Wils to give a certain credibility to the TPA as a reliable pinball practice field for the rest of the population to increase their exposure.

Help me put this idea together. We can use this exposure to make the TPA more mainstream.

Are you suggesting an invitational type tournament for the ranked players of real pinball? That would be cool if they could get enough entrants to make it interesting.

Put together Wils, Elwin, Sheets and some of the other renowned guys maybe even for a few minutes on video and have them comment on the games, that would be great. I mean even the fact that Wils plays on these tourneys using his name is a favor.

Thanks Advalle for the props on me.. ill appreciate that..

well i dunno about sheats and elwin, they can surely play some mean pinball in the Realms of Real Pinball no doubt about that..

but that doesnt mean unfortunally that they can do the same for Virtual Pinball, i personally can do it,. but i grewed up playing pinball and videogames during almost my entire childhood, thut not only real pinball, also virtual pinball.. remember all those classic pinball game titles like

Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies.. to name a few.. it started with an table on my commodore 64 called Midnight.. played the crap out of that game..

and then computers started to evolve, amiga systems, msx,. then we got the ibm computers x86/386/486 era,. where graphics starts to be serious good.. pinball games always kept my attention, and also in real life.. so i know i have got competition within the Realms of Real Pinball.. we all know the names right.. but the question is does those guys also plays the Pinball Arcade (virtual pinball) and performing outstanding too? i know an couple of guys like victor stulemeijer (friend of mine) but also another friend who lives in Canada who does thou,. but they are in the minority,. i know so many great real pinball players,. they are like family, we all know about eachother.. Josh Sharpe should play the game too right as he contributes into it, maybe he does play it too on a top level, but he uses an nick we dont know perhaps.. i dunno i will ask him in person when i have the chance @ Pinburgh..

about my other friend who lives in canada,. he recently picked up to play as he told me on Pinball Arcade.. his name is Robert Gagno, and he is doin great allready, he aimed for the AFM topscore.. and he got it now..

He is currently the leader of that AFM table on the boards,. he is ranked nr #11 currently according the IFPApinball rankings.. and i consider him as my foreign youngher brother, and he starts to pick it up too,. u see him as REG on the pinball highscore list..

so who knows right, i take pinball serious virtual or not lets play some more pinball!!

A very interesting perspective, Roy. Thanks for commenting.

What're your personal thoughts on how the physics from Pinball Arcade stacks against the real thing?

Roy Wils said:

Thanks Advalle for the props on me.. ill appreciate that..

well i dunno about sheats and elwin, they can surely play some mean pinball in the Realms of Real Pinball no doubt about that..

but that doesnt mean unfortunally that they can do the same for Virtual Pinball, i personally can do it,. but i grewed up playing pinball and videogames during almost my entire childhood, thut not only real pinball, also virtual pinball.. remember all those classic pinball game titles like

Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies.. to name a few.. it started with an table on my commodore 64 called Midnight.. played the crap out of that game..

and then computers started to evolve, amiga systems, msx,. then we got the ibm computers x86/386/486 era,. where graphics starts to be serious good.. pinball games always kept my attention, and also in real life.. so i know i have got competition within the Realms of Real Pinball.. we all know the names right.. but the question is does those guys also plays the Pinball Arcade (virtual pinball) and performing outstanding too? i know an couple of guys like victor stulemeijer (friend of mine) but also another friend who lives in Canada who does thou,. but they are in the minority,. i know so many great real pinball players,. they are like family, we all know about eachother.. Josh Sharpe should play the game too right as he contributes into it, maybe he does play it too on a top level, but he uses an nick we dont know perhaps.. i dunno i will ask him in person when i have the chance @ Pinburgh..

about my other friend who lives in canada,. he recently picked up to play as he told me on Pinball Arcade.. his name is Robert Gagno, and he is doin great allready, he aimed for the AFM topscore.. and he got it now..

He is currently the leader of that AFM table on the boards,. he is ranked nr #11 currently according the IFPApinball rankings.. and i consider him as my foreign youngher brother, and he starts to pick it up too,. u see him as REG on the pinball highscore list..

so who knows right, i take pinball serious virtual or not lets play some more pinball!!

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Awesome to hear something from a real tourney player. I'm still curious on most 'pro' player thoughts on the game. To me PA feels pretty good but nothing like the real thing. Of course you can take the same strategies in real pinball and process them on these tables as well couldn't you?

Anyway since the recent Ps3 update I can now control my shots better than the previous version. I haven't played too much real pinball since the prices were around $1.50 to $2.00 for 1 game (which I thought was ridiculous back then) so I didn't play much. Now Zen and Farsight got my addiction back of playing real pinball again so I've been trying to find places in AZ to play. Found a decent Spiderman table and been doing well. I love it when I consistently win free games.

That said, we need more flipper physics where we can Drop catch, true cradle separation and others. The reality of it is even though it's fairly close it's nothing like the real thing.

Like Bass Mummy mentioned, wonder what your thought on the physics of PA compared to the real thing. Also i'm pretty sure that you would campaign on removing extra balls in tournament mode.

I'm much less upset about being absolutely crushed when I know it's pros who are doing the crushing. : )

Just in case someone missed that on science channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdDoS8FfQH8

Great to have you here among us, Roy

Mayuh said:

Just in case someone missed that on science channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdDoS8FfQH8

Great to have you here among us, Roy

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Great link there Mayuh! My son has Autism too and although he isn't as fascinated as Robert was for pinball, he is now into addresses and maps. He will remember the exact address of a place we may have only been to once or he will remember the address for one of his favorite fast food places (McDonalds)

Well of course this has just been posted
http://papa.org/blog/2013/02/pinburgh-2012-group-u/

Don't spoil it, Roy, I have to watch it first

Pinballfan69 said:

Great link there Mayuh! My son has Autism too and although he isn't as fascinated as Robert was for pinball, he is now into addresses and maps. He will remember the exact address of a place we may have only been to once or he will remember the address for one of his favorite fast food places (McDonalds)

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We have a member in our local pinball club too, and he really enjoys playing. and doesn't perform bad. We just founded leagues here in Austria, let's see how well he can perform in competitive pinball

Thanks for that Mayuh. That was flippin' amazing!

Found another vid that left my mouth open hanging open:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-DhySLvKNk

I got to play TRON: Legacy (Stern 2011) a few weeks ago at Flippers Variety Store & Arcade in North Carolina. I don't remember if I managed to escape the Grid thru the Portal (okay I probably didn't.) But I DID win a free game on ToTAN on my first crack at the table, so I'm coming for ya Roy!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1qactti4t6cxbo/pinburgh.jpg

Robert is an Amazing player and a very kind guy.. well the video of ingenious minds about him, told me that he was also an pokeman virtual pinball champion.. so it proves me he is very able to rule our boards very soon..

u see also his REG initials too somewhere in the beginning of the ingenious minds video,. he has an condition called autism, but it helps him as he can hyper focus on his task, to bring the best out of him

well i dont have autism, but i have been diagnosed for ADD (which is the quite brother of ADHD) and it appears that i do have that Hyper Focus gift too..

anyway about the other comments when it comes to compare Real Pinball against Virtual Pinball..

Well the major difference is the ball and flipper performance itself,. the lack of the WildBall factor is pretty much not really there.. examples are the scoops which shoots the ball exactly the same way out of it as it did before and it will repeat to act the same over and over,. and is that really bad?

well its not really bad id say,. but its totally different when it comes with real pinball!

the same repeatism also applies to the 'strength' of the flippers,. each time u shoot the ball it gives always the ball the same amount of juice to speed the ball up on the direction u shoot it onto.. in real pinball its never the same in terms of ball juice..

especially not on data east games where the flipper itself wears out after an really long time playing ur game! as it starts to get weaker..its not bad.. no 1 wants an game with weak flippers.. but its part of pinball, sometimes u have to peddle with the weaker ones.. not within the pinball arcade.. always strong! well that is great.. but that whole pinball flipperstrength variable is gone aswell,. and the same goes also for ballpoppers,ejects,. slingshots.. pretty much everything!

but im a pinball fanatic in heart and soul.. and i do enjoy The Pinball Arcade product very much.. what it does give me is all the amazing sounds,music,playfield art.. and the best of it all. the rules on the tables are offcourse the very same as in real pinball! so its great to play an table and figuring out which is the best tactic to play on an certain table to gain urself an huge score.. which u can take that same information towards the real pinball deal.. like memorizing the videomode on STTNG.. thanks to farsight i know that videomode perfectly right now.. 2 times left , 2 times right , 2 times left etc etc

Pinball is getting back, and i believe farsight helps the whole pinball community by doin all those great table remakes.. they are providing awareness among the children who otherwise never got in touch of the almost forgotten game named pinball,. for that i will salute them!

Thanks FarSight

Great post, Roy!

Thanks for your input, Roy. It's great to have one of the top players in the world commenting on the game.

I don't mean to pester, but I would love to know - what tables would you like to see recreated in The Pinball Arcade that aren't there yet?

Good info there Roy, maybe FS should add a slight variability to all ball interactions to try to mimic real life and make up for the lack of ball spin. For instance a ball bouncing off a static flipper could bounce + or - 5% instead of bouncing exactly the same each time. Same with flipper strength, angle and strength out of kick outs, angle and strength bounced off anything really including pop bumpers and slingshots?

Kevlar said:

Good info there Roy, maybe FS should add a slight variability to all ball interactions to try to mimic real life and make up for the lack of ball spin. For instance a ball bouncing off a static flipper could bounce + or - 5% instead of bouncing exactly the same each time. Same with flipper strength, angle and strength out of kick outs, angle and strength bounced off anything really including pop bumpers and slingshots?

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For me the scoop in Monster Bash does at least three different Kick Outs (Not Really angle wise but strength for sure)

Mario.

Mayuh said:

For me the scoop in Monster Bash does at least three different Kick Outs (Not Really angle wise but strength for sure)

Mario.

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Yes there's definitely some variability there, also the odd duff kick out in Funhouse. Maybe they just need to replicate this across more interactions on all tables.

I often find if you get more than one ball in a scoop it kicks out a bit strange. Not that it's a bad thing.

Make sense, if another ball is in the subway, pushing against the ball in the kicker. But I'm surprised if FS actually bothered simulating stuff that goes on below the playfield with such accuracy.