Round 3: Q&A With Bobby King

[mmmagnetic]

Oh boy! These are always fun.

Just a few minutes in, but just wanted to say: All three of you have great podcast voices.

 

[Jan Duin]

No news on TAF Kickstart unfortunately, but there's some other great news in the podcast:

• 50% discount on PS4 Season 1 if you've previously bought Season 1 for the PS3 or own more than 4 table packs;
• The PS4 demo kiosks are running an August 1 build of TPA, lighting's much better now.
• PS3 Megapatch: "All the bugs we’ve fixed on other versions will be in here”. "Submission to Sony probably in a couple of weeks, You can expect in a month from there..”;
• Farsight is playing with the idea of a Pinball Construction Set once they run out of tables to recreate;

Really enjoyed the show, thanks Jeff, Chris and Bobby!!

 

[mmmagnetic]

Oh man, a TPA pinball construction set would be incredibly cool!

 

[night]

Oh man, a TPA pinball construction set would be incredibly cool!

Very cool, very-very cool. Would love to get my hands dirty on the graphics, leaving the programming to another wizz-kid.

 

[Espy]

At the risk of turning this into another derailed topic about the PS3 patch (please don't), do they mention if the patch will wipe all scores and goals? I'm in the minority on these boards but I really wouldn't want all this data to disappear. Not to mention the confused players that don't use the forums and have no idea what happened.

 

[karl]

My new favorite pod cast.

Splendid job. Both of you have great radio voices, you ask the right questions and not once did it get boring even after having listened to so many prior interviews with Bobby. I really hope you two are able to do another one in the coming months.

PS! I hope the move to California went well and that you enjoy it there so far, Jeff. How wonderful it is to have you two living not to far away from Farsight. Go bug them some more soon

EDIT: How about an interview with more Farsight personnel the next time and make it a 8 hour pod cast

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Great interview! jeff chris the contrast between your voices makes it easy to tell whos talking. So much good stuff to look forward to. The end cracked me up thanks

 

[utblick]

Great interview!
Jersey Jack Pinball YES YES YES Wizard of Oz and Hobbit on TPA could happen !!!

 

[SilverBalls]

Great listen - many thanks for taking the time to go to Farsight. Enjoyed the 'after interview' chat too.

One thing I heard repeated from Bobby which he has said before which I find surprising and a bit disappointing is 'one day we will run out of great tables to build'. Having played several hundred 'real' VP tables in a cabinet over the last 2-3 years has made me realise there are many great tables that aren't in any top 100 list. I therefore really hope Farsight continue to make tables for many years to come. After all building a 'real' table willl be easier than designing original tables as the ROM takes care of the rule -set, the artwork is already designed and most likely licences aren't so much of an issue. It would be nice to see many more EMs too and I would pay double for these.

Think of tables like Spirit, Robo-war, Genisis, Seawitch, Fathom, Laserwar - these are awesome tables from a long list of many that I discovered through VP and would snap them up immediately if Farsight made them. I am sure many of you guys agree?

From the interview I was very pleased to here about the cab work and DirectX 11 updates planned by Farsight. Top stuff. Thanks again

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

One thing I heard repeated from Bobby which he has said before which I find surprising and a bit disappointing is 'one day we will run out of great tables to build'. Having played several hundred VP tables in a cabinet over the last 2-3 years has made me realise there are many great tables that aren't in any top 100 list. I therefore really hope Farsight continue to make tables for many years to come. After all building a 'real' table willl be easier than designing original tables as the ROM takes cares of the rule -set, the artwork is already designed and most likely licences aren't so much of an issue. It would be nice to see many more EMs too and I would pay double for these.

It's not so much a question of running out of good tables as it is a question of running out of tables that would sell well. Remember, it's not enough for a table to be good...FarSight also has to (at least) make enough from that table to cover the cost of developing it for TPA. The older tables are especially prone to this because while an enthusiast may appreciate their gameplay, they may not be "flashy" enough to attract the casual player.

 

[SilverBalls]

It's not so much a question of running out of good tables as it is a question of running out of tables that would sell well. Remember, it's not enough for a table to be good...FarSight also has to (at least) make enough from that table to cover the cost of developing it for TPA. The older tables are especially prone to this because while an enthusiast may appreciate their gameplay, they may not be "flashy" enough to attract the casual player.

fair point - maybe a solution is to bundle a 'popular' table with a less known one? Or charge a premium for these tables? Also do we know if the majority of the PA buying public know the real tables - if not maybe the majority will still buy lesser known tables once they have played a demo of a table with great gameplay. I guess the answer is to test the water by releasing a pack of lesser known tables at some point.

 

[Kolchak357]

Very nice. I like the little wrap up show after the interview too.

 

[Heretic]

jeffery and christopher wanted me in but i wimped out, but i blame my tech!

i hope to chat to you all in the future.

ill even be polite...mostly

 

[Mark W**a]

Shut Yer Trap! Dude, you have a great voice and personality for this type of show!

 

[Mark W**a]

Great interview. We really do at the end of the day appreciate all the hard work that goes into the game, and it's great to hear the commitment from Farsight to keep improving the game and adding more and more. They see very committed for the long haul.

I wish you guys would have asked for some hints at future tables. SAM emulation what exactly does that cover? Isn't Ripley's a SAM table? Or was that pre-SAM? Sam means IIRC Simpsons pinball party, LOTR, that era of games and up correct?

Creating pinball games for PBA and real releases at the same time is a dream come true and I'm so happy that this is going to happen in the future. AFAIC, that's important for the future of pinball, and helping pinball in general. It helps both Jersey Jack, Stern, and Faright to make this a reality. Look if only the PS4, Xbox One, and PC can support say, Metallica and Star Trek, I think they should make it happen. 360 and PS3, back when they were still the most powerful platforms, had exclusives on Arabian Nights, Gofers, and Medieval Madness that weren't in other versions like the Wii version. I know people will complain but to me having exclusive next gen versions of these tables is better than not having the tables at all. This goes for all SAM games IMO. It gives people incentives to upgrade to the new version of the game on the new platform.

Anyways. You guys should have pushed for some future table hints! Find out what's up with all the Premier releases lately, and asked about Cirqus Voltaire slowdown. I know that in a chill, fun, relaxed setting you don't want to be negative but I think you can ask people about issues like that while still being positive and polite. He confirmed it's an older build so to me that's at least a decent answer, that it's an older build, and hopefully that's all it is. I have strong confidence that it won't be an issue, so it's no big deal that you didn't ask that.

Rom emulation for Black Knight, Gorgar, Firepower = YES!! Very happy to hear that.

Great interview guys thanks for this.

 

[smbhax]

fair point - maybe a solution is to bundle a 'popular' table with a less known one? [...] I guess the answer is to test the water by releasing a pack of lesser known tables at some point.

They've already done both those things, so I think we can guess how well they worked. : p I'm sure they'll try again and maybe eventually people will be more open minded especially once they can stop clamoring for certain popular tables, but FarSight can't really count on that.

 

[Heretic]

mark theres only so much farsight can even say to us its just good buiness

very good commentary otherwise

 

[Jeff Strong]

We asked if they could drop any bombshells on us, but they said no. We tried!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Well, from the way you and Bobby put it in the interview, the single-player stuff *sounded* unrelated to Pro mode--also there wouldn't be a whole lot of point to it if it was wrapped into Pro Mode, because you can make those settings yourself in Pro Mode already. And Pro mode disables leaderboards because of all the other stuff you can set once the "coin door" is open, so I'd be pretty surprised if they were considering a leaderboard that had anything to do with Pro mode at this point.

EDIT: Also also, not all tables have Pro mode, and you wouldn't think they'd want to exclude a bunch of tables from tournament play because of that.

He did mention Pro Mode in relation to the single player stuff right before I asked about a leaderboard for that new difficulty mode. We'll have to wait and see how exactly how they're gonna do it. The good news is that it doesn't sound too far away.

 

[Mark W**a]

mark theres only so much farsight can even say to us its just good buiness

very good commentary otherwise

Past interviews had hints from other tables duuuuude.

We asked if they could drop any bombshells on us, but they said no. We tried!

Right on, thanks for trying!