FarSight PREPS For Star Trek : The Next Generation Kickstarter Project

Supermans said:

call it Vintage Pinball Arcade.

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At what point is the cut off date for vintage classification? Date justified?, tech justified?

The object of the Pinball Arcade is to preserve pinball machines. Date, features and personal loves shouldn't be a determining factor on what makes it in. Just get them all in

gsxrboy said:

The object of the Pinball Arcade is to preserve pinball machines. Date, features and personal loves shouldn't be a determining factor on what makes it in. Just get them all in

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DING DING DING!!! We have a WINNAH!!!

On my old Pinball Hall of Fame, I play some of the oldest games most often!

Gottlieb Collection

Big Shot (1973)
Central Park (1966)
Genie (1979)
Gorgar (1979)
Firepower (1980)

I'll still play Ace High (1957) more often than I play Tee'd Off (1993) or Goin' Nuts (1983)
I enjoy a good game of Jive Time (1970) as well.. I just never got all of it's wizard goals completed. Dang that west gate!


The older games were a lot more simple than the more modern games, but that doesn't make them any less fun!
It allows you to more easily focus on pinball basics... controlling the ball, aiming at targets, catching and passing the ball between flippers.

Supermans said:

Pete, perhaps there is a market for the older tables, and my idea of bundling them up into 5 games being sold for the same price as two of the more modern tables may get enough people to bite and make the purchase for them. You and I and probably everyone in this forum would purchase it. What I fear is that Farsight loses ground against PinballFX/Zen Pinball fantasy tables with the younger audience which I feel Farsight needs to ensnare with nothing less than the best tables early on. I think for the older tables, Farsight needs to seperate them from the Pinball Arcade completely and call it Vintage Pinball Arcade. The reason for that seperation is simply to avoid people who download the demo to try the older tables first instead of the newer more exciting tables which have a better chance of getting people to buy them.

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That almost sounds like you want FarSight to cater to video game players and not pinball players.

It's PINBALL Arcade.. not VIDEO GAME ARCADE with Pinball.

Let other companies do whatever they want to do with fantasy games. I wish them well.
The purpose of Pinball Arcade is to have real pinball machines preserved in a playable digital format. There's a lot longer history to pinball than just the past 10 or 15 years.

I am not a fan of older tables '79 and below I feel like im driving a pinto after driving a lamborgini, and theyre more "MY TIME" but I agree even though I dont seek out those pins, Id play'em and pay for them just not at the same $DLC a bundle of 4 for $5 is pushing it, since FS will throw in less desirable table with FAVORITES. But I cringe at the thought of BIG SHOT being released, I didnt like it on PS2, so what awsome table are they going to attach that to?

I, on the other hand, would be thrilled with a Big Shot release - it's definitely one of my favourites. I don't think you can make an arbitrary cut-off date and say Pinball Arcade should never include a table older than year "x," though possibly nothing without flippers should make the cut (I actually wouldn't mind some quality emulated pachinko however, just not mixed in with my pinball).

I will acknowledge that there may be a generational gap in terms of preference and that therefore a two-pack of Ace High and Big Shot might not sell as well as if you coupled those tables with something else, though I and others would happily buy them. I go to Gorgar and Black Hole when I only have five to ten minutes for a quick game. I'd appreciate a little more variety in early machines for sure and I don't think the odd electromechanical table is going to cause players to abandon the pinball arcade - seems a bit over dramatic.

People have different tastes and there's no reason Farsight cannot cater to all of them with this collection as they did with the Pinball Hall of Fame. Just using their improved physics engine with the art from those earlier collections would be good enough for me.

Sean said:

I, on the other hand, would be thrilled with a Big Shot release - it's definitely one of my favourites. I don't think you can make an arbitrary cut-off date and say Pinball Arcade should never include a table older than year "x," though possibly nothing without flippers should make the cut (I actually wouldn't mind some quality emulated pachinko however, just not mixed in with my pinball).

I will acknowledge that there may be a generational gap in terms of preference and that therefore a two-pack of Ace High and Big Shot might not sell as well as if you coupled those tables with something else, though I and others would happily buy them. I go to Gorgar and Black Hole when I only have five to ten minutes for a quick game. I'd appreciate a little more variety in early machines for sure and I don't think the odd electromechanical table is going to cause players to abandon the pinball arcade - seems a bit over dramatic.

People have different tastes and there's no reason Farsight cannot cater to all of them with this collection as they did with the Pinball Hall of Fame. Just using their improved physics engine with the art from those earlier collections would be good enough for me.

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If Farsight was to include these older tables, perhaps a change in the interphase would be needed where the tables are seperated in terms of by decade, so the causal gamer can appreciate the progression of time and the innovations each new decade impeoved upon until it hit its pinnacle. I would love to see the older tables made, however realistically Farsight should first focus on the best of the best popular tables in order to build up that base as quickly as possible. Then future packs of older tables would have a better chance to sell since I don't see them initialy bringing people in as much as the more modern tables.

From reading all the comments in the 360 area of the forum in regards to rants against Farsight for various reasons. My opinion is that Farsight reached out too far too quickly in trying to support too many systems in large part with a very small group of workers to maximize profits for themselves. My guess is that Farsight having a small group of people has been succesful (but didn't expect backlash over certain occurances to the degree they occured) With the many sales of Pinball Arcade and the extra kickstarter donation being also a success, they can now re-invest in the company in positive ways and reevaluate their marketing strategy and forum user feedback. We can all agree Farsight has answered many of issues many were complaining about already, they just haven't reached 360 owners in the timely manner they would like. Farsight asking for programers to hire here in this forum reenforces my opinion on what is going on internally as it is common sense. They also have the kickstarter money which has paid for the Twilight Zone license alrwady and the rest saved for Star Trek TNG which I think they may have begun working on already since they own the tables.

If Farsight wants to regain the trust of the 360 owners who feel like they are not getting updates fast enough. I think Farsight needs to open up about what they are planning on in a weekly basis to everyone in this forum, not once a month and get a dialogue going with the 360 owners. If they give everyone a Saturday night update for example telling us what is going on once a week for example. It would go a long way to making everyone feel as if they are moving in the right track. Even though I feel they are moving on the right track because of faith. At the very least it would keep those anxious people from saying Farsight is paying attention to one system over another, or not doing what they promised with the kickstarter money etc. A video talking about what has been done etc. wuld go a long way. As we can see, they did this Star Trek video which I think is great so they have the equipment.

I for one see them doing a great job in my opinion, however I primarily play this on the new IPad3 which plays it very smoothly. I am disappointed the PS3 version has lots of lag making the game unplayable in comparison to the xbox and ios versions. However I am hopeful they can come up with a fix since all other pinball iterations have no lag on the PS3.

As for those thinking there is greed involved with the kickstarter program, that if the owner of Farsight would simply not collect his entire paycheck and sacrifice the amount needed for Twilight Zone instead of buying an expensive car, house, or spending the money on a new home entertainment movie theater. First of all, we don't know anything about Farsights financial status, nor do we know what any Farsight employee's salary is used for personally. However it is understandable to think that if Farsight owners had enough money to invest in TZ, why do the kickstarter. However they did say that they felt their return in profit would be too low in this video above which I believe so the kickstarter is justified in my opinion. Now if you see the owner drive off with a new $100,000 car shortly after the kickstarter ended, then all the kickstarter contributers would lose faith and feel cheated if they found out and understandibky so. (My advice is keep us updated so no more imaginations run wild on what is going on) So in reality there is a lot of trust and faith that goes into this kickstarter program if you think about it. I for one want to contribute to the Star Trek TNG kickstarter because I do trust in Farsights intentions, and I do want to see this table built. Heck, I want to purchase a real Star Trek table at some point, but I do need a bigger house and wife approval lol. So if you are delaying the Star Trek TNG kickstarter in order to get these other items sorted out first, then let everyone know that is what you are doing instead of having people guess. Also, you announced the kickstarter would be in a week a couple weeks ago, and then backtracked. Farsight must have gotten emails from the highest donors that they were unhappy for them to postpone it. I pray things work out, as I'm pretty sure everyone wants Farsight to succeed in their business endevours.

Supermans, your post is well thought out and fair , and it's people like you that make this forum a pleasure to read .