Arcooda/Highway Survey

[gust334]

Got a survey link emailed from an Arcooda email address.

First part was "how do you like the software, which one did you purchase" which shows lack of preparation, as they know precisely which software each customer purchased.

Second part was "what other pinball/arcade stuff do you own".

Last part was "here are some future ideas for products, which might you buy and how much would you pay."


I kid you not.

 

[dmil666]

Got a survey link emailed from an Arcooda email address.

First part was "how do you like the software, which one did you purchase" which shows lack of preparation, as they know precisely which software each customer purchased.

Second part was "what other pinball/arcade stuff do you own".

Last part was "here are some future ideas for products, which might you buy and how much would you pay."


I kid you not.

Yep, I got one too. Filled it out and sent it back. I figure that if it will help them to make better software, why not?

 

[The loafer]

I really don’t see how exactly this is so bad?

 

[Jeff Strong]

What were the "future ideas"?

 

[chinzman93]

What were the "future ideas"?

The survey started with some general issues, debug, and computer knowledge. Then asked several questions about what pinball games do you have installed steam and non-steam (Visual Pinball, Future Pinball, Zen, Zacarria, Pro Pinball). What are your favorite steam and non-steam pinball apps? Did you build your own cabinet? If someone was to make an all new pinball game, how much would pay (I think they know what is happening with the Williams License...but I digress)? If Arcooda was to make all of the features from their cabinet (led, dmd, and Kinetic) available for home built cabinets, how much would you pay?

 

[gust334]

I really don’t see how exactly this is so bad?

I wouldn't say "bad".

But I would think that you might want to fix issues with code keys not being accepted, code keys having to be typed in every time, broken UI for screen boundaries, slow camera views, and table problems BEFORE you send out the customer satisfaction survey and BEFORE you start asking people what they might want to buy and what they might pay for new products from the same company.

Asking now is like pouring lemon juice on the paper cut.

 

[Re-Animator]

I think it is a good, if they know what people want to run on the Arcooda cabinet.
I hope they release an API for developers to control the I/O board.
so visual pinball and future pinball can support their custom hardware.
Or zaccaria pinball, or pinball FX. That would be cool.

 

[seattlemark]

The survey gives folks the opportunity to list any issues they are having. That's good. Here is the entire Start page of the survey:

Thank you for your help in providing feedback. This survey is only for customers who purchased Arcooda Pinball Arcade Software or the Steam Cabinet Support for Pinball Arcade, and will guide us to make decisions for upcoming game releases as well as hardware solutions.

If you purchased the Steam unlock key and still having difficulties, please help to list all problems as well as your operating system/hardware/setup – this information will help us tremendously to isolate and solve balance problems.

Thank for your support.
​

 

[jhamdotme]

I want to see a way for all third-party apps to interface with Arcooda's hardware. Further, I'd like to see them selling this hardware, because while I'm sure that Arcooda will sell a decent amount of cabinets, this number will probably be dwarfed by home-built cabinets. At least for a while.

They can set an example, though, and all other pinball developers will have a single standard to develop against. This will make cabinet support an easier feature to add, and it'll hopefully give these developers and table designers another viable revenue stream with in-app cabinet-mode upgrades.

I'd like to see the amazing Visual Pinball X re-creations supported with all of the cool hardware features, but I'd also like to see a way for independent developers and designers to monetize their original offerings. If they're building something from scratch and there's no stolen IP, it would be amazing if people could earn a living like this. We get great stuff now, but imagine what we could get if some of the people working on originals could quit their day jobs? I'd happily pay my share to make this happen.

I also suggested in the survey that Arcooda should find a way to turn their full-sized cabinets into kick-ass VR controllers. I'd love to play VR pinball with the feel of real buttons. It would be amazing to have a real plunger, too, and force feedback. And tilt! I want all of this when I'm immersing myself in virtual reality, and if this was plug-and-play simple, that might help them to sell a few more cabinets. Or, if they open up their hardware to others, that might sell some of that stuff, too. Or maybe they'll market an affordable VR-only controller that's similar to what hobbyists are building with the PinSim project.

 

[gust334]

The survey gives folks the opportunity to list any issues they are having. That's good.

This must be some new usage of the word 'good' unanticipated by Noah Webster.

Out of twenty questions to gather marketing info, only the second subpart of question 3 asks anything about issues. That is akin to having that 'opportunity' in a unlit cellar, inaccessible because of a closed stairway, in the bottom of a locked file cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard"... all apologies to the late Douglas Adams.

Note Arcooda has had about a month to address bug reports about their software, and other than this survey the only response from Arcooda was "talk to Farsight".

 

[The loafer]

I think it all depends on how we approach things. IMHO an "arcooda pinball survey" isn't automatically just a "customer satisfaction survey. Sure they addressed some satisfaction questions but the email itself explained it was to survey to "help improve the current software, introduce new game software/titles...". This was certainly beyond "are you happy with your product" and IMHO I'd rather they ask questions like this, showing there may be more features coming depending on the community wants then hearing nothing. One could dare say asking the customers what we would want is a fresh of friggin fresh air after years of what I perceive as something lacking with our community.

As well, Farsight IS responsible for getting the specific bugs addressed. Not sure what you want from Arcooda folks, they aren't in the know here. That does bring to mind what are they gonna do after July 31st which I think is when Farsight has targeted with finishing their development of the software. IE: it's nice to talk about what we'd like in the future but... who's gonna work on that?


It looks like you've had some issues Gust334, hope they do get resolved soon.

 

[jhamdotme]

This must be some new usage of the word 'good' unanticipated by Noah Webster.

Debbie Downer alert. They're taking steps to make things right, and I appreciate these efforts.

Nothing about what's gone down is ideal. I think Farsight and Arcooda would be the first to admit that, but we're getting generic cabinet support when I don't think that was in the cards, and it's all happening on a way-exedited time scale. There are bugs, because of course there are. That's not indicitive of shoddy work, that's indicitive of on-the-fly beta testing, or maybe alpha testing. They didn't want to sell this product now and in the state it's in, but their hand was forced, and now they're taking steps to make it right. Good on them.

 

[seattlemark]

I am optimistic. Here, in part, is why:

On 07/03/2018, Arcooda had the following post in our Forum:

A few updates;

- the 4K game play, if we can achieve and have working well for all tables/backglass, it will be available for all. Its just that the Ultra cabinet has 4K screens, whilst the other cabinets are running 1080p.

- Season 7 was never finished with FarSight and has been abandoned (however will try to get Wipeout and Pistol Poker up as soon as possible)

- the Kinect plug and play feature is still not finished. We will definitely come back to everyone later this year.


On a side note, shortly we will be contacting each customer who purchased a Steam unlock key, software, and/or cabinet to ask your opinions on what features you would like to see, what game licenses you would like on the machines.... For customers who are still having problems with camera slowdowns, or, customers who need to enter the unlock key each time they play Pinball Arcade in Steam, please note that we are working with daily with FarSight to check solutions. With your help, we are putting together a full analysis of hardware/software that everyone is using and trying to isolate where the problems might be coming from (for example, if most errors are coming from Win 7 using AMD, etc.. we can have FarSight help to further solve). Please help us by filling in the questionnaire when we send to you.

gust334 did some great work, and on 07/04/2018 reported "I believe slow cameras are due to page faults from TPA.". Based on that several of us also started pursuing that lead, and reporting our results. It was narrowed down to be Soft Page Faults and not Hard Faults. We found that even on PCs that are not getting the slowdowns we do see in Task Manager huge numbers of soft page faults in views 1-3 (including on brand new gaming PCs), so that it is something that FarSight/Arcooda should be able to see too (now that they have our tip of where and what to look for). All of this was reported to FarSight/Arcooda here. FarSight acknowledged getting our findings in the following 07/11/208 post:

It has been a busy few weeks with the Bally/Williams table removal but we have worked on the cabinet mode when we had time. We are going to put out another update to track down issues with crashing and cabinet keys not saving. Most of the things your hoping for are features we would like to see in the cabinet version as well but I do not expect them to be in anytime soon. Also Arcooda currently doesn't have any Stern tables.



Both comments kind of fall hand in hand. The programmer that we need to look into the page faults is on holiday for another week.

 

[shutyertrap]

As well, Farsight IS responsible for getting the specific bugs addressed. Not sure what you want from Arcooda folks, they aren't in the know here. That does bring to mind what are they gonna do after July 31st which I think is when Farsight has targeted with finishing their development of the software. IE: it's nice to talk about what we'd like in the future but... who's gonna work on that?

There is no end date to when FarSight will stop working on the software. Arcooda is paying FarSight and will continue to do so until the software is up to their standards. I have this directly from our contact at Arcooda, and had it confirmed by FarSight when I visited the studio. If you are wondering what Arcooda's standards might be, they have been involved in the video game arcade community for 30 years and expect software to perform at the same level as a Namco or Konami game would out in the wild.

 

[suplrist]

I also received and took the survey, happy to assist. I'm super happy with the cabinet mode so far, but would like to see the full features opened up in the future. FWIW I said I'd pay $100 for the gimped features enabled(kinect2.0/hardware support)+buy the relevant hardware, and $20 per table for software developed in the future.

 

[hounds64]

Those were the exact amounts I told them as well. $100 and $20.

 

[gust334]

If you are wondering what Arcooda's standards might be, they have been involved in the video game arcade community for 30 years and expect software to perform at the same level as a Namco or Konami game would out in the wild.

This quality was exactly my expectation from reading copy from their website prior to purchasing the cabinet key, why I was willing to front the money without a live demo, and why I am dissatisfied with the software as delivered last month. If Arcooda follows through to meet this level of quality, then I would definitely be interested in seeing what else they do.

From my perspective, I paid money to Arcooda and when it didn't work as they advertised, they directed me to Farsight for their product support. I did not know the relationship between the two companies, other than an assurance from Arcooda that they were in daily communications with Farsight.

THANKS shutyertrap for the insider info! It makes the whole redirection thing a little more understandable.

 

[Nomorestalker]

I also received and took the survey, happy to assist. I'm super happy with the cabinet mode so far, but would like to see the full features opened up in the future. FWIW I said I'd pay $100 for the gimped features enabled(kinect2.0/hardware support)+buy the relevant hardware, and $20 per table for software developed in the future.

Would be happy as well to add in features plus pay for premium tables to be available. I'm glad they are at least reaching out.

 

[gust334]

Mea culpa.

Detailed in other threads, Arcooda and FarSight engaged and now have a beta that resolves a key functional issue with the software that shipped.

When FarSight engaged, all indications were that FarSight was actively using the survey data collected by Arcooda w.r.t. issues people had with the TPA Cabinet software.

There is no doubt in my mind that Arcooda is actively supporting this product, and that they are driving FarSight into action. And there is no doubt in my mind that FarSight has gotten serious about debugging.