Clarification on Xbox submissions

[Sean DonCarlos]

If they have to keep old assets for the one or two dumb asses who insist on not updating their tables, then the cost and complexity exponentially increases every time they update the tables. Thus, we may never see them improving the physics, fixing the Black Hole and Gorgar problems, add operator menus (or limited options) and other wish list improvements.

Physics data is apparently controllable on an object-by-object basis, so such data would be stored with the objects themselves in the table assets. The collision meshes and art/lighting resources are there as well, along with the table's ROM data (which would contain the operator menus).

So I'm not seeing the issue. You either download updated tables and get whatever features happen to be included in the assets for those updated tables, or you don't and remain with the version you have. All the executable has to keep track of is which asset version you have. As long as the updates for a given table are cumulative (each update includes all prior updates in case a user has missed a version or two), this should be manageable.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

Yes, it won't be an issue, it's just a pain for me cause I have to keep track of the versions.

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Even when it happens, in the worse case scenario whole game is wrecked by ''someone'' in say 10 years. Still no problem, cause i think 100% of the ''worried crew'' is not playing on their 360, ps3 or ipad3 anymore, but on his xbox5, ps5 en ipad 11 or any other new platform when that time comes.....

So, we need to re-buy pinball arcade either way in future.

 

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

Thanks for the clarification and feedback.

 

[Richard B]

Even when it happens, in the worse case scenario whole game is wrecked by ''someone'' in say 10 years. Still no problem, cause i think 100% of the ''worried crew'' is not playing on their 360, ps3 or ipad3 anymore, but on his xbox5, ps5 en ipad 11 or any other new platform when that time comes.....

So, we need to re-buy pinball arcade either way in future.

As long as they keep increasing the quality, I'll keep buying. With the massive quality leap between PHOF and TPA, in 10 years, they might be able to get the game so good and realistic, that if they showed two videos, one of the PS5/XBOX 1440, the other of the real machine from the same angle, you would be unable to tell which is which. They're already fairly close to that visually on the current consoles.

 

[Franky]

hi, it's a little bit confusing for me since my english is not that good. Do i get that right - there are two ways to have the updated version of TPA, one is to use the Title Update and the other is to redownload the updated main game? - is that right?

 

[Ark Malmeida]

Mike can correct me if I'm wrong but from what he said, there is only one way to get the updated version of TPA and that is to use the title update. From what he said above (and from what I've experienced with my XBox) it seems that the original executable (main game) is always there and that's what you download, and then there is a title update in a different location that gets applied over the main game.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

Mike can correct me if I'm wrong but from what he said, there is only one way to get the updated version of TPA and that is to use the title update. From what he said above (and from what I've experienced with my XBox) it seems that the original executable (main game) is always there and that's what you download, and then there is a title update in a different location that gets applied over the main game.

That's correct. The Title Update shows up when you launch the game an Xbox System dialog appears telling you there is an update, if you refuse the update you are disconnected from xbox live. If you download it, it's stored in a separate location from the original game.

The original executable always exists. The system works the same way for disc based games, since you can't modify files on a disc. The executable on the disc is the original, and at runtime it loads in any downloaded patches and applies them overtop the executable in memory, then the game runs.