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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sean DonCarlos" data-source="post: 32891" data-attributes="member: 152">DISCLAIMER: Despite my increasing knowledge of how TPA works internally, I am not one of their developers.Zen2/FX2 is not trying to accurately emulate physical devices. Therefore they likely do not need new code for each new table, as they do not have to fool a ROM into thinking it is interacting with a physical table. All Zen2/FX2 has to worry about is marking what sound and animation resources to play when the ball interacts with certain features of their tables.Example: It's not like Theatre of Magic, where making the trunk rotate involves delicately handling a group of switches (there are about 15 of them on the real table) in precise sequence and timing so as to keep the ROM happy. If for some reason an FX2 table needs to rotate a trunk, it would simply have an animation resource and a sound resource stored with the table data. If it wanted to make the trunk explode instead, all it would need is a different animation and sound. But the code is always the same: on event A, play animation resource X and sound resource Y and increase score by Z and illuminate insert W. Just the values of X, Y, Z and W change. Every "physical" event on an FX2 table could theoretically be handled with the same code, regardless of whether it's a trunk or a kickout or an animated superhero. So as long as Zen planned it out carefully during initial development, this code can be included in the base game and doesn't need updating for new tables.Now TPA has these resources too - that's what controls the visible trunk rotation and the whirring sound effect on ToM - but it also has to emulate the input/output for the ROM. This input/output is different for every table - even the basic format of it can be different: System 11 is not the same as WPC95 is not the same as S.A.M. - and therefore requires new code for every table. It's not just pure data like an FX2 table. That's why FarSight can't just do DLC as FX2 or Rock Band does. The only way that FarSight could have done it the Zen way is if they had done the development/emulation work for the ROM of every single table they would ever want to include in TPA and included all necessary code in the base game, and had done this all before selling a single table. You do not need to be a developer to know that no company would commit resources on that scale on what is essentially a niche product, especially when a large fraction of the tables face potential licensing difficulties and may never happen, etc.</blockquote>

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