"First" impressions

[Heretic]

trillion? christ on a bike dude

 

[Epsilon]

trillion? christ on a bike dude

Oh, sorry. I meant billion. Don't know what I was thinking!

 

[DA5ID]

Haha, yeah, the Wizard goals are a beast on this thing. I had a nearly 2 trillion point game yesterday and I'm still sitting on only 2 Wizard goals completed (the easy ones.)

Exact same - except I finally (ONLY?) made it past a billion I was sure that run would have checked off some wizard goals - but nada. Looks like you just have to devote a full game to the wizard goals one at a time.

4-way - 3-ways seem to happen naturally - the 4-way you have to try for
Super bear bonus - 99 bear ramps - got around 50 with the Billion run - "I got 99 problems and the bear ain't one"
10million bonus plus - little confused on this one - hit the left ramp 10 times to raise bonus to 10 million and then collect at the THING ramp/saucer on one single ball. What happens if you hit the THING saucer before you raise to 10 mil -does it reset?

 

[Epsilon]

Exact same - except I finally (ONLY?) made it past a billion I was sure that run would have checked off some wizard goals - but nada. Looks like you just have to devote a full game to the wizard goals one at a time.

4-way - 3-ways seem to happen naturally - the 4-way you have to try for
Super bear bonus - 99 bear ramps - got around 50 with the Billion run - "I got 99 problems and the bear ain't one"
10million bonus plus - little confused on this one - hit the left ramp 10 times to raise bonus to 10 million and then collect at the THING ramp/saucer on one single ball. What happens if you hit the THING saucer before you raise to 10 mil -does it reset?

I don't think it resets. It's tied into the THING bonus but I'm pretty sure that's tangential to this goal. I think you just have to basically hit the left ramp 10 times to get this goal. The problem is that you have to do this on a single ball without draining. I've never even gotten really close. It's pretty easy to get extra balls in this game but it's not like individual balls don't drain fairly easily at times, especially with The Power active.

 

[sneakynotsneaky]

10million bonus plus - little confused on this one - hit the left ramp 10 times to raise bonus to 10 million and then collect at the THING ramp/saucer on one single ball. What happens if you hit the THING saucer before you raise to 10 mil -does it reset?

Million Plus is just the ramp part---hit the left ramp 10 times in one ball. The instructions say Million Plus / T-H-I-N-G Bonus but that's because Million Plus lights letters. The Millions Plus won't reset when you collect on the letters.

 

[DA5ID]

Ahh thanks guys - speaking of "The Power" definitely a love hate relationship. It makes jackpots a super hard pain in the ass, sucks all the power of a ball heading for the bear ramp, and cursing ensues when it casually drops a ball SDTM. But I think with out it the table would just be too easy. I'll have to eventually try the Addams custom ball that ignores the power, but will probably prefer the challenge of dealing with (and beating) the power.

 

[Zaphod77]

Actually looping the bear kick ramp is VERY iffy on a properly setup table in real life. you have BEARLY enough power to do it, and it will roll back down the ramp most of the time. Farsight got that RIGHT. you are supposed to shoot the thing ramp, the chair, or the orbit after a bear kick.

If the ramp is easily loopable on your real life TAF, the slope is too low or it's leaning to the right. it's a VERY high risk shot.

Yes, TZ was Pat's reward for TAF.

Actually it's TAF that killed pinball. It was the game that the arcades refused to pass down the supply chain in a few months. they held onto it for years, and ruined the business model that was set up before. TAF was, literally, too good.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but Bear Kick->Thing->Left Ramp->Swamp is a very good circuit to get down. Collects tons of stuff (Mansion Rooms, EBs, T-H-I-N-G) and when Millions Plus and Graveyard are maxed will net 30M+ every time around.

Bear Kick is good from a trap on either flipper which is easily obtained from a Swamp kickout.
Bear Kick->Thing is a very high %age shot, 80%+ easily probably more.
Thing->Left Ramp is easy as it ought to be.
Swamp for 5x Graveyard from the Thing flipper is also very easy on TPA.

Also since a deliberate Train Wreck hit is safe here, going for Train Wrecks to get the EB and hold Graveyard is feasible.

 

[TomL]

Actually it's TAF that killed pinball. It was the game that the arcades refused to pass down the supply chain in a few months. they held onto it for years, and ruined the business model that was set up before. TAF was, literally, too good.

Just curious, what's the typical pinball supply chain look like? I'm guessing it starts with Manufacturer, distributer, arcade... ?

 

[sneakynotsneaky]

Actually looping the bear kick ramp is VERY iffy on a properly setup table in real life. you have BEARLY enough power to do it, and it will roll back down the ramp most of the time. Farsight got that RIGHT. you are supposed to shoot the thing ramp, the chair, or the orbit after a bear kick.

If the ramp is easily loopable on your real life TAF, the slope is too low or it's leaning to the right. it's a VERY high risk shot.

Good to know. On the TAF I've played most often you definitely have juuuust enough power to loop it but it's definitely more accessible than it should be.

 

[Zaphod77]

Manufacturer, distributor, arcade, bowling alley/bar, laundromat/convenience store, and finally to a home user. roughly. The game goes from a locations (arcades) to b location, to c locations, and then finally to someone's home or the scrap heap.

TAF games tended to stick around at A locations for a while and if an arcade did let them go they stuck around a long time at b locations, which were what took them off the hands of the arcades.

arcade ended up needing to start selling direct to home buyers because of TAF, which almost NEVER happened before.

 

[Fungi]

Manufacturer, distributor, arcade, bowling alley/bar, laundromat/convenience store, and finally to a home user. roughly. The game goes from a locations (arcades) to b location, to c locations, and then finally to someone's home or the scrap heap.

and THEN... maybe Xbox360.

 

[TomL]

and THEN... maybe Xbox360.

LOL, and only when the corner Wash N Dry is sick of TAF.

 

[Zaphod77]

when a game stops being profitable it gets passed down the chain. TAF remained profitable at all locations for MUCH longer then any other pinball game before or since. This screwed up the system.

that's why Stern Pinball sells direct to anyone who wants them now.

 

[Dumahim]

1. The sound. I am not sure the exact process that is used to extract the sound. I assume it's done totally digitally which should mean that we are getting the exact sounds bit-for-bit that were stored on the original ROMs. However, all the tables seem more tinny and scratchy than they do IRL. I am running TAF on Steam and my PC has an optical audio out to a Home Theatre quality sound system complete with powered subwoofer. So I should be getting a richer sound experience than I would playing the real table. But I distinctly remember more bass and bigger "thud" sounds coming from the arcade version I played so much (which luckily was in a small pizza place with very few games and had the sound cranked). So if the sound really is 100% of the original, then maybe the TAF sound engine should allow some tweaks. How about a smoothing option to remove some of the graininess of those original low-sample-rate voice-overs. And how about some kind of EQ or at least a bass boost to give that nice wallop/rumble for people with systems that can handle it. And while on this topic, we REALLY need a new knock sound. That sound was a physical noisemaker in the original tables, and the "click" we get in TAF is just not robust enough. Get someone with high-end microphones to really record that sound, and give us a full fidelity version, and maybe even make it a bit louder too so we can feel it a bit.

That was my biggest issue with TPA from the start. I started a thread about it back then, but didn't get much discussion. MM had good bass too, but the game just doesn't provide.
To me, the dialogue sounds as scratchy as the real tables do, but just lacks punch. I think it'd be cool if they could pull the original recordings and update it with better quality.

 

[masterthes]

Has anybody managed to pull off the dirty pool shot yet?

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

No but I did happen upon the movie the other day and at least I now know where the "Dirty pool, old man!" quote comes from (it's during the fencing match with his lawyer at the start of the movie).

 

[DanBradford]

Has anybody managed to pull off the dirty pool shot yet?

i've heard it about 30 times so far, at least. using ipad air on ios.
i'm not very good so it's not down to skill, i think it's set too easy.

 

[Nightwing]

My first impression is that its an easier table. I'm liking it so far though.

 

[DoX]

FS did a fantastic job with TAF. Ever since TPA is released, I wondered how would it play if the table gets ever released, since it has an complex and very unique game flow. I must say I'm astonished on how good they did that job! This is the table I played the most in my youth, and it was (and still is) my favorite pinball machine of all time.

Thing Flips working just like in RL, after some time when it learns to play. Amazing, this was one of the features i doubted they'll ever get simulated right.

Haven't discovered any major bugs by now, ok the sounds on bonus can sometimes be a little out-of-sync, but i don't find that annoying.

The only thing I think it's not simulated 100% right is a manual shot with upper left flipper to the graveyard. It's a little too easy compared to the RL, I can remember this being very hard to do on a real machine 1/10, maybe even less. Here you can easily score 5-6/10.

My conclusion is, far better than expected, I personally think it can't get better than this in a videogame. In my opinion the best simulated table in TPA so far, at least from those I've played in RL.

Thank you again FS, you made this man feel like a kid again!