"First" impressions

[JJH516]

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!

Nice review.

 

[JPelter]

Banged out a test run today on gold mode. I don't think the strategy or gameplay differs that much, so here's my initial impressions. Shots seem a bit too easy overall everywhere. Extra balls are too easy to farm. Sounds and art seem pretty good overall, nothing to complain about there for me. Solid table overall although sadly it has the TZ syndrome where games will just drag on way past where they should be.

The thing flip seems a little wobbly, but I'm sure it's supposed to be. It behaved itself for the first hour or so of the test game, but then started just draining my balls nonstop so I started timing it out to make sure I had control on the ramp exit. I assume it'd get more accurate over time if the ROM state saved, but I'm assuming it can't remember stuff past the current session.

e: Oh yeah the magnets seem a little too strong. They just stop the ball as if it hit a wall and then fling it wherever even on really strong shots off the flipper.

 

[W1LDD ONE]

There are no pics or videos anywhere of the TAF Gold Edition.
Why??? It's a secret I guess.....hmm???

 

[DoX]

Banged out a test run today on gold mode. I don't think the strategy or gameplay differs that much, so here's my initial impressions. Shots seem a bit too easy overall everywhere. Extra balls are too easy to farm. Sounds and art seem pretty good overall, nothing to complain about there for me. Solid table overall although sadly it has the TZ syndrome where games will just drag on way past where they should be.

The thing flip seems a little wobbly, but I'm sure it's supposed to be. It behaved itself for the first hour or so of the test game, but then started just draining my balls nonstop so I started timing it out to make sure I had control on the ramp exit. I assume it'd get more accurate over time if the ROM state saved, but I'm assuming it can't remember stuff past the current session.

e: Oh yeah the magnets seem a little too strong. They just stop the ball as if it hit a wall and then fling it wherever even on really strong shots off the flipper.

TAF is a table made so everyone can play, from beginner to an expert, that's why it may seem easy to you at first. But believe me, there are things that require some skills. TZ, on the other hand, is far more difficult in terms of a basic play, so i wouldn't recommend it for beginners on the real machine. TZ on TPA is a bit easyer though, I would say slower and more forgiving.

Thing Flips drains your balls? Never happened to me by now, and I can't remember this ever happened on the real machine. Remember, "Thing Flips" feature is when it shoots automatically, not when you shoot manually. As for it's learning ability I think it learns until you exit the table, playing more games without exiting the table improves his ability significantly.

And yes, those magnets are actually pretty strong IRL, though it never happened to me they stop the ball like it had hit a wall. Anyway, they are best avoided as they just love to drain your ball

 

[Kaibun]

There are no pics or videos anywhere of the TAF Gold Edition.
Why??? It's a secret I guess.....hmm???

Have the people who paid for the Gold KS goal even received it already? If someone owns it here, they're probably hiding it.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Have the people who paid for the Gold KS goal even received it already? If someone owns it here, they're probably hiding it.

I have it. I've played it. Maybe if someone is nice to me I'll scratch something together as evidence over the weekend....

 

[W1LDD ONE]

I'am guessing folks are hiding it as well. Whatever... Someday we will see it in life.

 

[Slam23]

It's super secret!

Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
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Pic5

Edit: well direct posting pictures is not part of my skill set, so you'll have to click them

 

[Dumahim]

And PC version. Not really secret, it's just the same table with a couple items a different color.

 

[Slam23]

Gameplay has some differences though: http://pinball.org/rules/addamsfamilygold.html
Not a big difference in my opinion although scoring is somewhat easier because of (random) higher jackpots and some small bonus things. Cousin It's hideout rewards can potentially be very nice, upward to an extra ball, but haven't seen one yet, and getting a reward also varies in frequency.

 

[W1LDD ONE]

Thanks Dumahim and your right not much difference at all.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Gameplay has some differences though: http://pinball.org/rules/addamsfamilygold.html
Not a big difference in my opinion although scoring is somewhat easier because of (random) higher jackpots and some small bonus things. Cousin It's hideout rewards can potentially be very nice, upward to an extra ball, but haven't seen one yet, and getting a reward also varies in frequency.

I've had a couple of EBs (Golden Pinball).

All the "extra" stuff feels tacked on though... the animations just don't fit in quite right.

One nice thing is that the scoreboard can handle 10-digit scores correctly, so you can see the billions digit

 

[Slam23]

One interesting thing I found on the internet: apparently there are two versions of TAF gold. One is essentially a faux version. When the first production run ended and there seemed to be more demand, the next batch of regular TAF was produced with exterior gold accents, but was in every other aspect the same as the regular TAF (so no gold colored plastics for example). The real Collector's Edition TAF Gold was made later and featured gold colored plastics, bookcase disc, bumpers and ramp. These also featured the special TAF gold ROM with slightly different rules. A 1000 were made and individually numbered with plaques. So buyers of the real thing beware!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

One interesting thing I found on the internet: apparently there are two versions of TAF gold. One is essentially a faux version. When the first production run ended and there seemed to be more demand, the next batch of regular TAF was produced with exterior gold accents, but was in every other aspect the same as the regular TAF (so no gold colored plastics for example). The real Collector's Edition TAF Gold was made later and featured gold colored plastics, bookcase disc, bumpers and ramp. These also featured the special TAF gold ROM with slightly different rules. A 1000 were made and individually numbered with plaques. So buyers of the real thing beware!

Because there's no difference in the actual playfield, you can plug a SCE ROM into a regular TAF and it'll work just fine.

This is indeed what FS bought.

Of course getting hold of regular ROMs isn't difficult, I'm sure copies have been made and there will be ROMs ripped from dead tables over the years.

 

[JPelter]

On second thought I'm just going to move this to the bug thread instead, since it's slightly more relevant there, sorry!

 

[Zaphod77]

Yeah. people have been upgrading their normal TAF by hand to TAFG ROMs. this is known as Addams Family Pyrite.

In my opinion, it's a bit more fun, but also more unfair, because of the new 3M room mechanics and the random items from cousin it's hideout.

 

[Kratos3]

I really like that there's no ball save. You lose a quick ball, it's gone.

 

[Zaphod77]

no ball save is needed, because there are two ways to guarantee a ball gets to a flipper. House balls are only possible on a plunge into the bumpers. The first ball saver at the start of every ball (as far as I know) was in T2, to combat the fact that a ball could drain SDTM after the skillshot, rebounding off the standups, into the other standups, and down the middle. it would very rarely do it more than once in a row, hence the ballsaver. Pinbot, on the other hand could really have used a ball saver, because the jets area is impossible to avoid by any means.

Way before then, F-14 Tomcat had a ball saver on the yagov kicker because it caused balls to jump the flippers sometimes. this ball saver is very exploitable, because it unlights the bonusx, letting you relight the bonusx extra ball again, and a large part of why extra balls are always disabled in tournaments. It also had a pity ball saver on ball three. This is better then a pity extra ball because you only get it if you need it, and if ball three is good, you don't take advantage of it. It allowed noobs to play longer, without lengthening the game of an expert. You know, F-14 Tomcat was way ahead of it's time. It deserves a spot in TPA. Ball saver? Guarantee that every plunged ball gets to a flipper? More than 3 ball multiball? Only thing it's missing is the autoplunger.

 

[Kratos3]

Angle 4. iPad 3.

 

[Kratos3]

Angle 1. iPad 3.