Forum closure

[kimkom]

Gord,

Very sad to hear that the forum will soon be no more.

I have been a visitor here for many years now and really appreciate the time, effort and expense you have put into building this community. It will be sadly missed.

I have to say that I totally understand your position, given that activity here has been diminishing for some time now.

I had hoped that given Zen Studios new ‘early access’ platform, things would really pick up again. In my view, a release such as this should mean that this forum should now be a hive of activity. Alas, I think many of us just aren’t feeling as engaged or excited as we should be with such a new platform.

Once again thank you for everything.

I will miss all of you dudes, especially the old timers! You know who you are.

Mike

 

[Crawley]

Yup. Thanks for keeping this going as long as you have.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

I'm not making this a sad goodbye (ok, maybe a little) but a celebration of a great run.

Cheers! to you Gord for your dedication and time and expenses to make this a great place to hang out!

Cheers! to Farsight, Zen Studios, Magic Pixel, Microsoft, Barnstorm, Formslingers, Sierra and anyone else I missed for their efforts to create digital pinball software so we could immediately rant here about what they did wrong (and right)

Cheers! to the Moderators who kept the flaring tempers in check and knew when to cut things off before it got that far.

Cheers! to PinballWiz45b for relentlessly logging the Master list of issues across all platforms for all of these years

Cheers! to Jared and Chris and Jeff and others for starting and still recording their Pinball podcasts. I even downloaded and listened to Episode 1 The Pilot and the very first TPAF podcast from 2013! Just to see what life was like 9 years ago.

Cheers! to everyone else who started, commented on or read a thread on the site. I’ll miss the banter here, but thankful to have this community of like-minded pinball enthusiasts to share ideas with for the last 7 or so years since I signed up.

Rich

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

10 years. Where has the time gone?

Know that I've only covered the PC version of Pinball Arcade, as well as FX3 and now FX. PiN WiZ helped out with other platforms of TPA, too, and much, much more.

Big thanks to shutyertrap, Gord, Jeff, Sean, and all the rest who helped make this forum for what it is.

Thank you to Farsight who built perhaps one of the greatest pinball compilations the world has ever seen.

Thank you, Zen, for also being a part of this forum. We hope your newest pinball creation flourishes as we get closer to console and Steam launch.

I'm going to miss this place and the rest of you, but it was a great ride while it lasted. When DPF finally closes, I'll see you around.

-- JPF

 

[shutyertrap]

I'm not making this a sad goodbye (ok, maybe a little) but a celebration of a great run.

Cheers! to Jared and Chris and Jeff and others for starting and still recording their Pinball podcasts. I even downloaded and listened to Episode 1 The Pilot and the very first TPAF podcast from 2013! Just to see what life was like 9 years ago.

Where the hell did you find the pilot episode?? I haven't heard that in years! We sound very odd, the flow is a bit janky, but the kernals of what BlahCade would become are certainly there.

 

[shutyertrap]

Gord, a huge thank you.

This forum has been such a blessing and has introduced me to quite a few people I have personal connections with now.

Perhaps the biggest bit of gratitude I owe you is when you made that connection with Mel at Zen, who you then immediately introduced me to. That is simply a relationship that Jared and I have that wouldn't have happened without you and this forum.

 

[Gorgar]

For at least a decade before joining these forums, I would get really interested in something, find a forum, but never join (I was always a lurker). Pinball Arcade Fans is the first forum that I ever joined and the only one that I have contributed anywhere near the 1,000+ posts that I have here. Thanks to everyone for making this such a terrific place to talk and speculate about pinball (and other things in the off topic discussion).

Extra special thanks to Gord for setting this up, as well as tvshowsondvd.com, which I used to visit every day without realizing that it was run by the same guy until it shut down. (I’m still holding out hope that the last three seasons of Archie Bunker’s Place are released on DVD).

Thanks for everything!

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Where the hell did you find the pilot episode?? I haven't heard that in years! We sound very odd, the flow is a bit janky, but the kernals of what BlahCade would become are certainly there.

http://www.digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/6307-BlahCade-Podcast-1-The-Pilot

http://www.digitalpinballfans.com/forumdisplay.php/90-Podcasts-Interviews/page7

 

[PiN WiZ]

I've been checking in on the forum from time to time even though I haven't posted in ages. I wanted to use this rare occasion to say thank you to Gord for bringing us all together to share a common interest we all have...Pinball!

I really enjoyed working with the moderation team and conversing with all the great forum members we've amassed over the past 10+ years. I wish eveyone well and look forward to wherever pinball takes us in the future.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Thanks everyone. I'm a bit sad to close it down, but it seems the forum is a bit like the state of digital pinball. There was a period when lots of companies were working on digital pinball, and now there are few. Zen doesn't need the forum as much as FarSight did, since they have their own place to manage.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Wow I've been coming on here from when it started. Thanks to you, Gord, Pin Wiz, Jared, shutyertrap, and the rest of the users on this forum.

Steve (LeafNation1)

 

[wilbers]

I'm a relative newbie compared with many on here, having joined just under 4 years ago. I'm having a listen to the BlahCade pilot while I have the opportunity.

Thanks for hosting this Gord.
Will the forum be archived in some way? There is a lot of useful information scattered about, like some of the table specific threads.

 

[Gord Lacey]

Will the forum be archived in some way? There is a lot of useful information scattered about, like some of the table specific threads.

I’m not really sure how it could be archived without having to pay to host it.

 

[wilbers]

So we should try and save the useful bits on Wayback Machine? - I checked a few threads, and all but one were already on there.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Big thanks and tip of the hat to Gord, the mods, and each and every member who made this a lovely pinball oasis over the years... We had some good times here for sure. Sad to see it go, but times have changed, and although message boards in general have gone the way of fhe dodo, I'd like to think the dudes who once made this place great are still out there spreading greatness elsewhere. Speaking of which, big props to SYT and Jared for the nice trip down memory lane on the latest cast and for keeping the Blahcade spirit alive. Definitely keep in touch, my dudes.

Much love,
Jeff
https://youtube.com/user/jeffy777

 

[Rayder]

I've always been a forum person, never joined any social media sites. I'll really miss this forum when it's gone.

Is there ANY other forums to discuss digital pinball that we might all be able to gravitate to that are even remotely close to what we have/had here?

 

[The loafer]

I don't post much but every now and then I'd still visit and read the new posts. During the heyday of TPA, the place was jumping. Say what we want about the quality of the tables, but having MONTHLY new releases really creates a great avenue to post and discuss said new tables. Now, with releases so far between, the ship seemingly has sailed . In saying that, who knows what the future will bring. All we know is that for quite a few years, this place was super fun to visit and discuss and that's because of people like Gord, the mods and all who contributed, it was a fun ride.

 

[Gorgias32]

Thanks to Gord and to everyone who has posted, this forum has been unique in that it has stayed really focused and the discussion has been generally intelligent and positive, it's just a bunch of people who love pinball and want to learn and teach about it. I'm happy to have been part of it.

 

[zmcvay]

Big thanks for keeping this going as long as you have. Not a big online person, but this is one of the few forums I've been happy to be even a small part of.

I'd be happy to chip in to keep it going if we went that route, but you are right, traffic is barely a shadow of what it was and I don't know when the last time a thread about table strategies popped up, which used to be my main draw to come here. Even when Zen has dropped a table there's barely been any talk about it.

Also like to give a thanks to everyone on the forums, you've all been great to swap stories and pinball talk with!

 

[Kevlar]

Wow, so sad to hear about the forum closure but fully understand. I used to be on here all the time, over 2.6k posts. Pinball arcade and this forum became my gateway into real pinball. Fast forward 10 years and I've owned 46 machines and probably spent £100k on them so this forum and pinball arcade owe me a lot of money . I stopped visiting because real pinball completely took over and I lost interest in digital. Thanks very much to all I used to converse with and to the forum runners, admins etc.