FX3 Williams Thoughts

[Palmer Eldritch]

If they are going to do Pinball 2000 I hope they just do both of them, especially since they already have a relationship with Disney

 

[shutyertrap]

If they are going to do Pinball 2000 I hope they just do both of them, especially since they already have a relationship with Disney

I hope they’d do Wizard blocks too. It was about as finished as Cactus Canyon, meaning good enough for release while still missing a thing or two. And yes, I’ve actually played it in white wood form.

 

[Citizen]

That'd be awesome.

Is the original still privately owned or did one of the museums get ahold of it?

 

[shutyertrap]

That'd be awesome.

Is the original still privately owned or did one of the museums get ahold of it?

It was privately when I played it 3 years ago. Also had the Playboy white wood that was to follow but that was barely had any code running it. This is the same owner of the only Loch Ness, has a Krull, King Kong, Kingpin, and a slew of other prototype versions of machines that were mass produced.

 

[vikingerik]

The challenge for RFM isn't the licensing, it's the tech. Pinball 2000 is a whole different platform to implement, running on a 100 Mhz Pentium-class machine, which is like 20x the CPU power of anything WPC or earlier. It's doable technically, but it does represent quite a lot of effort to implement that whole new platform for what would be at most three tables.

Rendering the Pinball 2000 "holograms" has nothing to do with Zen's visuals. They aren't individual objects or overlays. The entire display is a single flat surface, it's just the computer running a normal display to a normal CRT monitor. Same as any other MAME-emulated machine. If the Pinball 2000 platform is implemented at all, that display surface can be located into 3d space easily.

 

[Sean]

There's hardly any bugs to speak of, certainly none as large and glaring as we were used to in TPA. Did you try at least Fish Tales yet? Did you sample the arcade and tournament versions? Did you turn on and off the Zenifications? As for cross platform, if you purchased tables on the Wii U you absolutely will not get them for free on the PS4. That's cross system. If you are transferring over the the Switch, that might be different except none of the Marvel or Star Wars tables are available on that.

I’ve not had a chance to download it, but I’ll give it a go tonight to see what Fish Tales is like. I’m not a huge DMD fan, so I’m not in a rush to double-dip; especially given I bought the entire TPA shop in June!

I get that there’s not many bugs, but it just seems like an added benefit to waiting to see if there’s something new in the second pack. I can’t imagine they’re not aware that they need some extra sweetener to bring the TPA fans on board. Tournament mode is a definite plus - always disappointed Farsight never added a local tournament play to TPA as it was always nice to play some random tables in their old console collections.

I’ll definitely come to the Zen WMS party eventually; I’m just not in a hurry!

EDITED TO ADD: Just listened to my first BlahCade podcast, being the Mel King interview and okay, that’s got me excited to see what Zen will do with this license ��

 

[Sean]

But I’ve heard that “Revenge” was the “Gold Standard” for Pinball 2000 and would *love* to play it!

I got to play this at the UK Pinfest in August - it’s better than those crappy pinball machines the Sharper Image used to sell, but honestly Attack from Mars is a lot more fun. It’s not terribly varied and the playfield is really small. I’d rather play a Zaccaria table to be honest. It’s more of a novelty than anything else; probably not worth the effort.

 

[sh4wnsm1th]

Honestly, my only thoughts are, I'm glad Zen has the license now. The tables definitely feel more fun, and love how real they look as well. FT, while not being a favorite, feels heavily inviting on Zen's over TPA.

 

[Sean]

I downloaded it yesterday (really hate the PS4 shop still - Nintendo did it so much better) and gave Fishtales a couple of plays, classic and with the animated fisherman and it looks nice and plays pretty well. Not my favourite table so I wasn’t blown away. Main issues I have are the limited number of camera angles, which I recall is a general problem with Zen tables and the action zoom nonsense, though it sounds like they’ll provide an option to disable that. I’m also not a big fan of the interface, but it is better than the FX2 menu. I couldn’t figure out how to do a table tour, but I didn’t spend any time on that. Moving the right stick caused the game to start - which seems pretty weird - so it’s definitely not that! I think that’s one of the best features (if I get it working); always annoyed me that Farsight required a “pro” premium to do something as basic as look at the backglass.

The price is definitely right, so double-dipping is a near-certainty; I just need something to spur me to do so like a new table or one of my faves, which none of these four are. Going back to the BlahCade speculation about the menu placement re: licensed tables, I can’t see why they wouldn’t have something like Indiana Jones in both an Indiana Jones column and the Williams column - I saw Getaway in the first column and the Williams one. Hopefully we’ll get to find out.

 

[bavelb]

Pressing X on switch makes you do a table tour with your analogue stick

 

[shutyertrap]

But since he's on a PS4...

Press and hold the square button and then you can navigate the table with the left analogue stick. It pauses all action on the table when you do this, so don't worry about balls in play.

 

[Teamski]

The fact that FX3 has a lock tight cabinet mode made getting the Williams tables a slam dunk and they are the future of my machine. No more headaches trying to get TPA configured as much as I loved it......

-Ski

 

[Sean]

But since he's on a PS4...

Press and hold the square button and then you can navigate the table with the left analogue stick. It pauses all action on the table when you do this, so don't worry about balls in play.

I did note the square button in controls last time, but didn’t twig that left stick steered and just let the camera wander. Very nice! Your last podcast makes me glad I bought all the TPA tables though.

 

[bavelb]

I did note the square button in controls last time, but didn’t twig that left stick steered and just let the camera wander. Very nice! Your last podcast makes me glad I bought all the TPA tables though.

Im not so sure I am., even with the discussion in the podcast...I went back to toa yesterday to watch some instructions while playing JY on it. And I....I just can’t. The ball just move.so.slow. I figured Id be back in tpa from time to time but the difference in gameplay (mostly speed and bouncyness) is so stark. I kinda regret buying all those tables before the expiration now.

I’ll deal with some censorship instead.

 

[smbhax]

TPA does feel--probably a bit unfairly--a bit like pinball on the moon after FX3 Williams (FX3W?) tournament mode. Still reasonably realistic and enjoyable, just sort of a different take.

 

[Teamski]

TPA does feel--probably a bit unfairly--a bit like pinball on the moon after FX3 Williams (FX3W?) tournament mode. Still reasonably realistic and enjoyable, just sort of a different take.

That's what sucks. I can't go back to the TPA tables anymore. Yeah, the balls float and make those tables almost unplayable for me now. I would never thought that would be the case, but it is. The timing and slowness of the TPA tables just don't work for me anymore....... ZEN better have a ton of tables lined up!

-Ski

 

[jrolson]

Underwater pinball at it's finest! lol

I still go back to TPA when I just want to chill with a slower ball and not worry about points...

 

[shutyertrap]

Your mind adapts after a few minutes and soon you are back to just trying to beat the table as presented. Just don’t go from Zen to TPA back to back, as that’s way too jarring!

 

[Kratos3]

Holy crap I haven’t played digital pinball in so long and now I come back to this!!!

I remember all the discussions about if only Zen made the tables...


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[Jake_Ry4n]

Holy crap I haven’t played digital pinball in so long and now I come back to this!!!

I remember all the discussions about if only Zen made the tables...


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Dreams and wishes do come true !!


Now if they could just snatch Stern.