Is this it for Farsight / Pinball Arcade?

[wolfson]

thanks Citizen , exactly what I meant , and bavelb that`s great if they bring out a beta like they did with Fish Tales before every pack comes out .

 

[RuySan]

I'm really said with the state of affairs. I was annoyed with Farsight for not patching their game properly (I can't play it fullscreen for one year, even though the game played fine in the beginning), but i still poured hundreds of hours in the game and i'm grateful for that. I surely got my moneys worth.

But with all this talk of doom and gloom, can't TPA survive with just the other licences? There's still many great pinball tables that weren't converted yet. I wish Farsight pulled their sleeves first and make the game a slicker and more solid experience before releasing more tables.

 

[bmsuseluda]

after reading so much negativity about tpa in general since im here in this forum i have to say that im really happy with the switch version. it runs well, looks and plays great. maybe im a little blindsided but i never stumbled upon a bug. with this post i just wanna give my positive experience.

 

[shutyertrap]

after reading so much negativity about tpa in general since im here in this forum i have to say that im really happy with the switch version. it runs well, looks and plays great. maybe im a little blindsided but i never stumbled upon a bug. with this post i just wanna give my positive experience.

That's great!

I always took the opinion that I was more than pleased when TPA launched the first four tables, and I loved the first two DLC packs. Once the haze of enjoyment cleared and we all started thinking of the potential, that's when we started seeing chinks in the armor. After a certain point though I had to remember how happy I was at the start and that all my subsequent purchases were for what the game was, not what it could be. Staying positive does become difficult when there are steps backwards. Certain tables that now crash after an update, sound issues that weren't there before, those type of things.

Believe me, I played TPA for 3 years without touching another game for more than a few minutes. I had been obsessed with Uncharted 3 and Rock Band, and just stopped playing cold turkey because of TPA. So I'm always happy to sing the praises of The Pinball Arcade, even now. I don't think in its current version it holds a candle to FX3, but I don't suddenly hate it. It's the well driven car filled with all your food wrappers compared to the new top of the line vehicle that smells really good and doesn't have a speck of dirt in it. Now if we're talking SPA on PC, that's a whole different situation and one I'm quick to be critical of. I will say the Switch version of that is much better with a UI that actually functions.

 

[Fungi]

OMG! I still haven't started Uncharted 4 !

 

[shutyertrap]

OMG! I still haven't started Uncharted 4 !

It is the best of the batch, just phenomenal story telling.

 

[Gorgias32]

Ok, some further thoughts on "is this it for Farsight TPA"...

Over the weekend I booted up TPA and was playing Sorcerer, and was just blown away once again at how great the TPA version is. Great lighting, great rules, great implementation. There are so many really great tables in TPA that I still love to play the heck out of.

But I keep holding back for some reason in purchasing the Big Buck Hunter/Woah Nellie pack. The price at $15 is a lot, but that's not really it, I have spent more than that on TPA packs before. And I have really enjoyed playing the score-limited trial versions of both tables.

I think what's holding me back is the uncertainty about the future. I don't want to spend any more money on TPA when it looks to the outsider that Farsight is floundering and has no real plans for their pinball platform - releasing a ridiculous IAP version of SPA on VR does the exact opposite of reassuring me, and there I have not heard about any solid plans for additional pinball content to TPA or SPA at all.

At this point, as I see it, it can go one of three ways:

1. Farsight comes up with new content, improves user experience, and gets the motor running on TPA again
2. Farsight switches to other non-pinball properties, TPA continues to work (servers still up) but little or no new pinball content or improvements
3. Farsight goes out of business or changes direction completely, and TPA stops working (ether soon or in the next year or two) with no support

If they get things moving on TPA and include Stern content, I will happily continue to buy everything they put out. But if they go the direction of 2 or 3, I'd rather save my money for Zen.

The bottom line is, at this point I'm not spending more money on TPA until some news comes out about what is next from Farsight pinball.

 

[bmsuseluda]

if you like the tables then just buy them. dont buy for what what could come in the future. why did you think that tpa wouldnt work anymore if farsight goes out of business? its not an multiplayer only game. if the servers go down, than leaderboards anf other online wont work anymore but the tables would work.

i see another way for farsight: they are going forward with up to 5 tables a year like they said in the past.

 

[AndyD]

I just wish they'd say something now and again. Its gone very quiet.

Be nice to have the option of getting whoa nellie and BBH!?, but the more the silence continues the more unlikely i think we'll ever see them on PS4....

 

[shutyertrap]

if you like the tables then just buy them. dont buy for what what could come in the future. why did you think that tpa wouldnt work anymore if farsight goes out of business? its not an multiplayer only game. if the servers go down, than leaderboards anf other online wont work anymore but the tables would work.

i see another way for farsight: they are going forward with up to 5 tables a year like they said in the past.

The very legitimate concern is that if any of your tables were purchased through the TPA app and not say through Steam, you need to log in to play, otherwise it will show those tables as being locked. Same goes for people that contributed to a Kickstarter or won the tables through a FarSight giveaway. In every case, you need to first log in to the FarSight servers in order to have access to those tables. FarSight has said that keeping those servers open in very inexpensive and as long as their doors are open, so will the servers. That's one of the key benefits to buying the Arcooda stand alone pack, it is entirely self contained and won't be vulnerable to updates nor does it require a log in. Arcooda actually has these still available for sale (they did a block purchase so are legally still able to offer these) if it really is a concern to someone.

Not only am I not concerned, I'll progressively get less concerned as tables release for FX3.

 

[tomwaits]

Someone from Farsight posted a few weeks ago that Whoa Nellie! and BBH are in QA/final approval for PS4, so they're definitely on the way. I have $15 sitting in my PSN wallet waiting for the release. I suspect Farsight's future pinball plans will depend on sales figures for WN!/BBH... it has to be profitable, so everyone who's holding off or avoiding purchases may be dooming future releases. Just wish they'd chosen a more popular pair of tables for the first post-WMS release. Something like Monopoly/Roller Coaster Tycoon would have given a better indication of potential customers.

 

[Nomorestalker]

I don't think it's they countered all the news with these tables as we've known about them since last year. I hate to say it but I haven't booted up TPA since BBH and WN came out because I was waiting for them to fix the visual bugs from launch as well as the asteroid texture error for klingon multiball and ghostbusters running like hot garbage in the tpa app. Those things alone will bring me back into what used to be a daily occurrence of loading up tpa in my cab.

But Matt said on a stream a few weeks ago that they were bringing in a "new" table(being sent into them) that he thinks everybody is going to like and that more gottlieb's were on the way as well. We just have to be patient (which is the worst part) and wait because the monthly table releases are over. But some news or even an announcement/table hint would go a long way with this group.

 

[GAH1068]

I would hope the Farsight would release a final patch that unlocks any content or somehow transfers it all to Steam for them to maintain if something drastic happened. Hope that never comes to pass and they take full advantage of the Stern license. I would LOVE to see some of the newer Stern pins come out for it and will support them. I play Arcooda cabinet mode on Steam all the time. I just wish they would have released it themselves ages ago, it was really missing piece to TPA. I hardly played it before because I hated the views after playing FX3 and VPX for so long. Now I play the Arcooda tables as much as anything else on my cab. The new Kinect mode works well and I am checking out tables that I normally don't play often.

 

[vfpcoder]

Same here on the Arcooda cabinet mode version of TPA.

I’m having an absolute *blast* playing those tables on my VPCabs Vertigo cabinet.

There is no question but that the physics are better for the MM table, for example, with the Zen Pinball FX3 version. But I find myself playing mostly the “Zen, Remastered version” of the table when I fire that up on the Vertigo. And I can still have fun with the Arcooda enhanced TPA iteration of the table which provides better “light shows” in varous modes — as well as better audio balance between the music and the voices. (I have tried to adjust the audio settings sliders in Zen, but for some reason can’t get them to be quite “right”.)

Anyway, it’s all good: I’m having fun with both iterations.
I also agree that the biggest mistake FarSight made when they had the Bally/Williams license was not providing a proper cabinet mode. I fully supported the first four Kickstarters, but my enthusiasm started to wane when they kept dragging their feet on the Steam cabinet mode implementation. Heck — I would have been willing to pay extra on a per table basis to get it. So I’m really enjoying the Arcooda enhancement, but FarSight definitely left some money on the table by waiting until the last 30 days before their license expired to offer it.

 

[KathyP]

Just to give my tuppence worth on the whole TPA situation...

After playing pinball a lot as a kid and YA (back when there were proper tables in most pubs) I've always dabbled in the digital versions. Far from a hardcore player, but I love picking up and playing for an hour here and there. I had TPA with season 1 on my PS4 for ages and loved it, then by luck I happened to browse and join here or somewhere about a week before the Williams license loss. In a way it was a good thing for me as I had nearly bought other seasons on a number of occasions but always backed up due to cost/value/time to play balance. Now this kind of took the choice away from me! I was going to buy season 2 and then a few other tables here and there but I just know my OCD would kick in over the years about tables I didn't have so I took the plunge and bought the lot literally one day before they were nuked. It was of course an expensive thing as well as a good thing as they were all at full price and it was six seasons I had to buy. Bit more painful as I'd had opportunities to buy at least some of these at half price over the years too arrghhh!

Since then, I haven't played it loads but I've never really regretted it - the Williams tables are awesome and I love the package as a whole. If anything there are tooooo many tables, not so much because of differing quality and enjoyment but simply too many to get good playtime on all of them without it being a full time job. Still, better that than hand wringing over a few missing tables that I might have chosen not to buy. I generally just play through the challenges as a structured way of getting play time on all the tables and it's also quite fun.

As for pinball fx3, there is about zero chance of me converting over to it - I find the graphics adequate on TPA to be honest and that's on a 55" 4K screen, and with my now large library of tables I've got no desire to repurchase a few at a time over the years to try and get close to this collection. I'm not buying further tables from TPA - the stern tables don't really interest me, and I don't get the whole confusing purchase system where it looks like I'd be paying for tables I already own twice.


It's a shame that Farsight lost the license like that but to sum up, I'm pretty happy with the TPA 'package' that I now have on my PS4 and so long as I don't lose access to these I'll be cool going forward.

Keeping the love for pinball alive!

 

[HOW]

They had an interview with Bobby King on the BlahCade Podcast a few weeks ago. Here are some of the highlights.

- Farsight is still committed to TPA and will be releasing 5-6 tables (Stern, Gottlieb licenses) a year going forward.
- As soon as they complete the LCD screen feature for TPA, they will be releasing all future Stern tables day-to-date as the physical versions. As per their parnership agreement with Stern.

https://medium.com/blahcade-pinball...ollection_category---2------5----------------

I'd love that - But we'll see......

 

[HOW]

If TPA can pivot to being primarily a modern Stern emulator they have a good chance of survival IMO. The new Stern tables over the last decade are pretty excellent overall.

Lots of licences though.......

Sod the last 10 years - LOTR and FGy are still great IMHO.

But.....licences
(I believe that Chris & Jared have discussed the limitations on FS in their podcast)

 

[Nomorestalker]

It's a bit of a gray area as far as licencing is concerned. I've heard that the licences are baked in with the stern deal (launched then cancelled kickstarter for ACDC) then I've heard they weren't. The truth is the only news we've received since they lost the Williams licence is that Woah Nellie and Big Buck hunter came out and they are starting a big bear pinball league.

also [MENTION=26]HOW[/MENTION] I tried the williams app, not bad, but it won't be my main system as i enjoy the steam uncensored versions in the cab.

 

[KathyP]

The only table I would REALLY love in TPA that isn't is Jurassic Park - played that for many an hour back in the day. Can do they Data East? Or is that too tangled up in the Stern licenses?

 

[shutyertrap]

The only table I would REALLY love in TPA that isn't is Jurassic Park - played that for many an hour back in the day. Can do they Data East? Or is that too tangled up in the Stern licenses?

Data East and Sega tables are part of the Stern license for TPA. So from that perspective, yes FarSight could do Jurassic Park. Where things get tricky is that Zen has put out a Jurassic Park table pack of original tables. Licensing logic dictates that Zen licensed for the digital rights, which would eliminate the chances for FarSight to do the Data East version in TPA.

This isn’t confirmed, but we have heard through various sources that this is the case with Deadpool, Family Guy, Marvel and Star Wars too. The license holders don’t want customers getting confused by having the brand be on two separate but very similar things. With pinball, where there is a large swathe of customers that have no clue a real Jurassic Park machine exists, this would be especially problematic.