Mac - Bug Long-running various bugs since move to new Mac...and now unplayable

[DerrickH]

I upgraded to a new Mac at the time 8-Ball Deluxe was released. All of my previously-owned tables played properly after re-downloading to the new computer. Every table purchased since the move has had scrambled high score lists and table goals.

For example, on the table select screen, EBD shows one wizard goal done. After I select the table, it shows four table goals done. The high score list has gibberish for names and scores in the bazillions (more than 20 digits). It showed this "progress" even before I played the table.

This behavior has affected every table purchased since EBD, and has persisted through numerous updates of both TPA and macOS.

I have also had periods of time where the controls did not operate as configured. It would do things like:
Left flipper button causes left main and second and right main flippers to activate, plus cycles the HUD on/off.
Right flipper button causes right main and second flipper to "twitch" and left main flipper to activate, plus cycles the camera view.

This problem resolved itself eventually after multiple attempts to reset the control configuration.

My system:
27-inch Retina 5k iMac (Late 2015)
4GHz i7
32GB RAM
AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4GB
Was at 10.11.6 OS, but I have kept it up to date. Now running 10.13.1 High Sierra.

After I updated to 10.13.0 High Sierra, the game will not load at all. It starts to load, then freezes and has to be force-quit.

This is the Mac App Store version, NOT Steam.

 

[Tony Crouch]

There are issues with High Sierra. Farsight's solution is to roll back your OS. Based on how long we have tolerated other bugs, I'd say that is not a short term fix.

 

[DerrickH]

Maybe if it had been working perfectly before High Sierra I would consider a rollback, but it has had numerous issues ever since my move to this new Mac.

This has been very frustrating, and now that it has become completely unplayable, I told Farsight they should give me a refund for every table I bought (that would be every table released before High Sierra). Their "offer" was one free season on another platform...

 

[Tony Crouch]

Yup. That was my position with them as well. I'm not even running High Sierra and the game is unplayable. They broke it but insist it is Apple's fault. Might as well go back to PinMame. At least that was free.

 

[k88dad]

The Mac versions are identical and both have been broken for a long time. I always recommend buying the Steam version. That gives you the option to play in a Windows partition on your Mac.

 

[wizard33]

Using High Sierra here, I roiled back to 7.3.0 instead of 7.4.3. Still waiting for the 2 tables updates-
Everything works, but there are unexpected slowdowns. MacIPAC and my custom manette do work.
But again: no updates since the 2nd of September, we Mac users feel we are the worst platform for support

 

[Tony Crouch]

The Mac versions are identical and both have been broken for a long time. I always recommend buying the Steam version. That gives you the option to play in a Windows partition on your Mac.

Sure, if you're willing to buy windows. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have paid for a Mac in the first place. They had their **** in one sock. Now, they blame Apple for breaking stuff. Sim City still works. I should not need to buy a second OS in order to play a game that worked before they fixed it.

 

[Dirty Frank]

I love The Pinball Arcade, but their disinterest with everything Mac is weird. FlippyFloppy, please keep us informed. Maybe there’s not enough people playing on Mac to make it worth their while to put any effort into it.

 

[k88dad]

Sure, if you're willing to buy windows. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have paid for a Mac in the first place. They had their **** in one sock. Now, they blame Apple for breaking stuff. Sim City still works. I should not need to buy a second OS in order to play a game that worked before they fixed it.

It worked. If by working you mean with graphics far inferior to the Windows version. Many people run more than one OS. In fact, your Mac had more than one when it shipped.

 

[Jay]

I find it really ironic that TPA works beautifully when I run it emulated through Windows on my Mac -- but the native Mac and Mac Steam versions don't work nearly as well. Evidently (from past posts) Farsight has been having trouble keeping Mac coders on board. With the horsepower the new Macs have plus the new GPUs and Metal, there's no lack of horsepower to run a pinball simulation. I have Zaccaria through Steam on my Mac and it runs glass smooth and looks stunning in 4k at 60 fps. Meanwhile, TPA on Mac has stair stepping visible on ramps, bumpers (anything curved) and poorly implemented lighting, even on the highest graphics setting. It's definitely not a problem with my Mac.

 

[Doccus]

I haven't had an update since september, either, but at the time it was working fine on my system , El Capitan, which is more than I can say for a lot of my other mac pinballs, although I'm using the mac steam version.. And they are right about one thing, folks. It IS Apple's fault for "breaking stuff". Every Apple system update more and more apps get broken, and more things "just *don't* work". I try to stay at the lowest system possible until Apple blackmails me into upgrading. However, High Sierra is where I draw the line. I will keep my OSX installs on a separate partition and install Windows on my mac from now on. It just can't POSSIBLY be any worse. And if it is I'll simply install Linux.
Regarding the long delay of mac TPA updates, is there any thread that offers a complete rundown of the reason they have postponed them since august/sept, and when they plan on resuming them?

 

[curtis]

Regarding the long delay of mac TPA updates, is there any thread that offers a complete rundown of the reason they have postponed them since august/sept, and when they plan on resuming them?

I read on this forum, somewhere, the reason is because of compilation problems with Apple's latest Xcode.
In the "no news is no news" thread, Farsight employee Mike Lindseys says this... "Unfortunately, the Mac version is going to be delayed until probably late January/ early February. But yes we should have some fixes coming with this release as-well."

 

[wizard33]

They could make 2 versions: 1 for Sierra or later, 1 for previous OSes. But I don't think Mac App Store nor Steam can handle this

 

[Jay]

I just found another odd and recent bug on Steam for Mac: El Dorado's upper flippers no longer function. I tried the table on Steam for Windows and it works fine.