Microsoft Pinball Arcade

[Brian Clark]

Is this worth picking up? It has some EM tables I'm interested in playing, as well as Haunted House and Cue Ball Wizard. I heard mixed things about the physics and I was wondering how well the tables were recreated. I was hoping for an EM fix, especially with the disappointing news from Farsight about EMs not getting much support due to the focus on ROM emulation.

 

[Jeff Strong]

The physics are kinda weak from what remember, but it's been several years since I last played it (I stuck with Pro Pinball instead). There are probably some gameplay videos you could check out on Youtube.

 

[Brian Clark]

It's funny. Physics looked ok in videos, but it's hard to tell without playing since there are so many specifics.

 

[Animator_pin_fan]

Fret not, because Haunted House and Cue ball Wizard are SS solid state tables not EM electro mechanical according to IPDB.org
I too would love to see Haunted House on the Pinball Arcade! Did Farsight mention not including these tables in particular? or just no EM machines?

 

[Brian Clark]

Fret not, because Haunted House and Cue ball Wizard are SS solid state tables not EM electro mechanical according to IPDB.org
I too would love to see Haunted House on the Pinball Arcade! Did Farsight mention not including these tables in particular? or just no EM machines?

You misread. I know they are SS. By "It has some EM tables I'm interested in playing, as well as Haunted House and Cue Ball Wizard.", I meant "It has some EM tables I'm interested in playing, as well as a couple SS tables". I mentioned the SS tables by name becuase there are only two of them. Actually, the main EMs on it I'm interested in are Slick Chick and Spirit of 76. I would probably be playing them more than Humpty Dumpty or Baffle Ball (which I think is PM rather than EM).

Farsight mentioned that they wanted to focus mainly on ROM emulation and that there are no EM tables planned within the next year or so. I find this especially frustrating becuase I feel that EMs are a very important part of pinball and I think the lack of ROM emulation is a silly reason to pass them up, especially since it should make them less demanding in some ways. There were a couple good EMs in the Gottlieb collection, but the Williams Collection only had one mediocore EM. There a tons of great EMs out there, but Farsights collections haven't even touched the best ones, so it's extremely disappointing to see them being treated with the same lack of care here. It's also disappointing that Big Shot was the only one announced when Sure Shot exists (which seems to be better, from what I tried). Anyway, ipdb has a good list of top EMs, so I think there is no good reason why they shouldn't be included.

I also want to play the EMs with better physics, especially since Gottlieb PHoF's aren't nearly as good as those in Farsight's Pinball Arcade. I was hoping Microsoft's Pinball Arcade had decent physics since Future Pinball's physics aren't perfect. I was hoping for some EMs in Pinball Arcade since the physics are very well done and I would like to play simulated EMs with well done physics. I wish there was a collection of EMs with physics as good as Pro Pinball.

 

[Brian Clark]

Doh. The ROM emulation thing was in reference to support for SS machines, not EMs. I tried the demo for Microsoft Pinball Arcade, but I wasn't impressed with the physics. Flippers seemed smaller than expected and angles seemed off. Maybe the EMs fare better since the engine seems to be designed around them, but Haunted House definitely feels off.

Edit: After watching the video of the real table, the physcis may not be as off as I thought. I definitely want to play a real table of Haunted House and I hope it hits Farsight's Pinball Arcade.

 

[Richard B]

I bought this around when it was first released over a decade ago. It's a pretty unique collection, with lots of historical machines, including Baffle Ball (first mass-produced and distributed machine), Humpty Dumpty (first with flippers), and Spirit of 76 (first Solid State). There are also some popular tables, such as Slick Chick, Haunted House, and Knockout. Cue Ball Wizard is a great, underrated table. It's tough to compare something like physics, since there are so many factors that influence it. I've also not played a real machine in years, but, while the physics might not stand up to microscopic scrutiny, they aren't so off as to be a distraction.

 

[Brian Clark]

I think you may be confusing Gottlieb's Spirit of 76 with the unrelated Micro Games table that has the same name. The Gottlieb table is definiltey EM.

Micro Games Spirit of 76
Gottlieb Spirit of 76

 

[Richard B]

Yep, you are correct. I didn't know there were two different tables.

 

[Jay]

This is still one of my favorite pinball simulations. The graphics are fairly advanced for its day (real-time reflections in the ball). The game still plays well on Windows 7. The collection is worth getting for Slick Chick alone, IMO. But the other tables are fun. Well ... all except for Spirit of 76. Gottlieb had far better tables to choose from. I guess it was included simply because it was the first 4 player machine.

 

[shutyertrap]

The 'other' Pinball Arcade that Atari put out

So I was digging around my old cd rom games and came across Microsoft Pinball Arcade which was published by Atari.

I vaguely remembered owning this, so I through it in and installed it.

On the cover of the cd it says "seven tables that made pinball history" but other than that, nothing telling what tables they speak of.

After install, I realize it's all Gotlieb tables. Starting to remember why it's been sitting in a drawer uninstalled. Oh well, let's play anyways!

Seven tables turn out to be:

Baffle Ball (1931)
Humpty Dumpty (1947)
Knock Out (1950)
Slick Chick (1963)
Spirit of 76 (1976)
Haunted House (1982)
Cue Ball Wizard (1992)

Wow. I really hope I didn't pay much for this! So I load up Haunted House (cause the first five hold zero interest to me) and right away my love for FarSight has grown exponentially. This has a lower playfield much like Black Hole, but the way they rendered it, it's horribly distracting. I don't even wanna mention the lighting.

Next I loaded up Cue Ball, and everything came flooding back to me. It was because of this stupid program I went on the hunt for other pinball and discovered VP. This is the poster child for floaty balls. Sometimes the ball will actually change direction slightly mid playfield! The flipper physics are basically good for about 30 degrees up the middle. There are shots off to the side down low that were impossible to aim for. Talk about unplayable.

So yeah, I suddenly recalled how this game pissed me off, that what I really wanted to play was Whirlwind, and I went and did an internet search that eventually landed me at VPForums.com where I found nirvana for a while. I guess I should be grateful to it for that at least!

Anyone else remember this pile of steaming crap?

 

[spoonman]

This one?

Larger image here

I enjoyed it, but that was 14 or so years ago.
Their website is still up:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/pinball/screenshots.htm

 

[Richard B]

Seems crappy now, but that's what we had to put up with back in the late '90s. First generation VP wasn't much better. Of course, Pro Pinball showed them how it's done, and their physics model surpassed even TPA (up until DLC Pack 3), and their flipper interaction, while not perfect, at least allows for live catches and drop stops, something unheard of at the time.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Anyone else remember this pile of steaming crap?

Ha, that's how I remember it too.

BTW, merged thread with an older one...

 

[shutyertrap]

Thanks Jeff, I didn't bother looking too hard to see if there was another thread! oops.