New Stern Pinball Arcade: AC/DC Kickstarter is FULLY FUNDED!!!

[Gorgar]

I discovered another inconsistency on their Kickstarter page. The description says that TSPA will launch with ACDC (pending Kickstarter), Star Trek, Starship Troopers, and Frankenstein. The $70 tier says that table pack 1 will consist of 4 tables: ACDC, Star Trek, Starship Troopers, and Ripley's (instead of Frankenstein). Which one is it?

And I would be much more excited for this campaign if they said that they would upgrade their previous TPA tables with these new physics, or at least acknowledged whether or not they will still come out with tables for TPA monthly. The rewards say that the ACDC table is expected in November. Season 6 of TPA will be five tables in at that point. Will they alternate months? Make season 6 into a half season and end TPA? Or somehow continue to develop for both games?

 

[Ben Logan]

So many good questions.

I'm thrilled to hear they're focusing on Physics. For this alone, I'll contribute to the KS. I'm disappointed by the choices of Starship Troopers and Frankenstein. Ugh -- two of my personal least favorite. YMMV. Star Trek Pro, GB, and ACDC are all exciting announcements.

Like many of you, I sincerely hope physics 4.0 will be rolling out to the classics in the TPA lineup -- seasons one and two especially.

 

[Crawley]

I discovered another inconsistency on their Kickstarter page. The description says that TSPA will launch with ACDC (pending Kickstarter), Star Trek, Starship Troopers, and Frankenstein. The $70 tier says that table pack 1 will consist of 4 tables: ACDC, Star Trek, Starship Troopers, and Ripley's (instead of Frankenstein). Which one is it?

Hopefully Ripley rather than Frank. And hopefully Last Action Hero instead of Starship Troopers.

 

[Rich Lehmann]

Hope it succeeds, if I had to pick a table it would be this or GoT. Kinda think maybe they are going to the well too many times. We will see.

 

[HotHamBoy]

If they actually implement 4.0 physics to all tables on all platforms then that would be enough for me to be satisfied. As it stands, the only platform with 3.0 physics on all pre-Xenon tables is Steam, despite promises around this time LAST YEAR that they would update the physics on other platforms as well.

This is my biggest problem with FS and TPA: promises, promises, promises and poor communication. How long did it take to finally get DX lighting on PC? It took them, what, THREE YEARS to get TPA on Wii U after it was announced, and it doesn't even have the option to display the DMD on the gamepad? I'm still waiting for physics parity on mobile and consoles.

They stretch themselves so thin and each platform has its own issues and many tables need updated across the baord. Now they are doubling their workload. They make promises and then go silent, quietly moving the goal-post. Or just nixing features (cabinet support, anyone?)

Where's that shoddy new UI, FS?

 

[Ben Logan]

Hopefully Ripley rather than Frank. And hopefully Last Action Hero instead of Starship Troopers.

+1

 

[HotHamBoy]

Hopefully Ripley rather than Frank. And hopefully Last Action Hero instead of Starship Troopers.

Oh man, yeah. I mean, SST is okay-ish, I don't mind it all that much, but it's not as good as LAH. And Frankenstein is garbage-tier, especially compared to Ripley's. I would rather they have implemented Harley Davidson first, honestly.

 

[Ben Logan]

I'm wondering if they got SST and Frank licenses on the cheap (?) Why launch with those? Apologies to fans of these tables.

 

[Kolchak357]

I'm wondering if they got SST and Frank licenses on the cheap (?) Why launch with those? Apologies to fans of these tables.

I like both, but don't really want or need another version. I'd prefer Seawitch or something we don't already have.

 

[dtown8532]

Two questions...

Will AC/DC have all the songs from the real table?

Can you guys please pay the extra fifty bucks and get AC/DC's Big Gun in Last Action Hero? The retuned version is, well, poop.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Oh wow...I never thought I'd see the day when AC/DC was up for digitization. It's enough to make me return after a long hiatus.

Curious to see how it does. It's an awesome machine - awesome enough that I own a Premium model - but $108K is going to be a tough mountain to scale.

 

[Ben Logan]

So -- will Farsight still be making a big announcement at Ca. Extreme? Or was this it?

Nothing is more exciting to me personally than Physics 4.0.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Oh wow...I never thought I'd see the day when AC/DC was up for digitization. It's enough to make me return after a long hiatus.

Curious to see how it does. It's an awesome machine - awesome enough that I own a Premium model - but $108K is going to be a tough mountain to scale.

He's back....again!

 

[shutyertrap]

I've been a TPA player from day one, have all the tables. I hope they continue TPA because I'm not getting started with another pinball app. All the money I put into TPA for my iPad and now they're going to focus on Stern. In fact the only reason I bought my iPad was to play TPA. I'm 63 yrs old and love the 70s 80s and 90s tables. I don't think it's right for the stern tables to be upgraded and graphicly better than TPA, they still have a lot of fixes lighting and graphics that I already paid for. I also stopped Kickstarter donations with Dr Who because every time I download an update I lose all my Kickstarter tables. So now I just buy when they're for sale.

Look at it this way; you bought an iPad, and yet the next year Apple comes out with a new iPad that has a better screen, or a fingerprint reader, or better battery life. You bought what was available at the time, not what maybe will happen in the future. For the past few years, we have been begging FarSight to put a cap on what hardware can run their game in the hopes of getting a better playing game. Essentially that is what they are doing, just in a new app. Meanwhile they can keep TPA chugging along on all the hardware it currently runs on.

Every game company does this, it's nothing new. Game will get released, then a year later will be repackaged as 'Game of the Year Edition' or something of the like, will have a bunch of free dlc, upgrades, and cost less. Or what about something like Call of Duty, where it releases on PS4 and PS3, but obviously the latter is gimped in comparison.

I'm not a fan of yet another kickstarter in any way, shape, or form either. One thing to consider though is that at least this time, entry into it is $10, same cost it'll be to buy it. In other words, it's a pre-order.

But how many of them are there? Is this a viable business model?
Fingers crossed this works.

I don't even pretend to understand FarSight's business model. All I know is there's plenty of people who have said they'd gladly pay more for tables if it meant no kickstarter. Also, the casual fan is the very one that goes on Steam and gives TPA a bad review because they feel duped by the one free table and everything else costing. That very fan probably would be happy with an energy bar system, or as Jared calls 'em, smurfberries for purchase.

If they actually implement 4.0 physics to all tables on all platforms then that would be enough for me to be satisfied. As it stands, the only platform with 3.0 physics on all pre-Xenon tables is Steam, despite promises around this time LAST YEAR that they would update the physics on other platforms as well.

This is my biggest problem with FS and TPA: promises, promises, promises and poor communication. How long did it take to finally get DX lighting on PC? It took them, what, THREE YEARS to get TPA on Wii U after it was announced, and it doesn't even have the option to display the DMD on the gamepad? I'm still waiting for physics parity on mobile and consoles.

They stretch themselves so thin and each platform has its own issues and many tables need updated across the baord. Now they are doubling their workload. They make promises and then go silent, quietly moving the goal-post. Or just nixing features (cabinet support, anyone?)

Where's that shoddy new UI, FS?

Communication is a big problem in that they can't seem to get a clear message out. Reading comments and such JUST with this app/kickstarter announcement, there is so much people are confused by. I'll see what I can do about getting some clarity from my contacts, but no promises.

Oh, and the shoddy new UI works pretty nice as far as I'm concerned.

 

[shutyertrap]

Oh wow...I never thought I'd see the day when AC/DC was up for digitization. It's enough to make me return after a long hiatus.

Curious to see how it does. It's an awesome machine - awesome enough that I own a Premium model - but $108K is going to be a tough mountain to scale.

Tough indeed, but now they have Stern promoting the thing too. That will hold a lot more weight with those players of the real world who don't really care much about the digital.

 

[Ben Logan]

Looking forward to the next Blahcade podcast. Just finished listening to your Aliens review.

Would love clarification on Physics 4.0 rollout: Will physics update apply to TPA Seasons 1 through 5 as well as SPA? Flipper as well as Ball physics upgrade, or just Ball physics? Thanks for trying to get us some answers. Excited about this.

 

[BStarfire]

I love TPA. The existence or non-existence of another app doesn't change the enjoyment I get from it.

Actually, I'm looking forward to the modern Stern machines and also think that since most of the high profile DMD's have been done that Stern can fill our fix for modern tables and TPA can crank out some more older tables and EM's. No use having modern games compete with each other. I'll be happy and buy all for both.

 

[Bowflex]

I'm super geeked that Mustang and Wrestlemania look more likely now! I know they aren't the most popular but I definitely enjoy both of those tables. Plus I am loving the Kiss table and fingers crossed for Metallica. Glad to see Star Trek will be available from day 1. Despite the similarities to TNG, it has a lot of cool things going for it. Now it makes me look forward that much more to the next Stern table after Ghostbusters!

 

[invitro]

Since Farsight still needs a kickstarter for AC/DC, I'm wondering just what Farsight got out of the deal with Stern. I don't see anything at all yet that they couldn't have done without the deal, and having to make a new program is probably a big headache, but maybe not. I can't imagine that Stern "promoting" SPA, which amounts to a press release and a couple of facebook posts so far, is worth all that much. But maybe Stern isn't getting all that much either.

 

[spoonman]

I've decided...
I will donate if they release the promised PS4 sound fix patch and remove the "ghost balls" which were introduced with the 1.12 update.

I just think if I donate to this and the PS4 issues go on ignored. I will want to give up on the whole thing and I enjoy it too much to want to do that.

The idea of playing modern Stern tables in Pinball Arcade is exciting. I just hope they don't forget about The Pinball Arcade.