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Hello everybody, I am new to the website and forums. I love real pinball as well as digital pinball. Started with David's midnight magic on my c64 and bought my first real pinball machine in 1990. A Xenon.I play both TPA and Williams Pinball on IPAD, MAC and PC. Playing the IPAD version of Williams a lot.My experience with the IPAD version of Williams pinball from ZEN: In general I like what they do. But the whole experience feels very uneven and unbalanced. in the end I can not but wonder if ZEN is really loving pinball as much as they state. Sure, their marketing machine works. Yet....They might like creating own tables and earning money by selling the programs. Nothing wrong with that. But emulating real pinball tables is something quite different. Understanding what makes a simulation a great simulation is much more than graphics and physics. And frankly, it's a mixed bag. On mobile they made some real strange choices. And I get the feeling tables are created by different groups. In the end some tables work for me and some simply don't.I contacted ZEN several times. Never a quick response, alway takes about a week. Alway a different 'community manager'. Alway the cheesy "thank you very much, we are so glad you...." even if complaining about something. This looks weird. And in the end nothing was changed or improved in the tables. They state that our "opinion is valuable to them". I'm sorry to say but it sure doesn't feel that way to me. In the end it simply feels useless.quick examples:- nudging on IPAD simply doesn't work. Period. Yet, nudging really is a central part in a real pinball simulation. A central part of the experience. Yes, using a sledge hammer on the side of the iPad or tilting the whole IPAD as 'marble madness'. But this has nothing to do with nudging. Swipe nudging is useless as well because of the delay.The ball is long gone by then Tapping nudging is useless because it often doesn't detect taps. It didn't work on ZEN pinball. It still doesn't work on Williams even after all the complaints. i can not conclude other that ZEN Studio's doesn't care. Even after all these years.- views: who uses the scrolling views 3 to 7? Only view 1, 2 and 8 are usable for me. Instead they should create better (fixed) views. On TPA there are views with more perspective. The flippers appear bigger which is useful on small screens. And on some views the bottom of the table is not showed which again leaves more screen real estate for the real table. I can not imagine why they made these choices.- small and dark matrix displays: Nothing selectable here. Just really small and dark matrix screens on the top middle of the screen. Instead of big and bright. Reading them while frantically playing takes time and ruins the flow of gameplay. With better view options as stated above and larger matrix displays on the upper left the whole experience on mobile would be much better. And on view 8 the matrix display suddenly isn't 'matrix' anymore but an ugly font. Strange decision- ball movement is not as smooth as TPA. I think this is a result of the programming choice they made. TPA simply runs faster and more fluid. A shame since fluid ball movement is very important. And it is not as if the game is a technical 3d showcase. So again, sloppyReading the internet I am not the only one complaining. Yet it seems as ZEN doesn't improve these basic yet very important aspects of the game. And doesn't care. Yes, fiddling with physics movement, teaming up with arcade 1up. Great. But please, ZEN, show us you do care about existing customers, that you do understand real pinball simulation, that you do understand what makes a simulation tick. In the end I don't really care what programmes say they will do to the physics or Mel Kirk has to say as a marketing person. That's their job. For me, as a customer and pinball lover what count's is how the apps work, how I experience them and if they listen to customers and try to improve things. Value for money and customer experience this is called. And until now: I really like the game but it's still a mixed bag. Some aspects still clearly work better on TPA. I hadn't expected this to be the case at all when I first read about the license deal. A missed opportunity for ZEN. And a partial disappointment for customers.
Hello everybody, I am new to the website and forums. I love real pinball as well as digital pinball. Started with David's midnight magic on my c64 and bought my first real pinball machine in 1990. A Xenon.
I play both TPA and Williams Pinball on IPAD, MAC and PC. Playing the IPAD version of Williams a lot.
My experience with the IPAD version of Williams pinball from ZEN: In general I like what they do. But the whole experience feels very uneven and unbalanced. in the end I can not but wonder if ZEN is really loving pinball as much as they state. Sure, their marketing machine works. Yet....They might like creating own tables and earning money by selling the programs. Nothing wrong with that. But emulating real pinball tables is something quite different. Understanding what makes a simulation a great simulation is much more than graphics and physics. And frankly, it's a mixed bag. On mobile they made some real strange choices. And I get the feeling tables are created by different groups. In the end some tables work for me and some simply don't.
I contacted ZEN several times. Never a quick response, alway takes about a week. Alway a different 'community manager'. Alway the cheesy "thank you very much, we are so glad you...." even if complaining about something. This looks weird. And in the end nothing was changed or improved in the tables. They state that our "opinion is valuable to them". I'm sorry to say but it sure doesn't feel that way to me. In the end it simply feels useless.
quick examples:
- nudging on IPAD simply doesn't work. Period. Yet, nudging really is a central part in a real pinball simulation. A central part of the experience. Yes, using a sledge hammer on the side of the iPad or tilting the whole IPAD as 'marble madness'. But this has nothing to do with nudging. Swipe nudging is useless as well because of the delay.The ball is long gone by then Tapping nudging is useless because it often doesn't detect taps. It didn't work on ZEN pinball. It still doesn't work on Williams even after all the complaints. i can not conclude other that ZEN Studio's doesn't care. Even after all these years.
- views: who uses the scrolling views 3 to 7? Only view 1, 2 and 8 are usable for me. Instead they should create better (fixed) views. On TPA there are views with more perspective. The flippers appear bigger which is useful on small screens. And on some views the bottom of the table is not showed which again leaves more screen real estate for the real table. I can not imagine why they made these choices.
- small and dark matrix displays: Nothing selectable here. Just really small and dark matrix screens on the top middle of the screen. Instead of big and bright. Reading them while frantically playing takes time and ruins the flow of gameplay. With better view options as stated above and larger matrix displays on the upper left the whole experience on mobile would be much better. And on view 8 the matrix display suddenly isn't 'matrix' anymore but an ugly font. Strange decision
- ball movement is not as smooth as TPA. I think this is a result of the programming choice they made. TPA simply runs faster and more fluid. A shame since fluid ball movement is very important. And it is not as if the game is a technical 3d showcase. So again, sloppy
Reading the internet I am not the only one complaining. Yet it seems as ZEN doesn't improve these basic yet very important aspects of the game. And doesn't care. Yes, fiddling with physics movement, teaming up with arcade 1up. Great. But please, ZEN, show us you do care about existing customers, that you do understand real pinball simulation, that you do understand what makes a simulation tick. In the end I don't really care what programmes say they will do to the physics or Mel Kirk has to say as a marketing person. That's their job. For me, as a customer and pinball lover what count's is how the apps work, how I experience them and if they listen to customers and try to improve things. Value for money and customer experience this is called. And until now: I really like the game but it's still a mixed bag. Some aspects still clearly work better on TPA. I hadn't expected this to be the case at all when I first read about the license deal. A missed opportunity for ZEN. And a partial disappointment for customers.
