Official Williams Volume 2 news

[shutyertrap]

for what i understand, steam version will have uncensored artwork as an option.

other consoles will only be uncensored if they are cleared properly with esrb and the console maker, though they are looking into it.

This is correct. Also, beta build has yet to see uncensored art version.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Free the thighs!

 

[pinball_chaos]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Going to sleep now here in Budapest, it's only 3:06 am on Saturday AM.

 

[karussellbremser]

You’ll notice Zen also chose to use lightning flippers

They used lightning flippers even if the original had normal flippers? Shouldn't that be definitely changed then?

 

[kimkom]

Great news but I'm going to be picky I thought Zen said that there will be four more tables released before the end of the year?

Was wondering the same thing. What happened to the fourth table before year end?

I was half expecting 2 packs of 2 but tbh I would have been very surprised to see a 4 table pack

 

[kimkom]

Actually, to be clear, I don’t care how many tables are coming.

The main thing for me is that Zen maintains a consistently high quality across all tables, and do justice to the Williams/Bally license.

I’d much rather that, than Zen aiming to get X number of tables out by X date.

We’ve already been down that route with Farsight.

Quality before quantity every time please Zen

 

[Citizen]

They used lightning flippers even if the original had normal flippers? Shouldn't that be definitely changed then?

There has always been general confusion surrounding which games originally shipped with lightning flippers, and BR is probably the most dubious example you sometimes see people tossing on the list. Some people claim that there were BRs shipped with black lightning flippers, and some people claim it was only a European part option, but I've never seen any actual confirmation that any BRs anywhere shipped with lightning flippers. Further confusing matters is the fact that some BRs shipped with black standard flipppers, and these days you can find many repro parts sites selling black lightning flippers listed as being for BR.

You occasionally do find a lightning flipper BR in the wild, I've played on a couple myself. But the flippers are likely after market and not original. I've never seen anything to lead me to believe that an authentic BR should have anything but standard flipppers for all 3 flippers.

So it is entirely possible that Zen did get a BR with lightning flippers. But they should probably switch to standards.

 

[Herbert Birdsfoot]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a dedicated ZEN Williams Pinball game in which you can customize your tables? Like setting the types of flipper fingers (lightning or regular), hardness of the rubbers, steepness of the table, service menu access, removing the rubbers from the inlane/outlane separators, etc.

 

[dmil666]

Actually, to be clear, I don’t care how many tables are coming.

The main thing for me is that Zen maintains a consistently high quality across all tables, and do justice to the Williams/Bally license.

I’d much rather that, than Zen aiming to get X number of tables out by X date.

We’ve already been down that route with Farsight.

Quality before quantity every time please Zen

Well said, I'll go along with that mindset.


As for the "fourth table", I wonder if it might be a single licensed table, released just before Xmas. It'd be a surprise and would likely sell well, especially if it was something totally unexpected.
Or maybe I'm just dreaming.

 

[karussellbremser]

There has always been general confusion surrounding which games originally shipped with lightning flippers, and BR is probably the most dubious example you sometimes see people tossing on the list. Some people claim that there were BRs shipped with black lightning flippers, and some people claim it was only a European part option, but I've never seen any actual confirmation that any BRs anywhere shipped with lightning flippers. Further confusing matters is the fact that some BRs shipped with black standard flipppers, and these days you can find many repro parts sites selling black lightning flippers listed as being for BR.

You occasionally do find a lightning flipper BR in the wild, I've played on a couple myself. But the flippers are likely after market and not original. I've never seen anything to lead me to believe that an authentic BR should have anything but standard flipppers for all 3 flippers.

So it is entirely possible that Zen did get a BR with lightning flippers. But they should probably switch to standards.

This is some great information I did not have a clue about. When Mel reads this, he can probably say something about that? I wonder how much effort it would be for Zen to switch the flippers to standard ones, as this will probably have a non-negligible impact on overall table physics. (although in a perfect world, once a table is correctly replicated within the game, changes like that should be completely covered by the physics engine without the need for additional tweaking)

 

[lettuce]

I hope Monster Bash is the center piece for table pack 3, The Pinball Arcade version was such a joke!!

 

[kimkom]

Well said, I'll go along with that mindset.


As for the "fourth table", I wonder if it might be a single licensed table, released just before Xmas. It'd be a surprise and would likely sell well, especially if it was something totally unexpected.
Or maybe I'm just dreaming.

I still have my suspicions that contrary to what has been said so far, Zen might surprise us with Judge Dredd before the end of the year

I hope Monster Bash is the center piece for table pack 3, The Pinball Arcade version was such a joke!!

..or perhaps even MB as a single release

 

[rehtroboi40]

I still have my suspicions that contrary to what has been said so far, Zen might surprise us with Judge Dredd before the end of the year



..or perhaps even MB as a single release

I figured with Zen having the Universal License getting MB for FX3 should not be a problem. Then again, I don't know the extent of that license.

I'm pleased so far with what Zen has done so far with PFX3. I haven't played TPA since trying out (and not buying because they're boring) BBH and WN:BJM. I'll still keep it for EBD, Fathom, and some of the alphanumeric WMS tables.

I can see Zen only releasing the Dot Matrix games-not that I'd mind. I'm impressed so far.

 

[lettuce]

..or perhaps even MB as a single release

Well Monster Bash and Creature From the Black Lagoon are both propteires of Universal so they would go together but even more interesting for the 3rd table in the pack also a universal property is either of these......

Flash Gordon
The Shadow

Monster Bash, Creature Form The Black Lagoon and The Shadow sounds like an awesome table pack!!!!

 

[jrolson]

I hope Monster Bash is the center piece for table pack 3, The Pinball Arcade version was such a joke!!

Agreed, my favorite table of all time... Needs to be in pack #3!

 

[lio]

Why is there Dracula in such a prominent spot on the Pack 2 image? Does any of the announced tables feature Drac?

 

[dave950lam]

He's part of Party Zone.

 

[shutyertrap]

They'll have absolutely no problem licensing with Universal. Just don't expect anything until Volume 4. Again, we have to think in a whole new way regarding lead time for Zen as opposed to FarSight. Zen plans tables 9 months or so in advance. They did not want to deal with any licensing until they saw how the WMS license would be received. Now that they have numbers, they can approach licensing with a better understanding of how to make it financially feasible, and that might mean buying large blocks or securing the rights to also do original tables with the property. Whatever the case, a fully licensed table (and Universal Monsters is a full license) won't appear until then.

I also tend to believe that when it comes time for that first license, Zen is going to swing for the fences. They know the community wants a table yet to be done by FarSight, they know the first license is going to create a lot of buzz. I know they want to land Indiana Jones, and their relationship with Disney and LucasFilm should make that possible. Barring that, I suppose TAF or TZ would be high on their list but that'd still suffer from the 'been there, done that' aspect of customers. So here's the list (I think I got 'em all) of DMD licensed machines that weren't in TPA:

Congo (Paramount)
Dirty Harry (Warner Bros)
Flinstones (Warner Bros)
Johnny Mnemonic (Sony)
Gilligans Island (Warner Bros)
NBA Fastbreak
Popeye Saves The Earth (no idea who holds the rights, possibly Turner which might make it Warner Bros)
The Shadow (Universal)

So of those, I imagine The Shadow would make the largest splash. I personally would be happiest with NBA Fastbreak, especially if Zen went in and added updated rosters and brought the team total up to the current count. Yeah, nice fantasy I have there!

 

[Wapcaplet]

Popeye Saves The Earth (no idea who holds the rights, possibly Turner which might make it Warner Bros)

King Features Syndicate still holds the rights to Popeye (they're owned by Hearst Communications).

I'm probably one of the few people here who likes Popeye Saves the Earth and wishes Zen would release it, but I realize it probably won't happen. But I can dream.

 

[shutyertrap]

King Features Syndicate still holds the rights to Popeye (they're owned by Hearst Communications).

I'm probably one of the few people here who likes Popeye Saves the Earth and wishes Zen would release it, but I realize it probably won't happen. But I can dream.

And Hearst Communications is owned by Turner, is it not? Anyways, within the last few years Lionsgate, Sony, and Universal have all had projects in the works for Popeye, so it’s certainly not a difficult license to go after.