Questions Answered - FarSight

[invitro]

I'd drop a tenner for a comprehensive update that brought all tables up to a uniform physics and graphics level and improved the sounds in general - I really want more mechanical/ball roll sound...

That would be a huge update . I'd pay $50 for this, easily. Maybe $75.

 

[karl]

Hope Zingy Bingy is on the list.

No, you don't

But Big Bang Bar, Pinball Magic, Kingpin and Airborne are most welcome. Perhaps even Breakshot. But we don't want any stinking Flipper Football or Zingy Bingy Python madness

 

[ssspacman]

Thankyou Mike. This is really what Farsight needed to boost their image. Hope this type of questions and answers will be available once every few months.

 

[shutyertrap]

Would there be a huge outpouring of money? How much would you pay for such an upgrade, syt? Anyone else? I'll go first: hmm... $1 per table, on average. Season 2 has a ton of crappy tables that I'd pay nothing for.

No, this should not be on us to pay for. People on this forum always jump right to "I'd pay to fix get that fixed" which is a horrible trend to suggest by any consumer. Too many companies have abused this thinking, putting out a product incomplete only to charge for it later. FarSight continues to sell full seasons of 1&2 to new users all the time. Remastering should be done gratis to correct for how it should have been done all along.

 

[Locksley]

An other horrible trend is Moviestars salery... well that is not a recent trend I guess.
Still, makes you think about how much money is really floating about.


Edit: and yeah, gratis - good good *rubbing palms*

 

[invitro]

No, this should not be on us to pay for. People on this forum always jump right to "I'd pay to fix get that fixed" which is a horrible trend to suggest by any consumer. Too many companies have abused this thinking, putting out a product incomplete only to charge for it later. FarSight continues to sell full seasons of 1&2 to new users all the time.

I didn't say "fixed". I said "upgrade". And you said "remaster", which is just another word for "upgrade". I agree, of course, that consumers should not have to pay for fixes. But they should have to pay for upgrades. (Note: I am uncomfortable with using the word "should" in regards to buying something...)

I suppose there is a difference of opinion as to whether the tables in seasons 1 & 2 are broken or not. But I don't think they are.

 

[Ben Logan]

No, this should not be on us to pay for. People on this forum always jump right to "I'd pay to fix get that fixed" which is a horrible trend to suggest by any consumer. Too many companies have abused this thinking, putting out a product incomplete only to charge for it later. FarSight continues to sell full seasons of 1&2 to new users all the time. Remastering should be done gratis to correct for how it should have been done all along.

Totally agree with shutyertrap. That said, I will gladly buy Season Three, Four, Five, and Six once ball physics are vastly improved. Glad to see so much support for ball spin and a wild, unpredictable ball in this thread.

 

[Russell Bergman]

Thank you Mike for all the answers! One big question I forgot to ask (perhaps for a future q and a session on the tpa fan forum)....Are there plans to update the missing and wrong artwork on some tables? Specifically:
Pin•Bot- missing topper
Cirqus Voltaire- missing lightning bolts on both ends of the neon tube, missing artwork on center ramp (Android only)
Firepower: wrong artwork on front of the cabinet
Genie: Bonus is still spelled incorrectly "Bouns" (Android only)
Dr. Dude: Yellow wire missing on Android....I know it was left out due to performance issues, but just curious if there was a way now to implement it.

Again, thanks and I know the missing/incorrect artwork doesn't hurt the gameplay, just my pinball ocd. Lol!

 

[Zevious Zoquis]

No, this should not be on us to pay for. People on this forum always jump right to "I'd pay to fix get that fixed" which is a horrible trend to suggest by any consumer. Too many companies have abused this thinking, putting out a product incomplete only to charge for it later. FarSight continues to sell full seasons of 1&2 to new users all the time. Remastering should be done gratis to correct for how it should have been done all along.

If it's a choice between paying $9.99 (or maybe even $14.99) for a nice big comprehensive update, or getting nothing updated (or updated so slowly we've all moved on by then) then I'll pay for it. I don't think it's unreasonable for FS to go that route. We aren't talking here about things that were really on the table early on. Companies have to make enough money to keep paying salaries and I suspect most of the reason much of this stuff isn't getting done very quickly is because FS has to keep producing new tables to keep money rolling in and can't afford to go back and work on old stuff that won't actually result in new $.

Really, it isn't very different than a company like Sony or SNK porting old games over to new consoles. I mean I just spent $20 on Metal Slug Anthology for the PS4, and I'm pretty sure porting that to the new system wasn't nearly as tough for SNK to do as what we are asking FS to do here...

I think referring to TPA as "incomplete" is just really silly. It's got issues, but most of those are really only apparent to those of us who happen to be really big pinheads. I mean I still play and enjoy many of the tables from the first couple of seasons. FS could very easily have released 2 or 3 seasons of tables and then started working on TPA2 and charged for that...

 

[Rich Lehmann]

There was a Q&A and no one asked about them fixing the god awful UI? That is hard to believe.

 

[Naildriver74]

There was a Q&A and no one asked about them fixing the god awful UI? That is hard to believe.

I thought that would have been one of the first three

 

[The Night Flier]

No.Maybe.Probably.Someday.No ETA.

 

[Ben Logan]

Going out on a limb here: I prefer the new UI!

:O

 

[Gorgar]

The new ui is perfectly fine

*boots up TPA on PS4 with the old ui*

 

[AnvilCloud]

That was an interesting read... Nobody asked about having a dark room mode for android, huh? The way it looks on Zaccaria is just perfect. Something about seeing the lights pop and the light reflect off of the various surfaces makes it feel more like I'm looking at an actual pinball machine simulation.

I asked this before via email and was told it would be brought up with the developers but never heard anything beyond that.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

I didn't say "fixed". I said "upgrade". And you said "remaster", which is just another word for "upgrade". I agree, of course, that consumers should not have to pay for fixes. But they should have to pay for upgrades. (Note: I am uncomfortable with using the word "should" in regards to buying something...)

I suppose there is a difference of opinion as to whether the tables in seasons 1 & 2 are broken or not. But I don't think they are.

Bethesda are releasing the remastered version of Skyrim for free on Steam*.

So there's a precedent.

But will I get the PS4 remake of FF7 for free if I can produce original PSX discs? Ha! Fact is all game companies are trying to make a profit, what makes a difference is how they go about it and how they treat their customers.

* Obviously you need the original, plus I think all the DLC. PS4 and XONE versions will not be free.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

[mpad]

Farsight is blocking themselves if they really want to disassemble every table they want to remaster. I think an intern could just redraw those blurry textures. Cheaper and faster.

 

[rehtroboi40]

Bethesda are releasing the remastered version of Skyrim for free on Steam*.

So there's a precedent.

But will I get the PS4 remake of FF7 for free if I can produce original PSX discs? Ha! Fact is all game companies are trying to make a profit, what makes a difference is how they go about it and how they treat their customers.

* Obviously you need the original, plus I think all the DLC. PS4 and XONE versions will not be free.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

Look at how many freakin' times Pac-Man has been redone. IMO, Namco Museum virtual arcade (and Megamix for the Wii) got it right. Now Namco has twice re-released it with (A)-Inferior emulation on Pac-Man Museum and (B) a non-user-friendly interface on their arcade game series.

Hamster's arcade archives are $8 a game, and some of these were available for less on Microsoft's ill-fated Game Room, which we can no longer access-to hell with any money we spent on it.

Just giving you an "old-fart" perspective on how game corporations are out to make money. What's worse is when you can no longer access your own content. This is the principle downside of digital distribution. I'm worried sick about what will happen when the plug finally does get pulled on TPA or Steam goes out of business because I've spent so much money on TPA, Zen, Zaccaria, and others.

Note: That last line was just about how nothing is forever in the digital world. If it were, we'd still be on Compuserve or using Netscape.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Farsight is blocking themselves if they really want to disassemble every table they want to remaster. I think an intern could just redraw those blurry textures. Cheaper and faster.

It's not redrawing that's involved. Those textures are old (2012-2013 old) and more compressed compared to what they come out with today.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

It's not redrawing that's involved. Those textures are old (2012-2013 old) and more compressed compared to what they come out with today.

They're also lower resolution.