smbhax
Active member
- Apr 24, 2012
- 1,803
- 5
Now that we have fairly consistent lighting, the only major thing the game lacks as a true pinball simulation--aside, perhaps, from ball spin, which Bobby King has at least mentioned in passing as something they have looked / will look into (then again he mentions a lot of things in passing, so who knows)--are flippers that handle in a realistic manner; currently, TPA's flippers can only flip one way: all the way. But anyone who's spent a little time on an actual pinball machine knows that with real flippers, a very quick press will cause them to flip only slightly; this allows tap passes from one flipper to the other, for starters, and probably is what allows for more advanced things like live catches, which simply can't be done with TPA's simplistic flipper operation.
FarSight have mentioned--I think it was on this forum--that they've considered making TPA's flippers pressure sensitive to simulate less than full flips, but that isn't how real pinball flippers work--they aren't pressure sensitive, they are *time* sensitive: whether or not a flip is partial or full depends on how long you held the flipper button down.
I'm sure FarSight, who have disassembled numerous pinball machines to date, know how real pinball flippers are constructed and operate, with their dual coils and all that (for instance: http://stevekulpa.net/pinball/bally_flipper1.htm ), but they seem strangely unconcerned with attempting to model their behavior; I suppose this is the hardcore view that doesn't give additional bullet items to the product description, but I'd certainly like to see them get realistic behavior on the flippers before they work on bells and whistles they've apparently got in the pipeline like challenge modes, head to head modes, UI overhauls, and so forth.
To put it simply, if we can't live catch, the simulation is incomplete.
And beyond that, it would be nice if they paid a little more attention to how flippers from different eras and different manufacturers behave: different flippers have different weights and voltages and so forth that make, say, 1960 Gottlieb flippers feel (and function) differently than 1973 Gottlieb flippers which flip differently than 1980 Williams flippers--and yet, in TPA, the flippers--short, lighting, or full length--all feel essentially the same. Even the better Visual Pinball tables, with their relatively simple flipper physics properties, have this differing feel down pretty well; it would be nice if it was given some attention in TPA.
FarSight have mentioned--I think it was on this forum--that they've considered making TPA's flippers pressure sensitive to simulate less than full flips, but that isn't how real pinball flippers work--they aren't pressure sensitive, they are *time* sensitive: whether or not a flip is partial or full depends on how long you held the flipper button down.
I'm sure FarSight, who have disassembled numerous pinball machines to date, know how real pinball flippers are constructed and operate, with their dual coils and all that (for instance: http://stevekulpa.net/pinball/bally_flipper1.htm ), but they seem strangely unconcerned with attempting to model their behavior; I suppose this is the hardcore view that doesn't give additional bullet items to the product description, but I'd certainly like to see them get realistic behavior on the flippers before they work on bells and whistles they've apparently got in the pipeline like challenge modes, head to head modes, UI overhauls, and so forth.
To put it simply, if we can't live catch, the simulation is incomplete.
And beyond that, it would be nice if they paid a little more attention to how flippers from different eras and different manufacturers behave: different flippers have different weights and voltages and so forth that make, say, 1960 Gottlieb flippers feel (and function) differently than 1973 Gottlieb flippers which flip differently than 1980 Williams flippers--and yet, in TPA, the flippers--short, lighting, or full length--all feel essentially the same. Even the better Visual Pinball tables, with their relatively simple flipper physics properties, have this differing feel down pretty well; it would be nice if it was given some attention in TPA.
) and Brakel has pretty much hit the nail on the head.
