Stern Pinball Arcade available now in the Play Store, early thoughts

[jaredmorgs]

Anybody else have the AC/DC table and do not have a working action button? How does that get overlooked? Can't control the third flipper in Starship Troopers either.

Yeah, not that ideal right?

And for that matter, what the hell happened to the action buttons in TPA? I don't like being required to reach up and hit the pause button every time I have to launch a ball

From what we can tell, the issue regressed about the same time as Gladiators was released. We've raised it as an issue. A strange fact is that the only table unaffected is Black Knight, which is fully scripted.

 

[mortuus]

So if they know about the issue, why did the support answer my email if i should install the app again ? like that would help. they need fix that not me..

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

So if they know about the issue, why did the support answer my email if i should install the app again ? like that would help. they need fix that not me..

It occurs to me that the support personnel who answer emails, don't actually know anything useful. (In that regard they're typical first-line responders... but they should be doing triage as appropriate and passing queries on to people who do know the answers.)

 

[AnvilCloud]

Another thing I've found is that the tables that are comparable between SPA and TPA might have slight differences. RBION has a darker frame on one and the plunger tension is a little but different - on SPA it seems my usual timing and rhythm are off, I had to lower the pressure to compensate. Small things, but interesting

 

[Gorgias32]

I have been spending some more time with Mustang, and I am really enjoying it - on my OnePlus One it runs fine (at least the first game I play).

My Mustang observations (these have probably been logged in other posts, but are android specific):

1. The only time you can switch the mode that starts on plunge is in the one second or so before the plunger takes over the left flipper area - this is a big problem in Mustang, since you don't always want to start with Drag Race and you may not want to continue the last mode you played. It significantly affects strategy.). Maybe this isn't a problem with a controller, but with touch screen it is very impactful.

2. The first game I play after launching the app, everything runs fine. On subsequent games, it looks like the inserts (yellow arrows) used in some modes don't light up at all. This makes it harder to do the Road Course mode, since you can't see which shots are cleared and which are left to hit, possibly others are affected as well.

3. Additionally, on games after the first one I play after launching the app, I get a lot of lag in general and especially on multiballs (it is smooth during the first game). Sometimes hitting the Home button then restarting the app fixes the lag, it looks like a possible memory management issue.

4. I'm not crazy about the way the app in general handles Android memory. If you hit the home button it closes, but the app doesn't appear in the list of running apps (accessed by holding down the menu button); when you relaunch it the state is usually where it was when home was pressed, so it is definitely still in memory. I have not seen any other Android app behave this way. Makes it hard to manually close out. I would like it to minimally behave like TPA where you can back-key out of the app and have it completely close out of memory and stop sucking battery life in the background.

5. As reported by others, the action button doesn't appear to work during gameplay.

These are the big bugs that are causing me to hold off on paying for tables, but in general I keep coming back to Mustang even with these flaws - it is a step up from TPA, plays really well and fairly realistically (even though it's slower than real life, the flipper gap is still there and makes it challenging).

 

[jdoa]

Hey there guys, wanted to know what happened to stern pinball arcade? Wanted to give it a go today but could not find it at all on the google play store (to play on my nvidia shield k1)

 

[Baron Rubik]

Hey there guys, wanted to know what happened to stern pinball arcade? Wanted to give it a go today but could not find it at all on the google play store (to play on my nvidia shield k1)

Looks like the link has been taken down, with the poor reviews, and early release bugs.
Anyone with it installed can still see the app, the link to it being here...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farsight.spa

There isn't a lot of point trying it on the K1 yet though (I have one myself) and there is a known issue with large black areas obstructing the playfield view, making it unplayable.

 

[jdoa]

Looks like the link has been taken down, with the poor reviews, and early release bugs.
Anyone with it installed can still see the app, the link to it being here...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farsight.spa

There isn't a lot of point trying it on the K1 yet though (I have one myself) and there is a known issue with large black areas obstructing the playfield view, making it unplayable.

Well that sucks....really hope they can sort out the gazillion bugs it apparently has then. Would love to play it.....on my nvidia k1.....

 

[Baron Rubik]

Well that sucks....really hope they can sort out the gazillion bugs it apparently has then. Would love to play it.....on my nvidia k1.....

I'm sure it'll get there. Give it a little time.

 

[BStarfire]

I'm sure it'll get there. Give it a little time.

Also on the Nvidia shield.... I hope there's a communication when it starts working. I suppose if they put it back in the play store I'll get an update notification, assuming it addresses k1 issues. If any of you become aware of it working on the k1 please give me a heads up so I can try it.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Also on the Nvidia shield.... I hope there's a communication when it starts working. I suppose if they put it back in the play store I'll get an update notification, assuming it addresses k1 issues. If any of you become aware of it working on the k1 please give me a heads up so I can try it.

No worries - I'll post here if it gets fixed.

 

[Brandon Garvin]

Also on the Nvidia shield.... I hope there's a communication when it starts working. I suppose if they put it back in the play store I'll get an update notification, assuming it addresses k1 issues. If any of you become aware of it working on the k1 please give me a heads up so I can try it.

Our Android programmer is looking into the issue right now, so hopefully we'll have it addressed soon!

 

[Worf]

Is this only a US thing? I search the Play store and it returns "The requested item is not found". It shows up in the search, but nothing is returned. I tried it online in case it was incompatible with my device (Nexus 6P) but no, it's not available at all in Canada?

Edit: It IS available on iOS in Canada...

 

[Baron Rubik]

Is this only a US thing? I search the Play store and it returns "The requested item is not found". It shows up in the search, but nothing is returned. I tried it online in case it was incompatible with my device (Nexus 6P) but no, it's not available at all in Canada?

Edit: It IS available on iOS in Canada...

It's been pulled from Google Play Store until it's fixed up a little.

 

[Gorgias32]

Any news on this or timeline? I have been enjoying playing Mustang in the initial version I downloaded (on my OnePlus One), even with its bugginess. Looking forward to getting the fixed-up version.

 

[Lykaion23]

Android missing?

Can anyone please tell me why stern app isn't in google app store anymore. I wanted to see if there are Updates for the app coz ACDC is still unplayable coz you can't shoot the cannon, but I only found the normal TPA in store. Did Farsight or google remove it and when o.o does that mean I never could play it mobile coz I don't want a Apple device and never get update for the app

 

[HotHamBoy]

I might have been pulled because it's pretty broken. I'm sure they will relist the app when it's fixed.

Man, Farsight really botched this release across the board.

 

[kinggo]

pretty broken is a very nice thing to say about the state SPA was on android.

 

[lapaille]

Honestly I'm not the kind of moaning guy...but now this is getting really annoying.
I purchased mustang, star trek and acdc and they came out(full price) stern did a discount two days later....anyway this not a question of money, we all have enough money to buy devices internet acces etc....
It' s a problem of being left on the roadside.
Farsight communication has always been bad but in this case it's really getting on my nerves.
When it was released i was so happy, for a while untli all the bugs came....
I finally gave up on it and thought i'm gonna play it when it works.
But now we're approaching 2 months with no updates no timeline and no news what so ever !!!
It's exactly when the train stops in the middle of nowhere and no one is telling you what happened and when it will start runnig again.
Every day i hope for the app to be fixed but it's just so annoying and frustrating, just like having a toy with no batteries to put in, you can play with it but it's less fun.

Farsight, I've purchased season 1 to 5 and the 3 SPA tables I didn't have (holding on mediocre season 6) please tell us what's going on ???

Just tell us

 

[lapaille]

Our Android programmer is looking into the issue right now, so hopefully we'll have it addressed soon!

I mean this guy said soon a month ago, what does soon means anyway ??? just like imminent...
New Star wars is coming out soon, in december