Stern Sees a Bright Future in Digital Pinball - Discussion

[Pinballwiz45b]

Personally, I believe that this will lead to many more Stern tables to be recreated. Here's hoping for many of the more recent games, like Iron Man, AC/DC, Tron, Metallica, and POTC.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...-sees-a-bright-future-in-digital-pinball.aspx

 

[MontanaFrank]

Thanks for the article Pinballwiz 45b. I really enjoyed the article and the future of Digital Pinball seems to bright at the moment.

 

[Crawley]

I would be pleasantly surprised if it meant any of the ones you mentioned (add Transformers, LOTRO, Batman, Star Trek to the list). But suspect it would be more along the lines of Big Buck Hunter, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sharkey's Shootout, Elvis, and Striker Extreme. Which wouldn't be all that bad either. But would kill to have a more recent game like AC/DC.

 

[danivempire]

Great article.
I like the way stern consider farsight and TPA.
It let us hope for a good collaboration between them.

 

[Zorgwon]

Overall digital pinball will need more new designs and those may not come from Stern. Or Stern buys Farsight and creates only many virtual machines.

In the Pro Pinball thread I read about a Timeshock real pinball table. So digital pinball may create real pinball.

 

[smbhax]

Obviously this would be a great thing, but they've said it before (maybe six months or so ago?). I guess this time it's a little more committal, ie whoever it was sees it as 100% happening SOME day... But it sounds kinda like they're going to take their sweet time hemming and hawing about it before they actually do something.

 

[The Night Flier]

Would be cool if Stern engaged in an even more active partnership with Farsight.So many possibilities in their library!

 

[wolfson]

all sounds great to me,i love all the pinball we`re getting ,TPA,ZEN,PRO PINBALL and now if STERN get in on the action,i can see a a visual cabinet.imagine V.C.with TPA,ZEN,PRO P.and maybe STERN can bring a digital table every time they create a new table.we might have to pay say $50,i wouldn`t mind paying that for a new table.I LUV DREAMING !!!

 

[night]

They should start releasing their own digital tables, the future is in our mobile devices we carry around all day, that's where money can be made.

 

[The Night Flier]

If Stern should actually pursue releasing digital tables on their own i think it would be great if they exclusively, or at least seperately, designed the tables for consoles and high end pcs.This way the technical limitations of the mobile devices can be ignored and the tables can become more realistic and ambitious.

 

[Espy]

If Stern should actually pursue releasing digital tables on their own i think it would be great if they exclusively, or at least seperately, designed the tables for consoles and high end pcs.This way the technical limitations of the mobile devices can be ignored and the tables can become more realistic and ambitious.

If the game software was actually designed with potential digitisation in mind, there could be a lot more flexibility in this respect. They could reduce the emulation requirements quite a bit.

 

[The Night Flier]

If the game software was actually designed with potential digitisation in mind, there could be a lot more flexibility in this respect. They could reduce the emulation requirements quite a bit.

Sure that would help concerning the emulation of upcoming real Stern tables.But if in general mobile devices must be included as a foundation, as the lowest common denominator then those will always hold the final product back from what it could be.

 

[Espy]

Sure that would help concerning the emulation of upcoming real Stern tables.But if in general mobile devices must be included as a foundation, as the lowest common denominator then those will always hold the final product back from what it could be.

That's my point, though. You couldn't emulate a modern Stern on a mobile device, But if it was considered in the first place when designing the software, it might be possible.

 

[DokkenRokken]

I'm not into many of the newer Stern pinball tables, but regardless, this is GREAT news for Pinball overall.

In fact, I'd love to finally see some of the Stern tables that I actually do enjoy or/and really want to try out on TPA like "WPT", "Wheel of Fortune", "Monopoly", "Rollercoaster Tycoon", "AC/DC" & "Metallica". Beyond those, I haven't really enjoyed any of the other new tables. (POTC, X-Men, Family Guy, CSI, Iron Man, RBON, etc.)

They should start releasing their own digital tables, the future is in our mobile devices we carry around all day, that's where money can be made.

Meh, not entirely true. There's a lot of us that aren't into mobile games, and are more into consoles.

In fact, I honestly don't get the joy of major mobile/tablet games? I mean, I have games, but they're simple ones like "Solitaire" or "Connect Four". In every instance that I've played a REAL game on a mobile device, I've hated just about everything about it. In fact, I can't even imagine how awful it would be to play TPA on a phone.

Besides, the graphics are better on PC and consoles anyway....just seems pointless to me.

Sure that would help concerning the emulation of upcoming real Stern tables.But if in general mobile devices must be included as a foundation, as the lowest common denominator then those will always hold the final product back from what it could be.

Pretty much.

 

[Nightwing]

First - to stay on topic:

Anything that can promote pinball in a good way nowadays is a good thing. While I could see Stern doing their own pinball app - I would prefer that they continue to work with Farsight & TPA. We have all the major players under one banner & I'd like to see it stay that way. Having said that - for this to work in the way it is being discussed - you are going to have to leave the less powerful older systems behind. As an example - could an iPad Air handle a Stern S.A.M. emulator? That would be a good starting point to see if it is feasible.

Anyways,definitely something to keep an eye on...

Meh, not entirely true. There's a lot of us that aren't into mobile games, and are more into consoles.

In fact, I honestly don't get the joy of major mobile/tablet games? I mean, I have games, but they're simple ones like "Solitaire" or "Connect Four". In every instance that I've played a REAL game on a mobile device, I've hated just about everything about it. In fact, I can't even imagine how awful it would be to play TPA on a phone.

Besides, the graphics are better on PC and consoles anyway....just seems pointless to me.

Well,of course the graphics are better on PC & consoles - that is a given. I'll also say that playing TPA on a phone is not all that fun for me personally,simply because of how small it is. (I do have it on my Android though - so I can check out the beta stuff,which I've recently started to do.) So,like you my game selection on my phone is limited.

However - I think TPA is a blast to play on my iPad! It might not have all the bells & whistles of the in-home versions - but there is something to be said about portability. It's easy enough to play,much easier to see what you are doing,and a good time waster (and you can play single player,unlike Connect 4)

Maybe it is because of the long absence of TPA on the Xbox 360,which is where TPA started for me. But I don't plan on giving up my portable TPA anytime soon.

 

[mmmagnetic]

I would be pleasantly surprised if it meant any of the ones you mentioned (add Transformers, LOTRO, Batman, Star Trek to the list). But suspect it would be more along the lines of Big Buck Hunter, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sharkey's Shootout, Elvis, and Striker Extreme. Which wouldn't be all that bad either. But would kill to have a more recent game like AC/DC.

I actually understood it the other way round. From what I read, he meant that a TPA rendition of the actual table would be great advertisment for getting the real machine, and making it a more recent machine would make a lot more sense (ones that they are still selling).

Get the new table on your phone, play and learn it, then when you see a real machine in the wild, you already know how to play it.

The idea of a "virtual test drive" is great, and I´m glad that STERN actually gets it. I hope that we actually see some results of that idea!

 

[Richard B]

Pinball programs require an enormous amount of calculations to get accurate physics. It's not something that can just be thrown together - TPA has been around (in one form or another) almost a decade, and the engine still isn't perfect (though it is really close). If Stern decides to do an upstart, we'll end up having great tables with crappy physics.

I hope they got over their fear of "digital pinball will make them not want to buy or play the real table". I don't hear golf course managers complaining that the Tiger Woods line is making people not want to play on the real course. If anything, I play the tables on TPA or VP over ones I don't know as well.

 

[Kolchak357]

After reading the article and all the comments, I have two thoughts.

1) We've heard this before. I'll believe it when I see an AC/DC, Tron, or Spider-man appear in digital form. Enough talk, make it happen.

2) Sounds like Stern sees an opportunity to make some $. Maybe they are looking to get a bigger cut of the pie. Perhaps a Stern game/app. Although I fear the result would be a poorly slapped together game with abysmal physics.

 

[Kratos3]

I actually understood it the other way round. From what I read, he meant that a TPA rendition of the actual table would be great advertisment for getting the real machine, and making it a more recent machine would make a lot more sense (ones that they are still selling).

Get the new table on your phone, play and learn it, then when you see a real machine in the wild, you already know how to play it.

The idea of a "virtual test drive" is great, and I´m glad that STERN actually gets it. I hope that we actually see some results of that idea!

This is how I read it. TPA has helped to bring more awareness to pinball, and that's good for Stern.

 

[Rudy]

As far as I'm concerned, it's too little too late.

They had their chance to capitalise on Digital copies of their physical tables multiple times over the past few years but they always seemed to get cold feet when it came to actually doing anything. We've had only a handful of Sterns compared to all the Williams and Gottlieb tables, and it's not like everyone of them were 5* classics.

NOW with TPA probably in its last season or two they actually start getting involved more, even though by the time they actually do put the wheels in motion for such a game, TPA will probably not be releasing any more tables.

Gary Stern with his finger on the button as always.