Table Pack 20 Announced! Cue Ball Wizard™ and El Dorado City of Gold™

[netizen]

I'm excited for El Dorado (I can't wait till people say they have ED on the forums, this is going to be fun), as I've never played it ever, and love a good EM anyway. As much as I love a 90s DMD, i can't help but feel that an EM machine IS pinball, pure pinball.

It's not an EM ... it is Eldorado: City of Gold the 1984 System 80A remake of the same layout as Eldorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, Canada Dry, Target Alpha, and Solar City.

 

[Ark Malmeida]

There was a nice video posted at VPF today of the designer Jon Norris giving a small tour of the Gottlieb factory and he plays Cue Ball Wizard. Its about 45 mins and a great watch.
http://www.vpforums.org/index.php?showtopic=25953#entry244428

That Gladiator game that he plays for a good while in the video looks great too. Don't remember seeing that one in the Gottlieb poll.

 

[Jeff Strong]

It's not an EM ... it is Eldorado: City of Gold the 1984 System 80A remake of the same layout as Eldorado, Gold Strike, Lucky Strike, Canada Dry, Target Alpha, and Solar City.

...which means it might as well be an EM

 

[netizen]

...which means it might as well be an EM

Sure, why not. This is truly EMulated then?

 

[jaredmorgs]

Look, both tables are fun. Give them a go.

Don't let others cloud your own taste and judgement.

 

[Nightwing]

Looking forward to El Dorado. CBW is okay,but I'd rather have EBD.
Either way,I'll get the pack - and Season 3 will be full of surprises!

 

[superballs]

Yeah i found out it's a numeric SS. But still may as well be an EM.

 

[Chris Dunman]

you miserable lot, i'm sure these will be fun, and easily worth the £3 or so they will cost, ie less than the price of a pint of beer, and you can play them forever after paying just once. reading those facebook comments was just depressing, i don't understand why people can be so negative if they truly love pinball - maybe that's it, maybe they're just not pinball people, but gamers who stumbled on this app, and expect every game to be a 90s DMD classic.

i prefer the DMD games too, but for the price, these are fantastic. assuming you don't live near PAPA or similar HQ, where else are you gonna go play a Cue Ball Wizard or an El Dorado, in 2013? i look forward to these, i'll buy them on day 1, and even if they turn out to be less fun than some other titles, they're still pinball.

also, if they only released titles from the top 100, their sales would just peter out after a couple of years, and i'd like to think they'll still be churning out games 5-10 years from now.

Dan Dan the Pinball man hits the nail on the head. It's less than the price of a pint.

Never played either of these before, neither look particularly interesting on vids that I've seen but I'll still autobuy and give them a go

 

[Storm Chaser]

Seigh...the third double-Gottlieb release in a row! Gottlieb tables sometimes may look fun when you see them and I always get a bit excited about the graphics and such but when you start playing, it's always a mix of annoying bounces, no control, complicated and weird rule-sets, difficult to understand where to shoot and no efforts made on one ball will pass over to the next.

I am so addicted to this game I will probably buy this pack anyway but it is so bloody annoying that they continue to deliver this crap to us. People are saying "You need to support FS in order for new, better games to come" but I say that they need to deliver a product that people will buy. Gottlieb was, in the end, a sub-standard manufacturer that would not provide the tables people wanted to play and finally went bankrupt (as far as I understand). If FS takes on a mission to deliver Gottlieb tables, it's like following the exact same pathway.

I don't care about the price. It's the waiting that annoys me. Another month of Gottliebs means another month of waiting for good tables, I would gladly pay twice the price for fun tables to play...

 

[Rudy]

After being a little apprehensive about Cue Ball Wizard I gave it a try and I'm having a heap of fun with it. I guess that's the whole deal with Gottliebs, they don't LOOK fun but play pretty well.

El Dorado is a little disappointing mind, the table layout SHOULD be fun, but the art style is confusing (almost invisible rubbers) and the sound effects are a little primitive but I said the same about Genie and ended up LOVING it.

So yeah, a decent pack. Cue Ball Wizard is certainly going to go into heavy rotation, and El Dorado is just a bonus.

 

[Storm Chaser]

I guess that's the whole deal with Gottliebs, they don't LOOK fun but play pretty well.

Kinda funny, but I am of the complete opposite opinion. I think Gottliebs lack the fundamental "play flow" that is so important in pinball. A good example of that is the skill shot on Class of 1812. It takes about 20 seconds from launch until it is playable again if you hit the skill shot. That plus there are hardly any "build-ups" towards major targets (with Tee'd off as an exception). It's like watching a decent movie with a manuscript that been through a shredder.

 

[Kolchak357]

Yeah i found out it's a numeric SS. But still may as well be an EM.

It looks and plays like one as long as you ignore the digital display.

 

[Fungi]

I kinda wish they had gone with one of the EM versions. I like EM sounds. The sounds in this version of El Dorado are cheesy and annoying.

Unless of course, the ruleset is different. Then I'd rather it be this version, as I'm generally not a fan of EM rules. Are the rules different btw? Anybody know?

 

[superballs]

Seigh...the third double-Gottlieb release in a row! Gottlieb tables sometimes may look fun when you see them and I always get a bit excited about the graphics and such but when you start playing, it's always a mix of annoying bounces, no control, complicated and weird rule-sets, difficult to understand where to shoot and no efforts made on one ball will pass over to the next.

I am so addicted to this game I will probably buy this pack anyway but it is so bloody annoying that they continue to deliver this crap to us. People are saying "You need to support FS in order for new, better games to come" but I say that they need to deliver a product that people will buy. Gottlieb was, in the end, a sub-standard manufacturer that would not provide the tables people wanted to play and finally went bankrupt (as far as I understand). If FS takes on a mission to deliver Gottlieb tables, it's like following the exact same pathway.

I don't care about the price. It's the waiting that annoys me. Another month of Gottliebs means another month of waiting for good tables, I would gladly pay twice the price for fun tables to play...

I seem to recall Bally/Williams closing the pinball division. Must have been because of the droves of pinball players dropping mad cash in their machines.
And please, provide some sales figures to show that their sales are hurting.

I'm pretty sure that if the first and second all Gottlieb packs had sold almost no copies, FS would have changed the pattern up a bit. We have so many Williams tables and nobody complains, it's nice to see some more Gottliebs. But yes, we need more Sterns as they are being sorely underrepresented at this point.

I kinda wish they had gone with one of the EM versions. I like EM sounds. The sounds in this version of El Dorado are cheesy and annoying.

Unless of course, the ruleset is different. Then I'd rather it be this version, as I'm generally not a fan of EM rules. Are the rules different btw? Anybody know?

I agree with the sounds, I don't think they add anything to the gameplay in this table and I think tri-chimes would have been much more pleasant.

 

[DanBradford]

Sterns aren't as unrepresented as Data Easts / Segas, and there are plenty of good titles to be found amongst the turkeys in that pile:

here's just the DEs:

Laser War (1987)
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1993)
Back to the Future: The Pinball (1990)
Batman (1991)
Checkpoint (1991)
Guns N' Roses (1994)
Hook (1992)
Jurassic Park (1993)
King Kong (1990)
Last Action Hero (1993)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
Maverick (1994)
RoboCop (1990)
Secret Service (1988)
The Simpsons (1990)
Star Trek (1991)
Star Wars (Data East) (1992)
Tales from the Crypt (1993)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1991)
Time Machine (1988)
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard (1994)
WWF Royal Rumble (1994)

 

[shutyertrap]

Sterns aren't as unrepresented as Data Easts / Segas, and there are plenty of good titles to be found amongst the turkeys in that pile:

here's just the DEs:

But 18 out of 22 would require a license that might need a kickstarter. And if we're gonna pay for licenses, I'll take those that Williams and Bally require!

 

[deadkat37]

I'm not familiar with CBW so will keep an open mind, but I have never been a big fan of Gottlieb tables...

So far, I have bought every TPA release without a second thought, but please Farsight give the "Gottlieb only" table packs a rest and move on to some Williams / Bally combinations!!

 

[netizen]

How many more posts need to be made with "Gah, I hate Gottlieb table packs. I won't support pinball arcade because they won't take my suggestion into consideration!! If they don't change, I will not buy any more table packs until ... <insert vague threat here>"??

2, 5, 10?

 

[Espy]

How many more posts need to be made with "Gah, I hate Gottlieb table packs. I won't support pinball arcade because they won't take my suggestion into consideration!! If they don't change, I will not buy any more table packs until ... <insert vague threat here>"??

2, 5, 10?

Until there's something new to complain about. We've moved past PinkGate, we're currently riding the storm of GottliebGate... what's next, I wonder?

 

[netizen]

Until there's something new to complain about. We've moved past PinkGate, we're currently riding the storm of GottliebGate... what's next, I wonder?

The building wave of "I want higher textures"? or "Why's my iPad not in HD"?