TPA Topics #1: How Would You Have Kicked Things Off?

[PinballLizard (Mark Wyda)]

For all the stumbles FarSight have made during TPA's tenure, their starter pack lineup has held up surprisingly well. However, I must have been the cat curiosity killed in a past life, as I can never leave these matters well enough alone, so what would you all have done differently for TPA's launch lineup? Here's my take:

1) Why did FarSight go with RBION for its Stern rep? That seems a bit too complicated for a starter table to me. Personally, I would have gone with either High Roller Casino or Monopoly, though Sharkey's Shootout could have proven an interesting dark horse pick.

2) If Black Hole couldn't be emulated, then an EM would have been the way to go. For my money, Big Shot would have been my pick, but there's certainly no shortage of quality '70s EMs from Gottlieb from which to choose.

3) On the Bally/Williams side of things, I would most likely have stuck with ToTAN, but ToM always left me a bit cold. Not only is it a second Popadiuk, but IMO, it's the weaker of the two. Given my druthers, this slot probably would have gone to either Indianapolis 500 or W?D, but I'm open to suggestions for other picks.

Well, I've about said my piece–how, if at all, would you guys have changed TPA's Core Pack?

1): Personally I think RbioN was a great choice for launch. At the time it was unclear whether we would ever get Twilight Zone or Addams Family, so to start us off with one of Pat Lawlor's finest was a great way to kick off pinball arcade. That was a great way to start things.

2) Agree totally there. It's a shame they didn't wait out early SS emulation, because as it stands we still don't have emulation on BK, BH, FP, or Gorgar. They should have waited, and now we don't know if we'll ever have those emulated, which is a real shame.

3) Agree totally. It was kind of a Popadiuk overload, especially considering CV came as the second DLC pack. His tables are great but they should have been spread further apart.

The only complaint I have about how pinball arcade has been handled so far is balance. Season 1 and 2 both should have had more Sterns, season 1 should have had more Gottliebs, and some of the tables (namely Victory and Going Nuts) should have been left out altogether.

Oh and when Farsight said they picked Cue Ball Wizard to do over Eight Ball Deluxe because they thought it was a better table, I pretty much died .

 

[soundwave106]

Oh and when Farsight said they picked Cue Ball Wizard to do over Eight Ball Deluxe because they thought it was a better table, I pretty much died .

I'm guessing the bias against older pins (something that is much more visible on the TPA Facebook feed) had something to do with this. (Of course, there's also a bias against Gottliebs there too. )

Probably the only reason Goin' Nuts and Victory was included, was because they were in the Gottlieb Hall of Fame. That was their first pinball product, if I recall. I can see why Victory made the cut in Gottlieb Hall of Fame (they probably wanted a representative pin from the late 80s, and late 80s Gottlieb doesn't have a lot of stellar choices). But Goin' Nuts was a very, very oddball choice from them. Would've rather seen Sorcerer ported over myself.

Theater of Magic is a great pin. Emulation wise it doesn't feel quite as solid as some of TPA's other offerings, though, which is unfortunate.

 

[vikingerik]

Goin Nuts feels like it was someone's pet project, that knew the table existed only as a prototype and wanted to get it into mass production. And a hook to sell Gottlieb HOF - "here's a lost Gottlieb table you never heard of." Agreed that it's included in TPA certainly only because it already existed from Gottlieb HOF.