TPA versus your average Real Life Machine

[Worf]

The arcades of today aren't terribly good - I went in on a friday afternoon during lunch and it was dead. There were maybe 3 people there, me, some guy raising his tournament skill on T2, and the attendant who was there to make change.

Quiet. And dimly lit. and still reeking of smoke (despite being non-smoking indoors for ages now). And the fact there appears to be un-walled off bathrooms at the back, which makes the arcade machiens there reek.

I miss the days when I put in way too many quarter just over a decade ago - busy arcade, but well maintained machines, and things were hopping. Sadly, it closed.

 

[xAzatothx]

got to play 7 different machines in my first tournament yesterday. Great fun despite only knowing the rule set to one of the tables. Nudging is obviously harder RT, mistakes more punishing and ball physics way more random. The tables were all in great condition.

Armchair pinball AKA TPA is definitely more relaxing

 

[Worf]

Yeah, I'm debating if I should even go back to the arcade - perhaps I'll try another one because they seem tuned for $$$ and not for fun... unless you're a rated player it seems. (If I were to rate myself, it's last).

 

[brakel]

But who has a setup to play TPA at a volume matching the arcades of yesterday, with dozens of machines in attract mode, blaring at full strength.

Me. The only thing I'm lacking are the sounds of the pins calling out to me. I have a pretty good sounding home theater and I crank the sound when I want to with appropriate bass to match the beat of Gorgar's heart from the arcade. But there's nothing quite like playing Medieval Madness at the Pinball Hall of Fame while hearing Rudy pathetically calling you from the other side of the room!

 

[SpiffyRob]

Me. The only thing I'm lacking are the sounds of the pins calling out to me. I have a pretty good sounding home theater and I crank the sound when I want to with appropriate bass to match the beat of Gorgar's heart from the arcade. But there's nothing quite like playing Medieval Madness at the Pinball Hall of Fame while hearing Rudy pathetically calling you from the other side of the room!

It's been mentioned in other threads, but definitely check out the Arcade Ambiance Project. It's basically just long tracks that recreate the sound of being in an arcade from a few different eras. I think only the '92 one has any pinball sound (FH, EATPM, BK2K) but all of them definitely add in some authenticity.

 

[monty22001]

I just got playing a bunch of Rolling Stones at a local theater, and they also had Big Game Hunter. On BGH, I just could't get anywhere. 1 multiball by accident. All fast games. I think they had it cranked up, the bubble was low, so high angle. Rolling Stones I got up over 10m on one game, but rest all over. I just can't stop hitting the posts. I could get 4 or 5 left ramps in a row amazingly, but the games seem to go to posts when your instinct is for flipping. Fun though.

 

[Slam23]

I'm from Holland and incredibly lucky to live at a 45 min drive from the clubhouse from the Dutch Pinball Association. When you are a member, you can play every last friday of the month, and sometimes a saturday in between. There they have about 90 machines of which a good portion are in good state and set up to play. TPA tables that are currently present, and most of them are set up to play:
TZ, AFM, STTNG, MM, TOTAN, MB, TOM, CFTBL, Black Knight, Scared Stiff, Elvira/Party Monsters and Black Hole
Short story: I suck way more on all of them, than on their TPA counterpart. For example Black Hole: just scored 7M+ on TPA, can't break 300.000 on the real life machine. I have 4.8B on TZ (TPA) and last Friday cleared 300M on the real machine, earning my first replay (which was set around 250M). I must say that I have limited real life pinball experience, the last period of intensive playing was way back in the 90's when I was in college. So maybe with more time I will get better, but I can't imagine ever getting near my TPA scores. I score even better on a lot of VP tables, I would rank TPA as more difficult in that regard, nudging is way more easy/liberal on VP than TPA (iPad version). I must say that when comparing tables overall TPA did a really good job of recreating the real tables. Some shots I learn on TPA I can use on the real machine (but not as repeatable because of the randomness of real tables). Some tables even "feel" like their counterpart in terms of bounciness, speed etc. But it all depends on how the real machine is set up and the level of maintenance. I already studied a lot of rulesheets when I was playing VP (http://pinball.org/rules/), this easily instantly can double your scores if you know what to go for. I really like the strategy posts here at the forums, they add to the rulesheets in general which often only explain the rules. It's great to have that many opportunities to play pinball, and with Timeshock Ultra in the wings, it only gets better!

 

[brakel]

It's been mentioned in other threads, but definitely check out the Arcade Ambiance Project. It's basically just long tracks that recreate the sound of being in an arcade from a few different eras. I think only the '92 one has any pinball sound (FH, EATPM, BK2K) but all of them definitely add in some authenticity.

I've seen people mention that but I have no way to mix in another sound source. I don't want to give up the sounds of TPA for ambient sounds. I'd like TPA to add ambient sounds for a 7.1 or 5.1 setup.

 

[fenderbendr]

I've seen people mention that but I have no way to mix in another sound source. I don't want to give up the sounds of TPA for ambient sounds. I'd like TPA to add ambient sounds for a 7.1 or 5.1 setup.

What about a small mixer? Last night, I was playing VP and mixed in the 1992 ambience sound with my little mixer and it added so much realism and made it feel like I was in an arcade playing pinball. Just a suggestion.

 

[brakel]

What about a small mixer? Last night, I was playing VP and mixed in the 1992 ambience sound with my little mixer and it added so much realism and made it feel like I was in an arcade playing pinball. Just a suggestion.

In the modern age of HDMI, where does the mixer fit in?

 

[fenderbendr]

In the modern age of HDMI, where does the mixer fit in?

Oh sorry, I thought you were playing it on an iOS device. If you were playing VP, that's a different story.

 

[SpiffyRob]

Probably a bit tougher to get a satisfactory experience if you're playing TPA's sound over a nice system, but a secondary source works well for me. It's not like I'm straining for perfect fidelity, so in my case, TPA goes out over my TV's speakers, and I pump the ambiance in through some old computer speakers hooked up to my phone.

 

[brakel]

Probably a bit tougher to get a satisfactory experience if you're playing TPA's sound over a nice system, but a secondary source works well for me. It's not like I'm straining for perfect fidelity, so in my case, TPA goes out over my TV's speakers, and I pump the ambiance in through some old computer speakers hooked up to my phone.

I could put the ambient sounds on an iPod and then put my iPod speaker dock on the floor behind my chair. That might create the intended effect.

 

[shutyertrap]

I had asked Norman about the sounds in the game (he being the sound guy). He said for the mobiles, they used a small sound packet, as there were space concerns that needed to be considered. Sorry mobile, one more area you are compromised in!

For the consoles, they don't have that issue, but the tables are still gonna be in mono, as that is what the sound file from the actual table is. It is possible to add a 'soundscape' to the programming, where basically the sounds of the table are then simulated as bouncing off your own walls in 5.1, but it's one of those things that currently would just bog FS down in getting the tables out on the schedule they currently have.