What is the most overrated table in TPA?

[Tabe]

As far as tables that have been put in The Pinball Arcade that are highly esteemed that I don't understand why they are as such, the first one that comes to mind is FunHouse. Rudy is creepy (though I'm sure that's intentional), Rudy shots are hard because it's difficult to see the ball traveling down the left orbit, I find myself constantly shooting things that send the ball to the lower scoop (this goes for the real thing too) so all I'm doing is holding the right flipper half the time, once 11:30 hits the game forces you to do just one shot and one shot only, and I am absolutely lousy at it. I struggle to even reach 3 million points sometimes, yet people say this is a really easy table.

Funhouse is far and away my favorite pin of all-time. I love everything about it. That said, the TPA implementation IS too easy. And I don't say that about ANY of the tables in TPA. The entire game is built around two shots - the mirror and the hidden hallway. The mirror is easy - shoot from the left flipper off the super dog targets and into the mirror. With a tiny bit of practice, that shot becomes very easy. The hidden hallway is almost as easy from the left flipper. Both shots are easy to setup since all you have to do is somehow get the ball into the kickout above the right sling. Then do a dead pass to the left flipper, trap, shoot.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

The lady in TOM and CV sounds like the same person.

She's also the female genie in Tales of the Arabian Nights.

I grew up watching lots and lots of cartoons and have never stopped watching them in large quantities. I'm accustomed to actors with a ton of range like Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tabitha St. Germain, and Grey Delisle. Over time, I became rather good at identifying actors with some exceptions, such as those four. For Popadiuk's tables, I could hear one female voice and about two or three male voices.

Sounds that way to me. The voice actors of TotAN and Cirqus Voltaire are known and there isn't a person in common at first glance. However, to my ears it sounds to me like a couple of the voice actors are the same between CV and Theater of Magic. Unfortunately there's no credit sheet for ToM that I'm aware of...

Unrelated, I found an interview with Tim Kitzrow; I guess he's more known for his sports video game callouts, but it's interesting to find out he's done voice work for *tons* of pinball games, including at least three in Pinball Arcade: Junkyard, Attack From Mars, and the "Rod Serling" in Twilight Zone. So reusing a voice actor is a pretty common thing I guess.

Just because there are different names doesn't mean they're different people. Actors will commonly use pseudonyms for many reasons (usually related to unions, privacy, or personal reasons). If you see an actor with only one role or a role with certain themes, that is pretty likely a pseudonym.

Once a voice actor has a relationship with a company, it becomes much easier to bring them back for another role, hence why you see some voice actors tied to companies that wouldn't really have contracts.

 

[Zorgwon]

She's also the female genie in Tales of the Arabian Nights.

Just because there are different names doesn't mean they're different people. Actors will commonly use pseudonyms for many reasons (usually related to unions, privacy, or personal reasons). If you see an actor with only one role or a role with certain themes, that is pretty likely a pseudonym.

Why should pinball credits lie!? Actors usually use always the same name even if it's not their birth name. And you lack any evidence for your claims.

For me they sound all different.

 

[soundwave106]

Just because there are different names doesn't mean they're different people. Actors will commonly use pseudonyms for many reasons (usually related to unions, privacy, or personal reasons). If you see an actor with only one role or a role with certain themes, that is pretty likely a pseudonym.

Yes, perhaps that is possible with the male Genie ("Tom Udan") as I can't find any reference.

Three of the voice talent though was easy to Google. Lia Mortensen is listed as the "good" Genie named Dimira. She has another confirmed pinball credit -- the voice of "The Machine" for Bride of Pinbot. You can find her voice work promo clips here.

(The narrator in TotAM, Peter Van De Graaf, is a noted Chicago classical radio host! And the bazaar guy, well, Louis Koziarz is one of the software designers. )

Of the Google-able voices in CV, Cathy Schenkelberg in CV (the main lady I imagine) is listed in a voiceover agency website. That site here actually confirms *she* is the Theater of Magic lady -- under "Character" there is a bit of her saying "vanquish the chains!".

Mark Maclean also has a web site and a fairly wide range of voices. In addition to CV, he's also in the Cactus Canyon pin. I can't find any clips to confirm whether he's the main guy in both ToM and CV, but I suspect so, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was in several other pins of that era (for instance, his Dracula type impersonations and the Monster Bash Dracula sound *awfully* similar).

 

[speedfreakz]

*runs fast and steals Espy's riot shield, hoping that it will protect him from*

Black Knight 2000

Blasphemer! Lynch the infidel!

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

All right then. They just sounded awfully familiar, especially the lady in Theatre of Magic and Cirqus Voltaire with that raspy, whispery voice. The way the female genie delivers her lines in Tales of the Arabian Nights was done in almost the exact same way.

The male voices are a lot harder to ascertain. I had guessed that there was not one single male actor Popadiuk turned to but that there must have been at least one in common between Theatre of Magic and Cirqus Voltaire.

Why should pinball credits lie!? Actors usually use always the same name even if it's not their birth name. And you lack any evidence for your claims.

For me they sound all different.

I'll name you one example: Steven Jay Blum is also David Lucas. He uses his real name (Steve Blum) for non-union work as he began in that way, but when he started doing union work, he went by David Lucas to avoid getting in trouble with the union. While Blum didn't bother to make himself sound different, the idea was that there was no easily obtainable evidence that "David Lucas" was simply a pseudonym.

I'll name you another example: Ted Lewis was a voice ator contracted by 4Kids Entertainment, doing roles for the Engish dubs of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and such. That is, family entertainment. However, he got the starring role in the not-family-friendly-at-all series Now and Then, Here and There, and he chose the name "Ed Paul" to minimize the effects this had on his kid-friendly reputation.

Go ahead and look up David Lucas (as a voice actor) and Ed Paul (again, as a voice actor) yourself. You will likely get a redirect to the real actor.

 

[Espy]

All right then. They just sounded awfully familiar, especially the lady in Theatre of Magic and Cirqus Voltaire with that raspy, whispery voice. The way the female genie delivers her lines in Tales of the Arabian Nights was done in almost the exact same way.

The male voices are a lot harder to ascertain. I had guessed that there was not one single male actor Popadiuk turned to but that there must have been at least one in common between Theatre of Magic and Cirqus Voltaire.



I'll name you one example: Steven Jay Blum is also David Lucas. He uses his real name (Steve Blum) for non-union work as he began in that way, but when he started doing union work, he went by David Lucas to avoid getting in trouble with the union. While Blum didn't bother to make himself sound different, the idea was that there was no easily obtainable evidence that "David Lucas" was simply a pseudonym.

I'll name you another example: Ted Lewis was a voice ator contracted by 4Kids Entertainment, doing roles for the Engish dubs of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and such. That is, family entertainment. However, he got the starring role in the not-family-friendly-at-all series Now and Then, Here and There, and he chose the name "Ed Paul" to minimize the effects this had on his kid-friendly reputation.

Go ahead and look up David Lucas (as a voice actor) and Ed Paul (again, as a voice actor) yourself. You will likely get a redirect to the real actor.

Bryan Cranston did some voice acting work before he was famous under the name Lee Stone. It's very common for voice acting. I'd imagine less common for real acting as it's fairly obvious if it's the same actor!

 

[Kratos3]

Who's the most overrated voiceover actor?

 

[Mark W**a]

T'eed Off, Haunted House , and Class of 1812 were hyped up on this forum.

So I actually had good expectations because of that. Haunted House I can understand, it's definitely a classic but IMO it and Black Hole are not as good as offerings from the other 3 big manufacturers of the time. Space Shuttle, Centaur, Flight 2000 to name a few, are tables I often come back to, but I rarely play Black Hole or Haunted House. I certainly respect that they are unique, cool tables though.

Teed Off on the other hand is trash. It's better than Cue Ball Wizard though, I'll give it that. That's my pick for most overrated. Class of 1812 is ok. I like quirky themes and the shots feel satisfying. It's not bad.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Who's the most overrated voiceover actor?

Vic Mignogna. If you're talking about pinball, I have no idea because the machines don't list voice credits the way movies and TV shows do.

 

[Kratos3]

Vic Mignogna. If you're talking about pinball, I have no idea because the machines don't list voice credits the way movies and TV shows do.

Who does he do?

 

[DokkenRokken]

Centaur.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Who does he do?

Here is his Internet Movie Database profile. He's a good voice actor and a good singer, but for some reason, he gets hundreds of girls squeeing over him at every convention he goes to.

 

[Espy]

Here is his Internet Movie Database profile. He's a good voice actor and a good singer, but for some reason, he gets hundreds of girls squeeing over him at every convention he goes to.

He gets Edward Elric spot on, I wouldn't have that voice any other way. But I suppose having that kind of huge character to your name would inspire a lot of fangirls.

 

[kinggo]

Centaur.

why? Because it's missing a helicopter.
The only problem with Centaur is that it's impossible to recreate the artwork in digital form that will look close to the real thing.

 

[Raven]

I'd have to say Star Trek to be honest. I'm sure I'll catch a lot of grief for this! But I played the real table years ago in Ocean City MD on the boardwalk and wasn't a big fan. And I'm still not playing on TPA. I just doesn't flow very well, the outlanes are a *****, and I'm just not a big fan of games that use "cannon" type shots (kinda like T2). Maybe I just suck at them, but they always seem to be more luck based than skill. And I remember on the real table, that the 2 big plastic guns near the flippers were so big that it was hard to see the ball as it headed towards the outlanes...made it very difficult to tell if a nudge was necessary or not. They don't seem to visually be in the way as much on TPA, but I'm still not a huge fan of this table. The music is great of course though....

 

[kinggo]

They don't seem to visually be in the way as much on TPA

well, they are. I can't believe that is even worst IRL.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Frankly whenever a ball goes anywhere near the outlanes on ST:TNG, I give it up for lost. They're the hungriest outlanes in the history of pinball, as far as I'm concerned, and the lack of a rubber post at the top plus the fact that the tops of the lane dividers is set pretty deep makes it darned near impossible to nudge clear.

I really could care less if they're obscured by the cannons or not.

The ST:TNG in the East Slope bar at Sussex Uni was perhaps the most abused pin I've ever seen. The tilt sensor was broken, I'm sure you can fill in the rest.

 

[DokkenRokken]

why? Because it's missing a helicopter.
The only problem with Centaur is that it's impossible to recreate the artwork in digital form that will look close to the real thing.

(...it's always gotta be a DMD or toy insult. lol Don't you guys have a better defense when someone doesn't like a table you like?)

No, because the music is annoying, and the gameplay is garbage. lol

I also don't hold table art as ridiculously high as most everyone here, as I personally couldn't care less about that. It's all about gameplay to me, and "Centaur" is pretty boring. I know most of you guys hold "Gorgar" in high regard as well...ugh. I was thrilled to finally be done with the Wizard goals for both of those tables, that way I'd never have to play them again.

 

[Eaton Beaver]

I tend to agree with DokkenRokken about older tables like Centaur, Gorgar or Firepower. I don't play them often they are not go to tables for me. But I understand their importance in pinball and I am glad they are included in the collection.