Williams Pinball Hall of Fame PS3

[Zevious Zoquis]

I popped this game in the PS3 the other night and started playing and man, this still holds up well. A few of these table are among the best digital versions of real tables I've ever played....

 

[Kaibun]

Well no wonder, it's pretty much a prototype version Pinball Arcade, it even shares the same tables.

I think the main difference is how the tables were coded from scratch into the game, instead of being emulated.

 

[Zevious Zoquis]

Well no wonder, it's pretty much a prototype version Pinball Arcade, it even shares the same tables.

I think the main difference is how the tables were coded from scratch into the game, instead of being emulated.

Oh yeah I'm aware it's basically the same devs as TPA. I'm just surprised at how well it holds up...in a way I think some of the tables play at least as well as the new ones...

 

[ScotchYeti]

Oh yeah I'm aware it's basically the same devs as TPA. I'm just surprised at how well it holds up...in a way I think some of the tables play at least as well as the new ones...

Do you think so? I was a huge fan before TPA was released and played it on the PS3 and on the PSP. After the release of TPA I only started it once or twice (this was the time before NGG was available) but boy, what a difference. The new tables are far superior and feel more natural.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I remember seeing this game for the first time in the summer of 2008, and got it for the Wii console a few months later. As soon as I saw it, I got hooked back into pinball.

 

[Zevious Zoquis]

Do you think so? I was a huge fan before TPA was released and played it on the PS3 and on the PSP. After the release of TPA I only started it once or twice (this was the time before NGG was available) but boy, what a difference. The new tables are far superior and feel more natural.

I think Taxi in WPHOF is excellent...Whirlwind too. There's tons of "oddness" about the game in terms of user interface though. Really strange the way they change buttons for progressing through the menus.

 

[Epsilon]

That game was the beginning of my revival of interest in video pinball. I had dabbled a LOT with Visual Pinball over the prior years but ultimately the uneven quality and lack of consistency among many of the tables kind of wore on me, and it was really exciting to have a "legit" commercial product to get my pinball fix. I started with the Wii version, which was nice despite the low resolution. Then the PS3 version come along and showed the viability of more modern tables like Medieval Madness and Tales of the Arabian Nights, which was also exciting. I remember fantasizing that they would release a la carte new tables as DLC as expansions (which actually would have been really neat with the "virtual arcade" interface, seeing new machines pop up in the environment, etc.)

I had little hopes for DLC actually happening in that game, so imagine my happy surprise when they announced TPA and it became clear that they were going to do exactly what I had thought was not a likely proposition. For all of the minor issues that remain, I still scroll through the list of tables in TPA and marvel at just how far the product has come and how good we have it now as video pinball enthusiasts. I just hope they can keep it up until almost all of the tables anyone really cares about are included.

 

[brakel]

The tables on Hall seem really floaty to me compared to TPA like in real life if you reduce the angle of the table. The rule sets and sounds are also off on most tables. One of the FarSight guys was telling me that the rule set was off for one of the tables on Hall so much that they started referring to it as "version 2". But it's still fun to play from time to time. My daughter and I get it out maybe once a year just for fun.

 

[Tann]

And the sound quality is much better in WPHOF, especially on ToTAN.

In TPA, the sound seems poorly compressed in 96kbps mp3 quality.

 

[rehtroboi40]

And the sound quality is much better in WPHOF, especially on ToTAN.

In TPA, the sound seems poorly compressed in 96kbps mp3 quality.

When I first got TPA on the 360 in April of 2012, the sound quality was great. After the DLC update in May 2015, sound quality on the 360 version took a serious dive.

What is so amazing to me is that there are evidently still issues with the PS4 sound more than two years after release on that system.

 

[brakel]

For the PS4 FarSight said that they accidentally loaded the mobile version of the sound. I don't know if that's been fixed or if they are at least loading the new tables with better sound quality. I don't think there is a better version of the crappy startup music. Either way I don't hear any difference between the PS3 and PS4 sounds. Maybe my Maggies make them both sound better or maybe I'm too busy trying to keep that silver ball from going SDtM. I do occasionally play TPA on my tablet with an HDMI cable connected to my home theater and the sound from the tablet version sounds pretty bad.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

For the PS4 FarSight said that they accidentally loaded the mobile version of the sound. I don't know if that's been fixed or if they are at least loading the new tables with better sound quality. I don't think there is a better version of the crappy startup music. Either way I don't hear any difference between the PS3 and PS4 sounds. Maybe my Maggies make them both sound better or maybe I'm too busy trying to keep that silver ball from going SDtM. I do occasionally play TPA on my tablet with an HDMI cable connected to my home theater and the sound from the tablet version sounds pretty bad.

DX11 is like this as well for most of the earlier tables (Bride of Pin*Bot, Central Park, Cirqus Voltaire, Firepower, FunHouse, Genie, Gorgar, No Good Gofers, Ripley's, Scared Stiff, Theatre of Magic, and TotAN). Not sure if there are anymore affected games.

 

[ScotchYeti]

Too bad that FS must use the original music from the ROMs. A little bit of tweaking would do wonders and greatly enhance the overall experience.

 

[Re-Animator]

Too bad that FS must use the original music from the ROMs. A little bit of tweaking would do wonders and greatly enhance the overall experience.

Why do they must use the sound roms?
They can detect a sample is started by the soundchip, and then play a new better quality version of the same sample...
I know technical this is possible, it is not even that difficult.. i have written an emulator (BFMulator) myself and implemented this.

 

[ScotchYeti]

They have even extracted the sounds, as far as I know. Pimping them to achieve a better quality should be a no-brainer. Alas, something is holding them back...license contracts maybe.

 

[brakel]

Why do they must use the sound roms?
They can detect a sample is started by the soundchip, and then play a new better quality version of the same sample...
I know technical this is possible, it is not even that difficult.. i have written an emulator (BFMulator) myself and implemented this.

Their contracts require them to produce the tables as close as technically possible to the original production table as they can. They've had to go back and remove some items because the physical table they were using to copy from had some kind of mod installed. On Twilight Zone it was a post near the left outside drain that was positioned differently than the production machine.

 

[tenparts]

When are we getting Jive Time, anyway?

I think if they try to upgrade the sounds, they oughta go all the way to the dark side: 7-digit hacks, AN to DMD replacements, color DMDs, etc. All should be optional and non-default, as options are great and I feel like the contracts would let them do that.