Zaccaria Pinball - Update v1.3

[Clawhammer]

It's awesome that GC support is now included, although I think there should be some stipulations- make it only for 3 ball simulation or something like that. I haven't even bought the 5 ball option yet... Also, on Hot Wheels, a clean shot to the spinner from the left flipper seems to fly into the right outlane. Otherwise, nice update.

 

[jhamdotme]

Great update. Here are a couple of things that I jotted down while playing with it:

- There’s still an unnecessary in-app restore button for gold members, even when the app already knows that you’ve bought a gold membership
- The end of bonus time always takes me by surprise. Yes, I know there’s a countdown, and a label that's telling us that we're in bonus time, but it still feels like we should get a sound effect here when it ends, or a lighting change, or something. I know this is subjective, but it doesn’t "feel" right here, for some reason. Is this how it works on the real tables?
- The end of game experience is still jarring. Instead of immediately exiting the table interface and showing iOS native input controls, I’d like to see the table's end sequence and enter in my initials like I would have on the actual table.
- It's still possible to invoke iOS "keyboard shortcuts" when entering your initials. These should be disabled in this text view, especially since we only have three characters to work with.
- The new default camera view in portrait mode is now much better on the iPhone 5. It's now possible to see the outlanes and make saves when necessary. But still, almost all of the other camera views are pretty unplayable. The ball moves faster than the camera, and you'll often have to guess where the ball is, and where your flippers are.
- In the table select screen, we're still teased with two pages full of tables that we can’t actually see. These other pages should at least be viewable, with a "coming soon" label attached. Otherwise, don't show us that there are other pages to see.
- Game Center's leaderboard limit is being dramatically increased soon, so in the future, we should get separate leaderboards for the different difficulty settings, and for different ball settings.
- There are lots of things to tweak now. It would be great if there was a way to export our settings, for sharing. This would work out nicely as a URL scheme. People here in this forum would be able to share their custom settings and figure out how to optimize the look and feel of each table.
- I’d still like to see per-table preferences.
- I like to hide the camera and settings icons. But these should reappear temporarily when you tap on these invisible buttons. Otherwise, you're left guessing about which camera you're using.


This game has really come a long way since its release, and the engine is now so much better than it used to be. I’d love to see some of these updates in some of the other A.S.K. collections. Zsolt, is that something that we can look forward to?

 

[norbert26]

Because it was a work night during the workweek my time with testing was limited due to late arrival of the update. So far i was pleased with it however the default arcade settings did require a change to custom. In default the ball was flying too fast as if the table was waxed so i had to reduce table incline . Also it seems different tables could benefit from the ability to set custom settings for each table rather then custom be the same for all. setting i tweeked for locomotion were not that good on time machine. Another thing that would is the ability to decide if you want to save a score or not. I don't need scores being saved while i was testing / tweeking custom settings. Also i am stuck with local scores from the old engine with no way i see to clear them and start over once settings are tweeked . I could not find the setting for lock in portrait / landscape mode. I find portrait is best for this APP. As mentioned by another poster above hiding the camera and settings icons would be nice and so would fixing the jarring abrupt game end. Also some warning when time expires on the bonus so i don't keep trying to get flippers they die unless you keep your eye on the countdown timer . The cam settings are mind boggling and i won't dare touch those. There should be a reset to default in there in case that accidently gets messed up . On hotwheels when the ball goes in the right outlane it just disappears. I would like to see a proper exit of the ball rolling behind the flippers into the outhole proper as you would on a real life table. This may be an issue on a few other tables as well .

 

[norbert26]

update: i found the lock screen setting in graphics. its backwards landscape locks portrait and portrait locks landscape. i worked on settings tweeks got that working good. ran into a bug on call attendant. the ball got stuck on time machine in the top play field i called attendant and ball was lost and went to next ball. I will test further tonight after work .

 

[dagwood]

Massive improvements over v1.2, feels good to play Zpin again but damn, that swipe nudge is a real annoyance. I think I'll stick with playing these ZZZ tables in the iCade until Zsolt and his team put a switch in the menu to disable swipe nudge. Oh yeah I also confirm the lock orientation works in the opposite direction

To the guy above who asked about a warning before the bonus countdown expires... This is exactly how it was in the original machines, they didn't give any warning. I know this from having played the Clown table a couple of years ago.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Good update.

What do you guys think about the way the flippers move from ball impact? Seems a bit overdone to me.

 

[night]

Good update.

What do you guys think about the way the flippers move from ball impact? Seems a bit overdone to me.

You mean the flipper bounche? I really like it! Why is this overdone?

 

[Jeff Strong]

You mean the flipper bounche? I really like it! Why is this overdone?

Not the bounce of the ball off the flipper rubber, but the way the flipper itself actually moves when the ball hits it.

 

[pcraenme]

The flippers are not working properly in the new version on an iCade Core. When the buttons are pressed the flippers go up and immediately down again. When you hold the buttons down, the flippers also won't stay up. This worked fine in the previous version and also iCade is working fine on other games like The Pinball Arcade. The game is unplayable now on an iCade.

 

[night]

Not the bounce of the ball off the flipper rubber, but the way the flipper itself actually moves when the ball hits it.

Yes, this. I think it's very well done. It only happens when there is a bigger ball 'impact'.

 

[night]

I am tuning the graphics settings per table. It seems to remember the individual graphics settings, but it does not remember the scratched table texture. I think this 'destroyed look' works great on Hot Wheels, but I don't want this on Pinball Champ for example (which has such a nice playfield artwork). It should remember all settings per table.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Yes, this. I think it's very well done. It only happens when there is a bigger ball 'impact'.

Yeah, but it seems to happen a lot more and to a geater degree than a real pinball machine.

 

[norbert26]

To the guy above who asked about a warning before the bonus countdown expires... This is exactly how it was in the original machines, they didn't give any warning. I know this from having played the Clown table a couple of years ago.

OK on a real life machine if the flippers cut off i am only pushing buttons made for this purpose. In the case iPhones and iPads in most cases we are pressing on the touch screen. When flippers cut out without warning i out of habit will push harder thinking i did not push hard enough. Wear and tear on the screens is something to think about . Right now i watch my ball counter and countdown timer on bonus time to work around this but i get caught off guard once in a while . Maybe something as simple as knock the lights off on the table or something to show the time has ended. I know its not in line with the real machine but just to adapt to the touch screen situation . A on off toggle could even be in settings to disable this for those using icade or such.

 

[sotie]

The flippers are not working properly in the new version on an iCade Core. When the buttons are pressed the flippers go up and immediately down again. When you hold the buttons down, the flippers also won't stay up. This worked fine in the previous version and also iCade is working fine on other games like The Pinball Arcade. The game is unplayable now on an iCade.

Yes, flipper action for iCade is broken and unplayable in the latest update.

 

[Vinc3Has3]

Love the update! There's a solidity and weight to the ball that was lacking with the old physics. I haven't really tinkered with the physics settings, yet, because they're pretty darn solid. If anyone has some preferred adjustments, please share them!

I even LIKE the swiping nudge, as I don't really swipe, but simply move the thumb a little left or right while I'm using the flipper. Seems to work well to me, but I'm not a power player, so I defer to the opinions of the more studied users...

 

[dagwood]

I see what you mean Norbert, my iPad has permanent surface scouring from where my thumbs hit the flippers - I play hard on it like a real pinball. Another reason why I don't like this swipe nudge business

 

[Dylan_h]

Is anyone else having trouble putting scores up for Devil Riders?
My 14 million score was there for an hour or 2 and then vanished from the Game Center leader boards and it keeps going back to not played.
All my other top scores have stayed.

 

[sotie]

I see what you mean Norbert, my iPad has permanent surface scouring from where my thumbs hit the flippers - I play hard on it like a real pinball. Another reason why I don't like this swipe nudge business

The iPad screen has a layer of oleophobic coating which can be degraded with repeated use (usually skin oils are the cause). All the iPad's in my home have screen protectors on them. High quality screen protectors now can be found with their own oleophobic coating. If that wears away it's a lot cheaper to purchase a new protector rather have have a new iPad screen installed.

 

[Dylan_h]

And now my Farfalla score has disappeared.

 

[Patrick]

I am really surprised to see this post here but it is a good news. I have bought the entire game for 32€ (or something like this) because I am really impressed by the atmosphere given by this game. Light managment is really nice, night mod excellent. Technically it is a really really good job. My only disapointment comes from the ball physics. Not really precise for me. The best pinball physics I have tested are in The pinball arcade and I am not really satisfied with the Zaccaria physics.
I prefer to be honest...
But sure that you have done a brillant work for the visual effects. I dream of this quality on every tables of TPA. (Even if the pro pinball demo is certainly the best thing I have ever seen but impossible to do with all the tables of TPA, too much work I think)
Thank you for your post.