Zaccaria Pinball

[Kolchak357]

Indeed Heretic, the night mode is very nice. It could use more balance, Time Machine needs more light in the centre playfield, a tad too dark, Devil Riders is too dark in the back. As a graphic artist myself my head is in this stuff all day and night, I have to accept someone else is behind the controls and not me. At least I am not loosing my cool on Zaccaria as I do on TPA. ASK does a great job so far on the graphics and I hope they keep this consistent quality till the last table. In the meantime I just post some suggestions from the sidelines for what's worth it. Even though how hard you work on a project it is always good to have objective fresh eyes looking at your work. So far, besides the physics there is very little to complain. I bet that after the update there will be some more fine-tuning to do, but nothing is perfect from the start. I hope that our suggestions might help Zaccaria to become real close to seriously briliant.

I find time machine very dark too. I think the problem is that the slings don't have lights in them. Based on what I can find on YouTube, it is accurate. I guess those slings are so small that there are no lights in them. With this in mind it would be nice if they could still find a way to lighten that center and bottom area.

 

[Heretic]

Id go for trational lighting no mids

 

[Zsolt]

So far as I can see it, comparing the flippers with original table photographs, the flippers are a bit too big in size. They need to be scaled down somewhat, and this will fix the gap.

Simulation mode will get the correct gap.

 

[night]

Simulation mode will get the correct gap.

Sounds good!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Simulation mode will get the correct gap.

Great news!

 

[SilverBalls]

Simulation mode will get the correct gap.

Rocking!

 

[Kolchak357]

I keep looking for the update. Very excited about simulation mode, landscape view, and the new table. So much to tackle in one update. Might look and feel like a totally different game (in a good way).

 

[tripleplonq]

Great work, ASK Homework!

The only thing missing right now is iPad1 support.
Playing Zaccaria Pinball on iPad1 is very challenging, my highest score on Time Machine is around 200.000. But most of the time the ball passes through the flippers or drains trough the cabinet to show off the nice floor texture.

Oh, and the in game sounds are stereophonic, including the ball sound. I wonder if the game is playable - with some serious practice - with closed eyes?

Another area that certainly needs some attention is iPad 1 compatibility.
And while you are at it, don't forget to make sure that pre iPad2 devices and first generation iOS tablet computers work as well.

Thanks a lot, ASK Homework, ZacPin - even in its current state without (did I mention?) iPad1 compatibility - is IMHO the closest thing to a physical pinball machine on iOS right now. To make it 100% perfectly perfect you only need to add:

-Pinball scented scratch and sniff cards
-iPad 1 compatibility
-Graphics performance configuration menu (or built-in iPad1 compatibility)
-A free download/pay per play option.
-An ashtray and a can-holder.
-Compatibility with non-retina iOS tablets whose product names don't contain the character '2'.
-A 3D display option (anaglyph, side-by-side, random-dot-autostereogram and pulfrich-effect(Why not?) would be nice for a start)
-Support for older devices like the first Apple tablet.
-A start button in reach of the right thumb.
-Better nudging mechanism(preferably configurable) and the thing the silent majority always forgets to mention: Yes, iPad1 compatibility.
-Integrated game rules, including links to IPDB, wiki and other sources.
-An official website/forum. (fecesbug should not be your primary PR frontend)
-An option to allow device sensor driven tilting of the playfield. (Silly, but you could also implement iPad1 compatibility instead *hint* )
-Record, playback and .mov(ie) export of gameplay.
-A mode for less powerful hardware, like the iPad1 and those Pods and Phones many users still use.
-Other stuff*.


*(This covers almost everything I forgot to mention or to think of, except iPad1 compatibility)

 

[jhamdotme]

I’m hearing lots of good things from the developers here. Who knows if they’ll be able to deliver, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic, so I just purchased me some gold. I’ve noticed a few more things:

• In Devil Riders, I hit a ball up the right-side ramp, and I heard the voice sample saying “great”. But the ball never made it up there. The ball fell back down somehow to the lower playing field, and I was unable to play the ball since my lower flippers were disabled. (The ball was supposed to be up top.) This has happened twice, actually. If this is something that used to happen in the real tables, then bravo for realism. But if this is just a problem with the app, it’s pretty frustrating.
• In night mode, the lighting seems off in Locomotion. In this video on YouTube, you can see that the train and the word Locomotion is illuminated on the back glass, but in the app the backglass is lifeless. Also, the pop bumpers seem to strobe in the real table. Is this YouTube table modded, or are the lights in these tables not properly emulated?
• Also in that YouTube video for Locomotion, there seem to be train sounds. I don’t seem to hear these when playing with the app.
• In this YouTube video for Devil Riders, you can see that there’s a Match sequence at the end of your game. In the app, we’re taken out of the tables interface and asked to enter our initials using non-native interfaces. We should be shown the match sequence, and if the tables allow for entering our initials in-game, this would be preferable.
• In this other video for Devil Riders, we can see the ball rebounds pretty forcefully off of the drop targets in front of the ramps. In the app, though, the ball seems to almost drive through these targets. It seems to hit the targets and then hover there for a bit. It would be nice if the ball could be tuned to bounce more off of these targets.
• In Devil Riders, when the ball is hit up to the top playfield, our view moves so that we can see the animated rider on the back glass. It would be nice if, during this move, the persistent onscreen scoreboard was somehow removed. This way, we’d be able to actually see the scores as they appear on the back glass. With the persistent scoreboard, the scoring section of the back glass is obscured.
• In the options menu, there’s no way to preview any of the in-app purchased options. There’s only text that describes the appearance of these options. There should be images to preview these things.
• When you’re using the slider in the options menu to adjust the in-app purchased options, your finger obstructs the view of the items that you’re changing. The text should, at the very least, be above the slider. But like I said earlier, it would be better if there were images to preview everything.
• I don’t actually use the “Background Volume” feature, but playing around with this, I’ve noticed that if I adjust the volume, it’ll sometimes drop out completely. Sometimes, I’ll have to restart the app to get it to come back on, actually.

Also, I was playing with the custom music interface in the options menu. It’s odd, to say the least:

• You can’t scroll through the music without changing the music. Whatever song is highlighted in the middle of the screen when you stop scrolling will be automatically played.
• The columns are very narrow, and it’s not possible to see the full names for almost any of my music.
• There are seven tracks displayed at a time in the interface, but this interface isn’t designed for touch screens. The track in the middle will be automatically playing, but if I touch the first listed track, it won’t play this track. Instead, it’ll scroll all of the tracks down one. It won’t play the track that I tapped on, it’ll play the track above the one that was playing earlier. To actually play the track that’s listed first, I have to manually scroll the view until the track that I want is in the middle of the screen, or I’ll have to tap on the top of the screen three times until it scrolls far enough.

Actually, the more that I think about this, this implementation is terrible. It should be removed completely from the app. Nobody will use it. And if anybody happens to use it by accident, they’ll hate it, and maybe by proxy they’ll hate the rest of the app a little because of this. So really, just remove it. It’s easy enough to change your music by going into your music app.

In closing, I want to reiterate that I’m mostly just nitpicking here. There’s lots to like, and I see good things in the future. Everyone should jump in and show A.S.K. that they’re not wasting their time here, and that their efforts are worth their while.

 

[Mk pinball fan]

Just got the new update.

 

[gooche77]

Huge improvements graphically. Is there a recommended table for download?

 

[Kolchak357]

Huge improvements graphically. Is there a recommended table for download?

I have them all. Pinball Champ 82 and Devil Riders are probably my two favorites. But I like all four so far.

 

[robx46]

Simulation mode will get the correct gap.

I got the latest update, & flipper gap appears the same to me in both arcade & simulation (which is way way too small, its almost impossible to lose a ball down the middle). I hope its coming soon in another update. Flipper physics still need some work. A cradled ball is often very weakly shot up the middle (especially on Time Machine & Pinball Champ), needs a lot more steam with those center shots, any shot when the ball is toward the base of the flipper doesn't seem to have much behind it & the ball just kind of tails off (which has always been an issue on ASK games). When the ball has some speed going along the flipper, then its a little better. But trying to hit that center target in Pinball Champ is a disaster.
Also the flippers do this weird thing on Time Machine & Pinball Champ where once held in the up position, they keep slowly crawling upwards!

Also the performance doesn't seem great on Pinball Champ.
I just bought the Silver pack from you guys dropping $33 in total, since you guys did fix some important things, but I'm hoping you guys also keep at it, still some work to do in order to be considered a top notch simulation. Going in the right direction though.

 

[robx46]

& is there going to be a way to disable the dirty glass effect? Not a big fan of that, but can't seem to disable it.

 

[sotie]

Happy to report that the iCade support with the new update works well.

 

[Clawhammer]

Very promising update. Pinball Champ 82 looks great and the physics in simulation mode are a big improvement.

 

[The loafer]

Crap I forgot about the icade support... where's my 8 bitty? I gotta try this!

Thanks for the update Ask (and the report Rob), hopefully they will widen the flipper gap for sim mode in the next update. I agree, its too small.

 

[The loafer]

So I tried the update:

- 8bitty (icade) support is cool but for the 8bitty, left flipper is controlled by the left trigger, but the right flipper is controlled by... the bottom right button. If its possible, it would be great if the button layout could be configurable as I am sure many would prefer to use the triggers while others will like the bottom right (as presently implemented) for the right flipper but use the left direction on the digital pad for the left flipper. Still, well done, first pinball game on the ipad I play that I can use something other than touch screen and I like it!

- If you are going to support the icade/8bitty, it would be cool to add some form of digital nudge via the buttons as well (er... configurable please )

- Agree on pinball champ, the shot up the middle is very hard from a cradled position. however, it didn't seem to be so bad on the other tables I tried (will test more tomorrow)

- I can confirm, performance on pinball champ is also slightly sluggish, though it may be my imagination but playing with cam 1 seems (full screen) to be better? I suspect this is due to the retina support and those with an ipad 4th gen may not have this issue

- The app did not seem to keep/save the camera position but I just retried it and it did? This may be due to the icade/8bitty support, perhaps one of the buttons is mapped to the camera?

- Personally, I'm a little confused on the manual camera, but it is almost 1:00am so I will have to try tomorrow. Good that you guys added a "test" function.

Overall, I'm super happy. Yes, there are further physics enhancements I would love to see but to your credit ASK, this is the best physics I've seen in your pin simulators, so you are on the right track, well done.

I'm happy to have supported you via the gold IAP. Can't wait to see all the tables, hope you have some success. There's not many people talking about this simulator but I'm already told my brother in law about it, it's worth supporting.

 

[gsxrboy]

It's really nice to see a developer take criticism, comments, ideas and praise on board and be active in developing the app to make it better. The improvements in the new update are great and I look forward to more.

On the settings menu, since I've bought the gold membership, I'd really like all the buy options to disappear and clean up that screen to just the things to adjust.

 

[Heretic]

Loving the new updates feel is much improved but keep tweaking! Ill sample champ 82 later