Zaccharia for Android: Initial Release Discussion

[MonkeyGrass]

Came back here just to say -

BRAVO!!! FS could learn a LOT from ASK in a lot of areas. The lighting (one of our biggest pet peeves with TPA) is outstanding. Lighting control sliders! Dark and Light settings! Adjustable physics and camera angles!! Wooo hoooo!

The tables play great, the physics are simply... outstanding. And the entire "Gold" package was a whopping $21. This is how you do it, FS.

I am extremely glad to see some honest competition in the Pinball Sim world. Perhaps this inspires FS to "up their game" and get on the ball. The S1 & S2 lighting is just pathetic at this point, even compared to S3+ and it pales in comparison to what ASK has done in a matter of a few months of working on their tables. As was already mentioned - Zen and ASK get it when it comes to quality sound. The options for "used table" and the glass are spectacular and worth every penny!!

Thanks, Zsolt!!! I'll be recommending this to my pinhead friends who may not have heard of it.

 

[night]

Perhaps too early with so many new tables to play with, but I wonder if you Androids have any fav Zaccaria tables already? (Perhaps we should start a rank poll or something).

 

[SilverBalls]

There is an application in the Google Playstore called "Set Orientation":
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.googlecode.eyesfree.setorientation&hl=en
It allows a device to i.e. force portrait-mode. Woulld be very interesing for me, if the app works on the Acer da241hl together with Zaccaria pinball. Thanks!

Thanks for suggesting , but that is exactly how I rotate the screen with the Acer, using software like this because the screen doesn't have a gyro/accel, etc. The apps like you suggest basically tell Android to rotate the display and this used to work fine, the whole display was rotated just like when you turn your tablet. Acer unfortunately now intercept these requests and show a 'faked' portrait display in landscape mode (like the screenshots in my post describing the issue). The reason they did it was to show apps that force to portrait mode 'correctly' on the landscape screen.

These large Android touchscreens are becoming more common especially as 'kitchen computers''. They are perfect as a low cost device for people building mini virtual cab for Android games, however we just need to ability for the game to render itself rotated (this is not the Android rotation remember). I am crossing my fingers the Ask engine can do that one day.

Edit: if you bought the Acer now it might work with the version of the OS it comes with, however you would need to make sure you never apply an update to the OS as rolling back is almost impossible. No one has done it to date.

 

[Baron Rubik]

Perhaps too early with so many new tables to play with, but I wonder if you Androids have any fav Zaccaria tables already? (Perhaps we should start a rank poll or something).

I love this Late 70s, early 80s period.

Outright favourites so far...
Space Shuttle, Pinball Champ '82, Fire Mountain.

Only one I can't take to...
Stars Phoenix

Love them all though.

 

[SilverBalls]

Perhaps too early with so many new tables to play with, but I wonder if you Androids have any fav Zaccaria tables already? (Perhaps we should start a rank poll or something).

I really like the tables from this era so much that there are so many tables very nicely implemented it is hard to choose ATM. I love the 2 EMs and to see them with gorgeous lighting is a real treat.

I like the default SIM physics but feel like a 3rd setting is needed like 'Old school', which would have settings like Baron Rubik posted here:
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...l-update-v1-04?p=194228&viewfull=1#post194228

The slower play suits some tables. I would still keep arcade/sim and of course custom, but another would be nice to showcase how flexible the engine is in terms of physics for a newbie. Would be good to be able to create custom settings per table too for physics and lighting.

 

[jetcorder]

Edit: if you bought the Acer now it might work with the version of the OS it comes with, however you would need to make sure you never apply an update to the OS as rolling back is almost impossible. No one has done it to date.

Thanks: so there are chances that it will work if I buy the device and do not update the OS

 

[IGoFirstIndy]

Perhaps too early with so many new tables to play with, but I wonder if you Androids have any fav Zaccaria tables already? (Perhaps we should start a rank poll or something).

We're so close to the end of having the complete collection. Maybe save a poll for then?

All this Android buzz has me revving to get back into Zaccs. Excited for the new physics update so I can start playing again.

As far as favorite tables -- shooting the Rapids, stars phonex, pinball champ, strike and black belt. There really isn't a table I don't outright like. Each has its own unique hook.

 

[SilverBalls]

Thanks: so there are chances that it will work if I buy the device and do not update the OS

There is a chance, but I can't be sure. My current OS version is 4.21 and the version on the Amazon site I linked to is 4.12 according to their description.

My post is here:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/9704-Zacarria-Pinball-Render-Sideways-Option

Here is someone talking about the OS build that changed portrait, in case it helps your research

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2274326&page=14

 

[Trenchbroom]

Will there be a Kindle port?

Any chance that Zac pinball gets released for the Kindle Fire? I have been playing the free version on my phone a lot but I would rather pay for the gold version on the Fire.

 

[MWink]

Any chance that Zac pinball gets released for the Kindle Fire? I have been playing the free version on my phone a lot but I would rather pay for the gold version on the Fire.

I would like to see it on the Amazon Appstore as well. I doubt I can convince myself to spend money on the Google Play version but I probably would buy it if available from Amazon. I wouldn't mind a PC version either.

 

[jetcorder]

There is a chance, but I can't be sure. My current OS version is 4.21 and the version on the Amazon site I linked to is 4.12 according to their description.

My post is here:

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/9704-Zacarria-Pinball-Render-Sideways-Option

Here is someone talking about the OS build that changed portrait, in case it helps your research

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2274326&page=14

Got my Acer DA 241HL today and had good luck: the OS (Android 4.2.1, Kernel 3.1.10-g28372a pobu-build-server@pobu-buld-server-desktop #1 Tue Oct 8 21:21:40 CST 2013) on the device (still) runs portrait mode with the help of the app "Set Orientation".
Zaccaria pinball (in portrait-mode) is really amazing on the device, also TPA!
Thanks again for giving me the information about the existance of this cool device at this amazing price and the helpful tips! - I plan to build a pinball-cabinet around it.

 

[SilverBalls]

Got my Acer DA 241HL today and had good luck: the OS (Android 4.2.1, Kernel 3.1.10-g28372a pobu-build-server@pobu-buld-server-desktop #1 Tue Oct 8 21:21:40 CST 2013) on the device (still) runs portrait mode with the help of the app "Set Orientation".
Zaccaria pinball (in portrait-mode) is really amazing on the device, also TPA!
Thanks again for giving me the information about the existance of this cool device at this amazing price and the helpful tips! - I plan to build a pinball-cabinet around it.

Thanks for reporting back. You are really lucky. Don't update by mistake as there is no going back! I emailed Acer twice but they don't answer. I can't believe they take away a feature like this.

I guess you need to disable the background arcade room and maybe glass to get ultra smooth ball play? Also using the screen for gameplay is fiddly, but you can connect an Xbox controller, etc or normal wired USB keyboard and that works well too.

Would love to see a photo or video of the screen in portrait mode if you get a chance .

Cheers

 

[jetcorder]

Thanks for reporting back. You are really lucky. Don't update by mistake as there is no going back! I emailed Acer twice but they don't answer. I can't believe they take away a feature like this.

I guess you need to disable the background arcade room and maybe glass to get ultra smooth ball play? Also using the screen for gameplay is fiddly, but you can connect an Xbox controller, etc or normal wired USB keyboard and that works well too.

Would love to see a photo or video of the screen in portrait mode if you get a chance .

Cheers

Yeah, ballplay is smooth when I disable background arcaderoom glass and also reflections: I say smooth and very playable - ultrasmooth it's only in landscape-mode. Yes I use an XBo360-Controller for playing, which works very well (when I will build a cabinet around the device I plan to use the electronics of this controller an connect it to 'real' arcade-buttons)

First you get a screenshot:

Second a photo shot from live gameplay (raw quality):

Third a video shot from live gameplay (raw quality) in portrait-format - sorry for bad gameplay: filmed and played at the same time :

http://www.vidup.de/v/K6ZVT/

 

[Mad07]

Does. someone has an idea, at which time the GPS bug is fixed, that an extraball is not saved as reached goal in GPS?

 

[SilverBalls]

Yeah, ballplay is smooth when I disable background arcaderoom glass and also reflections: I say smooth and very playable - ultrasmooth it's only in landscape-mode. Yes I use an XBo360-Controller for playing, which works very well (when I will build a cabinet around the device I plan to use the electronics of this controller an connect it to 'real' arcade-buttons)

Third a video shot from live gameplay (raw quality) in portrait-format - sorry for bad gameplay: filmed and played at the same time :

http://www.vidup.de/v/K6ZVT/

Many thanks jetcorder for making the video and taking photos of your 24" screen playing the Zaccaria app in portrait. It does look good on that big screen in portrait. The beauty is you can play with the cameras to your hearts content. Because the 4.2.x don't seem to support immersive mode, I noticed (in landscape mode at least) that I can get rid of the onscreen Android buttons by minimising the app, and then selecting it again from the app list. You do have to repeat this between each game start, however Ask said they plan to support menu navigation with controller/keyboard so that means it might only have to do it once eventually.

Looking forward to seeing your Zaccaria cab. I did hook up a spare iPac I have with 3 loose buttons mapped to the arrow keys, just to do a test and it worked nicely when connected to USB port of this machine. I am hoping that eventually Ask will add an in-game rotation (which makes the game engine render it sideways rather than using Android rotation) then that will allow people to build cabs using devices such as this. It is likely that as these large screen Androids take off, they will all end up forcing a faked portrait mode on a landscape screen....sadly, so if a render sideways options was made available in Pinball Apps such as Zacc and TPA then that would be awesome.