Re-release...and the history of digitized real pinball tables?

When following the threads about the upcoming tables the word re-release is mentioned quite often. Has there been a previous version of Pinball Arcade? Has it anything to do with Virtual Pinball?

I started playing digital pinball with the Pinball Arcade and never really cared much for other digital pinball games, not even Zen. I haven't really been able to get a good grip on what has actually been made in terms of digitizing real pinball tables. So could someone enlighten me?

1. What does re-release mean?

2. What was (is?) Virtual Pinball? Was it ever any good? It seems like there were more tables to it (made by amateurs?)...is that so?

1. Before TPA, Farsight made other pinball video games on various platforms under the title Pinball Hall of Fame (PHOF). There were 2 PHOF collections: The Williams Collection and The Gottlieb Colletion (check those links for a list of tables from each, as well as other info). Tables from these collections have been re-released for TPA. Each month's table pack has included one PHOF re-release in addition to one new table.

2. I think you mean Visual Pinball? VP is a PC only program that's completely free. You can play almost real pinball machine on VP, plus there are a bunch of original tables as well. The quality of the physics and graphics varies from table to table because they're all re-created (or created, in the case of the originals) by the fans. They do use the real ROMs though, so all the rules and settings are accurate to the real machines. Farsight has the advantage in that they can tear apart the real machines to make sure their re-creations are as accurate as possible. Even so, it's quite amazing what some of the VP guys have been able to do, and there are some really great tables available for VP.

Thanks Jeff, that was really interesting! I believe I need to start up my old PC and download VP and check it out...

What happened to PHOF, why did they make it into tPA instead of continuing with the same brand?

Chritobal,

PHOF was the previous generation of their work. TPA brings an entirely new physics engine, newly modeled tables, hardware emulation vs scripting for many of the underlying pinball hardware devices as well as better graphics.

Timelord ...

Iirc alot of vp games are scripted and the results are pretty bad. Anything newish stern is just terrible. And as for graphics, physics and whatnot, again, pretty low grade. Arabian Nights on vp is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Still can't complain for free and they are fan made, so I'm not going to critique what some guy did in his spare time as a hobby.

Mark Wyda said:

Iirc alot of vp games are scripted and the results are pretty bad. Anything newish stern is just terrible. And as for graphics, physics and whatnot, again, pretty low grade. Arabian Nights on vp is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Still can't complain for free and they are fan made, so I'm not going to critique what some guy did in his spare time as a hobby.

Click to expand...

No, all the real table recreations are ROM emulated.

Some of the tables have physics which are better than TPA, to be honest. Uncle Reamus' T2 is about the closest think to real pinball I've seen in a video game. I believe Noah did the physics tuning on that one.

1.Re-release means it already has been released.

2. I have found VP to be great for recreation tables. There are a few authors that have made near perfect recreations. VP is not just a simple plug and play, you have to learn the program a bit and theres some tweaking to get it working right on your system. I play VP tables more than any other pinball game. Check out vpforums.org and hyperpin cabinets to see what can be done with VP.

If you enjoy Gotlieb classics from the 70' be sure to check out Pinucks full screen tables. They have incredible physics and graphics. Centigrade 37, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Charlie's Angels, Joker Poker, Jack's Open, Sinbad, Abracadabra.

There is many other great recreations in VP also. If you need any advice there is a lot of people willing to help out. Best of luck

There are also some great recreations on Future Pinball, albeit physics suck unless you use he of the physics mods, then they're pretty decent. Some great recreations but also some really great, inventive and fun originals on future pinball. In addition to vpforums, check out vpuniverse, roguepinball, and a few others.

shiva's Trigon is a pretty nice original table for VP.

OOH this is my 777th post...maybe i'm in luck


Any table made by Groni (Megapin branded there), JPSalas (though some of the tables he's made are more relaxed than the real thing, his work looks spectacular and they do play nicely), Bob5453 has some great recreations and some spectacularly done original tables (The Beatles is one of my favorites by him and there's a table called Beat This that was a collaboration for an original table contest).

A user named Faralos, makes some very interesting conceptual tables, but you can't expect graphical mastery and the physics feel a bit off, but they are fun tables.

Kruge99 did an amazing recreation of High Speed (even has an option of using 400 series highways instead of interstates on the spinners somewhere in the graphics files).

Rawd...ok what can I say about Rawd. To my knowledge he's created one table...one...single table...and this table is a masterpiece. It's William's Triple Strike and it's simply wonderful. The table is amazing, his physics tuning is amazing (he even has a side-by-side comparison video between the real table, the future pinball version he did, and his VP version and the VP version is spectacular). This is easily one of my favorite tables on the entire VP forums site.

Uncle Reamus and Noah Fentz did a very good recreation of High Speed II: The Getaway (there's a youtube video i have floating around of my cheap "cabinet setup" that I've linked to in a couple threads here and you can sort of see it running there). This was the table i cut my VP teeth on as a benchmark, since I've played so much HS2, I know the table quirks pretty well...I remember the first time i shot a ball around the left orbit toward the lock and had it ALMOST make it up the ramp and come back down on me. The expletives I yelled reminded me of all the time I had that same thing happen at the Game Room up in Sudbury.


The best of the best on VP easily competes with what TPA can offer. Coming from me that's a compliment in the highest form.

Another tip for playing pinball on a PC with the keyboard (if you don't use a gamepad)...the default controls are garbage, for long sessions you will want comfort and I recommend my homerow configuration...

F J (Left/Right Flippers)
Space (Upward Nudge)
G H (Table Right/Left Nudge
R U (Magna Save if available)
1 (Start)
5-6-7 (Emulate available coin slots)
ENTER (Plunge)