Screenshots of all the instructions in a doc would be so nice

Now that TPA is on PC, it would be so nice if there were screenshots taken of all the FarSight instructions of all the tables (including showing the arrows, etc. that we see in the instructions on the screen) . It would be a lot of work manually, but it's still possible on a PC. I wonder if some automation software would work? Anyone have any ideas? Or are there already documents out there with the FarSight instructions with screenshots for each of the tables? I would love to be able to study the tables even from outside the game itself. As now, I am so impressed with TPA on PC with its beautiful graphics and with controller support , that I plan on buying both Season Packs which I hadn't done on my prior Kindle format. (On Kindle, I only own 7 tables (of which TOTAN came free and Terminator2 was really so I could support the cause through Kickstarter). For PC, on the other hand, I will be buying both Season Packs in Pro.)

well you could always do it yourself - press the prt scr button and it will put whatever that is on screen at the time in the systems clipboard. the you can paste it to whatever image editing program you use, even the paint program that comes with windows. choose save as, print it out and there you have it.

not an ideal solution, but can be done

I'm not sure about how they would feel about that, honestly. From hearing Norman talk in one of the interviews (I think at the Chicago Expo), they are quite proud of their instructions. He said they were actually the most complete instructions for these tables ever created.

So if someone was to take that work and turn it into a PDF doc or something that anyone could use/distribute outside of TPA, I think that might be a little disrespectful to the guys that locked themselves in a room with a table for days (paraphrasing Norman) to create the guides for the game.

That said, I believe you can access the guides in-game even when demoing tables, so you could use your Kindle as a portable table guide if you wanted.

Roo said:

I'm not sure about how they would feel about that, honestly. From hearing Norman talk in one of the interviews (I think at the Chicago Expo), they are quite proud of their instructions. He said they were actually the most complete instructions for these tables ever created.

So if someone was to take that work and turn it into a PDF doc or something that anyone could use/distribute outside of TPA, I think that might be a little disrespectful to the guys that locked themselves in a room with a table for days (paraphrasing Norman) to create the guides for the game.

That said, I believe you can access the guides in-game even when demoing tables, so you could use your Kindle as a portable table guide if you wanted.

Click to expand...

Thanks Roo. Good that I now know what you heard from an interview about those instructions. So if I find a way to take the screen shots in bulk, say with some specialized screen capture software that I already own, I will not post the resultant PDF anywhere (including in this forum). As far as my using the Kindle Fire as a portable table guide, that's a good idea. Although I have to share that Kindle Fire with my wife. (We own lots of Kindles but only one Kindle Fire.)

Well, I don't want to speak for Farsight, but I just wanted to caution you. If you do end up making something, I would definitely ask before distributing it.

In the same interview Norman made a joke about how they are selling the best interactive table guides ever made; there just happens to be a video game attached!

Roo said:

In the same interview Norman made a joke about how they are selling the best interactive table guides ever made; there just happens to be a video game attached!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I really think you should have to buy the tables before you can view the instructions. There's a ton of work that goes into those.

I'd really like to have something like this as well, or at least YouTube videos of them (I think there was a YouTube video showing the instructions for Theatre of Magic, but I can't remember if it was released "officially" or not.)

But I also see the point about how much work was put into them. I guess I just don't see how much of an audience there'd be for someone to read or watch the instructions for a pinball machine but have no interest in buying the table. I'd be willing to bet that 99.9% of the people who'd use something like that would have already bought the tables at least once, and just want a convenient way to view the rules without having to be inside the TPA software at the time.

I know personally I'd love to blow some idle time at work going through the rules of a table I plan on playing later, but actually installing the game on my work computer is kind of not in the cards.

seattlemark said:

I have found that FarSight has enabled the Instructions to show up on the demo tables, so even before purchase, in both the PC version and the Kindle versions of TPA.

Click to expand...

Huh...that just reminds me, I bought a Kindle Fire HD recently (mostly just for books as I was tired of not having a lit screen in the dark on my old Kindle.) Maybe I can use that along with the demo versions of the tables to read the instructions during down time. Thanks for the idea!

whoops, I accidentally deleted my post that Epsilon responded to. What I had said:

I have found that FarSight has enabled the Instructions to show up on the demo tables, so even before purchase, in both the PC version and the Kindle versions of TPA. I think because the demos help sell tables. But either way, its so very nice of FarSight to do that!

I suppose that anyone keen enough to get the instructions in a document, is gonna be such an enthusiast they will buy PA anyway. Maybe Farsight could PDF them or something for Pro mode (at a later date).

Roo said:

Well, I don't want to speak for Farsight, but I just wanted to caution you. If you do end up making something, I would definitely ask before distributing it.

In the same interview Norman made a joke about how they are selling the best interactive table guides ever made; there just happens to be a video game attached!

Click to expand...

Thanks Roo. But I agree with your first thought that it could be disrespectful to FarSight. So if I do wind up making something, I feel it would be best to keep it for my own use only.

seattlemark said:

Although I have to share that Kindle Fire with my wife. (We own lots of Kindles but only one Kindle Fire.)

Click to expand...

Funny that you mention that, because that's the other reason I bought my Kindle Fire in the first place. I had an iPad to use for web browsing, book reading, game playing, etc., but my "non-gamer" live-in girlfriend has been monopolizing the thing playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 and a couple other nonsense games she dug up, so I got the Kindle Fire as both a replacement for my old Kindle and to have the ability to at least surf the web while she's tapping away at the iPad. I almost completely forgot that TPA is on Kindle Fire, so that's a nice little extra bonus at this point.

Epsilon said:

Funny that you mention that, because that's the other reason I bought my Kindle Fire in the first place. I had an iPad to use for web browsing, book reading, game playing, etc., but my "non-gamer" live-in girlfriend has been monopolizing the thing playing Plants vs. Zombies 2 and a couple other nonsense games she dug up, so I got the Kindle Fire as both a replacement for my old Kindle and to have the ability to at least surf the web while she's tapping away at the iPad. I almost completely forgot that TPA is on Kindle Fire, so that's a nice little extra bonus at this point.

Click to expand...

Oh that's too funny. My wife is a non-gamer too, but after we got the Kindle Fire she discovered that it's a lot better for Mahjong (her one game) than on the regular Kindle. Now at least we won't have to share when I want to play TPA, as I will now be switching over completely to PC version. (Although I am going to want to play TPA on the TV sometimes, but at least there are two of those in the house and there are also two non-work-owned PCs.) Come to think of it, one of the main games on the old Wii that we both liked together some years back was the first of the two Pinball Hall of Fame collections for Wii by FarSight. The graphics I saw last night with TPA for PC on the TV were a zillion times better than with the same Wii tables. (No jaggies with PC, compared to the 480i from the Wii. Although the Wii controller was fun too.) Even my wife agreed about the excellent TPA graphics on the TV (as she hadn't seen it on my PC's monitor yet), so maybe she will want to start playing video pinball again. Plus I understand that FarSight had been updating those common tables over the years since they were originally in Pinball Hall of Fame. Outstanding to have the FarSight Pinball experience with a controller again, and this time with fantastic graphics! Last week I bought a plant pot caddy with wheels for $12 (that looks like a mini dolly to go under a car), which I will use to regularly roll my rather heavy desktop PC from my computer table area to the TV area.

Please note: The Kindle Fire HD also has a really good picture on a HD TV or monitor if you use the micro-HDMI cable, but unless FS can get it to work with a bluetooth keyboard (that there was some talk about by an FS developer) there isn't a controller option. (Unless maybe you go the Root route, which I did not want to risk wrecking the Fire with it).