Former Wanderer

Xenonite

New member
Oct 7, 2014
17
0
(obligatory long, winding backstory warning)

I'm finally joining, after about a year of playing TPA, the last six(?) months of which were spent perusing these forums.

In any case:
I started with Future Pinball. (I didn't know how to find a pinball machine at that point). I only played Addams Family, and eventually, TZ. This was good for getting me into pinball, but the fact that the software is emulated in FP with whatever people put in (why don't I get my door panel for beating the Power? Why is the bonus card falldown SO DARN SLOW? Why can I start a multiball EVERY SINGLE TIME by shooting the left ramp after a single gumball -> lock? Why does the end of LITZ also end my ball? [yes, this actually happens.] Why don't my lit EBs stack? ad infinitum...) does not make playing TZ pleasant. (TAF was a considerably [IMO] simpler table, and probably much easier to script.) There's also the fact that the physics in FP sucks, but there are entire other forums devoted to that, and I haven't played FP in about two years. So I rest my case... for now.

I took about a year sabbatical while I did other things, and then I found VP. Great, VP! It was good until... why are these graphics from 1998? (Admittedly, it's gotten a lot better, but it's still not even remotely close to FP or TPA.) What is this COM object tomfoolery you speak of? Why do I have to download ROM files for everything? But the point is that it was a massive step up. I was playing with (still) TAF, TZ, and eventually TSPP, and the game worked like everyone else said it would, ad infinitum. The ROM actually saving a la un real machine was also amazing (probably one of my next wishes for TPA, but I'm sure they have other fish to fry).

Enter TPA. Real tables, emulated (close to) perfectly (sans TZ's jackpot sound...), without paying $111,000 dollars like SDC mentioned! (It's probably even more now, since that blog post is from season 2? Not sure.) Of course, the tables were no longer free, but I figured it was a drop in the bucket compared to actual arcade costs. (I've logged about 400 games across TPA, and probably played countless more... so about $200 saved at least, and the tables are like $5 or whatever...) I immediately jumped and bought TZ.

Disregarding my actual playing of TPA since that's not important at this point in time, I also eventually found this forum... and with it, SDC's blog. (Is there a way to tag him?) Most of what he talks about proved to be very interesting for me (I'm a bit of a numerologist, per se...), and I eventually started analyzing my play. The exact details of this are best left to other threads when I get around to posting them.

At this point, I also found my (so far) only real pinball experience, which ended up costing $4 for 12 plays. Guess what it is... it's a TAF. And holy gods, it must have been a pretty well used, or otherwise old TAF. The table itself seemed like it was leaning to the left, the playfield was worn... what have you. And then there's the actual playing! Guess what, self: Balls actually do go down outlanes on real machines, probably more so than the center! (Blame the Power.... I didn't even get a multiball started because of it.) VP's thing-flipper-to-right-outlane on a messed up graveyard shot can and will happen! (Thank God I didn't activate thing flips...) Like people actually say, shooting the electric chair from the right flipper is a bad, bad, idea! I even tried nudging.. it probably moved the ball all of .02 inches closer to the drain. Oh, and SDC was totally right about sim scores being 10x higher than real scores. Admittedly, I didn't get to play the machine for 6 hours on end or whatever, but my VP TAF GC is something to the tune of 1.8 billion. On the machine at [location removed], my best score was like 40 million.

So here I am, and I finally joined this forum. (insert obligatory self-description starter here. insert possible arrogance warning here.) I basically only play modern (90s era) DMDs on TPA, which is probably unfortunate as far as variety goes. Right now the current tables that I log are (in order) TZ (left outlane... don't hurt me... no more), MB (I think the outlanes on this one hate me), MM (yay for easy castle lock shots!), AFM (saucer, you suck, even in TPA), TOM (why can't I just get that darn GF finished...), CFBTL (let's tilt while a 2B SJP is lit!), and STTNG (why must the spinner shots be so tempting?). I've also played a little bit of CP (stupid boxers), CV (what color is the Ringmaster's face today? All those bruises...), and SS (does this game ever end?).

HSes on machines I listed above at the time of this writing. You won't find me on the HS list; I don't have (but probably should make) an FS account.
TZ - 21B plus change
MB - 7.4B (bonus 2 laments... holy gods... and a 105x bonus)
MM - 1.5B
AFM - 293B (victory laps are OP)
TOM - 3.7B (yeah, I kinda suck at this table)
CFBTL - 39B
STTNG - 40B

And that's the end of it. Thanks for reading!

TL;DR: New member really obsessed with numbers, and kinda obsessed with 90s DMD tables.
 

night

New member
May 18, 2012
2,109
0
Don't forget to check out Zaccaria for the iOS! We have a seperate forum section here for Zaccaria. TPA and Zaccaria are the best pinball sims you can get for your iPad.
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
Hi Xenonite,
I had a similar trip to TPA as you, if you substitute FP for the Pinball Pro Series. Were you active on the VP forums? I kind of remember somebody with your name but I'm not sure. Anyways, lots of fun to be had here, and I must say the level of hotheads here is quite lower than on the VP/FP scene.... :)
 

Xenonite

New member
Oct 7, 2014
17
0
Thanks to all the welcomers!
[MENTION=896]Slam23[/MENTION]: Good memory! How'd you find me? I registered an account to download tables (TZ, AFM, TSPP, TAF, basically) but I did not post using it. There's like 3 or 4 different versions of VP out at this point and it's way too hard to do anything with any of it. Just release version 10 already... And I swear I've seen your name around the VP forums a million times as well. Did you release tables or something? I just poked through my VP tables but can't find anything...

As for hotheads there, the only drama I ever saw was FP/VP physics. Personally, FP is inferior in physics and emulation, but still... VP looks like it heralds from Win95 days.... ack... but that's a story for another time.
[MENTION=4573]Scumble373[/MENTION]: Thanks =P now if I could stop flipping so early on that darn delta ramp... right outlane drains all day...

To those who say zaccaria pinball: no DMD? Outrage! Just kidding. I haven't heard much about them; is this a company that only makes virtual tables or do these exist in real life?
 

Slam23

Active member
Jul 21, 2012
1,279
2
It's just the name that rings familiar, but if you didn't post it's safe to assume that I have been mistaken! As for me: I'm not an author but there have been times I was quite active on vpforums. I playtested some tables for Jive and Groni, and was very active in high score threads. I saw some bad sh@t happen though, especially when Noah Fentz started his vpforums.org when the old .com site went offine, he was attacked viciously for that. FP had it's own drama with the enigmatic Black. I concur with your opinion about both simulations, and I'll take outdated graphics over bad physics any day! I'm reallycurious how that Unity project is taking shape
 

Reagan Dow

New member
Jul 23, 2014
1,277
0
Thanks to all the welcomers!
[MENTION=896]Slam23[/MENTION]: Good memory! How'd you find me? I registered an account to download tables (TZ, AFM, TSPP, TAF, basically) but I did not post using it. There's like 3 or 4 different versions of VP out at this point and it's way too hard to do anything with any of it. Just release version 10 already... And I swear I've seen your name around the VP forums a million times as well. Did you release tables or something? I just poked through my VP tables but can't find anything...

As for hotheads there, the only drama I ever saw was FP/VP physics. Personally, FP is inferior in physics and emulation, but still... VP looks like it heralds from Win95 days.... ack... but that's a story for another time.
[MENTION=4573]Scumble373[/MENTION]: Thanks =P now if I could stop flipping so early on that darn delta ramp... right outlane drains all day...

To those who say zaccaria pinball: no DMD? Outrage! Just kidding. I haven't heard much about them; is this a company that only makes virtual tables or do these exist in real life?

Ask homework. Don't ask why it's named that. There are a few different apps with the same tables. Look around and I believe you will find one that gives you a bunch of tables for free or .99 to start
 

Xenonite

New member
Oct 7, 2014
17
0
It's just the name that rings familiar, but if you didn't post it's safe to assume that I have been mistaken!
Huh... interesting. My account on VPF is differently named though.

As for me: I'm not an author but there have been times I was quite active on vpforums. I playtested some tables for Jive and Groni, and was very active in high score threads. I saw some bad sh@t happen though, especially when Noah Fentz started his vpforums.org when the old .com site went offine, he was attacked viciously for that. FP had it's own drama with the enigmatic Black. I concur with your opinion about both simulations, and I'll take outdated graphics over bad physics any day! I'm reallycurious how that Unity project is taking shape

Ah, Groni... That also sounds familiar.

The unity project? I just looked; the thread for it was locked in April. Not sure what to make of it. I didn't search too thoroughly, though.
 

night

New member
May 18, 2012
2,109
0
To those who say zaccaria pinball: no DMD? Outrage! Just kidding. I haven't heard much about them; is this a company that only makes virtual tables or do these exist in real life?

They exist in real life, Zaccaria was an Italian pinball manufacturer. Graphics on the Zaccaria app are just great, and it just has a new physics engine. The great thing about the Zaccaria app is that when you buy the Gold pack you get adjustment sliders for the phycsics and graphics, that gives you full control over this game. If you only like DMD tables with toys, the Zaccaria is not for your you.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Members online

No members online now.
Top