BlahCade #151: Stern Pinball Arcade VR and Cabinet Shenanigans

Jeff Strong

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Feb 19, 2012
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I, on the other hand, just spent 6 hours tweaking my MAME front end and rom library in preparation for my new inbound fighting controller haha.
 
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Kolchak357

Senior Pigeon
May 31, 2012
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Saw the commercial on TV for Hellfest. My wife said to me - "looks like the worst movie ever". Sounds like she wasn't that far off.

SYT, do you plan on seeing the new Halloween?
 

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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Saw the commercial on TV for Hellfest. My wife said to me - "looks like the worst movie ever". Sounds like she wasn't that far off.

SYT, do you plan on seeing the new Halloween?

Nah, never seen any of the Halloween movies for that matter. Slasher movies were never my thing, though I did appreciate the practical effects used. So while I think I've sat through one Friday the 13th movie and one Nightmare On Elm Street all the way through, as an effects fan I've managed to see a lot of the kills in those movies. Weird, right? I just always thought the stories, acting, production values were always crap. I despise torture porn horror movies and refuse to watch any of those. I appreciate more of the psychological horror, so Silence of the Lambs or Exorcist types. Put me under water or in outer space or in Antarctica where I'm trapped with the thing trying to kill everything, that works well too. Growing up I'd catch Saturn 3 all the time on the local station (edited version of course) and that damn movie freaked me out just because it was an unstoppable robot and they were stuck in a ship. Years later I think that's why I loved Terminator so much, because it was once again an unstoppable robot, but within a good movie!

Here's my short list of horror movies I like:

1. Aliens - I know it's really more of an action movie, but tell that to my 14 year old self who was white knuckling the theater arm rest the entire time
2. Poltergeist - the original, not that sorry excuse for a remake. The music, the visuals, creepy ass Zelda Rubenstein, still works to this day
3. The Descent - it's pure claustrophobia. If you know nothing of the movie, trust me and go watch it on Netflix right now. The less you know, the better, so stay ignorant and just watch.
4. Silence of the Lambs - I really don't need to sing the movie's praises, but equally brilliant is the TV show Hannibal.
5. The Thing - paranoia done perfectly, and the practical effects are simply wonderful and visceral in a way CG never can hope for.
6. Hellraiser - it just turns your stomach to watch. It also helps having read the short story it was based on, The Hellbound Heart.
7. A Quiet Place - best theater experience I've had all year, and it's also a really good, tense, well executed movie
8. Jurassic Park - again, maybe not exactly a horror movie, but between the T-Rex pen attack and the Velociraptors in the kitchen sequence, it does a better job than most horror movies ever strive for.
9. The Shining - Danny riding his Big Wheel through the hotel, turning corners, and you just know eventually something is going to be there, and then it's those freaky twins. Pure psychological horror at its finest.
10. It - just a note perfect movie that creeps you out while not resorting to cheap thrills, and also tonally exactly like 'Stranger Things'.
 
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Jeff Strong

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Feb 19, 2012
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After playing both more, one area that VPX has the edge is the lighting. Some of the tables are just breathtaking in that regard. I'm hoping Zen ups their game a bit in that department as I do prefer the consistency of Zen's physics.
 

Kolchak357

Senior Pigeon
May 31, 2012
8,102
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SYT, I think you should give the original Halloween a shot. It unravels a bit at the end when it become a full blown slasher film. But I think the first hour is excellent creepy horror fun.
I enjoy the campy nature of many slasher films, but some are just unwatchable. Very hit and miss with me.
I agree with everything on your list other than A Quiet Place. Haven’t seen that one yet.
 

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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SYT, I think you should give the original Halloween a shot. It unravels a bit at the end when it become a full blown slasher film. But I think the first hour is excellent creepy horror fun.
I enjoy the campy nature of many slasher films, but some are just unwatchable. Very hit and miss with me.
I agree with everything on your list other than A Quiet Place. Haven’t seen that one yet.

When you do get around to seeing it, either crank the volume loud or wear headphones. Essentially the whole movie is like the vault scene from the first Mission: Impossible, in that it's so quiet that the slightest noise sounds like a thunder clap. Our theater audience was so keyed in, that people wouldn't even open candy wrappers.
 

The loafer

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Oct 28, 2012
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That's a lovely list of movies. The Thing was my fav movie of all time for a while. I'm not a big horror fan (well, my wife isn't therefore I ain't as default eheh) but I'd add Cronenberg's The Fly to that list, amazing makeup effects and Jeff Goldblum's acting is amazing in that film
 

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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That's a lovely list of movies. The Thing was my fav movie of all time for a while. I'm not a big horror fan (well, my wife isn't therefore I ain't as default eheh) but I'd add Cronenberg's The Fly to that list, amazing makeup effects and Jeff Goldblum's acting is amazing in that film

Oh, there’s no doubt those are some amazing makeup effects. When he pukes on that dudes hand and it just melts? Superb. You watch in equal disgust and wonderment at how they pulled all that off. That’s my biggest issue with CG; there’s no wizardry to be amazed at.
 

Jeff Strong

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Feb 19, 2012
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I’m not much of a horror guy, but Aliens and Jurassic Park were excellent. Another more recent movie I really enjoyed that had horror elements was Logan.
 

wolfson

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May 24, 2013
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Citizen ,I`ve always loved the horror movies . when I was growing up , we had lots of drive ins . we all tried to scare each other by sneaking up anyway we could , fond memories . sadly most no longer around :(
 

kimkom

Member
Jan 28, 2013
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I like consistency, I like ease of use, I like knowing that if something goes wrong I don't immediately need to start checking my own rig but can probably put the blame on the software designers and hopefully they'll fix it soon.

SYT, That's what comes with old age! ;)

Seriously though, I know exactly what you mean. I think you eventually get to a stage where you realize that life is too short to be messing about with that sort of stuff and you'd rather spend that time 'doing' that thing, rather than messing around with it.

I've spent hours tinkering around with VP, changing scripts, sounds, ball graphics etc in order to try and gain some consistency and make it play how I wanted it to. Now I never touch it, just simply because I want to switch something on and use it without having to get 'under the hood'. I get that people enjoy it, I even did myself for a while.

It's a bit like the modding community... I spent hours upon hours modding Skyrim a while back, and it looked fantastic on my rig. But I found that I was spending more time modding than actually playing. It can become quite addictive but I don't ever think I would go through all that process again for something else. Now I no longer even have Skyrim installed...!

I do like tinkering around with MAME but now I just want to get my list of favourites finalized and forget the rest.

Oh.. and I absolutely get where you were coming from with the whole VR thing. Couldn't agree more on that front.
 

kimkom

Member
Jan 28, 2013
914
1
Incidentally on the horror movie thing...

A bunch of us once went to see Aliens with a 2L bottle of 7up that we'd 'modified' with vodka. I think we'd drunk it before the movie even started! That put a whole new spin on the movie :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

From then on we've always refered to a Vodka and 7up as an 'Alien' :eek:
 

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