I feel cheated, Free version doesn't get updated at the same time? Unbelievable!!!!

[Jeff Strong]

Jake, sounds good. We really appreciate the info.

 

[Pinball Arcade]

No problem. Just a head's up, I'm going to be posting a new thread here in a few with some important information

 

[Fungi]

Round of applause for Jake! This is top notch service and info. Thanks.

 

[Kevlar]

While your in a sharing mood Jake ( and hopefully drunk ) what are the next tables?

 

[Pinball Arcade]

HAHA!! You all will know as soon as I do. There's lots of tables rolling around here! By the way, just posted a new thread, please check it out

-Jake

 

[Vercingetorix]

Farsight can ask apple to give them a list of the paid users database for the free version and ask the people running the appstore to place all of them in the 99 cent version. Make the option to buy a table in the free version a link which takes you to the 99 cent version as all the other apps in the appstore with two versions does. There is no reason to allow people with the free version and having bought all the tables to be stuck with that version when the other version also exists and is approved to be updated first. If both apps would get approved at the same time, then this wouldn't be a problem, however as we now know, Farsight is at the mercy of the appstore employees. To eliminate the middleman and this type of problem in the future, Farsight can remove being able to update tables within the free version and force you to move into buying the 99 cent vsion via a link. The hard part is asking apple appstore employees to transfer those who bought tables within the free version into the other version and then in a new update simply stop people from being able to buy using the free version. I think this is possible as it is a programming issue and one that they can do since all the users who bought are in a database.

Don't know if you're still A) angry or B) following this thread, but this simply doesn't happen. A common complaint developers have about the App Store is that they can't get any information from Apple about who's actually buying their apps. Apple isn't going to just send them a database. And how to upgrade users from free to paid apps, or from paid apps to a later version of the app, is a big issue for iOS developers -- because there's no mechanism for migrating users from one app to another. Farsight probably shouldn't have ever gone with two separate apps in the first place; they should have just gone with one free app and then made everything an in-app purchase inside it.

Apple are usually pretty good about issuing refunds if you complain though.

 

[bonch]

Farsight can ask apple to give them a list of the paid users database for the free version and ask the people running the appstore to place all of them in the 99 cent version.

I'm a member of the Apple developer program, and I'm pretty sure Apple would never give out that kind of personal user information. In fact, that would be a major privacy violation. Developers don't get access to anything beyond anonymous sales and download charts.

The paid and free versions of Pinball Arcade are essentially two different apps, with different bundle identifiers. I doubt there will ever be a way to transfer in-app purchases from one application to another.

 

[Brian Clark]

To answer the question about the older tables such as BH and Gorgar, tables such as these will never be able to be emulated. The reason for this is that these tables do not have ROM and emulation is usually impossible. The way we recreate these tables is by buying the actual tables(which we have) and using all methods available to us to try and exactly replicate them. Most of the older tables run like a clock of sorts, with no real CPU or anything of that sort, just a mchine that responds with switches and timing. This is the main reason the BH rules had to be rewritten and fixed because there were no rules available to us, we just had to figure everything out and write them ourselves. I hope this answers your question

Both Gorgar and Black Hole have ROMs. The visual pinball versions support ROM emulation too. The BH rules are in a topic here on the forum. I know you posted elsewhere that it's being worked on, but it's disappointing to hear confusion over which games can be rom emulated. All solid state games use ROMs (though I'm guessing it's used for less things in earlier machines. Oddly enough, I heard that even DMD Gottlieb games still have EM flippers). ipdb is a good place to check to see if a game is SS or EM, but it's usually a safe bet that a game with a digital display is a Solid State, which has a MPU.

Thanks for the info about Black Hole and the MM flipper gap.

 

[Shaneus]

Sorry for the bump, but this thread (and Jake, of course) has just gone a LONG way in redeeming FarSight and their communication issues. Not entirely (still haven't seen any publicity about this other than word of mouth!) but like I said, it's better. Seeing Mike on here as well is also doing wonders, but PR still needs to be kicked up a few more notches!

Maybe someone from Farsight should try and tee up an interview with a big gaming site, or possibly a well respected, industry-type one like Gamasutra? That'd have to get the word out better than just having an FB page and this forum.

PS. Gamecenter?

 

[Sleepcap]

The paid and free versions of Pinball Arcade are essentially two different apps, with different bundle identifiers. I doubt there will ever be a way to transfer in-app purchases from one application to another.

Maybe create an "update" for one of these apps that just generates an password with the AppleID and the tables-purchased. So a user just could load the more recent app and activate his tables there too.

 

[Dumpstar]

Maybe create an "update" for one of these apps that just generates an password with the AppleID and the tables-purchased. So a user just could load the more recent app and activate his tables there too.

That's probably the easiest way. Though you would have to ensure that the codes can't be reused by those who haven't purchased the table. Not sure how the algorithm would be generated then unless you could generate it via the appleid or if you could retrieve the IMEI number or something else that is unique to the phone itself.