Table Pack #25 Speculation

[netizen]

I had that Evel Knievel Halloween costume. Wish I still did. I'd be wearing it right now of I did. Might need to let the seems out though.
I also had a cool EK toy. Was a little motorcycle with Evel on it and you could crank it up and it would go flying. Used to make jumps for it to go over. Man I loved that thing.
I know a lot of people would find the EK pin a little dull compared to modern pins and it has become a bit of a joke around here. But I truly loved playing it in my youth and would be very excited to see it become part of TPA someday.

I had the knock off cycle toy, it was battery powered and only worked half the time.

 

[Espy]

I had the knock off cycle toy, it was battery powered and only worked half the time.

Wow, that is such false advertising. I can guarantee that no-one who owns that toy will ever cause it to land a double backflip. The things you could get away with back then...

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

IMO, The modern Atari brand is sh**. Not their old stuff mind you but most anything released in the past 20 or so years. Last I heard in 2013, Atari was filing bankrupcy (again). It seems they've been bought, sold, swapped around a million times and it seems Atari hasn't really released much of anything worth playing since the late 70s to early 80s. The original company no longer exists but various companies have attempted to buy up the Atari brand and associated IP over the years to milk the franchise for what it was worth and most companies that touched it eventually went bankrupt as well. Problem is all most people associate the Atari brand name with is the video game crash of '83. Outside of your usual Flashback TV consoles and Atari compilations, there's not much of anything worth buying. Nintendo, Sega, Namco, Balley, Williams, Gottlieb all have far better brand recognition in today's market.

Atari's staff has since been completely displaced. Everyone who used to work at Atari before it got bought up have moved to other game companies, and all of Atari's major franchises have been sold off. The brand is really all that's left. The only thing notable it's done recently are the Dragon Ball Z fighting games, which admittedly are pretty good, but everything else is very forgettable and bland. (And even then, DBZ Kinect turned out to be pretty loathed.)

Hasbro is doing just fine right now, needless to say--of course, that isn't most. Infogrames went bankrupt because of its own incompetence and refusal to move with the the rest of the business though.

With that last list of companies, I'm guessing you're not referring to just video game companies. Otherwise, Bally/Williams would be known as Midway, and Gottlieb barely even touched the video game market. (Also, the companies with the best brand reputations in the game business currently are Nintendo, SEGA, Blizzard, Bungie, Valve, Warner Bros. Interactive, Namco, Capcom, and Squaresoft for the normal gamers; Nintendo, Rovio, Gameloft, Zynga, SEGA, Ubisoft, Capcom, and EA for the mainstream; and Nintendo, Level-5, Atlus (now owned by SEGA), Double Fine, Valve, Blizzard, WayForward, Namco, Platinum Games, and Monolith Soft (now owned by Nintendo) for the hardcore. (SEGA and Capcom have fallen out of favor by the hardcore in the 2000s.)

 

[Jeff Strong]

I had that Evel Knievel Halloween costume. Wish I still did. I'd be wearing it right now of I did. Might need to let the seems out though.

 

[LanceBoyle]

The entire history of Atari is a real f*****g mess, seriously (pardon my French)

Apparently the Atari that bankrupted last year is now separate from the former Infogrames (which, to make it more confusing, is also called Atari) to do stuff on their own. What Atari now own is the old Atari's properties plus a scant few IPs from Infogrames (RollerCoaster Tycoon being an example) and all the other companies they acquired (Accolade, GT Interactive, MicroProse, etc.). Nearly all other properties (including the entirety of Humongous Entertainment) were sold off to publisher Tommo, with a few others going to other companies.

Hasbro hasn't owned the brand since 2001, considering that's when they sold off Atari and Hasbro Interactive to Infogrames.

 

[StarDust4Ever]

The entire history of Atari is a real f*****g mess, seriously (pardon my French)

[...]

Hasbro hasn't owned the brand since 2001, considering that's when they sold off Atari and Hasbro Interactive to Infogrames.

Yes, and Hasbro knew the brand wouldn't make money so they wisely sold it off. Incidentally, Infogrames or whatever who bought it up thinking it was some kind of cash cow did go bankrupt. So one could say it was a smart business move to say the least. Off topic, but there's a quite good history book begging to read if you're interested in Atari's History, Atari Inc: Business is Fun, which covers Atari up to the crash of '83.
http://www.amazon.com/Atari-Inc-Mr-Curt-Vendel/dp/0985597402

There is also a sequel planned entitled Atari Corp: Business is War which coveres the 7800 and the wars with Nintendo (as well as Tengen Tetris and all that good stuff) that I plan on picking up. Funny but true, the company was staffed largely by potheads and made bad decision after bad decision. The only programmers who were worth their own formed Activision and other 3rd party upstart companies. Either way, the Atari train wreck seemed to go on for decades and even in 2013 and beyong it is still making news...

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

It's High Speed! Steam Achievements have been updated!

I wonder how they'll do the beacon, though...

 

[StarDust4Ever]

It's High Speed! Steam Achievements have been updated!

I wonder how they'll do the beacon, though...

Join the club. We figured it out weeks ago...

 

[Shaneus]

It's High Speed! Steam Achievements have been updated!

I wonder how they'll do the beacon, though...

Norman mentioned that there's no real way they could do the beacon with the current lighting setup (and it certainly wouldn't appear on iOS etc.), but once DX11/advanced lighting hits, there's every chance that they could show the light on the walls of the "room" the machine is in.

Seems as good a place as any to show off my HS lighting mod on my own machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InvRIH52rQI

Anyone able to say how long we need to wait between the Steam achievements being updated and the update becoming available?

 

[danivempire]

Anyone able to say how long we need to wait between the Steam achievements being updated and the update becoming available?

If they go with the usual pattern they will announce the table officially friday and the update will be next friday.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

So...how far back will Junk Yard be pushed? The only on-location machine around here now has a busted right slingshot and some rather numb wrecking ball targets.

Nearly all other properties (including the entirety of Humongous Entertainment) were sold off to publisher Tommo, with a few others going to other companies.

Well that explains why Pajama Sam just took a nosedive in quality during then.

 

[Shaneus]

If they go with the usual pattern they will announce the table officially friday and the update will be next friday.

Boo. I was hoping it might be this weekend as a special surprise. I remember we got some game a little early... can't remember which one, though. Might've been FT.

 

[danivempire]

As they didn't announce it "officially" yet it wouldn't get my hopes up for this week end :/

 

[Rudy Yagov]

So...how far back will Junk Yard be pushed? The only on-location machine around here now has a busted right slingshot and some rather numb wrecking ball targets.

Well, a release date for JY was never announced, but there's a good chance it will be coming very soon. They announced Black Knight 2000, WHO Dunnit, and Junk Yard all at the same time, and the first two were already released.

 

[Kolchak357]

I'm guessing we will see some pics today.

 

[mpad]

Where is all this announcing and showing of pictures happening? Facebook?
(I'm not on FB)

 

[Timelord]

It will show up on Facebook first, but usually someone will post the pictures here on TPAF.

Kolchack, I have a feeling in my bones you may be right.

Timelord ...

 

[Naildriver74]

Them bones always know

 

[Shaneus]

Streaming happening NOW! No idea where this was announced, just saw it posted on another forum: http://www.twitch.tv/farsight_studios

 

[francis247uk]

Streaming happening NOW! No idea where this was announced, just saw it posted on another forum: http://www.twitch.tv/farsight_studios

If you've got an Android device download the free Twitch app to watch, worked perfectly, the web link didnt work for me