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Why Pinball Is Better Than Video Games
- Thread starter HotHamBoy
- Start date
There's also a Pinball Arcade community OT:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462373
It was originally about the video game collection, but morphed into a general pinball one too.
Yep, my path into the hobby was mostly The Pinball Arcade (or the one before it, the one on 360)>GAF thread and now I own two machines.
The one thing I haven't gotten into is competitive. Honestly just enjoy firing up some games with the kids and friends and not worrying too much about skillful play (actually more of a story player than someone shooting for high score -- which Ghostbusters in particular is pretty great for given the fixed and challenging progression; Metallica is more of a score-chaser but the whole package is so great and a good contrast to GB).Well, you have to understand that these games are extremely costly and very expensive to maintain. You're constantly shopping them and buying replacement parts. Higher coin-drop is more common on rare and newer tables because you have to revoup the investment, which is on-going.
If 10 people pay .50 cents x 2 you've made ten dollars for 20 plays.
If 10 people pay $1.00 x 1 you've made ten dollars for 10 plays.
That's half the wear and tear which is going to save you a lot in maintenance and increase the lifespan of the game.
Often, a machine will have a price break like so:
1 credit for .75 cents or 3 credits for $2.00
The place I go to has .75 cent games set to give 4 credits for $2 and $1 newer games set to give 4/$3.
Getting good at pinball requires spending more up-front. Once you reach a certain skill level you will be spending much less since your games will have longer ball times and more extra balls and you'll earn more replays for free credits.
Maybe if I ever start a career in an area that doesn't take all of my income. D:Know what's an even better way of supporting pinball and preventing the decay of machines? Buy some
If only that was the only barrier... I could convince myself to be incredibly irresponsible.
There's still the issues of maintenance, floor space, moving it, etc
It's not all that bad. The space can definitely be an issue depending on your living arrangements, but in my experience the maintenance hasn't been bad at all. I generally clean my table once a quarter (20 minutes), wax it three times a year (40 minutes), change the batteries once a year (2 minutes), and have only had to clean the optos once (45 minutes).
In the 10 years my parents have owned their table, from a maintenance standpoint, the only thing I had to help with was to rebuild the flippers (2 hours).
Not too bad all told.
What game do you have?
I imagine certain tables are more fussy than others. Do you ever notice the flippers getting progressively weaker? Have you ever needed to replace parts?
The other day I'm playing this Star Trek TNG and the ball hit something that cause this piece of metal to come off and go sliding down the playfield.
Do what my parents did. Kick me out the house and tell them not to come back until a certain time.
synchronicity
Member
I truly LOVE pinball. Comparing pinball with arcade games is no contest for me. Pinball rules! (Although there are plenty of vintage arcade games that I love as well.)
Really getting to know a table and its intricacies and rules, and then becoming better and better with time is such a rewarding and addictive curve. It's so elegant and simple (keep the ball up), yet so complex (in all its wonderful variations and themes).
Really getting to know a table and its intricacies and rules, and then becoming better and better with time is such a rewarding and addictive curve. It's so elegant and simple (keep the ball up), yet so complex (in all its wonderful variations and themes).
I have a World Cup Soccer 94, and my parents have a No Fear.
My flippers have been fine for a few years now (no power loss), and it like I said, I did rebuild them on my parents table last year. That is certainly not something that is needed every year.
You lucky bastard... Those games are awesome.
Looove no fear. The scores you can get going on that machine are pretty insane, and the jump is one of the coolest features in all of pinball imo.
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<3 Pinball
Local bowling alley might be shutting down in the next year and they have a few pretty well maintained machines, so I'm sorely tempted to pick one up.
Used to trek to the Metreon in San Francisco when I lived there quite often for the pinball machines they had. Never a line and many a quarter spent.
Local bowling alley might be shutting down in the next year and they have a few pretty well maintained machines, so I'm sorely tempted to pick one up.
Used to trek to the Metreon in San Francisco when I lived there quite often for the pinball machines they had. Never a line and many a quarter spent.
PhilipDoesMatter
Member
Where is Pinball FX 2 on Xbox compat list? I have plenty of tables.
Wonko_C
Member
Doesn't the Xbox One version let you import your previously purchased tables? I know Zen Pinball 2 on PS4 lets me play my PS3/Vita tables. It should be similar on the Xbox version.
Allforce
Member
Have always loved pinball since I was a kid, Addams Family, Terminator 2, bunch of others were always around.
My father in law won a vintage pinball machine fom like 1977 from a radio contest a few years ago, it wasn't as fancy as the newer ones from the late 80s but it was a solid play and retailed for around 1500 bucks still since it was a collectors item. Valkyrie or some other female warrior type theme I believe it was.
They moved a few years ago and offered the table to me and my wife, who were pumped for it, but then her older brother also expressed interest so my father in law flipped a coin for who got it and my brother in law won.
Chaps my ass because the last time I was at his house that machine was just sitting on the floor in the basement, legs removed, covered in random crap his kids piled on it. Never even been set up apparently.
My father in law won a vintage pinball machine fom like 1977 from a radio contest a few years ago, it wasn't as fancy as the newer ones from the late 80s but it was a solid play and retailed for around 1500 bucks still since it was a collectors item. Valkyrie or some other female warrior type theme I believe it was.
They moved a few years ago and offered the table to me and my wife, who were pumped for it, but then her older brother also expressed interest so my father in law flipped a coin for who got it and my brother in law won.
Chaps my ass because the last time I was at his house that machine was just sitting on the floor in the basement, legs removed, covered in random crap his kids piled on it. Never even been set up apparently.
That's tragic as hell.
One of the bad things about Pinball is the inability to control what happens to games you like to play.
The place I frequent just sold Terminator 2, Demolition Man and South Park in a single transaction. T2 was a favorite.
Sneak Peak at the upcoming Batman '66 table art:
And on the Marvel side...
Women of Power announced for Zen Pinball/Pinball FX2. Out next week on all available platforms!
Bumping to say that Pinball is still better than video games. Updated the OP.
Coming soon:
Star Wars (original trilogy) - Stern
Houdini - American Pinball
The Jetsons - The Pinball Company
Total Nuclear Annhilation
(Backlgass Art for finished game)
(WIP whiteboard, game is set to ship next year)
Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle - Spooky Pinball
And Elvira 3 with the original design team and Elvira herself!
Shipping Now:
Ghostbusters - Stern #RIPDMD
Batman '66 - Stern
Aerosmith - Stern
Alien - Heighway
Dialed In - Jersey Jack
The Big Lebowski - Dutch Pinball
Attack From Mars REMAKE - Chicago Gaming
Some (slightly) older tables still in production include: Metallica, The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz, Game of Thrones, Woah Nellie!, Spider-Man Vault Ed, Iron Man Vault Ed, Star Trek, The Walking Dead and more!
Coming soon:
Star Wars (original trilogy) - Stern
Houdini - American Pinball
The Jetsons - The Pinball Company
Total Nuclear Annhilation
(Backlgass Art for finished game)
(WIP whiteboard, game is set to ship next year)
Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle - Spooky Pinball
And Elvira 3 with the original design team and Elvira herself!
Shipping Now:
Ghostbusters - Stern #RIPDMD
Batman '66 - Stern
Aerosmith - Stern
Alien - Heighway
Dialed In - Jersey Jack
The Big Lebowski - Dutch Pinball
Attack From Mars REMAKE - Chicago Gaming
Some (slightly) older tables still in production include: Metallica, The Hobbit, The Wizard of Oz, Game of Thrones, Woah Nellie!, Spider-Man Vault Ed, Iron Man Vault Ed, Star Trek, The Walking Dead and more!
Always been a big pinball fan. If I had the money I would own a personal machine or two since they are infinite entertainment.
My friends always rolled my eyes when I would beeline to the pinball machines in arcades. Screw them, pinball is the main attraction!
I'm actually going to a few arcades this Wednesday, so I hope to find a few good machines
My friends always rolled my eyes when I would beeline to the pinball machines in arcades. Screw them, pinball is the main attraction!
I'm actually going to a few arcades this Wednesday, so I hope to find a few good machines
Always been a big pinball fan. If I had the money I would own a personal machine or two since they are infinite entertainment.
My friends always rolled my eyes when I would beeline to the pinball machines in arcades. Screw them, pinball is the main attraction!
I'm actually going to a few arcades this Wednesday, so I hope to find a few good machines
What city?
Some people just don't understand. These days you can play all those arcade games at home. Hell, you can play much better video games at home. Don't get me wrong, I love the social aspect of the arcade, but Pinball is something you can only play on location. If I'm going to an arcade it's going to be to play pinball, save for maybe a few rounds on whatever fighting games they have.
Most people who don't like pinball just aren't good at it and don't understand why or how to get better. Sadly, bad luck is usually blamed. It's a game of skill and the curve is steep.
Phoenix area.
Likely going to start at Golfland for nostalgia's sake and then either go to The Grid or The Gaming Zone (not sure if they have pinball?). It's mainly just a bonding day with my brother so it should be fun regardless of where we end up going and what the arcades actually have to offer.
angrywoodchuck
Member
I love pinball, and I'm ecstatic that there are now numerous companies producing tables.
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
Last time I took my son to the local arcade a Batman pinny machine (same as the one pictured below) was so bloody easy to get free credits on that we played for 20-25 minutes on one credit. Triple and Quad balls were super easy to achieve as well. Insanity.
It's definitely on them and how they have it set, though TWD is a pretty tough game to learn.
Pinball is a game where the better you are, the less you spend. You just have to be willing to invest more early on.
But it doesn't have to be and we are seeing a resurgence. People are starting to rediscover physical, kinetic objects.
Alien and Lebowski are shipping, slowly. We've had a Lebowski on-location in Indiana since last November. It took them minths to ship a replacement board after it fried, but it has been good ever since.
I've seen reports of Alien going on-location in the midwest so I know it's getting out there.
It's a joke.
Although your comparison isn't really apt. It's more like comparing real life sports to video game sports. Pinball and early video game share a lot of similar concepts and language. At the end of the day, you're using limited mechanics to complete objectives and go for a high score.
Futaleufu
Member
I'm glad pinball is making a resurgence. Virtual Pinball has its place and I play a couple of times in a month but the real thing is irreplaceable. The way you can control the ball by bumping and nudging the machine cant be achieved by playing a simulation with a controller. I used to be very good at tables like The twilight Zone, White Water and Fish Tales.
I Wanna Be The Guy
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
I prefer Pinball Arcade. I can play it whenever and wherever I want.
I have such a hard time going back to TPA now that I play on real tables. Doesn't help that the developer is awful. Just feels like a really creaky old game to me at this point. But I'm glad it's still out there for people who don't have access and I'm sure it's still doing work getting people into/back into the hobby (like it partly did for me back in its xbox 360 iteration).
I appreciate that TPA exists but it feels like it is held together with Scotch tape and Elmer's glue. It's definitely not a substitute for the real thing, though I think it's great for learning table rules.
The problem is that people aren't going to blow tons of money on a game that they feel ripped off on. I definitely think machines should be set up to be much more generous with the early drain freebie. It won't effect good players at all who keep it live anyways, and would go a long way to keeping new players coming back. Few people will want to drop another dollar in the machine after feeling ripped off. Give people 30 secs of ball save (one time for each ball) and they'll be much more likely to keep dropping money in.
A local Simpsons Pinball party had little or no ball save, with no high score free game setup so I'm done with that one after only a couple of dollars too.
I'm an average player who can get a save here and there and had a blast on LOTR where I could win a free game every 2 or 3 rounds. I dropped a lot more money into that one.
TPA is fucking woeful. If anyone ever thinks it's good, remind them it's the same company that released Action 52 on Genesis.
Pinball fans really do deserve better :/
sixteen-bit
Member
Devil's Crush is the GOAT