/vr/ - Retro Games

I like pinball

>>6112264
>need a large house with a large basement
>need a large income since most Pinball machines start at $3000+
>Need a huge income since the better Williams/Bally's machines cost $7000+
>cucked Millennial priced out of housing market

fuck....

I got the world record (tm) on a Shrek pinball in a bowling under my flat some weeks ago.
Pic fucking related

>>6112294
iktf bro
>tfw renting 40 m2 (400 sq ft) shoebox apartment
>can't even pay rent by myself and have to get gibs from boomer parents

>>6112327
GG mec ;)

>>6112294
>>6112331
Work hard so you can have a boomer-tier garage and store a handful of machines when you'll make it.

>>6112383
$400,000+ houses and a 65k a year job don't lend themselves to being able to afford pinball machines that literally cost thousands of dollars. The medium income alone across the US proves that this isn't a matter of not "working hard." You can work your ass off and still be poor.

>>6112383
Thanks, frenchfag bro

What Pinball machines do you guys have at your Round 1?

>>6112294
As someone who has owned machines, it's not really worth it anymore. The prices have gone through the roof over the last 10 years, and people aren't really willing to give up their collections like they were back in the late 00s. You're really better off just trying to find a local spot with machines and playing what they've got. It's not the best solution for everybody, but neither is buying expensive machines that you will most likely never get your money's worth out of.

>>6112264
I haven't played any in over 20 years, but I used to play White Water back in '93. Great table.

>go to my local pub to play pinball
>drink beer because it's a pub
>my skill drops so fucking fast

>>6112327
Sup Joe

>>6112870
The more I drink the better I get

>>6112870
I hear you anon, I hear you.

>>6112889
Sup anon
Btw i'm also the wine cellar frenchfag from the battle station thread

>>6112904
Salut

>>6112294
You might as well just build a vpinmame cabinet. It's not quite the same sure but the recreations are so accurate on many tables that the ball even gets stuck in the same places as the original tables (and you don't have to pull the glass to continue playing). You can flip through hundreds of tables with the push of a button and there are setups with features like glassesless-3D and eye motion tracking as well as tilt buttons on the sides all for a fraction of the price of a single common analog game. I'm sure there were plenty of players in the 70's-90's that would have killed for a setup like that.

I was publicly shamed by pinball lefty-types for something utterly innocuous, and it took most of the enjoyment out of pinball for me. Pinball was one of the few good things in my life. So far, nothing has replaced it.

Sorry to be melodramatic, or whatever. It's possible that everyone but me would not be suffering if they were put in my place and given my problems.

>>6113040
What was it

>>6113041
Not going to tell you. My story is identifiable enough as it is.

>>6113097
Why bring it up then you little snowflake

>>6113040
Just hang out on Pinside, I never see any of that horseshit over there.

>The Munsters
>Black Knight: Sword of Rage
>Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
>Cosmic Carnival
>Star Wars (home edition)
>Jurassic Park
>Elvira's House of Horrors
>Stranger Things
Best machine of 2019?
Worst machine of 2019?

>>6113118
lol

>>6113128
I've only played 3 of those and it's hard to pick which one I've liked most...
1. Munsters
2. Willy wonka
3. Jurassic Park
But I've liked them all so far

>have to go to the city to see some shitty comedian with a friend
>But there's a barcade with 10 machines the next day

Worth it :)

>>6113040
Lol, man, it sure is easy to not be an asshole, how the fuck do you shit the bed on that?

>>6113040
You said nigger in front of people didn't you

>>6113128
>mfw I purchased a Black Knight LE

>>6113337
>>6113374
No, it was something really small. Comically trivial and inoffensive.

>>6113523
I was disappointed by every single game that was released this year, but I don't think any single game dropped the ball harder than Sword of Rage did. I'm so sorry
Ironically, the game I hated the least was the Star Wars home model. That layout is the closest thing to SOUL that Stern has ever put out in the past 10 years and I wish it wasn't wasted on a home model

Upcoming Arcade1up virtual pinball machine Pinball FX 3 tables including Williams classics

https://youtu.be/mKJJCSGvuoY

>>6113685
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/arcade1up-pinball-star-wars-virtual-pinball-machine-

>>6113668
>SOUL

We're all adults here, can we please stop using this idiotic term. I'm sure we can do better than this.

>>6113765
>SOULLESS

>>6113668
I'm going back to DMD. Fuck those useless LCD and the layout as steril as Gary Stern's balls.

ATTENTION: This is now a GRAND LIZARD thread. Thanks

>>6115157
What's good about it?
Also, why do people wank over Sword of Fury?

>>6115456
Nothing terribly special about Grand Lizard. Has great sound for the time. Also has a pretty unique layout for the time, with two ramps and four flippers.
Swords of Fury isn't a great game on its own but has really nice art and music. I'm of the opinion that there's no such thing as a bad System 11 game; they had great people making games back then.

>>6112294
Arcade1up is coming out with some virtual pinball cabs that will probably be affordable. Just go for that. Outside of that, build a virtual cab for a couple grand. I don't even know why you'd bother with an old style full moving parts playfield pinball machine in 2020.

>>6118130
>Why bother with you whole point of pinball when you could have a screen.

>>6118130
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/arcade1up-pinball-star-wars-virtual-pinball-machine-/page/4#post-5398628

>>6118324

Bought this small Atomic Pinball machine from Goodwill for 30 bucks. It’ll do till I get the space/income for something better

>mfw I damaged a friend's pinball and didn't tell

I'm sorry Thomas, it's the only place I can confess.

>>6118158
That plays overall the same. I mean you can prefer a regular machine. That's your right. But like, for real, a virtual machine can have hundreds of completely realistic tables for like a quarter the price of a real table, which only has one. If you're rich, then I guess the real machine is fine. Otherwise, the virtual one just makes way more sense.

>>6118325
>>6118324
Supposedly there is going to be a universal one as well. I am curious of the price they'll go with. Supposedly between 450-650. Hopefully on the lower end. Also curious on the amount of tables on it. Need at least like 10.

>>6118820
How about the physics?

>>6118820
The Attack from Mars unit has 10 tables apparently, hopefully all Bally/Williams. The vid where this is mentioned and price etc is here:

https://youtu.be/UCjA0-wqWPM

>>6112294
what's wrong with digital pinball? Why would you want some hugeass thing taking up space and generating lots of heat?

>>6118827
Also The tables have WiFi so I’m hoping some kind of universal scoreboard is integrated. The software backend is Pinball FX so I’d say this is quite possible.

>>6118835
It's not pinball, it's a video game.

>>6118835
Tfw things have fallen so far people defend digital pinball.

>>6118825
They tend to be recreated perfectly.

>>6118938
No one wants to defend 7000 dollar machines that need constant maintence. There is a better way now.

>>6118954
Is that so? I only played visual pinball X and it wasn't convincing.

>>6118954
Being able to repair a pinball machine is a skill; buying a big box with a big screen... not so much.

>>6118954
Tfw people prefer fake pinball

>>6119092
Just took a quick look on Youtube, those guys look hillariously bad

>but bro, I can play over 200 tables!

>>6119109
bad players I mean

>>6119109
They'll never know what it's like to master a table. Forever bouncing around trying to find better tables.

>>6119119
Indeed, anon.
I still remember how much fun I had the first I toured the mansion in The Addams Family at my local bar.
Can a physical plunger even work with those things for that sweet Lawlor skillshot?

>>6119092
Maybe they should make cheaper machines that more than a handful of retired boomers can afford

>>6119994
Well... what price range do you have in mind? Are you willing to buy used?

>>6118954
Virtual Pinball runs on an emulator, why would you buy a virtual pinball machine, when you can play it for free on your PC and just use a controller. You're just buying an expensive screen and a couple buttons with Virtual Pinball.

>>6121785
Because the point is to recreate the real experience.

You want to be standing at a pin table and hit flipper buttons while playing

>>6123324
Not much more realistic, it is still easy to suck you in and forget you are using a contoller.

What's your favourite DMD?
Mine is Judge Dredd; the game does a really poor job at explaining the somewhat deep rules, but the playfield layout is fantastic to me.

>>6123324
You're just trying to convince yourself that you're not playing a video game. It's not a real experience at all when there's not even a knocker in your big LCD box.

>>6123372
I fucking love Dredd and it's the table I want to own irl but God damn I'd change so much.

If I ever win the lottery I think I'd pay someone to homebrew the firmware and make custom changes to it.

>>6118954
Look at this duuuuude

>>6113128
Munsters - felt like a rushed job to get this one out the door before CGC released MBR. Game wasn't that bad but early code gave it a bad rap.
BK - I enjoyed this one, but only the premium/LE version. They should have skipped pro as I think that gave the game poor reviews.
Wonka - probably the best JJP game to date (fuck pirates) but I've seen so many of them set up poorly cause the ball to drain out of the pops unfairly.
Cosmic - absolute fucking trash with nice art. Would have been acceptable if code was anywhere near finished and shot geometry was set up better. As it sits a good shot to the inner loop will cause a SDTM drain on the one example I played.
SW - haven't had the opportunity to play one.
JP - Elwin nailed the layout on this. Super fun to flip. Art, animation, voice/assets are a total letdown in comparison.
Elvira - Solid game overall but doesn't live up to its pricetag.
ST - didn't get a chance to play but I like the mechs and projectors will be fun tech at least in dark locations.

Best 2019 Wonka as its Pat's best layout to date
Worst 2019 WOZ yellow brick as its a shitty cashgrab by a company who should know better

>>6123417
What changes did you have in mind? Custom roms and ruleset rebalancing are super interesting to me; I've looked at games like Gilligan's Island and Transporter before

What killed Cosmic was the central scoop. The thing that we've learned is that symmetry is usually bad and scoops are a necessary evil at best. Unless they just kickout to a flipper return lane. Even those are kind of shitty, actually.
When I heard Keith Elwin say that he didn't like scoops and didn't plan on putting any in JP, I thought about it and then realized that scoops are kind of stupid. Just use up posts (if possible).

Wonka tip: go for ramps on your first ball. Ramps are worth 1, 2, and 3 tickets respectively. Those build bonus, which carries over from ball to ball at certain intervals.

>>6123828
Uh... define cashgrab. What is a company trying to grab, if not money?

>>6123417
>>6123952
Yes, tell us more.

>>6123973
>define cashgrab
Making a "special edition" that has less features the previous special editions (that are still available) and costs more. The only selling point is "but this one is yellow!"

>>6124092
>jjp will remake wizard of oz but won't do another run of pirates
I'm mad

>>6112264
I just came here to post this
https://youtu.be/FASUZRYs0fM

>>6112327
Ukka La Poku

>>6114029
>I'm going back to DMD.
I never left alphanumeric.

>>6124114
They didn't do more runs because sales of the game weren't very good. Jack's business model is if there is enough demand they'll start making more which is why they have done so many runs of WOZ now. I bet they will do another run right before the license runs out.

>>6125418
but how isn’t there enough demand if I’m gonna buy one?
was it actually sales? everybody who bought one mentions loving the game to bits, but I remember hearing that it was a tech support nightmare for jjp

>>6118130
I may end up going this route, especially if it comes with more than just Attack on Mars. I have Pinball Arcade on Steam as well, and got all the Bally/Williams tables before they got pulled for licensing.

>>6125517
It was a combination really, sales took a big hit when they pulled the map and chest mechs out as people started cancelling preorders. Tech became an issue because they stopped production early and spare parts were not made available. Last, they had really narrow margin on profit to begin and expected it to sell in big volume because of the theme.

>>6124092
Apparently that's not the only selling point, because JJP sold a bunch of Yellow Brick Road's and presumably their business decision was validated.

>>6125418
Why do you think the sales weren't very good? They sold 1000, which might just be the number they were planning on selling all along.

>>6125731
WOZ sells well, really no surprise that they will get orders no matter what. My point is that YBR was shameful in that it removed features but had a higher pricetag. The only thing that separates the game is metalflake in the playfield art. Is that worth 2k more than a ruby red which has the monkey mech and a mirrored backglass?
I think the most telling part of pirates being cut short is that YBR's run was made with pirates cabinets that they had after stopping the run. Its why the flying monkey was removed, the mechanism didn't fit pirate's cabinet.

>>6125892
wtf i hate jjp now

>tfw moved to bumfuck nowhere and haven't played pinball in six months
I miss it, bros.

>>6126986
https://pinballmap.com/
https://pinside.com/pinball/map/mapbox

How far is the nearest machines?

>>6121785
I got an old empty Capt. Card cab, legs and side rails for 50 bucks on craigslist. I used a $20 arcade button set from amazon and the screen/pc I already had. it's pretty great being able to play it that way.

>>6125892
I have words of wisdom for you, and I would like for you to treasure them: Something is worth only what people are willing to pay for it. People were willing to pay more, so they charged more.

Didn't know that about Pirates. Counterpoint: Pirates is still selling used for big bucks, so there must be demand for more of them.

>>6128587
I feel like tech support has to have been more of a factor in halting sales of Pirates than demand was; people would absolutely buy the game if they did another run. It's the only good game that JJP has ever released, man

>>6128587
"There's a sucker born every minute"
Seeing how distributors still have YBR machines in stock out of the only 200 made I'd say most people didn't think they were worth it.

What do you guys think of the arcade1up and toyshark 3/4th scale virtual pinball cabinets?

>>6128859
I'm not about virtual pinball and arcade1up's standard arcade cabinets are shoddy so hopes are pretty low

>>6127269
There's only a couple run-down, shitty Sterns. I'd have to drive an hour and a half for some decent pinball.

>>6128859
They look like trash, and have a poor selection of games. You can diy a better product for less

Can count on your fingers the number of public pins in my country with a hand left over.

But there's one bar arcade with a dozen pins. I'm going this weekend to play. Gonna have to stay at a hostel and make a 2 day thing out of it.

What do you guys make of the selection?

>>6128735
That's a good point. But have the not-sold units been discounted? And are distributors allowed to discount what they can't sell?

>>6112630
>$400,000+ houses and a 65k a year job don't lend themselves to being able to afford pinball machines that literally cost thousands of dollars. The medium income alone across the US proves that this isn't a matter of not "working hard." You can work your ass off and still be poor.

Most poor work very hard. Because they have the most supervision at jobs. The higher up you go in the business world, the less micro managing and the lower the expectations.

>>6113040
>I was publicly shamed by pinball lefty-types for something utterly innocuous, and it took most of the enjoyment out of pinball for me. Pinball was one of the few good things in my life. So far, nothing has replaced it.
>Sorry to be melodramatic, or whatever. It's possible that everyone but me would not be suffering if they were put in my place and given my problems.

Didn't you make a big thing our of this on twitter until they apologized and rectified the situation.

Libtards do it all the time. The gay lotion in the video game joke is proof of this.

>>6113374
>>>6113040
>You said nigger in front of people didn't you

Nothing wrong with that. Until it is wrong to use whyte peepol as a pejorative; I will use any slur I damn well please. Including nigger.

Seethe at my freedom of speech bitch.

>>6113337
>>>6113040
>Lol, man, it sure is easy to not be an asshole, how the fuck do you shit the bed on that?

hwhatt you talkin aboot? He dindu nuffin. He a gud boi. Go to da church. Tryin go to da college.

>>6130240
Looks to me like you'll have a fun time. I usually find the one game that's in the best working order with collections like these and spend most of my time playing that

>>6130338
Dealers can't advertise less than MSRP on JJP games. If you call and ask or email they can deal.

>>6113374

>>6130410
This guy is replying as if he's me, and he's not. I'm the one that got shamed, not him.

>>6130409
What's this? That doesn't sound like what happened to me,


>>6130240
Seems great!

>jjp probably going to just release Yet Another Fucking Music Pin as their one machine this year
>spooky releasing a highly limited run of rick and morty games that you'll never get to play (except why would you want to)
>stern

is there any hope at all this year lads

>>6132421
Toy Story
Hot Wheels
Cactus Canyon Remake

I'm looking forward to R&M because of the design team is some of the best new blood in the the business today. Other than that it might not be a great year.

>mfw The Addams Family gets a lot of hate

Why?

>>6113128
Best has gotta be Black Knight,

worst is gonna be Star Wars home edition. playfield is still boring and bare as hell. Also literally why purchase a home edition when the real thing is only slightly more expensive? maybe I'm more willing to drop cash on a machine due to all my time working in the arcade industry.

>>6132685
Because its stairs to chair all day. It sits in that era where games were just starting to get deeper rulesets but TAF is still considered to be somewhat shallow. When you compare it to its follow up, Twilight Zone, you can see why people are critical of it. Then again TZ was a flop on release though because it was so difficult to the average player and it was a nightmare for operators to keep working.

>>6132728
I still wish I could find a TAF for a non-retarded price.
I think Lawlor admitted, in retrospect, that he went too far with TZ.

What's your opinion on No Good Gofers?

>>6132740
Underrated, but the flow of it is a little clunky.

>>6132728
>sold over 10,000 units
>flop
It was more like “TZ is a machine we will probably never do again.” It was a lot better off than Popeye at least

>>6113668
>>6132697
The duality of man

>>6133962
It had good initial sales because every operator thought it was going to be the next Addams. Distributors got stuck with tons of them they couldn't get rid of. It was incidents like this that caused distributors to take a cautious wait and see approach to ordering. Thats how MM had such a small run despite being so popular. Dealers had a ton of inventory of that shitheap NBA fastbreak and didn't want to get stuck with more duds. Once the word was out MM was a money maker they were demanding more be made but Williams management was already crashing the division and refused. Either you ordered on release or fuck you.

>>6134556
Never knew that. Good info.

>>6132728
Honestly, I think TZ is still pretty shallow where you're shooting the same sequence of shots ad infinitum.

>>6134650
Yeah most of the work is done through the slot machine, but it does have the ramps and loop for gumball, the powerball, battle the power, and player piano. Getting to lost in the zone takes 14 modes, for the the time it was a big leap forward in rulesets.

>>6134816
Not even the slot machine.
If you continuously go left ramp -> right ramp -> mini flipper -> lock, you can see practically everything the game has to offer. Ramps light both multiball locks. Piano starts modes. The modes can be easily ignored, so you'd only ever break away from this cycle to lock your gumballs.

>>6112264
Pinball Dreams, Amiga version.

>>6134843
The powerfield, gumball machine, and camera went a long way to add more depth to a pinball game at a time when games usually only offered modes and multiballs separately without obvious ways of tying everything together. Strategies switched from "pick either/or and go for it" to "change up how you're playing the game based on what's available."
That said, I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with easily being able to see what a game has to offer. If a game is too easy, then you start putting giant rubber posts on ramps and removing outlane posts so that getting to the end feels more rewarding; you know exactly what you have to do, but the game'll try to stop you every step of the way, forcing you to get craftier with your shots. I absolutely adore older games like Frontier and Paragon for this reason; you know immediately what you're supposed to be doing, but the games are built to drain your ball, which forces you to get crafty with your shots from the get-go with nudging and really stupid backhands in order to get the best scores possible. Just as well, I'd rather play Twilight Zone than a lot of more modern games with more extensive code.

>>6132740
They aren't games I'm desperate to go back and play, but there's something special about Williams's B-list titles from the late 90's that I appreciate. Junk Yard, No Good Gofers, and Champion Pub all bleed that same whimsical 90's Dreamcast optimism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A2_bKn6sbg

>>6138965
What do you guys think of it?

>>6138969
doesn't look much more exciting than the pro which isn't exciting to begin with

>>6132685
The game's flowchart is pretty simple. A lot of the playable-modes are not worth playing, score-wise. And I miss my ball save and autoplunger!
>>6138969
>>6138965
That spinner with the projection on it (visible through the extra cameras) is incredible. I wouldn't have predicted how much I would like it, but I really do love it.

>>6140164
>A lot of the playable-modes are not worth playing, score-wise

You playing for fun , right?

>>6112870
funnily the opposite can happen if you would have only played pinball while drinking beer

>>6112264


My favorite all time pinball machine is Space Shuttle. Unfortunately there is not a single one anywhere near me. I take my kids over to https://www.funspotnh.com/-Articles/pc-nhtodo.htm every other month but despite all their pinball machines...no Space Shuttle.

Its kind of odd because Space Shuttle was one of the best selling games of its day. My favorite of the modern pins is Monsters Of Rock and they don't have that either. Lots of other good shit there though.

>>6118130
I enjoy computer pinball games, but so much of the appeal is getting to play a physical game at the speed of a computer game. the feels are one thing, but it's also just an impressive feat of design/phyisics/electronics.

>>6123324
all they need is haptic feedback from real solenoids and bumpers in the machine

>>6140783
>Monsters Of Rock
You mean Monster Bash?

Never heard of Space Shuttle.

>>6130240
4 tables were missing from this list.
Twilight zone tilted if you sneezed near it,
Medieval madness' ball on the playfield was literally floating right as the playfield wasn't even
Funhouse was broken and the TNA left flipper was weak but other than that I had fun.

Seems like pinball is a fucking hell of a finicky hobby and the maintenance is quite shocking.

>>6140783
Space shuttles all got played to death, and back then operators would junk machines that weren't making money anymore.

They really need to get rid of the 14 day bump limit on /vr/. This is the ONLY board that has that shit and there is NO reason for it. They just randomly forced it on this board and ONLY this board for no fucking reason.