Pinball Arcade is losing rights to Bally and Williams tables (1 Viewer)

[LeoA]

While just the season 7 pass in my download list is said to be enough, Farsight fixed me up anyways.

They gave me a download code for the pro version of Paragon (Delisted due to a copyright issue, they said), and have fixed the issue with the last three season 7 tables. Free versions are now available for people to purchase to get them in their download list.

They've also within the past day or so wrapped up season 7 on the Xbox One. They were four packs short of the finish line and three of those featured Williams content. So some XB1 fans naturally were a bit concerned that they'd end up with just 6/10th's of a season.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I now own the Arcooda “Cabinet Unlock Key” which provides official cabinet support for 76 tables of the Steam version of “Pinball Arcade”.

In short, it’s fantastic! As promised you get 4 different cabinet views per table. For two-monitor cabinets the DMD is placed below the backglass on the second monitor, and is realistically portrayed between speakers and/or integrated into the scoring. With three monitor cabinets the DMD is sent to the second monitor and the full backglass is delivered to the third monitor.

Not all of the backglasses are fully animated yet and there are a few known bugs on some of the tables running in two-monitor mode, but FarSight has promised to fix all issues — even past the 06/30/2018 deadline.

The caveat, of course, is that everything (the Steam versions of the FarSight tables and the Arcooda cabinet unlock key) must be purchased *before* 06/30/2018.

It’s a real shame that we’re finally getting official cabinet support just weeks before the Williams/Bally tables will no longer be available for purchase.

BTW, while FarSight will be able to continue to sell Stern tables past 06/30 none of those will ever be available with official cabinet support. Evidently, that would be in violation of the terms of the agreement with Stern. What a shame!!

 

[CraigF]

^ It's a shame, for now. Since I'm just reading between the lines, clearly numerous parties believe this "content" has value. Which means they believe they or somebody else can monetize it, which infers new products. I am getting the (maybe false) impression that this content is becoming more valuable, not less, as time goes on.

 

[Steve Y]

The Pinball Arcade platform was updated on June 30th, as expected. The Williams/Bally tables are no longer for sale. Some tables, like Sorcerer, stopped working, but I believe that has since been fixed?

Farsight added three (3) new Stern tables to TPA: Star Trek (Vengeance), Mustang, and AC/DC. These tables were also not working when they launched, but I think they're working now.

Here's the caveat: these tables are $10 each if you buy them in the separate "Stern Pinball Arcade" application, but you CANNOT buy them separately in TPA. You must purchase them as part of two $20 "packs" containing tables many people already own. In other words, if you already own the other tables in the pack, you're paying $10 more for the same content.

Edit: As expected, when the application was updated, I lost purchase rights to a bunch of my tables. This happens regularly. For platforms like the iPad, you have to "Restore purchases" from the data management menu, then load up each table individually to remove the "lock."

 

[Ruz-El]

The Pinball Arcade platform was updated on June 30th, as expected. The Williams/Bally tables are no longer for sale. Some tables, like Sorcerer, stopped working, but I believe that has since been fixed?

Farsight added three (3) new Stern tables to TPA: Star Trek (Vengeance), Mustang, and AC/DC. These tables were also not working when they launched, but I think they're working now.

Here's the caveat: these tables are $10 each if you buy them in the separate "Stern Pinball Arcade" application, but you CANNOT buy them separately in TPA. You must purchase them as part of two $20 "packs" containing tables many people already own. In other words, if you already own the other tables in the pack, you're paying $10 more for the same content.

Edit: As expected, when the application was updated, I lost purchase rights to a bunch of my tables. This happens regularly. For platforms like the iPad, you have to "Restore purchases" from the data management menu, then load up each table individually to remove the "lock."

Saw the Stern packs on PSN, once again legacy supporters get bent over by Farside. I'll hold out for a sale, there's no way I'm paying full price for two packs when I need only 3 tables. It wouldn't kill them to offer them separate or as a legacy.

Harmonix, when RockBand 3 launched, offeres a pre-order deal of 3 or so songs from the Doors. Later on, they offered a "The Doors Greatest Hits Pack" that featured 10-12 songs, including those pre-order tracks. They also offered a "Greatest Hits Legacy Pack that was cheaper and missing the pre-order songs. So the right thing can easily be done by Farside, they just wont do it.

 

[Bryan^H]

Here's the caveat: these tables are $10 each if you buy them in the separate "Stern Pinball Arcade" application, but you CANNOT buy them separately in TPA. You must purchase them as part of two $20 "packs" containing tables many people already own. In other words, if you already own the other tables in the pack, you're paying $10 more for the same content.

I was going to get about 10 tables before the deadline on my Xbox One. Then I found out you could not buy the individual tables instead you had to purchase "packs" for up to $30 each. I gave up interest. Oh well.

 

[Ruz-El]

I was going to get about 10 tables before the deadline on my Xbox One. Then I found out you could not buy the individual tables instead you had to purchase "packs" for up to $30 each. I gave up interest. Oh well.

I don't blame you. IT's a great product, but man, they sure do like to make it difficult to support.

 

[Steve Y]

If you're jonesing for new pinball simulation, there's Zaccaria Pinball, which just got released for the Nintendo Switch (it was already on PC, iOS, and Android). This flew under my radar. For those of you not familiar with Zaccaria, they were an Italian company that released electromechanical and solid state tables from the mid-70s to the late 80s. You won't find anything on the scale of Addams Family (or even Pin*Bot) in terms of design, but these are solid, decent tables.

The physics are occasionally wonky, and the default lighting is.. let's say "overzealous." But the number of customizable options--lighting, audio effects, room textures, physics--is bonkers.

Check out a video of it running on PC. This looks to be the best platform. On the Nintendo Switch, the animation is smooth, but does suffer for some of the more complex tables.

NOTE: I tried to the Android version, and boy howdy, they are really pushing IAPs on that platform, with expensive (and separate) in-app purchases to "unlock" individual options in the settings settings menu sliders (like ball physics, lighting, etc.). Way worse than Farsight. Gross. I definitely don't recommend supporting this kind of business model.

 

[Ruz-El]

I got all but three tables in Pinball Arcade and that's about all the pinball I'm willing to support at the moment. I don't see myself buying anymore from anyone, I'll play what I have and be done. If Farsight didn't insist on f*cking their fans every chance they could, I might feel different.

 

[LeoA]

Was able to buy the pro upgrade for Scared Stiff on the Wii U yesterday.

Farsight became aware that the Wii U eShop was still a thing a couple of weeks ago, but I guess haven't considered disabling Bally/Williams purchases a priority.

In the unlikely event that Farsight takes this past version 1.0 in the process of removing the offending content, I hope the promised Pro Controller support belatedly happens. Not holding my breath though since the Wii U was always an afterthought for Farsight.

 

[Ruz-El]

I got all but three tables in Pinball Arcade and that's about all the pinball I'm willing to support at the moment. I don't see myself buying anymore from anyone, I'll play what I have and be done. If Farsight didn't insist on f*cking their fans every chance they could, I might feel different.

It looks like they put up MUSTANG from the newly created stern pack as a solo purchase for the PS4. Charging $13.99 Canadian for it though. I think they used to sell 2 table packs for that price prior to the seasons being offered.

I'll buy it if it goes on sale or they send out a 20% off coupon.

 

[LeoA]

Someone at I think AtariAge said recently that Farsight said they plan to eventually support cross-buy with these last few Stern tables.

So on the off chance you happened to have bought Mustang already in Stern Pinball Arcade and were rebuying this in regular Pinball Arcade just because you wanted everything accessible via one front-end, it should freely unlock one of these days in TPA.

 

[Steve Y]

Big news out of Zen Studios this week. I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised.

If they can get their physics in order, this is a really great thing for these classic tables. Zen is just a better-built studio than Farsight to handle the rights and logistics of these tables in a way that will be fair to the consumer.

However, I'm not looking forward to having to buy these tables again (considering how much I spend on their earlier incarnations), and do have some concerns about their physics engine. Here are some of the tables in action (beta versions available via Steam):



Edit: Those of you that have tried Zen's virtual reality tables in PSVR... this has some really amazing potential.

 

[Ruz-El]

I've never cared for the Zen mechanics, so I doubt I'll bite on any of these.

 

[LeoA]

While they look pretty, I'm only interested in Williams/Bally tables not already modeled in Pinball Arcade.

So hopefully they're looking past what Farsight already has done, since they're in for a tough job otherwise since so many videogame pinball fans have already bought heavily into Pinball Arcade and aren't going to be lining up at the door to rebuy the same tables. I'm glad though that this library won't stay idle for long though, although I'd of preferred a continuation of the Farsight relationship.

I kind of thought though that the developer/publisher for Zaccaria Pinball might have been the culprit behind this, since I hear that pinball sim has good physics and looks good, but is perhaps held back a bit by the tables modeled for it. I thought perhaps they dangled a carrot in front of Scientific Games to get the license away from Farsight to get some higher quality content to model.

But I never for a second thought it would be Zen Pinball/Pinball FX behind it all. Have they ever done any real-life tables in the past? I remember buying El Dorado years ago thinking it was the Gottlieb table, but ended up with a typical Pinball FX videogame pinball table instead.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Based on playing around with the Zen Studios Steam beta of “Fish Tales”, I can state that both the ball physics and lighting effects exceed Farsight’s equivalent table. It’s enough of a difference that I might consider repurchasing.

But I agree that Zen would be better served to deliver reproductions of tables not already released by Farsight. It’s my understanding that the next four tables may include “Revenge From Mars” — the sequel to “Attack From Mars” — which is a pinball/video game hybrid.
That kind of table is right in their wheelhouse! There are also plenty of popular tables that require cross license fees — like the Williams “Indiana Jones” — which Zen may be able to do since they have already paid license fees to Disney for Star Wars and Marvel.

 

[Bryan^H]

Zen feels off to me. I'm not impressed at all with their emulations, but do like their original themed tables for what they are.

I feel Williams was in better hands with Farsight, and miss the tables coming out.

 

[Ruz-El]

Zen feels off to me. I'm not impressed at all with their emulations, but do like their original themed tables for what they are.

I feel Williams was in better hands with Farsight, and miss the tables coming out.

Couldn't agree more. That said, the loss and Farsight's cost on the PS4 has me not supporting either anymore.

 

[Bryan^H]

It is just a crying shame that Pinball Arcade lost the rights to the Williams tables.

Zen studios has been nothing but awful in handling the release of the tables--from releasing them snail pace (lower sales than anticipated) to censoring the classic tables in both artwork, and gameplay (Creature From the Black Lagoon) the point of Pinball emulation is to emulate!
And lackluster responses to the "big" releases like "Addams Family", and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" paraphrasing --Those tables will cost a lot, wait and see(Farsight found a way, and it worked)--Translation, we will never see them. But to be honest I don't care.

And did Farsight just give up on releasing more classic tables? So many beutiful solid state, and Dot Matrix tables just begging for release--Gottleib. Stern, Sega, etc.

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[Ruz-El]

I think Pinball Arcade is basically dead at this point. Anything I've seen out of Farsight the past year was a bowling game and some other pinball type soccer game or something? A real shame. I used to play it daily.