Topic: Attention Mac/iOS-owning Pinball Fans!

Farsight Studios, the developers who brought us Gottlieb Pinball Classics and Williams Pinball Classics on the Wii, have released a new title in the Mac App store: Pinball Arcade. It appears they're going to be bringing their pinball goodness direct to the masses (I would presume this will be available on Windows in some form as well). There are four tables included, only one of which was released previously, from four different publishers:

Arabian Nights (Williams)
Black Hole (Gottlieb - available on Gottlieb Pinball Classics)
Ripley's Believe It or Not! (Stern
Theatre of Magic (Bally)

Table presentation is excellent; especially with enhanced resolution available on computers (looks ace on my plasma - my Mac Mini is hooked up to my TV) and the controls/ball physics are good. There's also three camera angles available, though I found the default to be acceptable.

My major gripes are the lack of control options (mouse-keyboard only), non-intuitive fullscreen toggle (Ctrl-Command-F) and the lack of table tutorials as was included in the Wii collections. I think the latter are forthcoming as there's some stub instructions that reference a table tour, but none is included. The 1.0.1 release only happened on the 16th of April so there's clearly still development happening on it. I've written a review requesting USB gamepad support, a more standard ESC to exit fullscreen mode and the tutorials, so hopefully these will happen eventually.

The blurb states the four included tables are only the beginning with the promise of a new table release every month. Very much hoping we'll see stuff like 8-Ball Deluxe or Space Invaders from Bally, and a whole host of tables from the other three they have rights to. They've mentioned a number of great ones from the Williams and Gottlieb collections as well as ones that didn't appear there like Attack from Mars. I know most people's favourites are based upon licensed properties, but I doubt we'll see those any time soon. I don't really care because there's so many brilliant original tables that have been made over the years. I'd love to get to play Williams Defender for the first time or Firepower II, which is one of my earliest pinball memories.

I think the £6.99 price is pretty reasonable, so it was an instant buy from me. Glad I decided to poke around the App store just for fun!

It's also available as an iOS app for only 69p, but you have to pay extra for the tables. In that version you have three additional tables available, including Bride of Pin-Bot and Medieval Madness. Brilliant!

New update for iOS owners adds Funhouse (previously on Williams Pinball Classics for Wii, PS3, XBox360, etc.) and Bally's 1997 table Cirqus Voltaire. As with previous updates you can buy the tables for £1.99 each or both for £2.99 (I assume US prices are something like $3ea. or both for $5). Cirqus Voltaire is the free table this month and it's a corker!

I tried a real Cirqus Voltaire table a few months ago at an arcade about an hour away and it's really awesome. Very flashy, and the ringmaster lends some nice character to it.

I think I'll pass on Funhouse (have it on the Williams 3DS collection) but pick up Voltaire when it goes pay next month. I still haven't put as much time into Medieval Madness as I would have liked.

Thanks for the heads up Sean! I didn't realize that this had landed on iOS as well. I've got it for Vita/PS3 and I'm really enjoying the tables. It's a nice change from Zen Studio's — also fantastic — but less realistic ball physics. I actually almost fully completed the Arabian Nights table this week, but let my nerves get the best of me, and sunk my last ball right before finishing off the genie.

Headed to download the iOS version so I can take these tables with me wherever. Thanks again dude!

Very nice on the iPhone, but I knew it would be awesome on the iPad. I'm hoping we'll see some more Gottlieb tables as well. My faves from the Wii/GameCube/PS2 collection are the older ones: Big Shot, Aces High and Central Park. I wouldn't mind seeing Victory though and Tee'd Off - if they can fix it like they did Black Hole. I found it impossible to shoot that red ramp you need to progress in that game!

One thing that annoys me is the scores don't always update properly. I'll get my brag post in on my wall, but it can take a week+ for the leader board to update on some tables.

I haven't noticed any issues with the leader boards on the PSV/PS3 versions. Black Hole is a great table, but dang is it flippin' hard. I think my high score there is currently around 60k. I haven't played it too much, as I've been working on Arabian Nights, but I'm looking forward to really taking it on headfirst. I completely forgot that I can pop this on my wife's iPad. I'll do that tonight too!

I think it's because they're using Facebook for the scores. Supposedly Game Center support is in the works - this would get me to actually use it!

I just saw this and figured you guys might be interested. FarSight Studios is using Kickstarter to acquire the funding for the Twilight Zone DLC table.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1067367405/pinball-arcade...

Oh yeah. I've sent a tip to NL, so hopefully Mr. Wahlgren or similar will share the news about the campaign aaaaand the fact that Pinball Arcade is coming to 3DS/Wii-U! Yeaaaaaah Pinball!

Oh, and I've made my pledge, I hope y'all do the same as I'd like to see some other NL'ers in the tournament!

It was known that Pinball Arcade was coming to 3DS/Wii U so I don't think we'll be doing a story on it.

HOWEVA

I saw the Kickstarter yesterday and pledged my $10. Veeeery excited!

It was? Guess I missed the memo. How about an interview with Jay then and mention of the kickstarter campaign?

Thanks to Tom for the article. In case no one has been following it, Farsight announced a stretch goal of $110,000 to cover licensing for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which is my favourite licensed table. Within several hours of this announcement the goal for Twilight Zone was exceeded, so brilliant result. Even if the stretch goal isn't reached, any monies will go to offset a future kickstarter campaign to get the rest of the license fee. Of course if they do reach it, anyone pledging for the current campaign will get both Twilight Zone and ST:TNG tables when they appear.

comment much