Topic: Pinball Discussion (Real Tables, Zen Pinball, Pinball Arcade, etc)

I've been having lots of fun playing Zen Pinball (the Android version most recently, but I also have Zen 3D & Marvel 3D on my 3DS). Figured Pinball may have a large enough following to warrant it's own thread. Hope this is okay.

Tables I have are:

• Blade (Zen Marvel 3DS)
• Captain America (Zen Marvel 3DS)
• Earth Defense (Zen 3DS)
• El Dorado (Zen 3DS)
• Excalibur (Zen 3DS)
• Fantastic Four (Zen Marvel 3DS)
• Invincible Iron Man (Zen Marvel 3DS)
• Portal Pinball (Zen Android)
• Shaman (Zen 3DS)
• Sorcerer's Lair (Zen Android)
• South Park: Super Sweet Pinball (Zen Android)

So, what tables do you have, and in what format?

While not mine, the household I'm in does have this:

The only pinball game I ever LOVED was this one:

In which the game cartridge looks like this:

It went beyond the shameless cash grab that it could have been and was actually a brilliant pinball game in its own right, Pokémon or not. Many, many sleepless nights were lost to this little gem!

I have played Zen Pen ball but I prefer Pinball Arcade due to the fact that they use real licensed tables in it, like Black Knight, The Addams Family, Medevil Madness and a ton more.

Pinball is a guilty pleasure of mine even though I am not good at them, I still have alot of fun with them. Usually I play them on a something like a console or my phone since I really don't go anywhere that has an actually pinball machine, although this past weekend I did play a real Black Knight and Black Hole machine at PRGE.

I definitely prefer the Pinball Arcade, I've never been able to get into Zen Pinball, the physics, layouts, and rulesets I just don't like. I much prefer real pinball! Now that I have a job, I'm actually trying to save up for a pinball machine, and I may end up being able to borrow a Super Mario Bros. from a friend, although nothing is set in stone.

I'm also actually slowly working on a pinball game for Future Pinball at the moment, called Joe's Ultimate Bus Ride. Here's a screenshot of it so far:

There's an arcade near me with a really nice Lord of the Rings, so I really enjoy going in there to play every now and then!

^Oh wow, I never knew there was a real world Mario table. Probably unlikely, but it would be cool if the Pinball Arcade were to get it one day.

Yeah, it's pretty fun! It's not the best game out there, but it implements the the theme really well with some great art and sound, and the ruleset, while simple, still offers plenty to do. The play field layout is really great too, in my opinion.

BTW, if anyone here is selling a pinball machine, or knows anyone who is, at a good price, let me know! I might be interested!

BTW, I know most of you aren't big on Zen Pinball, but does anyone know why the Earth Defense, El Dorado, & Plants VS Zombies tables aren't available for purchase in the Android version? It still has access to the leaderboards for the tables (at least Earth Defense), but they're nowhere to be found elsewhere in the app.

I'm not fussed about the latter two, but Earth Defense is by far my favorite table in the 3DS version (my score in that version is over 450 million), and it's the only one I'd double dip for.

EDIT: out of the three missing tables I mentioned, Earth Defense is the only one that has a leaderboard on Android, and interestingly enough, it only has one person ranked in all time (no one at all ranked in the other categories).

Maybe they're getting ready to release it, and the one person ranked is a playtester or something?

This vintage electro-mechanical table used to be mine but i had to sell it on because i lacked the funds & time to restore it.

years ago i heared about a game that lets you make your own pinball tables. but i forgot the name and never played it. anybody know what im talking about?

I'm pretty excited. I completed the final mission in my last run of Sorcerer's Lair (Zen Android), and when all was said & done I scored a little over 125 million. I know it's probably a bit easier because it's the free table they use to lure you into the game, but this is the first time I've ever "completed" a pinball table.

Do you remember what platform? There's a game like that on the Google Play store (though the name isn't coming to me at the moment), but I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for.

@6ch6ris6 There's quite a few different games that allow you to design your own pinball tables, but only a very small few are actually any good. Most of them simply involve letting you place a few objects around, but no ability to create rule sets, custom sounds, or anything like that. Future Pinball or Visual Pinball are probably your best bet if you want to try and design a game.

The ancient Apple IIe already had Night Mission, a pinball simulator that allowed you to redesign the playfield (1982?). But you're probably thinking about Pinball Construction Kit for PC/Win'95. This was actually an excellent piece of software with a couple of pre-built tables. You could import your own graphics and sounds - I remember i made an XXX rated table - and it had all the usual bells & whistles like drop targets, switches, saucers and kickers. I've tried to install it on my current Win 7 system but that didnt work alas.

I love pinball although I'm terrible at it. As a child I never went to arcades though, so I never grew up playing pinball. I was playing them on PC and consoles though, which was my first introduction to the world of pinball. After many years though, I decided that real pinball and their rulesets are better than those pinball games that have those video-gamey additions to appeal to people who would normally never touch pinball. That said, I love The Pinball Arcade because I can finally play all those real pins that I never got to play back when I was growing up. I also have Zen Pinball 2 (both games on Vita), but I play TPA far more than ZP2.

I have all TPA pins except for 4 of the latest ones. I have loads of ZP2 pins as well, but I haven't gotten many of the latest ones because I'm not interested in them. For example, I'm not a fan of South Park and I've never seen any of the four shows in their latest pack. My fave pin ever (in ZP2) is Super League Football. Nothing else comes close to it IMO. Overall I prefer their generic pins over their copyrighted pins. Most of my fave pins from them are generic ones. I'm looking forward to their next generic pack, one of which features a Greek mythology theme. I love Greek mythology.

I also love the Pro Pinball series (PC) and Revenge of the 'Gator. The latter is one of my fave GB games ever.

Since it was only $1, I picked up the Mars table (Zen Android) to have a nice even number of tables.

While it has a lot going on visually (such as a Space Shuttle that flies in & out of the playing field), the table design itself is pretty simple, which I find nice. It has very easy to activate kickbacks, but it's pretty tough to get a high score (I haven't yet ran into anything that gives a bigger bonus than 500,000 points.

Also downloaded Pinball Arcade, but haven't tried it yet. Mainly because you can't buy tables individually (you have to buy them in packs of at least two). Luckily, they offer free trials of all of their tables, so I'll just be doing that for now.

Not for all their pins. The earlier pins came in packs of 2 because it was 1 pin plus a pin that they had previously digitized before in the Pinball Hall of Fame collections. Once they went through their previously digitized pins, their packs switched from 2 in a pack to just 1 in a pack, starting from Season 3. The only exceptions are the kickstarter pins like Twilight Zone and T2. I'm not sure if it's the same for Android though. What I just said is based on the PSN version.

To help you out, I can give you a list of some of my fave pins if you wanna try them:

Medieval Madness
Monster Bash
Space Shuttle
Theatre of Magic
Black Rose
Fish Tales
Star Trek
Whirlwind
Big Shot (my fave EM in the game)
Scared Stiff

That's just some of my faves

Anyway, I hope you enjoy TPA. PS. I dunno why some people call it PBA. Pinball is one word, not two.

Note on Scared Stiff though. If you like that pin and want to buy it, make sure you cough up a bit more to get the Pro version. The regular version doesn't have Family Mode turned off, whereas the Pro Mode lets you turn it on, which makes the pin infinitely better. Turning FM off 'unlocks' all the risque dialog that isn't suitable for families.. There's a ton cut out in the regular version so you're missing out on a lot if you don't get the Pro version.

P.S. Those free trials suck, since in most cases you need to play it for a while to see all the new modes/features the pin has to offer, and with these trials, you never can play long enough to decide if you love it or not. I'd suggest you actually look at gameplay videos on youtube (either the real pins or the TPA version) to get a better idea of how a pin plays. You can also go to http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl (The Internet Pinball Database) to see lots of close ups of the pin, and reviews by people. It's a really awesome database on every pinball table ever made.

@RR529 Whitewater is my personal favorite, and Red and Ted's Roadshow, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Twilight Zone, and Diner or Taxi are all really good, too!

@Freelance If you like Greek mythology and the Pro Pinball series, you should check out Pinball Pulse: The Ancients Beckon on the eShop. It was made by the same guys who did the Pro Pinball games and has a Greek mythology theme! An extensive ruleset, amazing physics, and good sound and music all add up to make it a must have for anyone who likes pinball, I know it's one of my favorite pinball games!

Ha, thanks @mystman12, but I actually already have that game. Unfortunately, it was stupid to set the nudging to the touch screen. Ugh. It would have been perfect if I could use a button to do that.

I actually really like the touchscreen nudge, as it allows for a good amount of precision. I've managed to bounce the ball out of the drain a few times, and I also know how to nudge the ball through the one-way gate at the right outlane. I don't really like using my finger on the touchscreen, and a circle pad would probably be better, but since it was for DSi, I figure the touchscreen was the best way to go.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I did try the free demo of a pirate themed table (I think it was the Black Rose one you mentioned), and yeah, it totally had a very different feel than anything on Zen. It was tough (especially since there isn't a ball save active at the beginning), but I really enjoyed it, and reached the point limit on my second try.