Pinball arcade < Zen

[Nautilus the 1st]

No, I mean that when doing for example a backhand shot with the left flipper the ball should go well, the left. It ends up somewhere in the middle if the field instead.

In reality, isn't the angle of the flippers adjustable, I played the same machines in different gamerooms and the angle can differ a lot.

Also, I'm not talking about a death trap catch, but about a drop catch.

[surf1der]

@Nautilus: What table are you specifically talking about? I have played a lot of Arabian Nights and Black Hole. Both tables seem to have realistic backhand shots to me. TOTAN's flippers barely extend beyond the horizontal axis of the playfield. Therefore you will not get a lot of left side action from a left flipper shot and vice versa, particularly starting from a static flipper trap. Black Hole the flippers come up a bit more so you can get more backhand action. I think the physics are pretty good. I have noticed some weird stuff though. When I have a trapped ball in the flipper and i let go to make an aimed shot the ball sometimes accelerates really fast down the flipper. It goes so fast that it surprises me and I don't even have time to react to hit the flipper again before the ball drains. Sometimes the ball rebounds at strange angles off certain parts of the table. These are rare issues but can be frustrating sometimes.

I agree with you that there table manuals are excellent, much better than zen's. Zen, I hope you are taking notes. The problem with Zen's manual is that, for example, it will tell you how to do a mission but it includes everything in that mission on a single page so it can get confusing about which shots will activate a mission versus which shots are needed to complete are modify a mission. For example, one of Ymir missions on the Thor table he tries to freeze you and you can "warm up" (i.e. get more time to complete the mission) my hitting the "spinner." I thought this was the spinner in front of the right orbit but it was the spinner that looks like a water wheel on the diverted serpent ramp. A separate screen shot showing just this part of the mission would have been helpful.

[Nautilus the 1st]

I am talking about TOM. When i talk about the ruleset i do not mean the explanations btw

[yzrider926]

I like both apps, haven't put much time on the ios version of pinball arcade, but have logged some time on the PS3 with the Williams Collection.

I think the physics is more realistic with Far Sights games. I don't know why but Zen's tables don't seem to have the randomness you would experience playing a real machine.

I noticed this after playing the Zen tables for a few hours and then firing up one of my machines and it was immediately noticeable how much easier it is to keep the ball in play on a Zen table. I realize nothing will ever be able to properly emulate play on a real machine, but do think Far Sight has done a better job at it then Zen has currently.

That being said I do like Zen's tables, their original and the rules seem to be well done. I can also appreciate Far Sight for bringing tables that you would see out on location, haha, or at someone's house, to consoles and ios devices. It's a good way to check out a game without playing it, or simply being able to play a game without having access to one. Can't wait for MM and AFM to make its way on there.

[robotwars]

PA clearly has better physics in terms of simulation. Zen feels like pinball on rails. There's basically only 2 things I like more about Zen, and that's the graphics and custom tables.

Whoever said you can't drop catch in PA is wrong. You can do it, it's just not easy. I've done it, and it feels amazingly rewarding.

I've noticed people that complain or criticize ball weight generally don't play real pinball and are going by what they "think" it should be. However, when you play real pinball you quickly realize.. oh wow I thought it would be so much heavier, and it's not. PA has the weight and physics down pat.

I enjoy both, and they have their places. They're different which is actually a good thing. If Zen had a better frame rate on ipad1, I'd probably play it a lot more.

[Nautilus the 1st]

"Whoever said you can't drop catch in PA is wrong. You can do it, it's just not easy. I've done it, and it feels amazingly rewarding. "

On a real table it is much easier

How did you notice that people who complain about the physics of PA don't play pinball. Do we know eachother?

The physics on ripley and TOTAN are better than on TOM, on TOM the ball is not heavy enough.

[Brianvgplayer]

I'm no expert on phsyics, but the phsyics and ball speed for TOM in Pinball Arcade looks similar to this video to me.

[Coffee_n_Donuts]

I'm no expert on phsyics, but the phsyics and ball speed for TOM in Pinball Arcade looks similar to this video to me.

Yeah it looks like they pretty much nailed it!

I think the problem with a lot of this physics and ball speed talk, is that different tables have different inclines and some are not as steep as others. Some give you that floaty feeling while others are really fast and feel much heavier.

[Evolve or die]

Yeah it looks like they pretty much nailed it!

I think the problem with a lot of this physics and ball speed talk, is that different tables have different inclines and some are not as steep as others. Some give you that floaty feeling while others are really fast and feel much heavier.

nup. i swear the app is waaay more floatier than the real thing judging by that video and a few others i just watched. Try a hard catch on the app and that ball will floaty bounce all the way up to the drop targets. the real thing definitely has a weightier feel.

[Brianvgplayer]

nup. i swear the app is waaay more floatier than the real thing judging by that video and a few others i just watched. Try a hard catch on the app and that ball will floaty bounce all the way up to the drop targets. the real thing definitely has a weightier feel.

The app seemed a lot less floaty compared to earlier PHOF collections to me and more like real machines. The bounce does seem to be a bit higher than it should be (hard to tell becuase the ball doesn't bounce off the flippers much in the video), but the ball speed and angles look dead on to me. Black rubbers, as used in Pinball Arcade, should be less bouncy than reds, as used in the video, but Pinball Arcade seems more bouncy. I wouldn't call the physics floaty, though.

Edit: Watched another video with black rubbers on TOM and the ball bounce seems close to Pinball Arcade. It's hard to tell, but the ball can get fast on TOM. But with the red rubber videos, the ones I have seen had the player using the flippers without letting the ball bounce much.