Abrakadabra! Williams Pinball Volume 3 arrives March 19

[McLovin]

It’s no illusion - Williams Pinball Volume 3 arrives with Theatre of Magic, The Champion Pub and Safe Cracker!

We’ve been seeing the energy of the community ramping up as we started the year. We read every new tweet, comment or email that said ‘Just give at least a hint of Volume 3!’ with a proud smile. Now the time is here to tell you about the newest additions to the Pinball FX3 library.

Forum_theater.jpg

Theatre of Magic has been one of the most requested tables since we announced our Williams partnership last year - well deserved for a table that’s Top 20 on Pinside and the #3 table in the International Pinball Database! This Bally classic presents a shadowy old theatre where wondrous powers have lain dormant for years. Meet the ravishing young magician who vanishes into her magician’s hat, and floats in mid-air, or levitate balls in the Spirit Ring - you’ll see this old venue holds many secrets…

champion_forum.jpg

A The Champion Pub machine has been the jewel of the Zen Studios office for years. With only 1369 units produced, this rare game is a pleasure to walk by every day. Come on in and pound a few in this Bally pinball classic and become The Pub Champion! You’ll have all the equipment you need to train for this prestigious title, including a heavy bag, a speed bag and the part Tom mentions in the video - the jump rope!

safecracker_forum.jpg

On Safe Cracker, you work against the clock to break into the bank vault that holds magic tokens. But this won’t be an easy feat, the bank is full of guards, laser beams, alarms, exploding gifts and even cyber-dogs – yes, you heard me right, I said cyber-dogs!

So, there you go, that’s the low down on these three fantastic tables. And just like our previous Williams Pinball packs, Williams Pinball: Volume 3 is available to play both in their classic original form as well as the remastered form with updated graphics, animated toys, and a host of new features!

You’ll hear more about this new Volume if you check in with us on social media! Either on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit or Discord. We'll also update you regularly here.

[cantankerous--]

First McLuvin, thanks for posting this, but in regard to your statement that many, many, many (yes, I read them so I know there are many) posts asking for a hint of volume 3, this is hardly a hint as its already completed and ready for sell and no different than your typical marketing strategy which is to not say a single thing until it's ready and I'm certain it's because no matter what it is that your team decides to make, market and sale that unless you created Indiana Jones pinball many would still be unhappy, so I get it.

Licenses. So, I doubt you will change your marketing practices anytime soon for the reasons posted above, but you could, and I highly suggest it, instead of just letting us all ask and pray for specific tables, knowing full well that perhaps some of these tables may not even be available to you within your licensing agreement, let us know what that agreement entails. I mean, is Indiana Jones a possibility within the current licensing agreement or are you just allowed to recreate CLASSIC williams/bally tables, and if so where is the date cut off?

I am looking forward to the new tables, but before I purchase them I hope you will patch the current williams table issues and then shortly after provide patch notes.

[Mr230268]

Great, Theater of Magic! I can‘t wait to play it 😊

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

"...We read every new tweet, comment or email that said ‘Just give at least a hint of Volume 3!’ with a proud smile.

…While ignoring the thread about the 100+ cheated scores in the game for months now.
I imagine you ignore that thread with a big grin

[McLovin]

…While ignoring the thread about the 100+ cheated scores in the game for months now.
I imagine you ignore that thread with a big grin

Trying to root out the cheaters as we are able. We want to be careful not to convict without very good proof. We do removed a lot of scores that tested positive (from the top of my head there was one Adventure Land score I particurarly remember.) It's an ongoing project

[Vincent]

Any code giveaway for the quickest faithful players ?

[McLovin]

Great, Theater of Magic! I can‘t wait to play it ��

I never realized that Tom is presenting TOM.

[HighFive]

Oh yeah, cant wait! Again have mixed opinion about Safe Cracker and Champion Pub, but if it does like it did with me with Black Rose and Party Zone, i will be extremely happy! Your game engine makes the pinballs feel better than what we use to play in TPA.

BTW, any words if we will get a discount on IOS at the launch to buy the no.3 pack at regular price? ( like the one we got to get the 7 tables for console price? ). That would be extremely welcomed.

[Vincent]

Very windy today...

[pbo]

Trying to root out the cheaters as we are able. We want to be careful not to convict without very good proof. We do removed a lot of scores that tested positive (from the top of my head there was one Adventure Land score I particurarly remember.) It's an ongoing project

You may also check Wizard Score and Superscore, there are dozens of CODEX entries there, that's not even cheating, it is pirating.

[Joco77]

Rossz helyre kommenteltem. Tehát akkor ide írom, köszi szépen srácok! A Champion Pub miatt nagyon várom ezt a packot, klassz lesz névnapomon kipróbálni ezeket a csodálatos táblákat

[cantankerous--]

Trying to root out the cheaters as we are able. We want to be careful not to convict without very good proof. We do removed a lot of scores that tested positive (from the top of my head there was one Adventure Land score I particurarly remember.) It's an ongoing project

Just the posting of multiple scores all ending in zeroes over and over by the same handful of players is not enough? One day, when I am in court for whatever made up reason for this manufactured example I hope you and the rest of your crack team of cheat investigators are in the jurors box, because I'm certain I willl get off scott free.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

Trying to root out the cheaters as we are able. We want to be careful not to convict without very good proof. We do removed a lot of scores that tested positive (from the top of my head there was one Adventure Land score I particurarly remember.) It's an ongoing project

I mostly play the time challenges so I just checked those leaderboards on Adventure Land and on top of the 5 minute challenge rankings sits the cheater Sidsational with a 222.000.000 score (he’s a level 1 ‘player’ ) and at number 7, there’s Ardenwolfe with another impossible six zero digit score, 181.000.000.

No different on Survival, except that they are numbers 3 and 4. Here, Ardenwolfe is in the lead with 419.000.000 with Sidsational on his tail with 409.000.000.

Just start with removing these six zero digit scores! How difficult can it be? Really, I appreciate every project that bans cheaters from the game but for this there is no excuse.

You’ve been aware of these cheaters and of this cheat for at least 9 months now. Please don’t hide behind ignorance. I know you long enough to take your intelligence seriously. You know these scores are impossible in our universe, you don’t have to research this, so remove them please.

I’m looking forward to the new tables but this kind of spoils the fun in a big way

Btw
Thanks for the reply. Finally.
Right now, I'm pretty pissed at you in Zen's name but I hope you're doing okay personally of course.

[Cloda]

I posted this in another forum but I would like to hear how the members here feel about it...

I took a look at a video of Theatre of Magic to get an idea, as I didn't play TPA and I unfortunately don't have access to real tables here in South Africa. Anyway, in the tutorial video of Theatre of Magic, Bowen Kerins time and time again live catch the ball on the right flipper as it come out of the right loop. He states that it is probably the most important and critical play for success on this table (e.g. 26min15). I don't know about you guys, but I have been trying to do a live catch since the get go with the Williams / Bally tables, and I just can't get it right (even by mistake). Not even talking about all the skills that he employs in the video (e.g. tip-flip of the edge of the flipper - 24min05). I know there is skill involved with these tricks, but I do expect to get them right by chance every now and then and I just don't see it happening. I hope Zen fine-tunes their physics engine as they did show that these skills were possible to do in one of their first videos on the Williams tables.

The next is my response to somebody saying it is basically a skill that is tought to master but you can learn it...

The thing that gets me is that I have been playing the game quite a lot, always on pro difficulty and am a decent player (e.g. completed Medieval Madness - Battle for the Kingdom), but I can count on my one hand where I have pulled off a live catch... only by chance. I would expect that it would happen from time to time from chance but it happens sparingly. I try each time I launch the ball on e.g. Fish Tales and the other tables where it should be possible, and it is not happening. I specifically look out for it in Pro videos (e.g. LUP’s Club guys) and the same story there, it is not happening. So, from my perspective it appear to be a lot harder to pull off than in real life. Anyway, I’m still enjoying the tables but hope that Zen will fine-tune the physics so that these skill tricks become more doable in future.

P.S. - Here is an old video of mine (pre-Williams Zen physics) that hopefully give the idea that I'm skilled enough that I should be able to pull of some tricks from time to time.

[raulramos]

Hi

Thanks for this new Volume.

Any news about changes on the mechanic/(ball movement)/Dynamic/(Interaction with the table, like targets for example) of the Ball(s)?

Cya

Raul

[McLovin]

I mostly play the time challenges so I just checked those leaderboards on Adventure Land and on top of the 5 minute challenge rankings sits the cheater Sidsational with a 222.000.000 score (he’s a level 1 ‘player’ ) and at number 7, there’s Ardenwolfe with another impossible six zero digit score, 181.000.000.

No different on Survival, except that they are numbers 3 and 4. Here, Ardenwolfe is in the lead with 419.000.000 with Sidsational on his tail with 409.000.000.

Just start with removing these six zero digit scores! How difficult can it be? Really, I appreciate every project that bans cheaters from the game but for this there is no excuse.

You’ve been aware of these cheaters and of this cheat for at least 9 months now. Please don’t hide behind ignorance. I know you long enough to take your intelligence seriously. You know these scores are impossible in our universe, you don’t have to research this, so remove them please.

I’m looking forward to the new tables but this kind of spoils the fun in a big way

Btw
Thanks for the reply. Finally.
Right now, I'm pretty pissed at you in Zen's name but I hope you're doing okay personally of course.

It's all good, everyone wants to play fair. Especially someone who has a real chance of being the best at some of the tables - which you and most of the forumgoers are. I'll try to nudge another run at these people, hopefully these Adventure Land scores will be a good case study to go off of.

[McLovin]

It's all good, everyone wants to play fair. Especially someone who has a real chance of being the best at some of the tables - which you and most of the forumgoers are. I'll try to nudge another run at these people, hopefully these Adventure Land scores will be a good case study to go off of.

I looked at this some more in the last few minutes. Sidsational is indeed level 1, and the Super Score and Wizard score boards both have 36 HUGE scores. Although looking at Ardenwolfe's profile, he is level 50, has 176 hours in Pinball FX3, a Beta badge etc. I remember you guys may have mentioned you know him better or have some records of huge/possibly cheated scores in TPA or Zaccaria? This might not be him

[cocothetrain]

8 Days to go! Will try to have backglass images ready to go as soon as I can get the tables

[McLovin]

8 Days to go! Will try to have backglass images ready to go as soon as I can get the tables

Nice!

[cantankerous--]

I looked at this some more in the last few minutes. Sidsational is indeed level 1, and the Super Score and Wizard score boards both have 36 HUGE scores. Although looking at Ardenwolfe's profile, he is level 50, has 176 hours in Pinball FX3, a Beta badge etc. I remember you guys may have mentioned you know him better or have some records of huge/possibly cheated scores in TPA or Zaccaria? This might not be him

v12survival.jpg

This is literally 1 of many posted in the cheater thread showing Ardenwolfe's impossible all 0's score. Seriously, all of these pics have been posted multiple times.

[cantankerous--]

cheat1.jpg
cheat2.jpg
cheat3.jpg
cheat4.jpg
cheat5.jpg
cheat6.jpg
cheat7.jpg
cheat8.jpg
cheat9.jpg
cheat10.jpg

It only allows me to post 10 images. I have 35 more for you, since your team seems to not be able to find them, I will be glad to add the others.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

cheat1.jpg
Etc. etc. etc.

It only allows me to post 10 images. I have 35 more for you, since your team seems to not be able to find them, I will be glad to add the others.

It's hopeless cantankerous. There’s no way that they don’t know about Ardenwolfe.

When a dev decides, with the huge amount of evidence in plain sight, to support the biggest cheater in the game there’s not much more you can do.

I have very little time right now but soon I will probably write a short guide on Steam and start a thread overthere so players will at least know that they’re playing against bots with Zen’s approval.

Shameful.

[cantankerous--]

I posted this to the facebook page so go hit their twitter too. Maybe some on steam will see the names and people will start talking.

[cantankerous--]

If I truly thought it was hopeless I would have given up. There is always hope dude.

[VirtuaDream]

I understand they are aware of the problem but my guess is that they cannot control hackers from posting those scores so they wont waste time and resources to solve that.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

@cantankerous--
I don't know mate.

I'd agree if only the players that protested against the censorship of the Williams tables were with us.
Their numbers forced Zen to act. But in this case, it's just a handful of us.
H*ll, there are more cheaters in the game now than there are real players trying to get Zen to remove them.

I understand they are aware of the problem but my guess is that they cannot control hackers from posting those scores so they wont waste time and resources to solve that.

Not in the case of the cheated six zero digit scores. They are simply impossible.
I bet cantankerous and me would be able to remove them all in a day or two. They are that easy to find.
Instead, those scores have been there for over 10 months and Zen does absolutely nothing.
There's no excuse for that.

[cantankerous--]

I understand they are aware of the problem but my guess is that they cannot control hackers from posting those scores so they wont waste time and resources to solve that.

Surely they have some way to spot specific ip addresses or track account information so as to flag any postings of those currently posting suspicious scores and just remove them without needing to do a complete reset. It just can't be so hard or costly to do and frankly, they owe it to us to do something other than just ignoring those of us who are willing to play their zen studios pinball tournaments week after week and overlook the fact that they have posted fish tales like 6 different times since it's release and not posted a zen tournament marvel's women of power once........not ever...........okay, I'm not really overlooking it.

[80sBear]

Hey, Zen..not that we don't appreciate finally seeing Volume 3, but why these specific tables? I don't recall seeing a single post requesting any of them. I do, however, see lots of posts requesting Indiana Jones, TOTAN and others.

Tables releases are quickly becoming a bit like The Bachelorette, where we're told "everyone" wants Hanna B as the next B'ette, only to ask WHO ON EARTH would "really" want Hanna B as the B'ette? In the meantime, we all wanted Hanna G or even Taisha.

TIA..

[Threescoopz]

Sorry but these look like serious bargain basement junk. Please at least switch up these stinkers with some zen classics. I really hate watching what was one of my favourite games quickly go down the drain.

These wouldn't be so bad if it was every second release, and I am sure this is a money saving measure, but you really need to add something liscensed again soon. This feels like when my aunt heard I liked Transformers, so she went to KMart and got me a GoBot. The thought is nice, but it is never going to be the one I choose to play with.

[ALH2012]

Sorry but these look like serious bargain basement junk. Please at least switch up these stinkers with some zen classics. I really hate watching what was one of my favourite games quickly go down the drain.

These wouldn't be so bad if it was every second release, and I am sure this is a money saving measure, but you really need to add something liscensed again soon. This feels like when my aunt heard I liked Transformers, so she went to KMart and got me a GoBot. The thought is nice, but it is never going to be the one I choose to play with.

Aside from the censorship issues the Williams tables seriously suffer from i do very much enjoy the Williams tables and think they are a worthwhile addition to the library.But i can understand that some don't think they measure up to the regular Zen tables and i fully agree that the Williams tables should never replace the regular Zen tables.They need to release proper Zen tables asap and those original tables need to stay at the forefront of Zen.

[cantankerous--]

Aside from the censorship issues the Williams tables seriously suffer from i do very much enjoy the Williams tables and think they are a worthwhile addition to the library.But i can understand that some don't think they measure up to the regular Zen tables and i fully agree that the Williams tables should never replace the regular Zen tables.They need to release proper Zen tables asap and those original tables need to stay at the forefront of Zen.

Love The Getaway, Fishtales, Attack From Mars and Mideival Madness, but the rest I never play and I am hopeful for the next batch, so not sure at this point, so time will tell, but I'm sure I will like Theater Of Magic, but your point about original tables is the same way I feel. I loved Zeus and most of the original tables. We will see on the 19th.

[dustburn]

Switch version - My game has updated to accommodate Williams vol 3, but when I'm brought to the E-Shop, it's not visible? Am I too early?

[dustburn]

You have to search manually in the shop for it. "williams" It is there, but the connectivity within the fx3 client is not working, so you'll have to do that for now.

[cantankerous--]

You have to search manually in the shop for it. "williams" It is there, but the connectivity within the fx3 client is not working, so you'll have to do that for now.

Had to on ps4 too, but I assume they just hadn't updated it completely yet?

[RonnieBoy]

Zen you guys are really slow..

I just got a mail about Williams Volume 3 but I already bought them on both Switch and Steam yesterday.

[DiscoKing]

Sorry but these look like serious bargain basement junk. Please at least switch up these stinkers with some zen classics. I really hate watching what was one of my favourite games quickly go down the drain.

These wouldn't be so bad if it was every second release, and I am sure this is a money saving measure, but you really need to add something liscensed again soon. This feels like when my aunt heard I liked Transformers, so she went to KMart and got me a GoBot. The thought is nice, but it is never going to be the one I choose to play with.

I agree

And safe cracker is the worst ughh....

[foofoorabbit]

Sorry but these look like serious bargain basement junk. Please at least switch up these stinkers with some zen classics. I really hate watching what was one of my favourite games quickly go down the drain.

These wouldn't be so bad if it was every second release, and I am sure this is a money saving measure, but you really need to add something liscensed again soon. This feels like when my aunt heard I liked Transformers, so she went to KMart and got me a GoBot. The thought is nice, but it is never going to be the one I choose to play with.

One of your serious bargain basement junk is rated #3 best solid state pinball EVER. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out. You only deserve GoBots.

[HUN_Blackice]

Üdv!

Szeretnék érdeklődni, most, hogy végre elkezdtetek valós flipperek alapján csinálni digitális változatot, várható-e valamikor a jövben a Terminator 2?
Illetve, hogy mintha lenne egy kis késés a gomb megnyomása és a játék reagálása közt (PS4), ezt lehet valahogy orvosolni?
Gratulálok a remek játékokhoz, csak így tovább!!!

[Vincent]

Üdv!

Szeretnék érdeklődni, most, hogy végre elkezdtetek valós flipperek alapján csinálni digitális változatot, várható-e valamikor a jövben a Terminator 2?
Illetve, hogy mintha lenne egy kis késés a gomb megnyomása és a játék reagálása közt (PS4), ezt lehet valahogy orvosolni?
Gratulálok a remek játékokhoz, csak így tovább!!!

Completely agree...

[classic_pinball]

One of your serious bargain basement junk is rated #3 best solid state pinball EVER. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out. You only deserve GoBots.

True, Theatre of Magic is one of the best tables.

[jonesjb]

We should be due for another announcement soon, no?

[romancast]

thank you very much for this new volume



tp-link.es