59 replies to this topic

[studmuff]

I like the 3-D Backglass. Just not sure about the playfield.

[faralos]

geez louise are there enough lights on the field? but that playfield looks kind of empty at the bottom of it. I like the toys though!

[Harakiri]

Is it me or the playfield looks kinda "Naked" for such a great movie with tons of SFX?

[studmuff]

Is it me or the playfield looks kinda "Naked" for such a great movie with tons of SFX?

Yeah it really does.

[bolt]

Thanks very much for the video link Wizards_Hat.
The 3D Bachglass look very nice but the table looks looks very boring.

[Harakiri]

With tables like this i really think that pinball isn't dying fast enough.

[destruk]

This one looks better to me --

[Harakiri]

This one looks better to me --

It has more features!

[kruge99]

This one looks better to me --

Now if they could just figure out how to do that on the real Avatar pinball, but with a "Jake in Avatar suit" doll, that would re-invigorate the pinball industry!!! LoL! Just kidding!

[Anton]

I have to assume that Stern knows that most people would like to see a nice mix of original themes, maybe 1 a year, but it just isn't gonna happen. If I were them I'd find a way, but I'm not them, & Stern is gonna do what they do.

Its hard to dock a pin points just for being a movie license or whatever. I mean, some of the best pins ever & the worst pins ever are movie themes. TAF, IJ, TDK, LOTR rank among the all time best. But then you also got clunkers like Lethal Weapon 3 or Last Action Hero (just off the top of my head).

For some odd reason, after seeing the PF pic of this pin (though not very high rez & still some unanswered questions), I don't feel like slamming it just yet! Maybe it will be OK?
& from a pin owners perspective....so much for keeping the toys to a 1 per game minimum...& I hope Avatar isn't any more expesive than their other pins.
They just got done with this whole thing about home editions of pins (which I assume that experiment clearly didn't work, shocker!) & how they want to go easy on the toys.

Yet, it looks like they are back to normal form with this one. They have 2 pretty big, obvious toys that you can see just from that pic (& other gimmicks going no as well with magnets or whatever). In fact that robot is one massive toy! On top of that Jake has the sleep chamber.
I have a feeling the dmd & audio are gonna be top notch on this pin.
I'm actually feeling pretty good about it, I might actually nearly pay their normal price for this pin, or maybe get a used one in a year or so.

It could end up being my fav Stern pin yet. It looks like the kept the photo art to a minum, the rest being actual art? That would be nice. Shots look numerous & somewhat clear. Might not be my perfect dream pin, but as far as what I expect from Stern, it could be about the best they are gonna do for me.

LAH was a an awful theme but a veeery good playing machinhe!!! better than MM!!!

[Sabbat]

wow the playfield graphics are horrible. Way to go stern!!

[rob046]

Backglass does look nice.
Design looks OK, it could be lots of fun to play, which is the most important thing.
As for the PF, yeah, kinda lame.

You would think that the most visually stunning motion picture ever made would call for a PF with incredible art & effects. But no, just typical Stern.

[TheMcD]

Meh, who cares about the PF anyway. I'm too busy concentrating on the three balls in play to look at the PF. I'll have to get a better look at it to be able to judge once again, but the design looks at least playable.

The McD

[Joe]

It's at game works now.

rom 0.64

Some of dmd art work seems to be missing for now.

The magnet likes to at times though the ball into the out lanes at high speed.

I need to play it some more at a later time.

[LostWorldPinball]

There are many GameWorks, but I have just seen it at the Schaumburg one in IL, and the noise it makes is annoying. And people were playing it for about a hour (3 different people), so if you want to play it, GOOD LUCK with that. To me, it doesn't look that great anyway, but I'm not an Avatar fan. GameWorks is a terrible place to play pinball though. Most of the machines, you can't hear the sound, and the Soprano's screen wasn't working, and it's so noisy from the music GameWorks is playing that it's ridiculous.

And I can see why GameWorks is having financial trouble in closing some of their locations. They have like every game is new in that place, and it's completely dumb in my opinion. Not only that, but some new games, they are charging 8 credits in which if you do the math, and you put $20 on a card for 100 credits, so that's .020 cents a credit, and thus that Terminator game (This isn't a pinball game, but a gun game from that movie Terminator Salvation, but it's an example) you are paying $1.60 for which to me is a total ripoff.

Those game cards trick people so much that they don't know what they are spending on a game. They could be spending more than $2 on a game, and have no clue because they never figure it out. The older pinball though was like $.060 cents or about 3 credits, so that's not terrible, but yet the sound wasn't working on two of them, so?

Edited by LostWorldPinball, 27 August 2010 - 05:03 AM.

[rob046]

There are many GameWorks, but I have just seen it at the Schaumburg one in IL, and the noise it makes is annoying. And people were playing it for about a hour (3 different people), so if you want to play it, GOOD LUCK with that. To me, it doesn't look that great anyway, but I'm not an Avatar fan. GameWorks is a terrible place to play pinball though. Most of the machines, you can't hear the sound, and the Soprano's screen wasn't working, and it's so noisy from the music GameWorks is playing that it's ridiculous.

And I can see why GameWorks is having financial trouble in closing some of their locations. They have like every game is new in that place, and it's completely dumb in my opinion. Not only that, but some new games, they are charging 8 credits in which if you do the math, and you put $20 on a card for 100 credits, so that's .020 cents a credit, and thus that Terminator game (This isn't a pinball game, but a gun game from that movie Terminator Salvation, but it's an example) you are paying $1.60 for which to me is a total ripoff.

Those game cards trick people so much that they don't know what they are spending on a game. They could be spending more than $2 on a game, and have no clue because they never figure it out. The older pinball though was like $.060 cents or about 3 credits, so that's not terrible, but yet the sound wasn't working on two of them, so?

Good point. I don't have a gameworks in my area, never been to one, but I have been to other places that do the thing with the card. Of course its a trick to mask how much you are spending on a game. Pinball does get some blame for being where it is, but people running places like this aren't helping the cause much.
Do you know how much a game on Avatar costs? It really should be 50 cents a game, but I really don't know if these places hike the price up a bit on brand new games. I could even understand doing 75 cents a game if the ball times are long enough, which can be increased by the software settings or sometimes the adjustable outlane posts.

As for them having all new games, I can't bash them for that. Somebody needs to buy Stern's games new or else they wouldn't be in business. & while you of course pay more for new games, one nice thing is that you don't have to worry about maintenance or things failing on the games.
As much as I like 90's WMS/BLY games, and for how well they were built, they are still getting to the age where they do need some extra care if they are gonna be played all day long. Also keep in mind that even used 90's pins can cost as much as new Sterns, at least for the better titles like TZ, TAF, & MM. Some other good ones maybe can be had for $3000 & under, but again if you count the maintenance to keep them running like new, then in the long run maybe they aren't any cheaper than a new Stern?
What is the older pin that is 60 cents? That seems a bit high unless you are getting 5 balls. But again this is where it helps to have a little knowledge. Know what games people are willing to keep pumping quarters in, or not, & tweak ball times & price accordingly.

[destruk]

Stern's recommended default pricing has been 75 cents/credit since 2008. I've seen a few places charging more like Stern's Spiderman was $2.00/credit when it was brand new at the special theater presale test location here, so they could clean up on those wanting to play it that soon. I think it does make a lot more sense to get a brand new machine and have the price high for the first 3 months and then lower the price when the 'newness wears off' - pinheads who seek these machines out are more willing to drop in whatever the asking price is to satisfy their curiosity.

[EalaDubhSidhe]

Not a game for epileptics, I see. It's also a good example of why you don't simply slap photographs on a playfield instead of a proper design layout, because at first glance there looks to be next to no clarity between the lights on the field and a lot of the shots and features they correlate to. The graphics need to point and link them towards each other.

If games are going to stay this complex then you can expect the number of lights to do likewise, so maybe it's a good idea to get more of them off the field and onto stand-up signs overlooking the shots so the player can tell better at a glance what's going on.

[destruk]

bump

first part of review is here:
http://pinballnews.c...ar/index5a.html

[RipleYYY]

So, it's essentially a cross between Big Buck Hunter on the left side and Spider-man on the right... hrmmmm....

yes & no... see :

just invert the avatar playfield, and put it near the NBA, you got the (quite) same pinball

the "10 shots" are set in the same position
targets right & left
upper outlanes right & left
captive ball
basket shot = AMP shot
center empty to/from the 3 bumpers
left saucer = alone target
right saucer inlane = box inlane
ramp = ramp
you got the 6 majors missions, you got the 6 minors missions

... heu, WTF guys !? OK, there're some differences of course, but in a general view, this is the same pinball !

also read this : http://www.pinballninja.com/?p=5016