30 replies to this topic

[tabascoman77]

61 of the 90-something tables on Farsight's "Pinball Arcade" are going to vanish after June 30th. They're all the Bally/Williams tables. 

 

On the plus side, Farsight's going to be adding "all of the modern Stern tables" which might explain the lack of updates for "Stern Pinball Arcade".

 

Even still, I don't understand this move. That's 2/3's of the tables on this app going bye-bye and some of the greatest titles the pinball world has to offer. I mean, VP trounces PBA anyhow but for the casual user, the removal of the heart of the app is baffling to me.

 

https://arstechnica....-while-you-can/

[wrd1972]

Meh...but I like the idea of all of the new Sterns being added. I can see a big "Spike" in new tables on the horizon.

[chepas]

 

Your amazing support of our game has helped build the Pinball Arcade into the greatest pinball simulation of all time. Pinball forever!

 

I call BS on this sentence.

[tabascoman77]

 

I call BS on this sentence.

 

Same. I mean, I credit PBA with creating playable sims but it's not the greatest.

 

I can see a big "Spike" in new tables on the horizon.

 

One can only hope! Another site actually utilized the Ghostbusters DLL from PBA to make a VPX version of Ghostbusters, which was awesome. And short-lived. It was removed practically days after it was posted. Legal grey area, I guess. The artwork and rendering to make the table was all a recreation by somebody else.

Edited by tabascoman77, 09 May 2018 - 04:08 PM.

[wrd1972]

Yeah, I was referring to that.

 

So what was removed from what relating to GB? I though the .dll was extracted from the downloaded TPA. Would a similar .dll be available for any future TPA releases?

[N3roflint]

Haven't purchased anything from this company of liars for years now.

 

 

and they will still receive support

 

 

I feel bad for people who fall for this claptrap.

[tabascoman77]

From what I understand, Farsight apparently sent a C&D to take the entire project off the site in question. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between posting something like TRON Legacy and Ghostbusters unless they think they've swallowed enough quarters for the former and not the latter. 

 

I feel bad for people who fall for this claptrap.

 

They're not very forthcoming, which aggravates me. Their "support" for Stern PBA left much to be desired. 

[malifica]

They literally thought they had the deal extended (or some work-around) last Wed/Thur and planned to announce on Friday the 4th. Then it all fell through, and no one at Farsight will say why, which is their right. The Stern SPA stuff is odd based on what I have heard from Stern guys over the years, I knew of tables (that haven't been released) being done ages ago and now they seem to have a green light, but are going to the TPA app.

 

Regarding the Spike/ Spike 2 capability of the TPA dll, it runs all the recent Stern code, not just Ghostbusters. I'm sure someone here that works on the pinMAME side of things can chime in if they want. But Farsight had the Ghostbusters VPX table removed because it used the Farsight .dll to run, not because of any assets or anything like that.

 

Interestingly enough, it isn't that difficult to pull assets from the TPA files, but is really time consuming (OS / System hopping) and needs a whole lot done to them before you would want to use them in some "homebrew" creation. Plus, there is the not grey legal issue issue of actual IP theft at that stage.

 

I guess in VPX terms, it is more of a moral and ethical one as opposed to a technical one in regard to how new of a table do we want to recreate for public release. But I'm sure we'll see some envelope pushing again in the not so distant future.

[humanoide]

to all those who have TPA in android, deactivate automatic update ... or they can take an unpleasant surprise,

I have seasons 1-7 and I do not intend to lose all those tables that are legitimately mine

[GeorgeH]

 

to all those who have TPA in android, deactivate automatic update ... or they can take an unpleasant surprise,

I have seasons 1-7 and I do not intend to lose all those tables that are legitimately mine

 

 

 

They posted the notice originally on Facebook and it says "...customers who purchased any of these tables prior to the deadline will continue to own them and have access to them within the Pinball Arcade, and we will continue to support them as we do the other tables in our collection."

 

https://www.facebook...791386990882353

 

I have played the free TPA version of Tales of the Arabian Nights on my PC.  The playfield is very grainy.  It might look good on other devices, but not on my PC.  I don't plan on buying any of these.  Is there a way to make it look less grainy?  

 

George

Edited by GeorgeH, 10 May 2018 - 11:55 AM.

[humanoide]

 

 

to all those who have TPA in android, deactivate automatic update ... or they can take an unpleasant surprise,

I have seasons 1-7 and I do not intend to lose all those tables that are legitimately mine

 

 

 

They posted the notice originally on Facebook and it says "...customers who purchased any of these tables prior to the deadline will continue to own them and have access to them within the Pinball Arcade, and we will continue to support them as we do the other tables in our collection."

 

https://www.facebook...791386990882353

 

I have played the free TPA version of Tales of the Arabian Nights on my PC.  The playfield is very grainy.  It might look good on other devices, but not on my PC.  I don't plan on buying any of these.  Is there a way to make it look less grainy?  

 

George

 

 

I have had some TPA tables on PC, with direcx11 has good graphics. but now with everything in visual pinball 10 I only have TPA in the android version

 

[tabascoman77]

Regarding the Spike/ Spike 2 capability of the TPA dll, it runs all the recent Stern code, not just Ghostbusters. I'm sure someone here that works on the pinMAME side of things can chime in if they want. But Farsight had the Ghostbusters VPX table removed because it used the Farsight .dll to run, not because of any assets or anything like that.

 

That's pretty much what I figured. 

 

They literally thought they had the deal extended (or some work-around) last Wed/Thur and planned to announce on Friday the 4th. Then it all fell through, and no one at Farsight will say why, which is their right. The Stern SPA stuff is odd based on what I have heard from Stern guys over the years, I knew of tables (that haven't been released) being done ages ago and now they seem to have a green light, but are going to the TPA app.

 

I kinda knew SPA was doomed the moment Ghostbusters appeared on TPA as well as SPA, along with Mustang and AC/DC getting LE versions on SPA that "were viewable but not ready yet" on the PS4 store, which stayed that way for months.

[GeorgeH]

 

 

 

 

 

I have had some TPA tables on PC, with direcx11 has good graphics. but now with everything in visual pinball 10 I only have TPA in the android version

 

 

 

I have Windows 10 and it has direcx12.  Will that not work?

 

George

[N3roflint]

Found this thread on Reddit about this. Some of the comments are interesting and/or amusing.

 

https://old.reddit.c...l_no_longer_be/

Edited by N3roflint, 10 May 2018 - 06:35 PM.

[humanoide]

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have had some TPA tables on PC, with direcx11 has good graphics. but now with everything in visual pinball 10 I only have TPA in the android version

 

 

 

I have Windows 10 and it has direcx12.  Will that not work?

 

George

 

must work, look to see how you have the settings in the graphics options

[GeorgeH]

must work, look to see how you have the settings in the graphics options

 

 

 

I am totally new to TPA.  When I play a table, there don't appear to be any options for graphics as far as I can tell.  I did check that Directx12 should be able to run version 11.

 

George

[darquayle]

I was (and still am) a big fan of Farsight and what they accomplished.  They were the inspiration for me to return to pinball and especially to virtual pinball.  Their original tables were as good if not better than the other virtual solutions at the time they started.  Playing TPA on my ipad got me to re-look at VP8/VP9/VPX and Future Pinball.... Since then, I've built my own cabinet and purchased around 10 real pinball machines.  And my cab is now running VPX tables exclusively with around 270 unique recreations.

 

So, Farsight got me started... but VP8/VP9/VPX got me hooked!

 

Personally, I don't think Farsight can survive long term without the Williams and Bally titles which is a shame for those who haven't got to see how incredible some of the 70s, 80s, and 90s tables were.  And I expect very few will be interested enough to jump over to this site and other similar sites to see where you can take this virtual hobby.

[humanoide]

 

must work, look to see how you have the settings in the graphics options

 

 

 

I am totally new to TPA.  When I play a table, there don't appear to be any options for graphics as far as I can tell.  I did check that Directx12 should be able to run version 11.

 

George

 

in the icon of the game, click right mouse,a dialog box will come,click on "open file location", in the installation directory there must be a file of configuration options, search it and open it

[GeorgeH]

 

in the icon of the game, click right mouse,a dialog box will come,click on "open file location", in the installation directory there must be a file of configuration options, search it and open it

 

 

 

Thanks,  I found a file in the installation folder called "PBAConfig.exe" where I could increase the resolution.  It looks much better now.  It is odd how TPA hid this control.  Then I found "PinballArcade11.exe" in the same folder that is different executable than the normal one used and it looks a bit better.  I'm not sure but I think it must run Directx11.

 

George

Edited by GeorgeH, 12 May 2018 - 03:12 AM.

[humanoide]

 

 

in the icon of the game, click right mouse,a dialog box will come,click on "open file location", in the installation directory there must be a file of configuration options, search it and open it

 

 

 

Thanks,  I found a file in the installation folder called "PBAConfig.exe" where I could increase the resolution.  It looks much better now.  It is odd how TPA hid this control.  Then I found "PinballArcade11.exe" in the same folder that is different executable than the normal one used and it looks a bit better.  I'm not sure but I think it must run Directx11.

 

George

 

that's right, DX11 is direcx11, it requires more resources on the PC but it's better than DX9, if you do not notice any delay in the game, that's the best option