Recreation Canadians Unite. Finally a Decent ToyShock Price

[shiva]

As Canadians, we are getting use to being screwed over when it comes to prices, as a example, the ATGames Pinball Legend can be found at Sam's Club in the US for 399 right now, while up here, the sole place we can get the APL is from our "friends" at The Brick who are gouging us for 1199 (plus shipping I believe).
But... believe it or not, our "friends" have decided to be nice and charge us a fair price for Black Friday, the toy shock version (which is far better than the 1Up in terms of quality) is on sale. The Brand new mini (15.6 screen) is 199 (!) and the big boy is 500 (32 inch). Though the game is limited to Gottlieb, still a good base for modding, and the games are "okay". The price makes it a decent buy as well.

Pinball

www.thebrick.com

So, lets all celebrate as canadians the fact we finally have a decent price on a item that is a step above a toy. Now about that grossly overpriced APL guys...

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

But Paul, I thought you already got one?

Dammit, did I just boink my head upon yon steel cabinet... oof

 

[shiva]

nope. Thinking about it though the vp/fp versions are just as good. been eyeing a steam deck though, wonder if fp can work on them?

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

nope. Thinking about it though the vp/fp versions are just as good. been eyeing a steam deck though, wonder if fp can work on them?

Well the OS is Linux-based, right? So in order to run VP / FP, possibly the Steam Deck could run an older Win emulation layer to maximise speed?

Still tho, have you actually tried playing pinball on smartphone (as opposed to tablet)? For me it's been a pretty frustrating experience. Maybe a fit-in controller would help somewhat, removing the need to use fingers-on-screen as a flipper & nudge input, but still... the screen is just so dang small. :-/

That said, I really loved pinball on my 10" ASUS tablet. Until I accidentally stepped on it one day like a major genius, cracking the screen irredemiably. Point is-- I feel like detail and pixel territory are pretty important in terms of having a good pin experience, and even today's larger smartphones are a little too small for PB.

Funny, tho... didn't some 3rd party companies make a magnifying glass attachment to make Game Boys easier to see? Maybe something like that would be useful in cases like these. Pics:

gameboy magnifier - Google Search

www.google.com

Final opinion du jour: why are so many people running out to buy Switches and Steam Decks when your basic phone combined with an attachment controller can produce roughly the same experience for pennies on the dollar...?

EDIT: I mean not just the upfront cost, but the same games & apps on Android typically cost a fraction of the price.

 

[shiva]

Well, did some research on steam deck, and there were several things I did find out, but maybe do a seperate thread on this.

 

[TerryRed]

nope. Thinking about it though the vp/fp versions are just as good. been eyeing a steam deck though, wonder if fp can work on them?

I have a Steam Deck and LOVE it. For retro Gaming its by far the best handheld PC / console / system out there... not to mention an amazing handheld PC that can play pretty much any PC game out there.... or you can get a dock and use it as a normal PC on a TV or monitor, etc.

It comes with Steam OS (Linux)... so pretty much anything you can get to run on Linux will run on it that way. So that means you can get vanilla FP to run on it easily using something like Lutris.

Future Pinball

Future Pinball - Lutris

lutris.net

This works nice for me. However, I haven't gotten FP-BAM to run on Linux yet.


That said, since this is a PC, you can still install and run Windows on it like any other PC. The internal M.2 can do a dual boot option with Steam OS and Windows 10/11, or you can run Windows on an SD card, or you can use an external SSD, etc connected to the USB C port or through a dock, etc.

Both VP and FP-BAM run on it fine using Windows, and Wanger's Tech Talk show it running on the ALP using the Steam Deck.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

But Terry, even at best, *why* do it on a friggen' phone-sized device?

Just because you CAN, I guess...?

 

[TerryRed]

But Terry, even at best, *why* do it on a friggen' phone-sized device?

Just because you CAN, I guess...?

I have a PSP, PS Vita, and I've had various phone adapters, etc. NONE of them come close to the Steam Deck. The fact I can take this thing anywhere I want and play all my PC and retro games is amazing. If I need to goto the hospital (much more lately), or wait with family somewhere... or for my job if I need to travel on the bus for hours in Ottawa, etc. It's bigger than a phone sized device, and that's what I love about it. For the price, it can't be beat... and you can expand on it if desired. The portability of it is great.

I have a newer PC with an RTX 3080 on a 4K TV. The Steam Deck has gotten more playtime than that PC has in years (not counting making FP Tables). The form factor, the controls, the built-in customization, the support for other controllers, the Steam eco system... having so many games on it... as a PC gamer, this is a device I have been waiting years for. I have a large collection of PC games and Steam games. That big library is finally getting used.

I can run pretty much everything including new Nintendo Switch games on it, as well as older consoles / arcade game right up to the PS3, etc. It's all setup nicely through Steam's new Game Mode Interface (no more Big Picture mode) which works really nicely! This is ideal for PC Gamers that like to tinker.

For a "portable" gaming device... this thing is becoming very popular very quick. Would it replace my desktop PCs? No... but I play this thing a lot while waiting for my FP tables to load while working on them, as my FP updates take a damn long time to load even on a new PC.

 

[shiva]

Upgrade/Project - Recreation Video Games - Support File - The Steam Deck thread

So, in another post, I was talking about commercial pinball, and the Steam Deck came up as a idea with fp/bam and why I should consider grabbing one (still haven't made up my mind completely) So, after watching a bunch of videos, and reading some posts, I came across some interesting uses for...

pinballnirvana.com

Pretty sure you will chime in Terry, but also maybe others as well. Seems a good alternative, and valve certainly did a bang up job on this. This is for me between a Steam Deck, and a brand new Mini-PC that is coming out that is very powerful for the price (the brand new amd 6900, 16 gb, 512 ssd,all new standards including USB4 for 650 us.)

 

[shiva]

And you can buy a portable display off amazon, and with a hub, just plug it in. Phones can be a bit of a pain to game with, the touchscreen controls are a lot harder to use, and the phones just are not as powerful as this. Take into account all the extra features, the ability to play Triple A pc games, and the fact it is a third of the price of a flagship phone, and half the price of a similiar laptop with the same specs, it's just to good to pass up.