The Triumphant Return of Pinball

[Shadow]

(Pre-claimer: Posted this at VPF but, seeing as how I know more people here, thought it would be appropriate to duplicate here)


Funny old life, innit ?? . . . . .

. . .for the past year or so I couldn't give a monkey's toss about pinball. Old, dreary, dead and buried, past tense . . .or so I believed.

Roll forward fourteen months or so and one day I think . . .mmmm, why don't I unzip those VPM tables that have been clogging up my hard drive (if only to get rid of the bastard things !!) and then something wonderful happens . . .

. . .I remember those weirdo rotating tables that I'd been so mentally disparaging about a while back. Having acquired a rotatable monitor a few weeks back, I decided to give the FS mods a go.

Well . . .I'm amazed. Playing my beloved TOTAN in full screen suddenly seemed like looking at a tired old painting with fresh eyes . . .as when the world was new.

And . . .the point of all this . . . . .

. . .my work as a VPF contributor isn't yet done.

"VPF contributor ????" you might think. "What have you ever done for VPF apart from smart-mouthing and pissing a few people off ?" I hear you thinking.

Well . . .maybe.

But . . .I'm the pinball fan who all you fine people write the games for. Without me and folks like me, what would be the point ???

Without naming names I'd just like to thank all the pinball-makers and modders for the great stuff over the years . . .ladies and gentlemen, you have my gratitude and admiration

That's all . . . . <!--IBF.ATTACHMENT_50603-->

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Shadow, I'm glad to see that you can still remember how to tell the left flipper from the right flipper! I never actually "gave up" on pinball... cranking out a game on the two or three tables that I still found worth playing was too easy a way to kill about 20 minutes without getting involved in an actual "gaming experience." But, I must say, using VP9 is the first time I've been actually excited about pinball in... probably about three years! It's hard to put my finger on what it does so much better than the older versions... maybe the HD rendering, maybe the more fluid ball movement... but it's actually got me looking forward to playing tables again.
As for the FS experience... well, I guess I could bend my neck at a 45-degree angle whilst in front of my non-rotating monitor... let me give that a shot and get back to you.

 

[Shadow]

Hi ruby . . .TWO flippers you say :idea:

I know there's a left and right but I thought you were only allowed to use ONE . . .well that adds a new dimension for a start

Seriously, though . . .I never thought I'd find my way back but when i bought a cheap rotatable monitor online recently, something in the back of my mind recalled the FS tables and I'm just astonished by the difference.

Okay, it's only a 4:3 17" monitor - nothing flashy - so the tables are a bit squashed but I'm still amazed by the added extensions to the gameplay. I'm using headphones with the volume high as well so the whole pinball experience is totally different for me.

I chucked away my old monitor so I've not tried the spanned thing, using a second monitor for the backglass, but I'm betting that's somethin' else.

But . . .more importantly . . .pinball's ALIVE . . .

 

[LeeVanCleef]

It's great being jazzed about VP again, because there seems to be so little comfort found in the arms of video entertainment. Used to be that I could lose myself in games so easily. These days, it seems that there just aren't that many worthy options out there anymore. The last one I truly enjoyed and played ad nauseum was Arkham Asylum (a game that a Joker fan such as yourself would surely enjoy). Don't know if it's the fault of the video games or maybe I'm just getting too damn old to play them... a horrible thought!
I like that using just one flipper idea. Maybe that's what I need to do to keep pinball interesting and challenging. This week... the left flipper!

 

[Shadow]

Yeah, it's good to get re-excited about something I've always had a passion for.

As you say, video games are not as absorbing as they should be . . .probably because I was brought up on arcade games. Everything these days has to be one-hour cut-scenes for the "story" (yawn ) or a bloody po-faced sim that sucks all the fun out.

Then again, I suppose pinball exposes our - shall we say - more elderly dispositions. I must admit I flirted with Future Pinball there for a while but, for now, VP9 is king . . .or queen . . .or whatever