What's the best pinball game on Steam?

[VERSAT1L]

.

[insx]

That's a tough one. I'm of the opinion that Timeshock Ultra Edition is the best PC pinball simulation ever made (even though we expected it to have more work done on it which now seems unlikely) but one very well done table might not be what you are after.

Pinball FX3 is very good if you are looking for a good variety of tables and don't mind the fantasy elements.

Pinball Arcade is good if you want to be able to play recreations of pinball machines that exist in the real world.

[Hamham]

I don't have this game (I was checking out what is going on with it before purchasing), but I love Pinball FX3, Pinball Arcade, and Zaccaria Pinball. Zaccaria tables uses real tables from the relatively early days of pinball, so they are well-designed but also relatively simple. Pinball Arcade includes newer tables that have a lot going on, but they are still real pins. Pinball FX pushes the trend of adding as much "stuff" in a pinball to the extreme, and each table is like its own feature-length video game with tons of stuff to master. Some purists don't like that, but if you're just wanting to play a fun game and like the themes, they are very fun. I like all of them pretty evenly but I can imagine someone picky liking one over the others.

[insx]

I'm always pleasantly surprised by the physics whenever I come back to Timeshock after playing stuff like Pinball FX. The way the ball slows down, rolls up to the lip of a hole and just drops in is one of life's small joys :)

[che_guewara]

Pro Pinball Timeshock! is...
By far the best.
I hope they release the other Tables too. Bigrace USA, Fantastic Journey, The Web

[Dark Redshift]

Originally posted by che_guewara:

Pro Pinball Timeshock! is...
By far the best.
I hope they release the other Tables too. Bigrace USA, Fantastic Journey, The Web

The Web espcieally. I am forced to hunt down No CD versions of abandonware copies of the original because not even GOG has The Web.

I am sick of waiting for the Ultra version of the Web to come out here and the developers have a lot of explaining to do.

[EST]

Originally posted by insx:

Pinball Arcade is good if you want to be able to play recreations of pinball machines that exist in the real world.

Too bad the shoddy physics really break the immersion on PA, though.

[Mal]

Originally posted by EST:

Originally posted by insx:

Pinball Arcade is good if you want to be able to play recreations of pinball machines that exist in the real world.

Too bad the shoddy physics really break the immersion on PA, though.

??? Care to give some quantifiable examples of this, or is this just you parroting what you may have read on pinside 5 years ago?

For "shoddy" physics go play Zaccaria since they are inconsistent from table to table and even from material and item type within the same table.

For "fantasy video game" physics (that are consistent) go play the Zen games.

For "realistic" physics of real table video game emulations play TPA or SPA. That also happen to currently have the best flipper physics in any pinball game.

For "real feeling" but not that great as an overall package, play this. It is still a great pinball game, but even VPX has surpassed the Pro Pinball physics model.

And if you want to play completely broken nonsense, there is always Future Pinball.

[VanAlphen]

If only I liked playing TPA, as it is I wouldn't play it if it was free. I don't like the ball physics, it's a shame because they have a lot of tables which I'm sure are fun irl.

I recently tried Zaccaria Pinball, it felt alright to me but I don't see myself enjoying their tables

If you haven't done so you should try all of them: TPA, Zaccaria and Pinball FX since they each have a free table to play.

[EST]

Originally posted by Mal:

Originally posted by EST:

Too bad the shoddy physics really break the immersion on PA, though.

??? Care to give some quantifiable examples of this, or is this just you parroting what you may have read on pinside 5 years ago?

Examples of poor physics modeling in TPA:
- weirdly floaty ball movement, they don't feel like steel balls with proper weight
- "vacuuming ramps" - noticability varies from table to table, but on some you can clearly see how the ramps are made to have a certain point, upon reaching which a ball gets sucked up to complete the ramp shot.
- Friction modeling: it feels as if differing friction qualities of different materials aren't quite modeled right. Especially noticable on the flippers, ball handling feels off and you can't pull off nearly all manouvers you should be able to do.
- Pre-set spots where the ball seems to always behave the same way, where there should be variation. For example, on tables with upper playfields, the ball always seems to roll down the inclines/ramps leading to said upper playfields in exactly the same speed and direction, where those should vary depending on how the ball was moving as it entered the exit ramp.

[Mal]

Originally posted by EST:

Originally posted by Mal:

??? Care to give some quantifiable examples of this, or is this just you parroting what you may have read on pinside 5 years ago?

Examples of poor physics modeling in TPA:
- weirdly floaty ball movement, they don't feel like steel balls with proper weight
- "vacuuming ramps" - noticability varies from table to table, but on some you can clearly see how the ramps are made to have a certain point, upon reaching which a ball gets sucked up to complete the ramp shot.
- Friction modeling: it feels as if differing friction qualities of different materials aren't quite modeled right. Especially noticable on the flippers, ball handling feels off and you can't pull off nearly all manouvers you should be able to do.
- Pre-set spots where the ball seems to always behave the same way, where there should be variation. For example, on tables with upper playfields, the ball always seems to roll down the inclines/ramps leading to said upper playfields in exactly the same speed and direction, where those should vary depending on how the ball was moving as it entered the exit ramp.

Ball movement, Have you ever actually played a real pinball machine that wasn't a brand new Stern made in the last 5 years? Seriously go watch some (non competition) videos of the EM and SS tables that are in TPA, the ball behaves as it does in real life.

I don't like vacuum helpers in plunger lanes or ramps either, but that isn't just physics modeling. It is (poor) game design, and Zen and Zaccaria have this as well.

Friction modeling should be different from one era to the next. Any of the recent tables (last 3 or 4 seasons) with the new physics engine can do many flipper tricks.

There are some (maybe 2 or 3) tables from early seasons that still have some scripted playfield elements that may not have enough randomness, but you do know that a real pinball machine doesn't actually have a random angle generator built into the metal or plastic materials and will become predictable after a few games.

I would still love to see some specific examples though.

[insx]

Amazing how different people can have such wildly different experiences of the same thing!

[Mal]

Originally posted by insx:

Amazing how different people can have such wildly different experiences of the same thing!

There is a difference between subjective and objective opinion, and sadly, posts on the internet live on forever... so what may have been relevant years ago, may no longer be, but that doesn't stop people from discussing things via "how they remember it."

I'd agree with EST's points if this were 2013, but there have been 167 updates since then.

[insx]

That last time I played TPA was about 3 months ago on the Switch and I would say that the physics were not a patch on Pro Pinball and I would largely agree with EST's reasoning. I'll repeat my subjective opinion:

I'm always pleasantly surprised by the physics whenever I come back to Timeshock after playing stuff like Pinball FX. The way the ball slows down, rolls up to the lip of a hole and just drops in is one of life's small joys :)

[Mal]

Originally posted by insx:

That last time I played TPA was about 3 months ago on the Switch and I would say that the physics were not a patch on Pro Pinball and I would largely agree with EST's reasoning. I'll repeat my subjective opinion:

I'm always pleasantly surprised by the physics whenever I come back to Timeshock after playing stuff like Pinball FX. The way the ball slows down, rolls up to the lip of a hole and just drops in is one of life's small joys :)

I get the same feeling when going back to ARMA 3 after playing Fortnight...

[keith1066]

Originally posted by VanAlphen:

If only I liked playing TPA, as it is I wouldn't play it if it was free. I don't like the ball physics, it's a shame because they have a lot of tables which I'm sure are fun irl.

I recently tried Zaccaria Pinball, it felt alright to me but I don't see myself enjoying their tables

If you haven't done so you should try all of them: TPA, Zaccaria and Pinball FX since they each have a free table to play.

I like zaccaria for the out of the box way it works in a cabinet. They are constantly working to improve their product and take suggestions on how to improve it seriously.