Відео

Hey there! @jaredmorgs here. It's good to have an actual owners' opinion of it a year after it came out. It sounds like Chris needs to go back and extensively play it. 😛 So the questions I have are: - Do you have experience with owning other pinball games? - Have you had to fix anything on it yet? - How was that experience? - Does it have the ability to take coins (the door looks real according to Chris)? This will never see the light of day down here in Australia so I have to live vicariously through you and Chris for now.

Another question. Now you've owned it for a year, do you feel like getting the cornerstone Pro?

@@blahcadepinball First I must point out that I have the original non-"Plus" edition, which has a chipboard cabinet and MDF playfield, a terrible lockdown bar, and a flat-faced door on the front with no coin slots. It was one of the first units made, and Stern have made many improvements with the Plus edition that is sold at CostCo, including a wooden cabinet and playfield, a normal lockdown bar and relocated Start button, and a normal coin door (without the coin mech inside). There have also been other changes made since my early model, such as the spotlights on the playfield. And of course, it comes with Insider Connected! I had originally planned on buying the Pro model, which I had pre-ordered, but after seeing Jack Danger showing off his new home edition on his stream I fell in love with the fast-flowing gameplay and changed my order. I've played the Premium and really enjoyed it, but they are very different games. It was my first full-size pinball machine, after owning all sorts of 3/4-scale home model pins over the years before it. I also now own the Star Wars Comic Edition home Pin, and Labyrinth will be here later this week. I had to make a slight adjustment to the leaf switch in one of the pop bumpers which wasn't registering, and sometimes the ball gets caught in the T-Rex's mouth and doesn't come out. This seems to be fixed for a while by fiddling around with the inside of the mouth, so it shouldn't be too hard to implement a permanent fix. Other owners have reported problems with the T-Rex mech too, but other than that nothing ever seems to go wrong with them. The vast majority of owners are very happy with the machine and love the way it plays, even if it's simpler than modern Sterns and plays more like a 90s Williams/Bally. By the way I live in Tasmania, but if I lived in the USA I'd be tempted to sell my original model and upgrade to the Plus just for those improvements they made.

Oh wow did you import it yourself or get it through AMD?

It sounds like the plus editions have servicing in mind. I like the sound of that. The minor quibbles you're outlining there all seem very normal pinball things. No concerns from me there. If you're in Tassie what is the damage on one of these here?

Thanks so much for the gift of the key Mr Robo! I'm uploading the second part now and it has a better pace to it than the first one.

There is a lot going for Pinball Spire. You'll see that later in the video one of the puzzles doesn't click for me for ages, but I get there eventually. ~Jared

@blahcadepinball I added some chapters in as well so you can jump to the location of each level I played.

@@blahcadepinball I just streamed it myself. took a while to remember it was a metroidvania and that I might need to find a tool before I could progress so I decided to do the metroidvania thing and backtrack and found the fire, lol. I got to the ring of clouds stage before I ended. They did a fantastic job and didn't add anything like health or limited continues that would frustrate players.

Yeah that's a really good point about the lack of lives or continues. I love how it favours the player and focuses on fun and progression rather than being an exercise in player patience.

Great question, I will certainly ask that. I hate when playing cabinet mode and it goes to the plunger or an upper playfield, completely ruining the illusion. We have straight over head views on the ALP 4K versions so it seems it'd be a no brainier to add. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for watching!

hehe, yeah sometimes we get to our main topic early, sometimes we get there late!

Before you go purchasing a bunch of tables in the app, be aware there is a new app in development by Zen for mobile. Our interview with Mel last December indicated it would be coming this year, so I think an announcement is just on the horizon. Or you could just grind on this app and get the tables for free (that's how I did it, but it takes a good long while to do) Glad the vid helped, even after all these years of me making it!

@@blahcadepinball thanks for the heads up, ive managed to avoid spending so far and have most of the tables unlocked at level 1 but avoided junkyard and safecracker so I dont have them on the daily challenges. Some are close to 3 but not yet Almost got enough coins for pro mode but not quite. Ive been watching a lot of your videos and think they re great. It really helps a lot and its enjoyable watching somebody like yourself who is actually good at the games.

Zen has sales on tables for Pinball FX all the time. They just had one recently with certain titles at 60% off. My advice is never pay full price unless you are adamant about buying the latest release as soon as it comes out. The Williams stuff is still the best in my opinion. That being said, there are lots of Zen originals that are fantastic. The Jurassic Park titles are a prime example of that, Brothers in Arms which is in the Gearbox pack is great, the Godzilla tables can be a lot of fun, and the very recent Knight Rider is a true standout, so yeah. We do have a recent episode of our top 10 regular plays of Zen originals here: ua-cam.com/video/bxrSF53zWTA/v-deo.html Welcome back to the fold, there's a lot to enjoy!

Ever since I started using iMovie to edit these, I've noticed so many songs, transitions, and title styles in other vids also having been edited in iMovie!

You're very welcome. Backglass art has always been a struggle for me, not only in finding it but then actually liking what is available. This collections will probably evovle too, as I will continue looking for better imagery for a few of the tables or might wind up having to make my own.

More news always drops just after we find a spot to record. 👹 ~Jared

Cheat scores have been the bane of digital pinball since The Pinball Arcade. Our show has advocated for the resetting of leaderboards on a regular schedule (yearly maybe?) but nobody seems to like that idea (players and Zen). We don't believe Stern will join up with Zen until other companies do it first. Stern was unimpressed with FarSight's handling, mainly because FS didn't pony up for the IP licenses like Stern wanted them too. We think it's a real possiblity that Zen nabs Spooky or JJP, and if they can prove that licensing isn't an issue and that there is good business between the partners, I think then Stern might be more amenable. What you also have to consider though is there's only so much pie to be slices when it comes to profits, and companies like Stern, Spooky, and JJP might want too large a slice to make financial sense for Zen. We'll see.

@@blahcadepinball Zen seem to be fine for licenses for their original tables like board games, videogames and old tv shows, but damn are they really slowing on the Williams license these days, maybe they think spreading their real table licensing even further isn't worth it at this point if they can't produce real tables more often.

@@user-os7ec4dm8x We often have to remind people that there was a whole fan base of Zen's long before they got the Williams license. Those very fans were quite upset when all that kept coming out were WMS titles. This wasn't going to be much of an issue when Zen was planning on releasing 24 titles per year, half being WMS, but then Embracer Group demanded layoffs. Zen's staff got cut by over 30%, but guess what? They still had licensing agreements for their Originals that had to be met in a timely manner or risk losing them. Doing unlicensed WMS allows Zen to drop those in when needed without worrying about contracts, but there is still profit sharing with WMS to consider. When it comes to WMS with 3rd party IP, there's very little profit to be had, which is why those are spread out even more. Things to keep a look out for is if Zen starts replenishing their staffing numbers, and if Zen announces they'll be releasing more than 12 titles in a year. We'll do our best to get Mel Kirk back on before the end of the year for our annual 'State of Zen' talk and see what he has to say then.

@@blahcadepinball Your Mel Kirk chats are always a good watch, fair play to him to be quite open in answering your questions too.

I did not do a complete disassembly. Rather I just removed each reel and then wiped them down. My machine had been nicely maintained, so there wasn't a lot of dirt or grime on the internals to warrent full breakdown.

Yes, Titan rubber. I created a rubber set on their site that you can one click and purchase. The clear posts I purchased from Pinball Resource.

Wow, thank you! I had help watching other UA-cam videos myself, but felt a different approach might help others too. Glad it did.

One of these days I'll dive into the VPX waters, but I simply don't have the time at the moment to deal with all the setup. I'm including all that goes into finding the tables, ROMS, pup packs, and then installing those correctly too. Shoot, I was getting pissed at spending 1.5 hours the other night looking for specific backglass art for 6 Zen titles!

Meguiers gold class carnuba

I had the same feeling! But once you realize it’s all just switches and there’s a causality to each one, chasing down issues becomes significantly easier. Plus there’s tons of vids on peoples working on Target Alpha that you can use as a resource

@@blahcadepinball Thanks. Well I just had time last night to put machine together. To my dismay, it is malfunctioning. It was running like a top when loaded into the truck. I assume a wheel or relay moved on transportation and now not playing as it should. In a nut shell, when push start button for one player only, players one and four go into game mode. Also, the match light stays on and changes/cycles through while came is playing with every bumper hit by ball. Would you have any suggestion where to start looking based on this. I am making assumption something happened during transport because did not do this when tested game for seller. Any advice appreciated. THX

The only thing I don't know regarding PinSim is if Jeremy is still selling the thing.

Yep, we’re still kickin’ around! And as you can see, machines abound.

I’ll need every bit of luck I can muster with Firepower.

I just installed an RTX 4060. Was initially going to do a 4070 Super until I found out my CPU (which is almost 5 years old) was going to bottleneck, so no sense in paying the price. I play in 2K and it's fantastic. Took some tweaking to get it all dialed in terms of latency, but now it's fine.

I've been playing the hell out of WCS, it really is a fun title. Plus I just posted top score on the global leaderboard by a significant number, so I like it even more!

That all depends on what you were expecing from the start, doesn't it? I knew the '4K' was pure marketing speak and that the tables were not going to be running in 4K. The monitor itself is 4K, no HDR, and looks great when playing in OTG. The more and more I play on this though, the more and more I love it. It's a great entry into Virtual Cab playing, feels right, looks great.

Glad you like that! It's probably how I'll review all future Zen titles as they come to ALP 4K, as we already know how fun or not the actual titles are.

Strangely enough, I've gotten very used to the lag and it almost doesn't even register with me now (even though it still exists). Each release from Zen has gotten better. What I love is flipping the power switch on and within 1 minute you are ready to play. Not quite as easy as dropping a quarter, but you get the urge to play and it's near instant gratification. Compare that to booting computer, loading up Steam, loading up Pinball FX, and meanwhile you decide to do something else! The other thing is I am now completely spoiled with playing in cabinet mode on a cabinet. I have a rotating monitor on my PC, I built a PinSim cab controller to mimic the feel (which in VR is still amazing), but this thing just takes it to the next level. I was sort of worried it'd be a cool toy that I quickly lose interest in, but instead it's been the opposite and I can't stop playing on it. And I hear ya about TPA! While I've loaded all the Pinball FX titles, Pinball Wicked, and Demon's Tilt (which is mind blowing on a cab), I haven't bothered with Pinball Arcade both because it lacks a true cab mode and because I don't want to get frustrated with all it's issues once more!

The audio issue has been since resolved thanks to another player advising me to reset my settings to default for all tables. Not really happy that was the fix, as I had adjusted the audio to compensate for some other tables (the Gottlieb packs in particular), but oh well. I play Zen titles way more anyways!

Yeah, I mean when you stop and stare at it the flaws are obvious. In the heat of playing though, those issues disappear. In some ways I equate it to playing in the wild on a table with a dirty playfield and all the room lights on. I'd prefer it waxed and polished in a semi-dark setting (me playing in Pinball FX) but at the end of the day it really comes down to is it fun to play and do I enjoy the rules? Because those don't change regardless of graphical fidelity.

It's a bad look for both AtGames and Zen, so they obviously want to solve this quick. Because the last they want to be fielding questions about for those 45 tables packs announced is whether or not lag is an issue.

Oh man, now ya got me wondering which of the two of us is Siskel and which is Ebert! But two thumbs up for that comment.

With the ALP 4K, there's no external spring like you'd see on a regular plunger, so no you can't just push in. It's gotta be a pull and then release. I've suggested to my contact and they passed it along that the option of pressing the 'A' button on the Arcade Control panel (for those of us that purchased) could be used. This would also work for magna saves on WCS '94, or the 'shift' on The Getaway or activating troll bombs in Medieval Madness.

They got the licensed music for Knight Rider, and in the chat the consensus was they pulled audio of Michael from the show too. Same with Xena, pulling audio from the show. For Trek Kelvin, they use the proper music, but no pull quotes. Hiring the actual actors to supply voice work for pinball specific callouts is insanely expensive. At least they are learning the lesson of trying to secure music when possible.

Thank you for your answers. The music I understand they need to pay for the license and also for the voices. But they can pull samples from the series from a blue ray or something and get it in perfect condition (320kbps or wav) and use that and pay for this. So instead of using the original actor to do sounds you can pay for the samples which will be cheaper as far as I'm informed. Second KITT is on Cameo 😎

@@v3n0m14 I think that's exactly what they did on some of the tables, but it probably is all dependent on what assets Universal was licensed to give to Zen. Some contracts with actors stipulate the use of their voice from a project is allowed, other contracts are pay per use. Robin Williams famously sued Disney to stop them from slapping his voice onto any product they could think of with Aladdin. So it'd be nice if licensing was as simple as being able to then pull audio from a project, but much more goes into it.

I lost my voice again. It’s me, I swear!

@@blahcadepinball Amazing difference! Cheers.