Hi there,

After probably a decade without touching a pinball machine, I discovered Pinball Arcade on the PS3 and have become slightly obsessed with pinball in general. Sadly living in London UK there are not many machines around to actually play (that I've found) so my experience is still mostly with the PS3. So, I was wondering, does anyone have any thoughts on how well Pinball Arcade captures the feel of the real pinball machines they emulate? For instance, I absolutely love TOTAM, MM, AFM and NGG but don't know how "honest" a representation of reality this is. I guess the reason I ask is I'm looking at buying a machine but played an SM and Tranformers in central London the other day and I don't know if the machines were in bad repair or not, but the experience almost put me off the whole idea. They just seemed clunky and not at all satisfying, especially given all the positive comments about the smooth flow of SM I've read in this forum.

Anyhow, sorry for the rambling!

Derek

Ah what you say sounds very logical. I'm obviously not a great player given how long it's been since I've even seen a real pinball so that wouldn't help, but I'm thinking you may be right about the possibility of the machines not being "dialed in". I will try find some more places to play machines and hopefully find something that I enjoy as much now as I did TOTAN some 10 years ago. Then the floodgates might open...

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Ah I had a feeling TPA was going to be easier than the real machines. I think in terms of skill I rank rather lowly so the adjustment of playing on the real, less forgiving pinball machines might have been an issue for me.

I like Spider-man comics and films but not enough to want the pinball. Tron and LOTR on the otherhand...

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. Clearly I need to spend more time playing the real deal. Just read about a pub in London with 6 machines so will be visiting there shortly! I'm definitely encouraged and feel I will soon be taking the plunge and getting a precious for myself. I really feel like my new house needs some Smaug in it at least.

Thanks Pooman, that's very kind of you. And yes, The Pipeline is exactly the place I'm going to check out. I had no idea they had a WOZ and AFM there so I'm very excited to visit there now.