I own the original Timeshock and think it's fantastic, so I downloaded Big Race and... well... the theme doesn't work nearly as well for me. And what's with the music and voices? I feel like it should be played in an elevator.

At any rate, I could and probably will back at maybe the $100 or $250 level... what I really want is offered at the $500 level, but that's too rich for my blood.

I really hope that this project is a success. I think I bought Timeshock! at Best Buy the day it came out. Paid somewhere between $35 and $45 for it back then.

Something that is being missed here by the people complaining about what you get for $50 is that this is basically a pledge drive. You are not buying the games. You are giving them money so that they can make/upgrade the games for you to enjoy. In return, they are giving you premiums as thanks, including various versions of the games and other things depending on your level of support. It is like the PBS pledge drives. Do you really get $100 of entertainment out your donation that you can basically get for free if you want? Of course not! You donate so that your kids can continue to watch Sesame Street, your wife can watch Masterpiece Theater and you can watch Mystery, This Old House or Doctor Who way back when.

The Pro Pinball series are the best pinball simulations ever made. Period. No arguments. =)
It would really be a shame for this to fall through. I know that $400k is a lot of money but if you have played these games, you know that as much (if not more) work went into making them as any real pinball machine and this Kickstarter include a new Pat Lawlor design.

Please make a pledge and spread the word. In then end if we can get a really good pinball table into an iPad app or an Android app, and more people play it, then maybe they will start looking for real pinball games to play. We can only hope.
Bruce

Timeshock! is the only computer game that I played for YEARS and I still never got to the 'End of Time' wizard mode. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be enough people who realise how incredible these games were. There are probably plenty of Pro Pinball fans out there who would pledge if they knew the project existed. The most exciting thing about all this is that there are hints that either Timeshock! or the new Lawlor game could actually be produced in the real world. In my opinion, Timeshock! would be better than any real machine ever produced (discuss).

Totally agree with you, insx.
If it was made in real life, I would sell a couple my other games to buy one.
In the meantime, I would settle for being able to play it on my VirtuaPin cabinet setup.
Bruce

I played the Big Race one. Interesting difference of physics as stated, but the theme and shots just didn't do it for me. Still had that digital "lead pinball" thing going on, as if the table was at 9 degree incline or the ball weighed twice as much as a real pinball. I was able to do some post passes and stuff though, so take that as you will.

Timeshock is awsome i would deff be in for nib !!!!

One thing I did just notice....these guys are apparently responsible for the Metroid Prime Pinball game as well? That game completely delivered on the promise of Pinball Quest from the NES like two decades before it. I used to play that thing for hours until I lost the DS card.. =\

Frax, did you try changing the slope and flipper power in the settings?

That was a great DS pinball title with great use of the GBA slot rumble pack. Totally recommended if you spot it in a bargain bin.

Anyone else find this just a little depressing:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/14293468/homestuck-adventure-game

It's a real downer that Silverball hasn't managed to get any more mention out in the press around the net than they have. They post a lot of updates within kickstarter itself, and that's great, but they really need tons of new eyes on the project if they have any hope of making funding.

Timeshock would be the baddest ass game ever in a real table!!! Could you imagine the crystal effects with today's technology!!! WOW!!!

Early renders are out:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1790321238/pro-pinball-revived-and-remastered/posts

Very impressive!

Is it real or is it CGI? WOW!! That is nothing short of incredible! I was second-guessing myself on whether it was real or not! Then I decided it was rendered when I noticed the habitrail welds were a bit too clean. Man, can you imagine this running on your virtual cabinet?!

I'm sorry Farsight, but compared to this your graphics look like child's play.

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I agree, I had to do a double take. I thought maybe someone built the real thing. That looks amazing!

Yeah I seriously thought they built the real thing anyway whether the goal was met or not. Haha!

Those graphics are simply ridiculous! Unbelievable. On a retina display iPad it will look 100% real.

Part of me wants the real thing to be built but the other part doesn't want to go through a divorce. I don't have the money for a NIB Timeshock!

I wonder how the Pinball Arcade tables would look fully rendered out like that?

It seems like a reasonable trade off for having a static camera.

Choosing the right camera angle in TBA is an important factor for enjoying the game on different platforms. It's not entirely necessary for it to be dynamic, but it's handy, such as when trying to view rollover lanes.

I wonder if Pro Pinball with it's pre-rendered tables will still provide alternate rendered camera angles but just not have them be dynamic cameras.

yes the gameplay is great and physics ,, but i must be the only one who things the voice acting is horrible .. there was never any excitement in any of them ,, and i played all of them .. no awesome jackpot callouts .. its very subdued

Agreed. The sound effects and call outs just aren't as frenzic and exciting as pinball typically is. Almost every switch should trigger awesome sound effects! The sounds need to reflect the frantic activity of the ball, your progression through the game, and draw you into the theme of the pin.

"Jackpot. Double jackpot. Double super jackpot. Replay."

Haha.. every voice in Big Race sounds like they are high on quaaludes. It was weird at first but I just enjoy the rule set so much that I got over it.

They should just re-release the original tables for $5 each to help make some of that money. I'd definitely buy it.

Those graphics are a bit ludicrous...in the good way.

on big race usa one of the voices is like some hippee on drugs saying "you want something " all slurred , it was really disappointing at the time as i had such high hopes .. i thing the web was the best one .. it had cool multiball music

just had a thought why don't they redo balls of steel .. that had some cool tables ..

I thought the voice and music on The Web and Timeshock! were fantastic. I especially liked the woman's voice on the Web. I thought that gravelly voice on the Web shouting out the jackpots is cool. I haven't played The Web in years and I can still hear them in my head. I think I'll go dig out my disk and see if runs on Vista. I do agree about the voices on BRUSA and FJ, and the music on BRUSA. Too much jazz, not enough rock. Still great games.
It's not the voice acting. They did a good job depicting what they wanted. Just kind of lacking.

I would like to rephrase what I just posted a little.
Think that the music and the voices are great and appropriate for each table's theme. I am just not a big jazz fan. Not every pin made can be rockin' like Timeshock or MB or BBH.
The voices are also appropriate and well done on all the tables. The old inventor's voice just doesn't lend itself to shouting out jackpot like the wolfman on MB.

Interesting. I played Timeshock! for years and never considered that the sound was not exciting. It was before I had played many real machines though.
At least it didn't go "OK OK OK OK"

I plopped down my $20 to get all 5 tables on my iphone (in a year). I agree, don't think this K-project is going to happen ($300k in 8 days). With that said, I don't know that they're just going to give up.. I mean it seems like they have a studio and a team of software people. It almost seems as if the $400k was pre-funding to make sure they can pay all their employees for the next year. $400k is a Lofty goal indeed apparently. I think if they shot for $100k they would succeed.

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I kid, I kid.

They don't do a very good job of making it clear that they're going to completely re-write the engine for modern systems, not just buff it off a bit to recycle.

Even if you're not pledging, any help to spread the word would be awesome #pinballneedsyou

3-400k is a pretty normal budget for a small team working on a title like this. It's difficult to budget in 3 game devs working FT for a year (1 artist, 1 designer, 1 programmer) and all the general costs of dev without breaking 200K (and that's people working cheap on their own equipment out of their garage). Hopefully they reboot the KS and tweak the campaign based off of their experience with this first attempt.

The KS PP seemed to have some momentum the last day or so but is fading. NOOOOOO!
More....more...more! Faster!
Sorry. Got carried away.

The difference is that Farsight have products out there right now that are accessible to lots of people on lots of platforms and they have new content to promote every month. Pro Pinball, on the other hand, hasn't had a new title to it's name for over a decade.

These detail renders are exactly what I first loved about Pro-Pinball. I first found the series with timeshock, and I remember being completely amazed at how 'real' they modeled the game. All the screws, rivets and wires that it would take to really make the game were in there -- nevermind that they don't actually need any of it. It looked like something I could expect to find in the corner arcade and I loved that.

Doesn't hurt any that they play really great, too. That first 'wow' impression was a real hook, though.

The lighting demo on the KS page is gorgeous compared to any other digital pinball, and there IS a PC version of Big Race USA linked there that anybody can try.

They just can't get any decent wide exposure to get mass eyeballs on the KS to generate the funding they need.

Really bummed that this has a snoball's chance in hell of succeeding.

I think "Snowball's chance in hell" pretty much summed it up.

If they haven't gotten close by now they won't make it, and the way that KS works, they won't see any of that money pledged. If they want community money, gonna have to make a new KS with a more realistic goal. Get Timeshock done for 5-10 bucks per unit and get people interested.