The average consumer doesn't care about the technical challenges (nor should they have to). When people buy a song or movie online, it's tied to some account and they can download/play it anywhere. When people buy software they generally are able to keep it when they change devices/OSs.

I'm not saying it's reasonable for people to expect cross-platform purchases or easy for Farsight to implement, but from the consumer standpoint of "I already bought this DLC, this should just work" on a free-to-play game I can definitely see the expectation.

The cognitive dissonance of defending an admittedly unreasonable expectation is why I'm so adamant about my point.

Only in very specific and limited cases and you're comparing a massive industry to a niche hobby. No, not even close to the same thing.

The average consumer can stop believing in gravity and then you can come in here and post how stairs are shitty because they're so much harder to go up than down but it won't change how gravity works.

A smart move would be to re-release a vault game 2-3 months after its digital counterpart. New games just don't have the same polish or ruleset flushed out.

Of course nothing can fix the physics of Farsights engine. I'd rather it be Zen's overly heavy ball that has some variability with the flipper trajectory.

Anyone heard any new information about this?

Nope. Nothing.

Typically FarSight takes a long time to develop their games plus they just finished Brunswick Pro Bowling so they're likely taking a break

Ironically, most of the consumers of that stripe are less likely to put the game on multiple platforms. From my personal experience, the ones most likely to want it on multiple platforms are gamers who are already aware of the lack of cross-platform interplayability - Playstation/Xbox/PC tend to be walled off from each other for even online play unless a publisher/studio makes an especial effort, and the technical challenges for those tend to be less than with ensuring someone legitimately owns a piece of DLC content.

I've currently got Pinball Arcade on my Steam account (buying Season Packs), and on my Android devices (phone and tablet, tables bought individually to create a "I will play that" subset), and I didn't have an issue with it. I agree, it would be nice if I could completely sync up and only be buying season packs, but in the grand scheme of things it's not as big as, say, DRM in general, and a fairly vocal minority in the gaming scene in terms of who should be allowed to play and what constitutes legitimate games.

So does anyone know what the 1st new Stern will be?

My thought is that it will be a game in current production, probably their newest title to drum up support for the game. Stern would need to have the license available for each title they plan to release digitally so I think that most current (at time if app launch) games on the production line are available as an option. Also, older games would need to have the license reaquired before a digital release becomes available.

Now the BIG QUESTION is; Is the digital rerelease enough of a cash cow that stern will acquire all of their old licenses. IF, and that's a big if....if they reacquire an old license, will they negotiate code updates and new rules into the deal?

Could the Stern app pave the way for finished code on all their old games?

Could Wheel of Fortune sell enough copies electronically to make it feasible to finish the code?

I love TBA. If I read about a table on Pinside, or a friend says they are getting a new one- I spend $3.00 and play it on the 360. The explanation of rules and tutorial makes real Pinball so much more rewarding for me then stepping blind to a table. I'm excited for any new Stern releases.

I was hoping that both companies would have this out by Xmas and help pick up steam for Sterns sales for the new year. Game of Thrones would be my guess as the first table.

with the costs of licencing I would think it would be like Iron Man or MET, Maybe even WNBJM as its not licensed.

Will be interesting if folks find software bugs in the game. Will Stern fix the code for the pin itself and release?

(Bugs as in game programming of the pin, not the development that Farsight is responsible for)

Instructions are nice, and will be very welcome for new tables... but they can seriously cut down on the 710 pages of instructions per table by using more than 1/2 sentence per page and overhead shot maps when more than one shot is being referenced for more clear explanations. Shoot here [next] and here [next] and here [next] and here [next] and here [next] then after you shoot this shot [next] jackpot is lit [next] here [next] and here [next]. ugh

I think Twilight Zone has the most pages at 710. One wonders what LOTR or Simpsons will look like!

Although completely unscientific, I do like looking at how many pages a game has to see how deep the game is. Big Shot only has 63 pages!

I do agree with this -- the feature is great, but reading through it takes 10x longer than it could. Perhaps two instruction versions -- expanded (as is) and condensed for more advanced players.

Nope. I've been wondering where things stood as well since it's been quiet for a while now.

And I thought they said they'd be providing more info the following week after the initial announcement. Maybe I misheard?

That's my whole problem with Digital Rights Management (DRM). When you bought physical media (game carts, books, movies) it was yours and you never really had to care about that anymore.

Now with DRM, some of these things are more tied down. I don't expect cross platform support with a single licence. If you're MAC or PC, or you're Playstation versus Xbox, then you knew up front that they are separate worlds.

But backwards compatibility is something I expect. It's annoying when you upgrade and things you own stop working.

More to topic, this is something I always though Stern should have been doing all along. Sell the physical machine, and sell the virtual version. For long term survivability, adding revenue streams and diversifying is wise.

So...your 8-tracks played in your CD player? VHS tapes played in your BLU-RAY player?

Good point. I think I'll buy a TSPP to practice on just in case they do actually put it on TPA!

I hope that they put Austin Powers on TPA!

I just wish they'd announce the first game already and give us an idea of what they have planned.

My guess is that they will be releasing older games. Too risky to release newer games in fear of cannibalising their sales.

emulation bugs maybe not unless they also happen on real games.

Ported code bugs less likely.

I always thought that. Would be a bold move to produce games that are currently in production. Will see how bold they are!

I have to believe a Pinball Arcade port would only increase interest in a title to own or play on location - it's more a promo than a substitute.

Totally agree. Prices on many pins that were added to Pinball Arcade have gone way up in price I thought.
Once people get a feel more a title and understand the rules, the crush starts.
It's a great hook.

Seems like new info will be coming from Stern rather than Farsight. FS is being very tight lipped.
My guess for first pin is that it will be Metallica.

Why? (just curious)

the background image of the press release was a MET playfield.

sternfarsight_(resized).jpg

Ah hah. Thanks.

Any news of this at CES?

I've heard the Farsight folks mention Metallica several time during Twitch streams. It could just be one of their favorite pins. But that's why it's my guess.
Spider-Man might be a better guess now.

Vault releases are the only safe pins to release. The code is done and the machine is ready for purchase.

It's likely just one of their favorite machines. They also mentioned Game of Thrones could be happening last stream but it sounded like they were joking about it and it's not actually going to happen.

I don't think cannibalizing sales is a legit concern. If anything, it would fuel interest in a new title. Pins recreated in TPA tend to go up in real life resale value, not down. Increased exposure and familiarity with a title is a good thing for sales.

However, since Sterns take a good long while after release for their code to reach maturity, I would think new titles would be off the table. No way does FarSight want to be doing multiple emulated code releases for games, especially considering all the platforms they support.

Gotta wonder if/when this will ever happen. Anyone remember "Pinball Arcade After Dark" for more "adult" tables that they talked up 2 or 3 years ago?

Pretty sure it will. Gary really talked it up at his panel at Free Play Florida in November.

And some of the platforms may not the ram to do SAM / or maybe the CPU power for spike.

Also 1GB+ roms updates will kill most peoples data plans.

Apple has that already covered... The platform has the ability to force large apps to only download while on wifi

The games will be download on demand, just like the current Pinball Arcade. This is a moot point.

1GB rom sizes blows me away. It's normally the multimedia files that takes up a lot of space but I can't imagine that's the case on a pinball machine with a 128 x 32 resolution. So, I making a random guess, that they are using some linux distro that they haven't slimmed down that much(no need with storage being so cheap). So, the bulk of the size is probably the OS. Depending on how Farsight is doing the porting, they could have a share OS across the modern Stern machines. Though, I have a feeling that they have their own pinball engine where they semi-manually program the rules into their own engine and not try to emulate the actual code. I find this stuff fascinating. I would love for Farsight's tech folks to do a write up of their technology and the porting process.

ROM sizes for SAM based sterns are in the 25-60 MB size.

Only the LE version of WWE, with all the LCD video, was over a gig in size.

Each game may have the os at different ver's. Farsight seems to emulate the roms with hooks and sounds played from some thing like wav or some other sound file. On the pc look at some of the files in the dir.

When is this going to start? Win win for both companies to boost sales, what are they waiting for?

I really want to know which titles they are going to digitize. I wonder if they will dig deeper into their library or focus on current releases (due to active licenses).

Yep that's the big question. I'm hoping we get both, from LOTR to GOT, do em all!

my guess is timing is ALL license time. It took farsight a long time, plus an extra funding campaign just focused on all the elements of TAF. Put a band or movie through the licensing process, that isn't limited to x,000 machines over 2-3 years expiry date, and it gets very tough for the licensor to give any quick offers of $. probably discussions within Stern about the 2 sides you all posted already, will it help broaden the market to buy new titles or cannibilize sales (my guess is it helps broaden exposure, b/c there a lots of Pinball Arcade players at $4.99 who on the margin might be able to buy 1 title NIB, and there are a few buyers who are already NIB buyers, that play PinballArcade to learn the rules for a tourney, or like to preplay older titles to judge replayability etc. the decide a purchase).

Regardless of the buyer or player reasons, I definitely think its been behind the huge resurgence and broadening of interest to allow barcades, modern pinball, and the like to take the risk to open a business around pinball again. Applause to Farsight to pratically creating a broad, public awareness via an app or console, that has prompted folks to seek out (and finally find!) pinball in the wild - plus these places are full of new, working games! - 10 years ago, the quest to find any location was tough, and the chance of the games being working enough to have you spend more than one game, was even tougher.

My 2 cents