Anyone know if tables bought in PS3 would port to ps4 if I bought that?

Wish I could buy a game once and have it unlocked on any device I play on (iOS, playststion)

That is the way it works in iOS. I've been buying all the tables since TPA came out. Whenever I get a new device I download TPA and tell it to download all my previously purchased tables. If I had to purchase all the tables again whenever I got a new iPad I wouldn't be buying that many. I believe that's also the way it works with PS3 to PS4 and Xbox 360 to Xbox One.

Feel free to read back through this thread if you want an explanation. Short version, it's just not feasible.

Stern Pinball and FarSight Studios Launch The Stern Pinball Arcade on Oculus

World’s Leading Pinball Producer Brings Pinball Favorites to Virtual Reality

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL – June X, 2016 – Stern Pinball, Inc., the world's oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball machines, proudly announced today the launch of The Stern Pinball Arcade, available on Oculus. The Stern Pinball Arcade was developed in partnership with Oculus and FarSight Studios, the maker of The Pinball Arcade.

The new virtual reality (VR) version of The Stern Pinball Arcade provides gamers with a fun, immersive pinball experience based on digital recreations of ever-popular Stern Pinball titles. The Pinball Arcade has been downloaded over 20 million times across mobile platforms, PC and consoles. Titles available in the initial release of the Stern Pinball Arcade include Star Trek, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, Starship Troopers and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

“We’re always looking for creative new ways to provide pinball experiences for current players and future generations,” said Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball, Inc. “With the introduction of the virtual reality version of The Stern Pinball Arcade, we’ve put a new, fun spin on our much beloved pinball games.”

Oculus, a subsidiary of Facebook and one of VR’s leading companies, provides unique VR experiences through its products – Rift and the Samsung Gear VR, powered by Oculus.

Pricing and Availability:
The Stern Pinball Arcade is free to download in the Oculus store and comes with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Star Trek: $9.99
Ripley’s Believe it or Not: $4.99
Starship Troopers: $4.99

The Stern Pinball Arcade will also be released on more platforms this fall including; Oculus Rift, PS4, Xbox One, Wii-U, Steam (PC/MAC), iOS and Android.

About Stern Pinball, Inc.:
Stern Pinball, Inc., headquartered just outside Chicago, Illinois, is the oldest and largest producer of arcade-quality pinball games in the world. Stern’s highly talented creative and technical teams design, engineer and manufacture a full line of popular pinball games, merchandise and accessories. Recent Stern titles include Ghostbusters, Spider-Man Vault, Game of Thrones, KISS, WWE WrestleMania, The Walking Dead, Mustang, Star Trek, Metallica, The Avengers, X-Men, AC/DC, Tron, Transformers, Avatar, Iron Man, Batman, and many more! All of Stern’s pinball games are crafted by hand and assembled by Stern’s expert team. A broad range of players enjoy Stern’s games from professional pinball players that compete in high-stakes international competitions around the globe to novice players who are discovering the allure of the silver ball for the first time. To join the fun and learn more, please visit http://www.sternpinball.com/

About FarSight Studios:
Based in Big Bear Lake, California, FarSight Studios has been developing videogames since 1989. Among their titles are multimillion unit selling NFL football games, casual mass-market games, kid friendly sports games, and plug-and-play toys. They have made games for every major console from the original NES to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Virtual Reality devices. FarSight’s games have been honoured as Mobile Game of the Year, Greatest Hits, Toy of the Year nominee, and Editor's Choice on multiple platforms.

About Oculus:
Oculus wants to make it possible to experience anything, anywhere, through the power of virtual reality (VR) technology. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift Development Kit was released in 2013. The final consumer Rift experience launched March 28. Rift is a head-mounted display for PC-based immersive virtual reality experiences. Whether you’re stepping into your favorite game, watching a VR movie, jumping to an exotic destination, or just spending time with friends in VR, you’ll feel like you’re really there. Oculus’ first mobile product, Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus, leverages Samsung smartphones to deliver the best mobile VR experience available today.

I played it on my Gear VR tonight.

It's pretty cool. Heh, a giant version of the monster sitting next to the virtual table.

It's about what you'd expect. You're a disembodied head that can look up, down, and all around but can't go anywhere, except for three height presets. If you move your head up and down, the playfield comes along, feels odd even though I understand why.

And using the pad on the Gear VR, you flip both flippers like a 4 year old!

Still, you get to use so much more of your visual field that it is way more realistic than a screen. But they can only do so much with the phone running everything, so detail is lacking. I like where the tech is headed though!

Now we know why they cancelled the kickstarter. Because Facebook gave them the money to make it an exclusive Oculus / Gear VR experience. What a stupid move. There is no VR market. And Oculus isn't even delivering their HMD on time (which is why I cancelled my pre-order that I made day one; And I already received my HTC VIVE weeks ago and it's sooo great!). All these exclusive won't do any good. And then, as DanQverymuch described it, you can just look around?? You can not even lean forward and backwards??? And you have three height presets. That must be a joke. That's not VR. Pinball in VR has to be that you are walking around the table and looking at it from every angle and height. Oh man, I really hoped that they would make it right... but it seems like they did not. But then... I am simply not paying for it.

Since Stern seems to be the driving force here I would think the logical next step would be for a Spike interface to add some physical feedback and flipper control to the VR tables i.e. walk up to any Spike controlled pin wearing your VR googles, select a VR table from the library and play. Real flippers, a shaker, and tilt bob could all be tied back in. They could even add a 3 axis accelerometer package to the pin and now you have real nudging too.

F***'em if they decided to have an Oculus-only first launch.... eventually it will arrive on Windows and Android... and then I'll get to play ST!

Thanks for the review. I thought pinball on vr sounded great but this sounds terrible. I'm glad I don't need to buy a vr kit now.

Agree 100%!

Give it a few years.

I expect the Oculus version has better resolution, but I don't know if head movement beyond looking around is supported there either.

I do know that I need to get some glasses with non-progressive lenses before I will be able to stand wearing that headset for more than 5 minutes!

There is a new game for the VIVE called Pool Nation. I wanted to mention it as it does everything right with bringing a popular physical game into VR. The ball physiques are great and you can walk around the table and make your next shot from whatever angle. You can also play against someone online. And it's great to interact with that other person even though you can only see his hands and his head. But this already gives you a great feeling of presence and being in the same room together. So I really hope that someone is going to spend more time figuring out how to bring real pinball (with great physiques) to VR.

It is just the initial launch. Their PR statement says specifically:

The Stern Pinball Arcade will also be released on more platforms this fall including; Oculus Rift, PS4, Xbox One, Wii-U, Steam (PC/MAC), iOS and Android.

Gross.

Dude, nothing will ever beat the real deal, so relax and enjoy.

I tried the gear VR version tonight, and it's a pretty hot mess right now. First, the good. The 3D effect is pretty good, and the field of view is pretty similar to playing an actual machine. You can see the whole playfield/DMD at once, which is better than trying to play on a TV/Phone/monitor/tablet. It's better than most of the virtual cabs I've tried, and the surrounding room effect is kind of neat. I think I know some guys who have the same carpet they're using.

MSF is mostly playable. For the record, I'm running a Note 5, and the physics were similar to what you'd get on the Steam version. I was also playing with a BT controller, so controls were what you'd expect (triggers + stick for nudging). Same over-nudge that you get on the other versions. The playfield on MSF is a pixellated mess though, and it's impossible to make out text etc on inserts.

I also grabbed Star Trek, since I was more familiar with the game, and wanted to see how it held up. It played like it was underwater-about 1/2 the speed of a normal ST (maybe even less if ST is set up extra hard). Basically unplayable, and the Oculus store doesn't offer refunds (unlike Google Play and Steam). Maybe they'll be able to patch this later?

Anyway, save the 10 bucks for now. Maybe it'll work better on an actual Rift?

I played MSF today on Gear VR. Need to get a controller to avoid the double flipping. It looks to me like these have a LOT of potential, but were pushed out the door a bit early. I expected the graphics to be sharper, and it has some bugs as to be expected. It is cool to see all the other games in the room yet to be released, including a Stay Puft lurking....

Recorded some video of Star Trek.

Keep in mind that the framerate is not accurate. The Gear menus are smooth and for the most part, the Pinball Arcade menus are smooth as well. This is just because I'm beaming to my PC.

The issues with Trek are horrendous. The ball crawls across the table, and even other things like DMD animations and audio will hiccup and jitter. On top of that, you'll notice later in the video that you can't nudge and flip at the same time, so if you nudge while holding a flipper, the flipper drops for a second. If you try to nudge and flip when a ball is heading to drain, you just miss entirely since the flip does not register.

I'm playing on a Galaxy S7 which is one of the most powerful (if not the most) Samsung phone compatible with Gear VR. So this seems silly.

Oculus does not offer refunds, so hopefully this will get fixed in due time.

I haven't played it. But I've heard people say that the gameplay is much improved if you have airplane mode on. Try that if you haven't yet.

Everyone remember that this is a Stern branded release and like all Stern releases, it's not supposed to work well on early code. They're trying to emulate the feeling of buying an actual Stern table at release and experiencing all of the associated issues, along with the experience of wondering if they will ever fix the issues or if you're stuck with it the way it is. It's very authentic, though they should have had people order it through one of the app stores and then keep giving vague estimates about when it will be available, continually pushing the release date back, even though it's already available in other territories.

I connected a controller to my GS7 edge + Gear VR today and he experience is 100% percent better with the controller. With the controller you can properly nudge. And the "A" button is the lockdown button.

The performance of the game is still hit and miss for me. Sometimes it runs great, while other times it lags. Don't think it's a hardware limitation as these phones are super powerful.

I wish the PinballFX folks got this deal

TPA is just disappointment after disappointment

Still no cabinet mode. I decided to revisit TPA again a few days ago & downloaded the free table of the month to my brand new Note5... horrible framerate & jitter

Played this recently and it was just ok. Did notice they had an AC/DC table and Ghostbusters in there. Wasn't selectable but you could see the tables when looking around the room. Probably soon to be releases...

Pinball FX is only available on a small number of platforms. TPA is available on a fairly wide range of platforms.

Plus, TPA has proven that they are capable of releasing new tables on a regular basis.

Having both a GS7 and iPhone 6 I can tell you that TPA is 100% better on iOS. No stutter / lag. They need to improve the Android version for sure.

And the grand prize for the nerdst pinsider goes to....

Well, there goes $10. Star Trek plays like absolute garbage with my Note 5 + Gear VR. Ball physics are terrible, its slow, etc. I'm going to see if I can get a refund as its unplayable.

Thankfully I've since bought a real Star Trek pro, actual reality is so much better then virtual reality, lol.

I contacted Farsight support and they acknowledged the issues and said they are working to update the app. Don't have a timeline. "Stay Tuned" as Stern says!

My kids gave me a Gear VR for father's day. The first thing I did was check out the pinball. It was kind of fun, but I certainly wouldn't pay for any extra tables.

Has anybody updated TPA for iOS just recently? New update says new user interface and just wondering how it is before I update. What's changed?

Just checked - the above changes are indeed the same on the iOS version.

I actually really like the new user interface. The endless scrolling to select a game gets old quick. The various filter options are much improved!

Wow, the new interface is fuckin' horrible!

Not a big face of the new interface

The new interface is interesting. I'm hoping for head to head soon and maybe more challenges.

I don't like the new interface, most of the tables do not seem to work now. I don't know if it is having to reload the table or if it just doesn't work. If it is reloading there is no statis bar like before. Most of the time when I click on a table and nothing happens. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

No. Same thing has been happening to me. I've been able to get it to work by scrolling up or down a little, though.

Yeah, it's just too bad TPA can't do what I want it to do.... Like work on my Note 5 or virtual pinball cabinet.

A match made in incomplete broken pinball heaven.

Stern & TPA

So their shit is broke, they know it & still take money?

Pricks

hello all, need some advice please. firstly, i have no idea if i'm asking this in the right place so appologies if not.
that out the way.....my boyfriend loves playing the pinball arcade ps4 game, he also has it on his android tablet but hates his android tablet-he likes ipads! so, here's what i need to know-will the latest version of pinball arcade work on any version of the ipad, even the very 1st one?
the reason i'm asking is that i haven't a clue where ipads are concerned and will probably end up buying a really old one thinking it's a new one as the seller will see me for the munchkin i am.
any help greatfully accepted.
kind regards,
jo

I would never buy a first generation iPad. It will be so slow with many apps. I gen 3 iPad would be pretty cheap and be fine

Released today, anyone try it yet?

Hi Jo,

No, this won't work. The original iPad doesn't support iOS 8, which is the minimum requirement for The Pinball Arcade to run.

Marc

Also the new Stern Pinball Arcade requires iOS 10 so a whole bunch of previous generation Apple devices are unable to run it.

Requires iOS 10 and 1gb ram. iPad 4 would be the oldest iPad I think. That's what I have. I'd recommend something newer though. It can be jittery on the iPad 4.

Absolutely broken on the Steam version. No keyboard support, mobile port, and no later Stern DLC among many other issues make this game look like a disgrace. As a tester of Pinball Arcade, I'm disgusted that this was even rushed to release with this many issues.

Cannot get this to run on Steam. I don't get it. My laptop specs are wayyyy above and beyond the min requirements. It GPFs in Win10 every time I launch it.