IMO vpins are a nice supplement to the gameroom for the variety of rare games you can play. I would not get this as my only 'pinball' but its great as an accessory. I would play it before deciding though. Everyone builds and configures vpins differently ranging from horrible physics/feel to pretty good! I spent alot of time configuring mine and have alot of fun with it daily along with my other real pins.

$3,000 towards another real pin

Don't do it! It's cute and you get to play titles you don't usually see etc etc blah. It's just a boat anchor you'll be stuck with when you're sick of it in under a year

I built a VP and sold it about a year later. Eventually the novelty of having every pin wears off and I found myself only playing a select few games. If you are buying from Joe Shmoe, consider the build quality and level of support you will receive if something breaks after purchase.

You can build one for a fraction of the cost if you have the skills. I had one and it satisfied the itch until I could find a real machine. I would still have it up but ran out of room when I added more real pins. Now that I have more room I want to get it back out, but gave up the computer to my son for gaming. They are fun if done right with force feedback and all. Still any real pin is better.

I will also add that where I live real pins are much harder to find so it was about the only thing available at the time.

hey there, first post here ever on this website.. I have a virtual pinball machine, mainly because of lack of funds and space. and.... finding real pins is kinda hard by me, ( although a few places have opening up ) I have my system in a real judge dredd cab, and absolutely love it!!!,

a lot has happend in the past couple years due to some incredibly talented people, colordmd,, very good physics ( not perfect though ) ect. ect.

heres a pic of MM when i first got it, to now.

and some MB too.

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One thing for sure, if not setup correctly or due to the tv / monitor used and any delay in flipper action makes it unbearable.

you are right. monitors I use are 60hz and I lock the refresh frame rate at 60 hz. and pre render 1 frame. its fairly smooth and flipper reaction is very low, on my set up... others... well could be terrible.

That's the main appeal of a virtual pinball. I had 12 pins in my game room and figured out a way to squeeze just one more in. I was thinking of a virtual pin to simulate lots of titles I like but didn't have room or funds for. But after trying a couple different virtual pins I bought a NIB Stern I really liked instead.

Now my problem is I'd like to add another NIB Stern but I can't figure out how to squeeze in another game.

I was really interested in virtual pinball too until I stumbled across a video of a kid playing one and just triggering the flippers like crazy and he was able
To make shots with it. Like good shots . I was like this is dumb

I've spent the last couple months occasionally looking at the new versions of Visual Pinball X, and WOW there are some incredible games out there. There's even VR versions of the games which eliminate the "2D" nature of these tables. They look AMAZING. With force feedback and the nudging sensors, maybe a shaker, etc, they can be really really good. But they're not real, and they don't play the same, and to me.. not as fun. I would consider getting one for $1500 MAYBE, in order to play some of the games I can't find in my area. But that's about it...

I still play Pinball arcade every night on my PS3. Its what got me back into pinball. If they are anything like that I would be interested. I know its not the same but fun to play!

TPA opens the shots up a little for people, I don't know how far off you can be, but yeah it's stupid. It's mainly done that way to make new players enjoy themselves more. Plus I've never liked the physics on TPA or That other one that looks like a video game.

VPX tables are a lot better, a few things that sucks are there are no variance to the feeds (although you could code that into the table pretty easily). The nudging sucks, the ball moves rather the table creating the opposite of what was intended on certain saves. Some authors don't put a lot of time into the physics, but you can fix that as well.

tpa vs vpx is like comparing apples to oranges. ( vpx is far better, but tpa is very easy to get working )

also, one could say. hey.. I saw a video once of a kid playing this pinball game and he made some shots. thats lame.

please, try it out for yourself first and give it a chance before you make up your mind. that goes for mostly everything in life. I love real pinball, but vpx is always improving all the time. dont be surprised in a couple years on how advanced it is, people will have to take it seriously at some point.

On the discouragement side I'll say this. I've seen multiple listings over the years on Pinside for virtual pinball setups where the seller is selling it to purchase a single real pinball machine.

I've always been interested in virtual pinball but didn't want to make the investment into a full size cabinet due to the cost and the space it takes up. I had a local cabinet maker make the front end of a pinball machine to use as a VR pinball cabinet. The cabinet can also be placed in front of a TV and used there as well. With that being said I haven't used it much lol.

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Oneangrymo = 14 pins
Tomass = 14 pins
TheLaw = 15 pins
littlecammi = 16 pins

Truth is these are all mid-sized collections. A lot of Pinsiders have way more games than we do.

Visual Pinball 9 (aka VP9) has come a long way from 10 years ago to the now current Visual Pinball x (aka VPX). Here is a really nice recreation of TOTAN in 4k by flupper who is one of many talented VPX table creators.

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Umm.. correction oneangrymo fully loaded and overwhelmed, and has an angry wife... has nearly 5-6 pins on marketplace! go look!

Vmp

I have 14, but spent less on the entire collection than some do on just 1 machine. I buy broken and fix, then restore. I like knowing every bolt and screw on my machines for when a problem comes up. I can't play a game unless it has 0 issues for some reason.

I love that part of the process myself. I've bought several new in box Stern's over the years, but there's something rewarding about making the dead and dirty ones play right and look nice again. I don't do restores, I refurb to nice working and looking respectable. Since my divorce, the NIB purchases slowed way down. I sometimes think that my Batman 66 could be replaced with 4-6 other pins easily using that same money, but it is a great game and still under warranty

IMO Virtual Pinball can be pretty awesome - but you need a really good build. The tech is there, and having the variety of games is awesome. If I could only have 1-3 games, they would all be real pinball. But as long as I had 3 real games, having a VP gives you so much variety. I find playing EM Tables on a VP to be as good or better than playing the actual pins - since the actual pins are so often in poor shape and play extremely slow. The "fun" factor for me with EM's is much lower than modern games (I still like them) - so I can't justify an EM taking up a slot in my game room. But with a VP I can play a ton of EM's with no maintenance, or slow, tired out old mechs. I've been collecting 30+ years and have a lot of games (mostly DMD) - my opinion might be different if I was newer to the hobby.