The sky is falling

The sky is falling, or winter is coming or any other cliché you happen to favour. If you are following my blog (well, even if you are not following it but you are interested in digital pinball) you are certainly aware of the major disaster awaiting us: Pinball Arcade is going to lose two thirds of its tables (and, to my eyes, the really interesting ones) after the licensing contract with Bally/Williams expires. 

I have been following people's reactions on the web. Most interesting were the ones I read in the comments to the podcast linked to by my friend Marco in the previous post of mine. People started talking about pirating. This is easier said than done. Most probably the ones who are big mouthing do not know much about pirating apps. Perhaps this is easier on Windows but as far as the Mac is concerned pirating is barely an option. I looked around and it seems that there is a cracked version of Pinball Arcade although it does nor even contain all of season 6. Pirating on iOS is a no-no thing, unless you have a jailbroken device. Unfortunately for potential pirates, jailbreaking is moribund and there is no much hope in this direction. (I happen to have a friend of mine with an old iPad, jailbroken in iOS8. I convinced him to load Pinball Arcade and some tables. Well, it turns out that if one uses iFunBox one can have access to the folder where the tables are stored and make a backup of them. This would be OK for one's peace of mind but not for much else).

So, what can one do waiting for the cataclysm? I think that the only way to do this is to download all the tables one owns before June 30th. Then refrain from any further updates which may erase the tables. In fact FarSight should offer a new version of Pinball Arcade  which would not interfere with the previous one after the deadline. But, given their previous record, one can only dream. 

The end of the World

It's not yet the end of the World but it's definitely the end of digital pinball. While visiting the Ars Technica page (a site I follow regularly) I stumbled upon the awful news: FarSight is losing their license for the Williams-Bally pinball tables. After June 30th 61 tables will disappear from the FarSight catalogue. We are talking here about the main bulk of Pinball Arcade and a collection of the best games out there (including the Pat Lawlor ones).

I don't know if FarSight will be able to weather this out. Of course they are are already talking about Season 8, on track to launch this summer, based on Stern tables, but I am not very optimistic. Just look at what will disappear

The Addams Family
Attack from Mars
Banzai Run
Black Knight
Black Knight 2000
Black Rose
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Cactus Canyon
Centaur
The Champion Pub
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Cyclone
Diner
Doctor Who
Dr. Dude & HIs Excellent Ray
Earthshaker
Eight Ball Deluxe
Elvira and the Party Monsters
F-14 Tomcat
Fathom
Fireball
Firepower
Firepower II
Fish Tales
Fun House
The Getaway: High Speed 2
Gorgar
High Speed
Hurricane
Indianapolis 500
Jack Bot
Judge Dredd
Junk Yard
The Machine: Bride of Pin•Bot
Medieval Madness
Monster Bash
No Fear: Dangerous Sports
No Good Gofers
Paragon
The Party Zone
PIN•BOT
Red and Ted's Road Show
Safe Cracker
Scared Stiff
Sorcerer
Space Shuttle
Spanish Eyes
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Swords Of Fury
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Taxi
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Theatre of Magic
Twilight Zone
White Water
Whirlwind
WHO Dunnit
Wild Card
World Champion Soccer
Xenon

The list is depressing. Hell, Eight Ball Deluxe will disappear for the second time. 

What can one do? Well, I for one downloaded all the tables I own and will not update Pinball Arcade on my iPad anymore. I suggest you do the same. Moreover if there are tables you would like to have now is the time to buy them. Still I am afraid digital pinball is going the way of the dodo and in a few years this blog will become one of palaeontology.

Two nice Star Wars tables by Zen

Let me state it right away: I am totally impervious to the Star Wars lore. A Star Wars themed pinball has no extra attraction for me. On the contrary, I am always wondering why the developers decided to disrupt the gameplay in order to insert some movie-inspired scene. So, when I saw that two new Zen tables were available I was somewhat sceptical. Still, my blogger's conscience dictated that I be fair-minded and give them a try. I did so, and I was pleasantly surprised. The two new tables are The Last Jedi

and the Ach-to Island. 

I enjoyed playing both of them. Perhaps the fact that I was on a plane with nothing much to do did influence my perception of the games. However revisiting them just before sitting down to write this review did not alter my first impressions. Both tables are nice. The graphics are as always superb, and while heavily ornamented they manage to keep the ball visible at all times. (Perhaps the contrails do help a little although, as a purist, I do not favour such artefacts). The ball does not drain too easily, and given the accurate physics, the most frequent way to lose a ball is when it goes into the outlanes.

If you are interested in more details concerning these tables I suggest you read the interview of D. Szűcs, who designed the Star Wars tables. He is also talking about the new FX3 engine. And, of course if you would like to have more details on FX3, there's always the blog of Zen Studios.