By now all the Stern tables have been incorporated into the Pinball Arcade but since I have never reported on them, for good measure, I am going back and playing them. And while I am at this, I am playing the same tables on the Pinball Arcade just to see if there are differences. In fact, FarSight has always had different teams working on the various platforms, which explains the differences between the MacOS and iOS versions of the same table.
Today I am writing about the Stern Star Trek table. The full title is Star Trek: Vengeance Premium, so as to avoid any confusion with the Williams Star Trek: The Next Generation one. Here is the Stern Arcade screenshot
and here is the Pinball Arcade one
No big differences but the more sober Pinball Arcade background makes for better visibility. And, what is more, Pinball Arcade offers a choice of balls, something absent from the Stern Arcade. However, to be fair, given the table graphics, even the usually invisible standard ball manages to stay visible on this table.
I did like the game: it is rather unsophisticated, but since the ball does not drain too easily one can really enjoy playing it. It's one of the few games remaining in the Pinball Arcade collection and if you haven't acquired it before the debacle you could give it a try.
Since last month, we have been waiting for the arrival of the Williams collection to Zen. Well, they are here. It took me some time to sit down to write my report but, you can believe me when I say that I got them the very first day they became available. Mind you, there is no iOS version of these tables: you have to play them on the Mac (which is not a bad choice, in particular when, like myself, you have a big screen). The four tables are
Fish Tales (a free table)
Medieval Madness
The Getaway
and Junk yard
They exist in two versions, a classic one and "remastered" which includes the usual Zen effects: 3D interactive characters, ball trailer effects, particle effects etc. I played both and I must admit that this time Zen got it right. The remastered version is more fun than the classical one.
The price of the non-free tables is also very light: just 3.5 euros. This means that there is no extra charge for the Williams license (but then I suppose that Zen had to pay a license for all the previous, movie-themed, tables and they were offered at the same price as well).
Just for curiosity, I compared the FarSight JunkYard table to that of Zen. Here is the screenshot of the Pinball Arcade table.
There is no big difference graphically but then there is the ball thing. Frankly when I first looked at the FarSight version I thought that I had missed the ball in my screenshot. Even if that were the only reason, I would still favour the Zen version over that of FarSight.
Pinball Arcade is alive and well. After having lost the major part of their table library they continue producing new tables based on Stern and Gottlieb pinballs. Of course the "season" structure is now irretrievably lost and a visit to the Pinball Aracde table page reveals the follwoing:
(One wonders where are the Stern tables).
Anyhow, version 8.0 of PA is here and it's a bad surprise, since it does require iOS 10. I cannot fathom why the FarSight programmers are doing this (ny guess: pure laziness). For myself this means that I can run the new version only on my most recent iPad.
Now to the new tables. The first one is Big Buck Hunter
The graphics are good and the ball is visible at all times (provide one chooses the appropriate colour) but I find the gameplay uninteresting. On the other hand, the second table Whoa Nellie
is a beauty. As you have by now noticed, I am a fan of oldies and Whoa Nellie, although a 2015 creation, is an oldie-looking pinball. It's a watermelon themed table with great graphics. I would have preferred a whole-black ball instead of the 8-ball one but you cannot have everything. In any case I greatly enjoyed playing it (with only one regret: you do not get a bonus at the end of each ball; once a ball drains that's it).
So, while we wait for the Zen release it is not a bad idea to give a try to the new FarSight pinballs.
By now all the Stern tables have been incorporated into the Pinball Arcade but since I have never reported on them, for good measure, I am going back and playing them. And while I am at this, I am playing the same tables on the Pinball Arcade just to see if there are differences. In fact, FarSight has always had different teams working on the various platforms, which explains the differences between the MacOS and iOS versions of the same table. 
