The blog is five years old

Last year I was writing that I was really disappointed by the attendance levels of the blog. It started with 3000 the first year, jumped to 10000 on the second, then to 19000 on the third only to fall down to 25500 on the fourth year. And the downturn continues. This year we are reaching a total of 32000: this is 6500 over this year's period on par with the disappointing 6500 of last year.

What does that mean? I think that the message is clear. Nobody (well, almost) cares about digital pinballs. So, the number of developers who can make a living out of digital pinballs is shrinking. The day FarSight goes, the whole business is dead and the only thing to do will be to let the blog die. In the meantime it stays on under life-support meaning that I will publish whenever something new appears and will not push it. I was thinking about writing about the crappy pinballs that plague the AppStore, about writing something a bit more technical from time to time, but what is the point. With fewer than one visit per hour this is not worth the effort. 

So the blog continues, be it only as a repository of the digital pinballs available for MacOS and iOS, be it only for the few friends who follow it loyally (and to which I am deeply indebted). 

Firepower of FarSight is out

Firepower II is the new table of the Pinball Arcade. As I was saying in my previous blog, thanks to FarSight I have something to write about every month and thus keeping this blog (barely) alive. (More on this in my 5th anniversary post to be published next week). Anyhow, Firepower II is here. 

In fact it is the evolution of a previous table named (you guessed it) Firepower and which had been a very successful one. Most probably Williams, the original maker of the pinball machine, decided to surf on the success of the first Firepower and proposed a "re-charged" sequel (whatever re-charged means). In case you are wondering, here is a view of the playfield of the original Firepower

Well, back to Firepower II. First remark, it's a oldie and thus the gameplay is rather simple. (But, as you know, I do like this). The feature I did like most was the two-ball multiball which automatically has a double score. I would have been interested in playing the original Firepower also, just to be able to compare, but I don't think that now that FarSight opted for the second they are ever going to produce the first one.