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Recommended Tables (VPX, FP, PBFX et. al)

Lroy

Lroy

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Apr 25, 2019
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UK - West Midlands
Thought it might be useful to newcomers to VPX and Future Pinball like myself to have a thread where we recommend specific tables to try E.g. include the creator, version specifics and perhaps a YouTube link to the table being played if one is available?

Probably not links to the files themselves as I assume that may be undesired by the forum mods?

Seeing as this is about digital pinball, feel free of course to recommend tables from the commercial developers too - such as Zen’s PBFX3 and the new fangled Pinball FX ‘Epic Exclusive’ thingy. Zaccaria Pinball too and even the now defunct Stern Pinball Arcade and The Pinball Arcade if you feel like it.

I did used to post digital pinball comps on another thread but I think a more casual ‘my table recommendation is and my current high-score is’ with a photo might also offer opportunity for others to try the table for a week or two and post there own scores here.

Basically, just a place to encourage others to discover the ‘best’ virtual tables that have been created out there - originals or reproductions.

I’ll have a think and post my own recommendation at some stage but no need to wait for that. Jump in and get recommending.

Also let us know if you’re playing on a cab or a pc/console as that’s of interest to me and possibly others too.

Cheers.
 
The biggest 'problem' with Virtual Pinball is there's too much choice. It doesn't help when the same table is released by different people so you can end up spending more time researching and loading tables than actually playing them.

I was super impressed with Batman '66, one of the best I've played. Simpsons Pinball Party also, probably the only Pin that would tempt me back into real Pin ownership at the moment.
 
I've not got that far with VPX yet, mostly FX3 as it requires little setup for a VPin cab and you can get away with a lower spec PC, but I have gotten TNA working which plays really well and the sub in the cab does a pretty good impression of the shaker in the original pin.

Tried to setup the PUP pack for it a while ago to get the videos added on the back glass but found I need a better CPU to get them to run full speed. I think there is a video on YouTube of someone streaming the VPX version with the full PUPpack on it.
 
Fantazia2 said:
I've not got that far with VPX yet, mostly FX3 as it requires little setup for a VPin cab and you can get away with a lower spec PC, but I have gotten TNA working which plays really well and the sub in the cab does a pretty good impression of the shaker in the original pin.

Tried to setup the PUP pack for it a while ago to get the videos added on the back glass but found I need a better CPU to get them to run full speed. I think there is a video on YouTube of someone streaming the VPX version with the full PUPpack on it.
Click to expand...
TNA?
 
I rediscovered real Pinball through pinballfx3 but barely touch it now.

Last year I grabbed vpx just to launch on my desktop, no vpin and it was great to see how beautiful some of the recreations are, especially Diner.
Some creators were obviously safe bets yet I had multiples of the same tables,. AFM, creech, CC/CCC, Indiana Jones and more.
But I found they differed so wildly with physics and lighting that I struggled to settle into any of them. I'm just too OCD.
I found some incredibly dark, they looked pretty but not practical to play.

Don't mean to sound negative, it's just a minefield, especially as a desktop user when they all have different viewing angles too.
I had a fiddle with VR too and that was incredible, but again with vpx it required tweaking, didn't seem very user friendly and I didn't want to spend ages sorting it out.
Still some tables we kept playing, mainly Diner and WCS. 😁

Lroy said:
TNA?
Click to expand...
Total Nuclear Annihilation
 
David_Vi said:
I rediscovered real Pinball through pinballfx3 but barely touch it now.

Last year I grabbed vpx just to launch on my desktop, no vpin and it was great to see how beautiful some of the recreations are, especially Diner.
Some creators were obviously safe bets yet I had multiples of the same tables,. AFM, creech, CC/CCC, Indiana Jones and more.
But I found they differed so wildly with physics and lighting that I struggled to settle into any of them. I'm just too OCD.
I found some incredibly dark, they looked pretty but not practical to play.

Don't mean to sound negative, it's just a minefield, especially as a desktop user when they all have different viewing angles too.
I had a fiddle with VR too and that was incredible, but again with vpx it required tweaking, didn't seem very user friendly and I didn't want to spend ages sorting it out.
Still some tables we kept playing, mainly Diner and WCS. 😁


Total Nuclear Annihilation
Click to expand...
Physics, lighting and viewing angles are all things you can change in vpx. It’s not difficult to learn how but it’s definitely time consuming.
 
Lroy said:
TNA?
Click to expand...

David got it, Total Nuclear Annihilation.

There is a lot of adjustability in VPX, setting up the first table was a learning experience and a half, but once you know what you need to do it clicks a little bit for the next one. Also doing it on a VPin cab takes some of the decision out of it as you would tend to just set the viewing angle flat and then adjust the size to fit the screen.
 
Marvello said:
The biggest 'problem' with Virtual Pinball is there's too much choice. It doesn't help when the same table is released by different people so you can end up spending more time researching and loading tables than actually playing them.

I was super impressed with Batman '66, one of the best I've played. Simpsons Pinball Party also, probably the only Pin that would tempt me back into real Pin ownership at the moment.
Click to expand...

Would echo those thoughts after owning one a short while, also BM66 and SPP are excellent. Mars Attacks pup pack for AFM is very cool too.
In addition to the ones that were pre installed by Arcadeland I’ve added NBA Fastbreak and DE Batman black n white, both with alt sound packages.
Fantazia2 said:
I've not got that far with VPX yet, mostly FX3 as it requires little setup for a VPin cab and you can get away with a lower spec PC, but I have gotten TNA working which plays really well and the sub in the cab does a pretty good impression of the shaker in the original pin.

Tried to setup the PUP pack for it a while ago to get the videos added on the back glass but found I need a better CPU to get them to run full speed. I think there is a video on YouTube of someone streaming the VPX version with the full PUPpack on it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up on this I’ve just added TNA with the music files and it plays pretty nice. The soundtrack really makes it!
Do you happen to still have the pup pack I believe most sites have removed this ? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places too. Thanks
 
Thanks for the recommendations of tables so far, am making a list. I’m especially interested to learn of the ‘best’ tables in terms of how they play in relation to the ball physics.

Whilst Zen aren’t without flaws, the biggest stride forward they made once getting the Williams/Bally licence for PBFX3 was in how they continued to enhance the ‘classic/arcade’ pro physics engine with each Williams table pack they released. Not talking about their floaty Zen ‘single player’ physics. They really need to establish better more accurate naming conventions to help people realise ‘single-player’ is their easy video game physics and that ‘classic’ ‘arcade/tournament’ set-up is their realistic simulation physics.

I’m hoping despite the duplications of tables and abundance of versions in Virtual Pinball X that it is possible to identify the creators or table versions that have the most realistic physics? Or is there no established ‘realistic physics’ tables available?
 
Crewey said:
Would echo those thoughts after owning one a short while, also BM66 and SPP are excellent. Mars Attacks pup pack for AFM is very cool too.
In addition to the ones that were pre installed by Arcadeland I’ve added NBA Fastbreak and DE Batman black n white, both with alt sound packages.

Thanks for the heads up on this I’ve just added TNA with the music files and it plays pretty nice. The soundtrack really makes it!
Do you happen to still have the pup pack I believe most sites have removed this ? Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places too. Thanks
Click to expand...

I should have it somewhere, either on my main PC or the VPinball PC, I'll have a look later.
 
I think it would help massively if the VPX physics were standardised so all tables were using the same parameters. There's probably reasons why that may not be possible but as soon as you start a table you know straight away if something is 'off' with the physics (usually a dead flip) and others where it feels a lot more realistic so why can't all tables use the more realistic settings. That's why I like the Pinball FX ones as you know what you are getting.

It's hard to complain though as the creators spend many, many unpaid hours creating them for our enjoyment.

I've tried to get out of the Pokémon 'gotta catch em all' mentality as every time you switch it on you start downloading and configuring tables rather than playing. Nowadays I pick a table before I switch it on and play only that table.

Periodically I'll see what new releases there are and download any I fancy.
 
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It's awesome, I've been playing it since new year and the work involved in scripting, from scratch, is unbelievable.
Their GOT is very amazing too which was released Christmas Eve.
I don't normally bother with non-rom tables, but for the VPX crew I figured I'd give it a go.
Looking forward to their TZ release :)
 
Bond 60th LE on VPX has been out for a few hours, anyone played it yet?
 
It's a just a reskin of another table with a vague bond 60th playfield slapped on the top I think.
It'll be a long long time before you'll see a 'proper' version, the newer SPIKE tables are non-rom based as yet so the entire ruleset has to be hand scripted, all the assets grabbed off the real table (each video frame, each sound clip) and then stitched together, as well as doing the graphic side of the table
I think Maiden took about 18 months and a reasonably sized group of people to do....
One day when SPIKE 2 is actually emulated and the real ROMs can be used we'll see some of the modern games coming along quicker, but I think it's some way away yet.
 
ChrisH said:
It's a just a reskin of another table with a vague bond 60th playfield slapped on the top I think.
It'll be a long long time before you'll see a 'proper' version, the newer SPIKE tables are non-rom based as yet so the entire ruleset has to be hand scripted, all the assets grabbed off the real table (each video frame, each sound clip) and then stitched together, as well as doing the graphic side of the table
I think Maiden took about 18 months and a reasonably sized group of people to do....
One day when SPIKE 2 is actually emulated and the real ROMs can be used we'll see some of the modern games coming along quicker, but I think it's some way away yet.
Click to expand...
Spike 2 is a lot harder to emulate. Had so many rumours that people have done it etc but I think it is all bull to be honest with you Chris.
Would also take game sizes up to much larger size, if you look at the software for Rush pro it is over 10gb.
The rule that was always understood in the vpin community is that they would not emulate an os that is in production - but SAM/Whitestar etc are much easiet to emulate than a whole OS. Would also imagine that licnese holders will not be happy. I mentioned this to Gary Stern and he said he had no idea what I was talking about. At the time Stern were the only company making pinballs on a large scale, so pre CGC/JJP.
 
Oh 100% - it's going to be years I suspect

I heard that SPIKE1 was 'close' but that was 2 years ago and is a whole different ball game than SPIKE2 - closer to SAM than SPIKE2
If I recall SPIKE2 O/S is Linux derived, but the CPU and supporting hardware is significantly more powerful than what went before as well, even if it's possible it's going to me much more complex and much more power hungry than anything that went before when it comes to emulation.
I suspect a large chunk of the 10GB for the new games is the video assets, but the architecture is the real killer.

Long time away, I'm not really too fussed to be honest - I generally stick to the 90s games myself.

Credit where it's due on IronMaiden though - scripting that would have been a serious undertaking
 
The new Pinball FX just launched on consoles (Steam release expected in April, currently its on Epic). Currently 80+ tables in it, 21 of which aren't in FX3. The big hitters include The Addams Family and World Cup Soccer.
 
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