I want to add Pinball to my set!

[Kondorito]

Hey guys, whats up!

I am upgrading my drive to a bigger and faster one, so I thought about adding more systems to it. One of them that makes me curious since a long time is Pinball.
I have heard of Visual Pinball, Pinball FX, FX2, FX3, etc. But I do not know which one is the best, if there is a set/pack already made with the games (don't know if those are roms or what), and if it can be played with a joystick.

Any info anybody can share with me to get started will be highly appreciated!

Cheers!

[wallmachine]

Get them all! you forgot Future Pinball and Arcade Pinball!!

I'd use vpforums as your basis they also have a lot of art etc.

Example: https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=tutorials&article=143

[Kondorito]

Thank you WM! Gonna check them out. 

[Bungles]

The Pinball FX series and Pinball Arcade are Paid For Games with the tables built in using universal settings so they work with minimal setup required.
Rocketlauncher has modules that can go directly to tables however I think there are some version issues there if you wanna read up on that somewhere on the forums.

However you can just run them as .exe and use the in-game menu with joysticks/keyboard to select tables.

@Roadrunner has done some great media work for the FX 2/3 Series from what I have seen.

Visual and Future Pinball are I think Freeware and need a bit more tweeking to get things running. 

Media is around but there are some bugs I have had with themes displaying videos at 90º

Joysticks and game pads work fine from what I have seen with FX2 and Arcade having built in joystick support.

For the others, not sure may need to use joy2key or xpadder to emulate KB, unless you have an IPac with a cabinet etc.
 

[Kondorito]

6 hours ago, Bungles said:

The Pinball FX series and Pinball Arcade are Paid For Games with the tables built in using universal settings so they work with minimal setup required.
Rocketlauncher has modules that can go directly to tables however I think there are some version issues there if you wanna read up on that somewhere on the forums.

However you can just run them as .exe and use the in-game menu with joysticks/keyboard to select tables.

@Roadrunner has done some great media work for the FX 2/3 Series from what I have seen.

Visual and Future Pinball are I think Freeware and need a bit more tweeking to get things running. 

Media is around but there are some bugs I have had with themes displaying videos at 90º

Joysticks and game pads work fine from what I have seen with FX2 and Arcade having built in joystick support.

For the others, not sure may need to use joy2key or xpadder to emulate KB, unless you have an IPac with a cabinet etc.
 

Thanks Bungles!

Seems Pinball is not as mature as I thought it was (at least from a FE configuration perspective).

Will dig in a little bit more these following weeks.

[32assassin]

Visual Pinball and Future Pinball have full joystick support

and if you want an analog plunger,   you are better of using joysticks because the analog plunger is mapped to the analog sticks.

and it should take you less then 1 minute (each) to configure Visual Pinball, Future PInball and FX3 in Rocketlauncher

XMLs and media are available in the download section for all 3 systems.

 

Pinball Arcade has issues as the PInball Arcade Menu may change from time to time breaking the RL module.

[Kondorito]

1 hour ago, 32assassin said:

Visual Pinball and Future Pinball have full joystick support

and if you want an analog plunger,   you are better of using joysticks because the analog plunger is mapped to the analog sticks.

and it should take you less then 1 minute (each) to configure Visual Pinball, Future PInball and FX3 in Rocketlauncher

XMLs and media are available in the download section for all 3 systems.

 

Pinball Arcade has issues as the PInball Arcade Menu may change from time to time breaking the RL module.

Thank you assassin. Do you recommend adding VP, FP and FX3? I am not pinball machines savvy, but the idea of having some tables to play every now and then sounds great; so, if one or two of those three systems is not that good, or is a pain to configure, I can leave it out. I do not want to be a completionist in this particular system.

 

 

[32assassin]

I have  VP, FP and FX3  don't care for Pinball Arcade because all the tables in that system are in VP (and they are free)

 

FX3 has a very unique set of games that don't exist as coin operated machine,  most are fun to play.

you will probably end up playing this system more then any other pinball sim out their if you are not a big fan of coin operated pinball games.

 

Future Pinball has coin operated machines and a few originals worth playing that are not available as Visual Pinball tables.

(FYI,  their is a hypespin ready set  find it with your "Pleasure" if you get my drift)

 

Visual Pinball has the most tables,  and In my opinion look and play better then what is found in Future Pinball or Pinball Arcade.

but then again I'm a bit bias given that I'm a Visual Pinball table author

https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=user_activity&search_app=downloads&mid=77712&userMode=all&sid=46698d0cff5d19f7620254e858139158

and make sure to get my wheel sets from the download section,  their is no need for you to download individual files form VPF

[Kondorito]

You rock @32assassin!

Gonna check that link and your wheel set, and once I get my new drive I'm gonna pleasure myself for sure. 

[Rowr14]

5 hours ago, Kondorito said:

Thank you assassin. Do you recommend adding VP, FP and FX3? I am not pinball machines savvy, but the idea of having some tables to play every now and then sounds great; so, if one or two of those three systems is not that good, or is a pain to configure, I can leave it out. I do not want to be a completionist in this particular system.

 

 

Just a side note Pinball Arcade recently lost the rights to Bally and Williams tables and Pinball fx3 has picked them up and started putting out classic tables.

I'm not sure where this leaves Pinball Arcade. Pinball Arcade was typically going for realistic recreations in the past while Pinball FX series has been known for it's original tables and more generous physics (which hardcore pinball fans don't seem to like much). Pinball fx has some great licensed stuff and overall great presentation.

Also please report back on your journey! I'm keen to run down this rabbit hole sometime soon myself.