The Pinball Hall of Fame: Williams Collection

[Groo The Perverted]

Anyone get this game? I just ordered it, and it'll be here on Tuesday. It's got trophies, but they're not mentioned on the Trophy thread. Someone should get on THAT! lol

Just like last year's standard definition editions, this pinball package is surprisingly top-notch. The disc contains several licensed machines out of Williams' line-up from the past three decades, each accurately recreated for play on the home console. At least half of the names should be familiar to anyone who's flipped a few silver balls in their day. Pinbot. Whirlwind. Black Knight. Funhouse. Space Shuttle. Even the lesser known ones should ring familiar: Gorgar, Taxi, Firepower, and Sorceror might not have been huge successes in arcades, but chances are you've dropped a token or two in them even if you can't immediately remember them. And for those who need a truly old-school pinball machine in their collection, Jive Time has that quaint mechanical design of the pre-microchip era. This HD update also includes three additional, later generation machines: Tales of the Arabian Nights, Medieval Madness, and No Good Gophers, all excellent pinball games back in the day and welcome inclusions to the Williams mix.

Developer FarSight has had some experience in virtualizing pinball with previous pinball collections -- the team worked on Crave's previous compilation from more than three years ago: The Gottlieb Collection. That experience really shows in The Williams Collection. The collection here is a great selection of machines, and each of them has been rendered in 3D using high resolution scans from the actual pinball table. The visual engine used in The Williams Collection runs at a slick 60 frames a second even when a triple multiball is in play. And the developers even employ a fantastic amount of camera options for those who want to get the best view of the action. The sound effects are also spot-on to their real world counterpart, from the raspy voice of Pinbot to the "kaching" of the mechanical bells from Jive Time.

What's more, the pinball physics – what truly makes or breaks virtual pinball – are extremely well done. The balls weight and gravity is accurately represented as it rolls around the playfield. The excellent physics engine is confirmed for those with true pinball prowess: traditional skills such as catching and flipper passing (quickly flipping a "caught" ball from one flipper to the other) can be pulled off with the same finesse as it's done on the real machine.

[Todd Smith]

Best pinball game I have played..........lots of fun and really addicting. Enjoy

[DCSholtis]

Yep I have it as well. Addicting as hell in fact I can't seem to put it down to start another one that's how hooked in I'm in at the moment.

[BluePS3]

Great game you will not be disappointed, trust me you made a good purchase.

[Sponge-worthy]

Does anyone know how this compares to Zen?

[ayS]

Originally Posted by Sponge-worthy

Does anyone know how this compares to Zen?

i'm curious aswell. zen doesn't quite "feel" as good as others i've played, but it's all i have at the moment. im sure with all the great reviews this one's getting..it's pretty good.

[recS-12]

Looks fun. I might give it a buy.

[Packerfan75]

I was really disappointed that the Williams collection didn't include 'Attack From Mars'. That was my absolute favorite pinball game. I hope they'll eventually make it downloadable but it should've been in there. I also think the price is a little steep for a pinball collection and it probably should've been all downloadable anyway. When the price drops, I'll probably pick it up though.

I don't know if it's on PSN as well but on XBOX Live, there's an arcade game called Pinball FX which is pretty good. It's fairly cheap and they make new tables for it pretty consistantly. The ball feels a little light though and that's where I've seen every pinball game miss it, ball physics.

[DetroitSportsFan]

I'm going to be picking this up soon. I've played many of these games in real life.

[Groo The Perverted]

Originally Posted by Packerfan75

I was really disappointed that the Williams collection didn't include 'Attack From Mars'. That was my absolute favorite pinball game. I hope they'll eventually make it downloadable but it should've been in there. I also think the price is a little steep for a pinball collection and it probably should've been all downloadable anyway. When the price drops, I'll probably pick it up though.

I don't know if it's on PSN as well but on XBOX Live, there's an arcade game called Pinball FX which is pretty good. It's fairly cheap and they make new tables for it pretty consistantly. The ball feels a little light though and that's where I've seen every pinball game miss it, ball physics.

I got it on Amazon brand new the other day for 17.96.

http://www.amazon.com/Pinball-Hall-F...6773706&sr=8-2

[Gone2HiDef]

This is CRAZY that this thread just showed up! I've been wanting to chat with other fans of the game for a while now.

I downloaded ZEN Pinball late last year and loved it! After my sister's husband saw the game while I was playing it, I bought them Pinball Hall of Fame for Christmas. And now they're huge fans. My sis even called me to let me know she wants to give it as a gift to one of her girlfriends because she thinks it'll help out in their marriage LOL! From time to time, she texts me how she's finally reached X amount of points on a table, so I've since bought Williams for myself (used for $9 at GameStop). While I initally didn't like how this game handled after months of playing ZEN's version of pinball, I'm now addicted to the idea of getting high score on the leader boards for each of the tables I have on free play. I'm GZD with high score on about five tables right now. Pin•Bot was kicking my ass for the longest time, but after about an hour's non-stop playing today, I'm finally in 4th and 5th place. But Pin•Bot is definitely designed to work against you imo; the ball floats easliy on out of the side lanes more often than not right after I get started.

Comparing ZEN to Williams, I love in ZEN that you can just shake your controller to move the table, where in Williams, you have to move the toggle switch. Right now I have the ZEN habit of shaking my controller when playing Williams, but slowly remembering to learn and use my thumb on the toggle switch instead. I really loved playing ZEN a lot, but I can partly blame that on it being decades since I last play pinball, and the nostalgia of playing pinball again really got me hooked on ZEN. ZEN likes to give you free balls a lot, so that's fun that a game doesn't end right away even if you sink your ball in five seconds. I like the flipper control and response better with ZEN, but I've gotten used to Williams' flippers now. And I've read some players don't like the blurred after image of the ball in ZEN, but I think it's cool (and you can turn it off besides anyway).

But I haven't played ZEN these past two months since picking up Williams. And like I said, part of that is because I can easily check out the leader boards and see if I can score high score. I'm not a big trophy collector, but when I'm bored on a table, I can see if there's any I'm still missing (still missing one on Pin•Bot damnit!). And the challenge of collecting credits in order to unlock more tables is a great feature. On ZEN you can get on all four tables included with the download; it's a nice challenge to have to work for opening up more tables on Williams.

Alright, thanks, OP, for lettin' me get that outta my system!

[Chris60119]

How many tables are there?

[gavkiwi]

Got this 2 weeks ago, for $9.99 used at Gamestop, its awesome, really wish Star Trek the Next Generation pinball game was included!

[ChrisV]

I have this game on the PS2 and it is awesome. Can anyone tell me how the PS3 version compares to the PS2 version? How much better are the GFX, SFX and gameplay if at all.

[Groo The Perverted]

My game should be here any minute!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just waiting on the UPS guy!

[gavkiwi]

Originally Posted by ChrisV

I have this game on the PS2 and it is awesome. Can anyone tell me how the PS3 version compares to the PS2 version? How much better are the GFX, SFX and gameplay if at all.

Quoting someone from an Amazon.com review, "Graphics: WOW. WOW!!!! I own this game on PS2 and PSP, and the PS3 visuals blow those games away handily. Running in 1080p at a silky smooth 60fps, The visuals are just spectacular. Jaggies are almost completely non-existent. No longer do we have to suffer through subpar textures - the playing fields are just exquisite, all text is clear and readable, reflections and lighting are realistic - it's just stunningly beautiful. "

[DCSholtis]

Originally Posted by Gone2HiDef

This is CRAZY that this thread just showed up! I've been wanting to chat with other fans of the game for a while now.

I downloaded ZEN Pinball late last year and loved it! After my sister's husband saw the game while I was playing it, I bought them Pinball Hall of Fame for Christmas. And now they're huge fans. My sis even called me to let me know she wants to give it as a gift to one of her girlfriends because she thinks it'll help out in their marriage LOL! From time to time, she texts me how she's finally reached X amount of points on a table, so I've since bought Williams for myself (used for $9 at GameStop). While I initally didn't like how this game handled after months of playing ZEN's version of pinball, I'm now addicted to the idea of getting high score on the leader boards for each of the tables I have on free play. I'm GZD with high score on about five tables right now. Pin•Bot was kicking my ass for the longest time, but after about an hour's non-stop playing today, I'm finally in 4th and 5th place. But Pin•Bot is definitely designed to work against you imo; the ball floats easliy on out of the side lanes more often than not right after I get started.

Comparing ZEN to Williams, I love in ZEN that you can just shake your controller to move the table, where in Williams, you have to move the toggle switch. Right now I have the ZEN habit of shaking my controller when playing Williams, but slowly remembering to learn and use my thumb on the toggle switch instead. I really loved playing ZEN a lot, but I can partly blame that on it being decades since I last play pinball, and the nostalgia of playing pinball again really got me hooked on ZEN. ZEN likes to give you free balls a lot, so that's fun that a game doesn't end right away even if you sink your ball in five seconds. I like the flipper control and response better with ZEN, but I've gotten used to Williams' flippers now. And I've read some players don't like the blurred after image of the ball in ZEN, but I think it's cool (and you can turn it off besides anyway).

But I haven't played ZEN these past two months since picking up Williams. And like I said, part of that is because I can easily check out the leader boards and see if I can score high score. I'm not a big trophy collector, but when I'm bored on a table, I can see if there's any I'm still missing (still missing one on Pin•Bot damnit!). And the challenge of collecting credits in order to unlock more tables is a great feature. On ZEN you can get on all four tables included with the download; it's a nice challenge to have to work for opening up more tables on Williams.

Alright, thanks, OP, for lettin' me get that outta my system!

I finally got my high score Pin Bot trophy last night now the only 2 I'm missing is the Williams Challenge which I can't seem to get through without messing up and then obviously the Jive Time High Score trophy. I've already unlocked all tables by way of credits. I wish someone would port over the Pinball Hall of Fame The Gottlieb Collection for PS3.

[Groo The Perverted]

Originally Posted by DCSholtis

I finally got my high score Pin Bot trophy last night now the only 2 I'm missing is the Williams Challenge which I can't seem to get through without messing up and then obviously the Jive Time High Score trophy. I've already unlocked all tables by way of credits. I wish someone would port over the Pinball Hall of Fame The Gottlieb Collection for PS3.

How do you unlock the tables?

I've got 59 credits, and set high scores on two or three tables (#1 score on Gopher @ 21 million or so on the first play through)

Do the tables unlock by themselves once you get a certain # of credits, or do you have to manually unlock them with credits?

[Gone2HiDef]

Originally Posted by DCSholtis

I finally got my high score Pin Bot trophy last night now the only 2 I'm missing is the Williams Challenge which I can't seem to get through without messing up and then obviously the Jive Time High Score trophy. I've already unlocked all tables by way of credits. I wish someone would port over the Pinball Hall of Fame The Gottlieb Collection for PS3.

You know, last night I just found out about that Williams Challenge while looking around the menus. I unlocked two more tables last night from completing the goals from two other tables. I'm hoping I can unlock the rest (I think I have about four tables left to unlock) the same way rather than using my credits, which I like banking and seeing on the screen for the hell of it (It's 324 or so right now.).

Also while nosing around the home menus I realized there's a larger list of high scores I never knew about, which proves I'm not quite the pinball wizard I thought I was, lol.

Originally Posted by Groo The Perverted

How do you unlock the tables?

I've got 59 credits, and set high scores on two or three tables (#1 score on Gopher @ 21 million or so on the first play through)

Do the tables unlock by themselves once you get a certain # of credits, or do you have to manually unlock them with credits?

There's two ways I've learned that you can unlock a table.

1. Earn 100 credits, then you can go to a table to unlock it. There's some option when to you go to a table to select freeing it rather than use a credit to play.

2. Each table seems to have five goals. Again, when you go to a table before you select Play Table, toggle down to Table Goals (or some similar wording - I'm at work typing this!). Click that and you'll see all five table goals, and a dot to the left by any that you've already accomplished. I usually don't, but sometimes, I have had to read the rules for some tables in order to figure out how to get some outstanding goals left for me to do. When you get that fifth one done, at the end of the game, a message window will pop up telling you that for getting all the table goals done, you can unlock a table. A menu will show up after and you just move up or down to the name of the table to what to have unlocked.

[Groo The Perverted]

Yeah I figured that out (the goals one).

Unlocked probably three tables.

My favorite is Pin-Bot. I used to play the hell out of that in this arcade near my house. lol