Vita PSN - Pinball Arcade - $9.99 - 7/21: Terminator 2: Judgment Day Kickstarter Funded!

We’re very excited to be launching the Pinball Arcade on the Sony Entertainment Network. We have four great tables running on the most accurate pinball physics engine ever developed. What’s more, The Pinball Arcade will offer players the ability to buy our game (and any DLC tables) once and own it on both the PS3 and PS Vita versions! The PS Vita version supports the front and rear touchscreen and will be a great way for people to play our game while they’re on the go. We can’t wait for the game to be launched on April 10th. We can confirm that the game will run at a smooth 60 frames per second, and the lighting effects and real-time reflections make the graphics look stunning. This is the best pinball simulation we’ve created so far!

If you’re a fan of either real pinball or video pinball, we’re pretty confident that you’re going to love our game. FarSight has been making digital pinball games for years! We have received overwhelming support by the mechanical pinball community – and these are the people who insist on realism in their pinball games. We have acquired licenses from Bally, Williams, Stern, Sega, Data East, Gottlieb, and obtained other ancillary rights like Monster Bash and Creature from the Black Lagoon from Universal to name just a couple. We are focused on building the greatest possible collection of classic tables that we could distribute digitally ourselves.

A couple of weeks ago, we attended the Texas Pinball Festival, where a lot of people asked us how FarSight got involved in pinball simulations. People also thought it was interesting that we decided to transition from being a console game developer (with millions of retail unit sales over the past 20 years) to self-publishing our own games digitally. The fact is – we’ve been waiting for the age of digital distribution to get to where it is today for quite awhile.

If it would’ve been possible, FarSight would have made this transition 10 years ago when we created an original puzzle game called Mojo which featured a rolling ball. We saw a lot of potential in the game (and we still do!), but we had a difficult time finding a publisher whose sales department believe that our puzzle game could be successful in the retail space. Crave Entertainment saw a place for the game as a value title. After it shipped, FarSight and Crave together thought that making a pinball game from the engine created for Mojo would be relatively easy. Looking back – wow, we were pretty naïve about all of the nuances needed for pinball physics back then!

We loved pinball and were very excited to make a pinball game; however we knew that great pinball design is a skill that takes years of experience so we looked into what manufacturer license/s would be feasible to obtain ourselves. Our first pinball game, Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection was successful. We followed this up with a game that had much better physics and a better collection of tables in our opinion, PHOF: The Williams Collection. However, despite great reviews, the sales were not nearly as good. We weren’t about to give up, though.

We knew that we had a great game. We just needed more people to get their hands on it – and this was the perfect opportunity to get into digital publishing!

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Each month, regular updates will add classics like Monster Bash®, Medieval Madness®, Creature from the Black Lagoon®, Funhouse®, Attack from Mars®, Black Knight®, Space Shuttle®, Pin•Bot®, Circus Voltaire®, Big Shot®, (and many others for years to come!) along with online tournaments and additional modes to challenge yourself and compete against your friends.

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We're now at the chronological halfway point of our Kickstarter project- two more weeks to go! We have been gratified and humbled by the tremendous support from our fans. Although it's too soon for a victory lap, with 86% of the money for the Twilight Zone table raised already, it seems very likely we're going to make it!

That got us thinking- what would we do if we raised more than the goal? Another great table we'd love to digitize is Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Spoiler

This incredible table was designed by the legendary Steve Ritchie (who by the way is a longtime Star Trek fan) and released under the Williams label in 1993. It is currently #3 on the Internet Pinball Database's list of the top pinball tables of all time! Unfortunately we face the same licensing challenges for this table as we have for the Twilight Zone (and the licenses are similarly expensive). But if we raise an additional $55,000 (for a total of $110,000) we will also digitize Star Trek: The Next Generation!

If we reach this stretch goal (but only if we reach it), every backer Reward will also apply to Star Trek: The Next Generation. So everyone who pledges at least $10 will get the table on a single platform, everyone who pledges at least $25 will get an exclusive Star Trek virtual pinball, everyone who pledges at least $50 will get a Star Trek wallpaper, everyone who pledges at least $100 will get access to the Star Trek: The Next Generation operator's menu, and everyone who pledges $500 will be a Beta tester with early access to the Star Trek table. We would plan to launch Star Trek: The Next Generation a month behind the Twilight Zone (so approximately December 2012),

Reaching this stretch goal will require a similar level of support from our fans as what we've experienced with the Twilight Zone, but we're confident it can be done! Please pledge generously so we can make Star Trek: The Next Generation a reality!

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Several members of the FarSight team attended the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas this week. The Expo is the largest gathering of licensing professionals in the world, and we were there to work on securing the licenses we need for some of the other pinball tables we'd like to digitize. In the past we've had trouble even getting some of these companies to meet with us- the potential revenue was just too small for them to bother. But thanks to the popularity of the Pinball Arcade and the success of our Kickstarter project we're finally getting their attention. It was a very successful show for us and although we can't name names yet, we are very close to lining up all the licenses we'd need to do an extremely famous top-ten table. Stay tuned!

There are now less than 24 hours left in our Twilight Zone Kickstarter project. This is your last chance to get in on some really cool rewards! We've frankly a little surprised no one wants us to come to their town and host a pinball tournament for all of their friends. Any takers?

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A lot of people are calling The Pinball Arcade the greatest pinball simulation ever created. At FarSight, we take great pride in our work and we take this distinction very seriously. We are focused on adding a steady stream of great pinball tables into The Pinball Arcade for both PS3 and PS Vita.

It’s always a pleasure to get feedback from hardcore pinball fans telling us how much they appreciate the attention to detail we put into each table. We actually own a real, physical machine of each table, which we re-create digitally. Our studio’s rec room and half of our conference room are already full! So full, in fact, that I’ll be moving my favorite machine — Creature from the Black Lagoon — into my office to make room for the some others that we just bought!

We’ve already released four new tables with two great DLC expansions: Add-On Pack 1 (Medieval Madness, The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot) and Add-On Pack 2 (Cirqus Voltaire, Funhouse), both of which are now available on PSN.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’re encountering issues downloading these expansions, click here for further details and a fix.

Today, we’re announcing more great new tables that will be coming your way this August! Both Add-On Pack 3 and Add-On Pack 4 are scheduled for an August release for PS3 and PS Vita, with each expansion adding two new tables. All four tables are historically significant and are treasured by pinball enthusiasts for their exquisite craftsmanship and cutting-edge mechanical design.

Add-On Pack 3

Monster Bash was originally released in 1998 and was designed by George Gomez. The goal of the table is to get six of the most iconic Universal Studios Monsters to form a band the likes of which has never been seen! If you can dig out the Mummy, he’ll dust himself off and plug in his bass. Dracula will fly out of his coffin, dying to sink his teeth into a mean guitar riff. The Creature from the Black Lagoon will crank on his sax! Frankenstein will jump off his slab and jam on his keyboard. The Bride of Frankenstein will start to sing about her Ball and Chain and the Wolfman will give you a howling drumbeat. With the help of the Phantom Flip auto-play feature, you can let go of the flippers and watch the game complete your shots! The manufacturer released 3,361 units of the table.

Also included in Add-On Pack 3 is Gorgar, a classic 1979-era table designed by Barry Oursler, a legendary designer credited with Pin·Bot, Cyclone, Comet, Space Shuttle, and Jungle Lord to name just a few. Gorgar was the very first “talking” pinball machine. With a vocabulary of seven words (Gorgar, Speaks, Beat, Me, You, Hurt, and Got), Gorgar is able to say phrases such as “Gorgar speaks,” “Me Gorgar, beat me,” and “You hurt Gorgar.” It has a magnetic Snake Pit that holds your ball captive as he thunders, “Me got you.” The audio also features a heartbeat sound that races faster and faster as the action of the gameplay builds up.

Monster Bash alone fetches a very high price if you want to buy the real machine, but soon you’ll be able to enjoy it and Gorgar for just $4.99.

Add-On Pack 4

Creature from the Black Lagoon was designed by the legendary John Trudeau. Doctor Flash, as he’s known, was involved in the design of over 50 games for Gottlieb, Williams and Bally! “Creature” combines the excitement of watching a famous Universal monster flick with the fun of a drive-in movie date. The player has to save their date from the Creature and, if successful, is rewarded by seeing the world’s first ever pinball hologram! This classic table also features story and dialog from the movie.

Black Knight was designed by Steve Richie — who also lent his vocal talents as the voice of the Black Knight. This table was the first ever to introduce a split-level playfield, with three ramps leading to and from the upper playfield. This classic also featured the first ever Magna-Save: a magnet that allowed users to push a button which saves a ball from draining down the outlane. Another first was Bonus Ball. In a multi-player game, this feature awards the player with the highest score a few additional seconds of free play.

With our successful campaign to help raise money for the Twilight Zone table and other great tables already in development, FarSight is very excited about adding many more amazing classics to our collection in the upcoming years!

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We're excited to announce the launch of the new Kickstarter campaign for the amazing Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball table! Thanks to the amazing support of pinball fans around the world we raised almost $70,000 on the previous campaign for the Twilight Zone table. That was $15,000 more than we needed for the Twilight Zone licenses, so as promised we've applied the excess towards the $60,000 cost of the Star Trek: TNG licenses.

Check out the project and video:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1067367405/pinball-arcade-star-trek-the-next-generation

Work on the Twilight Zone table is progressing well, and we're still on schedule for a release in November. We think you'll be very impressed with how well this table translates to digital platforms.

Thanks again for your support of pinball and the Pinball Arcade!

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We've been hinting that we'd make a licensing announcement if the project was successful, so here it is. We are excited to announce that we've signed a license with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark to bring the amazing Scared Stiff and Elvira and the Party Monsters tables to the Pinball Arcade! Elvira has been a longtime friend of pinball so this was not as difficult a license as the Twilight Zone or Star Trek. Consequently we don't need another Kickstarter campaign to fund it- it's definitely going to happen! Check out the video below!

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Howdy y’all… Bobby King of The Pinball Arcade here to give all the pinball fans out there the heads up on everything we have going on in March and make an awesome announcement!

This week at FarSight Studios, we’ve been packin’ up our new expo display and gettin’ ready to head to the Texas Pinball Festival to show off our latest tables and features!

March has always been one of my favorite months. The fact that we now get to spend a couple weekends each March at pinball shows has made it even better.

In Texas, we will be showing off the stereoscopic 3D support on PS3 that we just implemented. It looks amazing and really adds to the gameplay experience.

We will also be running contests each day to win a Cactus Canyon t-shirt, so if you’re in the area and like pinball – you should definitely stop by. You can check out our game and play unlimited real pinball for the price of admission – it’s a ton of fun!

Later this month, we’ll be releasing Star Trek: The Next Generation for PS3 and PS Vita on the 19th, and Table Pack 10 on the 26th which includes Gottlieb’s great widebody classic Genie and another one of our all-time favorite tables, Bally’s Attack from Mars.

Unfortunately, we can’t bring everyone to Texas – some guys have to stay back and work on the PS4 engine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…

THE PINBALL ARCADE IS COMING TO PS4!!!

We are super excited about this. Pinball Arcade looks really nice on PS3, but just wait until you see it on PS4! We’ll be adding rendering tech for per pixel ray casting, area lights/shadows, point lights and screen space ambient occlusion (which is a fancy way to say even more shadows). We’re very confident that we can add all of these features on the PS4 and maintain the smooth 60 fps that you need in a pinball game.

We’ll also be updating the physics and gameplay on all of the DLC tables we release. The Pinball Arcade on PS4 will be amazing!

Stay tuned next week for details on our release of the Star Trek: TNG table.

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One of the licensed tables that we’ve always wanted to digitize is Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This table was released by Williams in 1991 and is unquestionably one of the greatest pinball tables of all time. It was designed by the legendary Steve Ritchie (who also designed Firepower, Black Knight, High Speed, and Star Trek: The Next Generation). T2 was the first game by Williams to use a dot-matrix display. The table was also the first game to feature a video mode and a swing out cannon that can be fired by the player. It's one of our favorite tables ever!

We’ve succeeded in negotiating all of the licenses we’d need to digitize Terminator 2: Judgment Day and bring it to the Pinball Arcade. Unfortunately there are several licenses involved: in addition to the Williams license, we need a license for the Terminator 2 property, the actor likeness of the Terminator (Arnold Schwartzenegger) on the backglass and play field, and the right to use the actor voiceovers during gameplay. When we add up the costs of each required license and calculate what we’d have to charge for the table, we’ve realized that the Terminator 2: Judgment Day is just not commercially viable. The more we charge for the table the fewer people will be able to buy it- and our goal is to expose as many people as possible to this great table, not just a select few.

Here’s where you come in! The licenses for Terminator 2: Judgment Day will cost $66,000 (and that’s just for the licenses- we’ll cover all of the development expenses ourselves). Thanks to the amazing generosity of pinball fans throughout the world, our previous Kickstarter project for the Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball table raised $7,000 more than we needed for the Star Trek: licenses and we're applying this towards the license costs of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. If we can raise the remaining $59,000 we’ll be able to digitize Terminator 2: Judgment Day and preserve one of the greatest pinball tables of all time. If we don't reach our goal no credit cards will be charged, but if we raise more then the goal we’ll be able to digitize other licensed tables as well, including the next table we'd really like to pursue- Bally's incredible classic The Addams Family!

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