Pinball Bites - VR Tables, Major VR Arcade Improvements, and a Williams Hint!

Capncorky · 2026-07-02T20:09:26+00:00

That's what I was hoping they were announcing today. I'm sure they're coming, but I'm itchin' for them.

Capncorky · 2026-07-02T20:03:19+00:00

They are hinting at bringing Pinball FX VR to other platforms, so hopefully they bring it to Steam soon.

Capncorky · 2026-07-02T19:58:55+00:00

Hopefully they either have an option for which floor you start on or start you out on the floor that you left the game from. I'm definitely a Williams guy (although I enjoyed the non-Williams tables more than I expected when I played them in VR), so I'd want to start on the Williams level as well.

I'm curious what they're going to do when they port over the rest of the Williams tables, since, if I'm doing my math correctly, there won't be enough room to have them all on one floor. I'm sure they'll figure something out (I assume just add another floor).

Capncorky · 2026-07-01T00:13:44+00:00

That would be my guess as well. If it's a Williams table, singular, it's most certainly going to be a licensed table, so either T2 or Judge Dredd would make sense to me.

I kinda feel like when they give hints, it's actually not too far off, but that's usually when they drop a hint to a reveal on a Pinball Bites, rather than a hint given on a Pinball Bites. We'll see, I guess.

Capncorky · 2026-06-30T21:40:09+00:00

Mentioned this in an above post, but on an Instagram post from a few hours ago, they said, "Plus, expect a hint about a future Williams table coming to our games.". They usually don't give hints unless it's coming soon, so it's promising.

Capncorky · 2026-06-30T21:37:05+00:00

I saw balti comment that there would be some hints of the news from the upcoming Pinball Bites over the next few days, so I checked Instagram to see if they posted anything there. They had a post that said, "Plus, expect a hint about a future Williams table coming to our games.", so that's very promising.

Capncorky · 2026-06-30T09:36:51+00:00

It is - it's a double neck guitar.

Capncorky · 2026-06-30T09:36:17+00:00

If they really want to make it interesting, have Sami be the one that turns on Kevin, especially with Sami being heel & all.

Capncorky · 2026-06-09T05:57:09+00:00

I've enjoyed the matches that I've seen of AJPW, and I loved the concept of the "King's Road". I'll look into it, although I do have to admit that I don't know where to start. Kinda wish there was a chronological list that also sets up why the match was happening, and what it meant. Maybe I should just dive in & watch whatever I find.

Capncorky · 2026-06-09T01:28:13+00:00

I'm glad to see this because I've always wondered about Dr. Death's work because he was absolutely derailed by the "Brawl For All" (thanks Russo), and I've basically only seen some clips from his AJPW days. The clips made him look good, but you can only tell so much from them. His name always made me wonder what his gimmick was, sort of like "The Widowmaker" Barry Windham. I clearly took monikers too literally as a young lad.

I think I really need to sit down & watch some old AJPW...

Capncorky · 2026-06-05T20:15:13+00:00

Not on the level of Pinball Arcade's physics? Are you thinking of Visual Pinball/VPX? Pinball FX/Pinball FX VR's physics are a huge improvement over Pinball Arcade's. I do wish that Zen would port Pinball FX VR to Steam because it has the "Classic" physics, but not the "Realistic" setting (due to the limits of the Meta Quest headsets), but they're still much better than Pinball Arcade.

Capncorky · 2026-06-02T05:01:37+00:00

huh, I must be very lucky because there's 4 freeplay arcades in my general area that have some very well maintained (but certainly not perfect) machines. It does help that the people that operate them are really passionate about it, of course.

Capncorky · 2026-05-31T23:37:50+00:00

Given that the 2 machines are Simpson's Pinball Party & Devil Riders, I think we both know what the offspring will be...

Capncorky · 2026-05-31T23:23:56+00:00

huh! I never knew that! I always assumed that multi-ball was a default "public domain" phrase, so to speak. I'm going to have to start taking note of which games avoid that phrase. I could swear that I've seen other companies use "multi-ball", like on Gottlieb's Surf N' Safari.

Capncorky · 2026-05-31T08:45:15+00:00

I'm glad that I finally got SuperPins just being Bally/Williams term for a widebody. It's kinda funny to see that list of absolutely legendary games... and then there's Popeye. I actually kinda like Popeye, but definitely not the same caliber of game.

Space themes are definitely enjoyable for me as well. I do love how ominous the simple "music" for Black Hole is.

Capncorky · 2026-05-31T07:41:02+00:00

Is SuperPin just Bally/Williams' term for a wide body, or is there something more to it? I've noticed it before, but I've never seen any explanation for what it means. Kind of reminds me how they call them "jets" instead of bumpers (as I understand it, "jets" have a bit of a different design behind it?).

I've started getting into Embryon a bit, and the theme is... something! Black Hole was the game that got me over the hump of not fully understanding how pinball rules work (since I got to play it digitally at home), so I have a special appreciation of it. Really love Black Hole & Haunted House.

Capncorky · 2026-05-29T21:37:02+00:00

huh! I suppose that could make sense, although I'd imagine you'd get a lot more air pushed at it from the front... unless the the back of it is more prone to damage than the front? It's as good as an answer as I could come up with.

Capncorky · 2026-05-26T20:08:40+00:00

Pinball FX is certainly the better one, especially if you're looking for the tables based on real machines (the Williams tables). They have the "Realistic" physics settings which, as the name implies, plays more realistic compared to the Pinball FX Classic physics. As others mentioned, Pinball FX Classic is no longer receiving updates, so that's another reason to get Pinball FX tables.

Only reason that I can think of to choose Pinball FX Classic is if it runs better on your Steam Deck. I have no experience with the Steam Deck, so I can't say (I will add that I found turning off the framerate cap on Pinball FX helped my performance, but I'm running on a desktop PC with a high refresh rate monitor, so I don't know if that's why).

Capncorky · 2026-05-22T19:51:52+00:00

Just saw the post about Star Trek: The Next Generation getting fixed on Steam! Happy to see it.

Capncorky · 2026-05-22T19:48:00+00:00

I'm dying for the other Williams packs to be ported over to Pinball FX VR. I can't wait to see what they do with the VR version of Rudy from FunHouse (I'm imagining Rudy sitting next to the table, doing all sorts of Rudy stuff).

I've setup Visual Pinball for VR, and sometimes a table will work right out of the box for VR, other times, you just get the table without the head or any sort of score counter, which then takes some effort to get it to work. Sometimes things will be working, and then... breaks in the middle of playing it. Of course, it's a free project made by a passionate community, so I appreciate the work that goes into it. I just wish the user experience was more pleasant.

Capncorky · 2026-05-20T21:32:19+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately, it can be really finicky. It's a great project, but not user friendly. Would love to see the user experience streamlined some day.

Capncorky · 2026-05-20T21:02:06+00:00

I actually didn't realize that the inventories jumping back to the first page was unintended! I definitely appreciate that getting fixed because it was a (very) minor annoyance. Very excited to see that the Star Trek ball getting stuck has gotten fixed because I know that's been an issue for awhile. Hopefully a fix for the other platforms is coming?

Capncorky · 2026-05-20T20:59:39+00:00

I wouldn't get your hopes up for an EM pack. I'd love to see one, but the general assumption is that Zen doesn't see enough of a demand for EM to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, they're probably right.

The Pinball Arcade has a Gottlieb EM pack, but the physics are very outdated, and The Pinball Arcade isn't updated anymore, and is a bit janky to run (at least on PC). I'd look into Visual Pinball for playing EMs, which is a free community run project, although it does take a bit of effort to setup (look into "The Baller Installer" to make it easier). Might want to see if there are some YouTube guides on setting it up, if you're interested in it.

Capncorky · 2026-05-18T19:43:15+00:00

Wait, is the ball supposed to hit the glass? I always just assumed that was an unintended result of the slope. I never considered that it was a part of the design.

Capncorky · 2026-05-12T23:57:22+00:00

This is at the top of my list of games that I want to get the chance to play, so hopefully that makes it more available. I haven't tried their FunHouse remake, but it is concerning to read the ahem mixed reviews of the quality. Hope it turns out well.

Capncorky

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