AtGames Pinball Micro : Small table - Big fun
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- I've always wanted a pinball table - but needed to wait for them to shrink first. Well that happened - so let me tell you what I think of the Atgames Legends Pinball Micro. Is it enough to fulfil my 'pinball dreams'?
00:00 Insert Credit
00:20 Exposition
04:37 PINBALL!
18:45 Chatty bit
22:17 Suggested YT channels for better info
22:54 Final thoughts
25:04 Patreon Credits
FAQ:
Q) If you get overzealous with nudging the table will it tilt?
A) Yes
LINKS:
Relevant TH-cam Channels mentioned in the video
/ @digitalvictory8266
/ @wagnerstechtalk
Also - if you do want to see a computer board connected to an LCD screen - here's a link to an appropriate clip • Legends Pinball Micro ...
AFFILIATED LINKS*
Legends Pinball LARGE table - on AMAZON USA amzn.to/3Xq4YHi (out of stock)
Legends Pinball MICRO - on AMAZON USA amzn.to/3IJlb6x
...
Legends Pinball LARGE table - on AMAZON UK amzn.to/3QGkOvl
(you can probably find these cheaper elsewhere).
Non-affiliated links:
Liberty Games in the UK sell a range of virtual pinball tables including the full size Legends www.libertygames.co.uk/store/...
UPDATE - They are now selling the Pinball Micro too
www.libertygames.co.uk/store/...
ATGAMES Website www.atgames.us
(note - they regularly have sales where the price of the Micro is reduced by $100 - so if you can, hold on for one of those)
MERCHANDISE
New Techmoan Merchandise is now available.
etsy.me/3zzjweo
SUBSCRIBE
th-cam.com/users/Techmoan?...
SUPPORT
This channel can be supported through Patreon
/ techmoan
******Patrons usually have early access to videos******
OUTRO MUSIC
Over Time - Vibe Tracks • Over Time - Vibe Track...
OUTRO SOUND EFFECT
ThatSFXGuy - • Six Million Dollar man...
*AFFILIATED LINKS/ADVERTISING NOTICE
All links are Affiliated where possible.
When you click on links to various merchants posted here and make a purchase, this can result in me earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network & Amazon.
I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to AMAZON Sites (including, but not limited to Amazon US/UK/DE/ES/FR/NL/IT/CAN)
Regularly asked question
Q) Why are there comments from days ago when this video has just gone live today?
A) Patrons / techmoan usually have early access to videos. I'll show the first version of a video on Patreon and often the feedback I get results in a video going through further revisions to improve it. e.g. Fix audio issues, clarify points, add extra footage or cut extraneous things out. The video that goes live on youtube is the final version. If you want to see the videos early and before any adverts are added, you can sign up to Patreon here: / techmoan - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
This is hitting me right in the mid-life crisis…. $800 is gonna raise some spousal eyebrows though. Maybe I’ll just get a bottle of cheap whisky and a fidget spinner from the dollar store.
If you get the whisky you'll probably find the pinball turns up out of the blue a few days later...that's how these 'essential' purchases usually happen.
Make a video about the video phones of the 1990s, or rotary phones
We've worked our whole lives, 40's now, if you want it, you deserve it bro.
( just say it was 200 or so....)
It's not a proper mid-lifer unless you ditch the wife and get a pinball machine 😂
Hidden 2nd credit card no paper bill, keep the app in a secure folder on your phone
Those screens look so realistic, even the 8" back glass. Whatever effect they're applying to emulate the lighting is incredible, and it totally came across on video. Hard telling it from a real table (especially without stereo vision and depth perception).
Had no idea this was a thing, thanks for more great content.
This is the first Time Ive seen anyone talking about these actually show us how well it works. I had no clue.
Looks like they're using the engine that the Zaccararia Pinball collection on Steam uses. That one's built with VR in mind, and has a lot of really neat features as far as how the tables are presented.
Honestly, I''m kinda disappointed: after seeing that this is utilizing the Zaccaria collection as its base, I went to see if maybe they'd added a Taito table collection to that game on Steam, and no such luck unfortunately.
Yeah, I was expecting it to be really disappointing, but it actually looks pretty good!
I had a similar sized table built quite a few years ago from UK company KASE-EO.
_Google them, I can't leave URLs here..._
Still works well and I currently have around 200 different tables running!
There's public domain software called vpx which supports multiple free tables on cabinets.
That can support using an Xbox Kinect sensor to do head tracking so that it changes the screen to match where your eyes are - so that you actually get the 3D effect.
I love that the Bubble Bauble pinball game is essentially a video game based on a physical pinball machine that was based on a video game (based on the natural phenomenon of small frogs blowing bubbles at predators to raise their scores).
😂😂 ...You'd think I wouldn't google that last part but I did 😮😁😂
Bubble bobble*
And those are bubble dragons
Yeah Bubble Bobble Dragons not frogs lol
This is gonna be a little long, but, here goes. I used to work in an Arcade. Specifically, a Malibu Grand Prix go-kart track and arcade game room, back in the 90s. We never worked on the games ourselves. We had an elderly gent called Bill that did all of that. Bill was quite the gamer's resource since he himself held numerous arcade game and amusement patents from his younger days. Along with all of the latest arcade games, we had 6 or 7 vintage, electro-mechanical, pinball tables. These were lovingly cared for by Bill and enthusiastically patronized by some of the older gents, in very nice suits no less, who would stop in for lunch and a bit of gaming during the week.
The biggest problem that Bill had, he told me once, keeping the vintage tables working the way they should was degradation of the coils used in flipper and bumper solenoids, and the power supplies that drove them. Many of these parts were no longer available anywhere at any price, and Bill, being the absolute UNIT that he was, would have to adapt more modern parts to the older tables to keep them running. These old style games were his passion, really. All of the games we had that did NOT use some kind of screen, where his favorites, and we had a few besides pinball tables. Like our Air Hockey and Foosball tables, and even a game that used REAL, 1/32 scale electric slot cars under a big plastic dome. (He actually had a hand in designing that one)
These new virtual table games look sooo much like the machines we had back in the 90s. There is a more modern amusement center here in my city that offers just loads of classic and new arcade and table games, with many of the latter being virtual machines, and even has an indoor electric go-kart track. As much interest as there is in new Arcade games on a screen, taking my grandkids to this venue shows how much fun the old table games still are, virtual or not. Arcade Games are making a comeback, as are dedicated Amusement centers. If you haven't been to one in a while, go check one out. If you have children or even grandkids that have never experienced the good old game room, take them with you. You'll have a BLAST.
THANK YEW BILL! I think you're right on making a comeback, my 5 year old enjoys the arcade more than I ever did! I was the one at DDR, not much else lol
Home owning a pinball machine is way different than arcade exposure. I have 15 pinball machines and have never had to work on any of them. Especially the newer generation that run off leds etc. My problem with virtual pinball is they just don’t feel authentic at all. The physics, everything is wrong. I understand that pinball machines are expensive, large etc but virtual pinball just isn’t there yet for me
Thanks for sharing. I love arcade games and it's nice to hear someone who shares the same passion.
I don’t care how good it looks, or how realistic it is, or even the ability to switch between different simulations…
There is simply nothing like the experience of a real pinball machine.
My favorites are the ones that were made by Williams.
@@trenthink PINBOT for the win! Lots of fond memories playing that one with an old friend. RIP Jake
Hi Techmoan, I've been a subbed to your channel for a long time! I'm really glad to see you enjoying the games on the machine. I'm actually the music composer for most of the Zaccaria Pinball games as well as TAITO and the Seuss games! It was an honour to hear my music in your video, and I hope you enjoy the future games coming to the system!
Thanks for the great video, keep up the great content!
I've been collecting Pinball machines for about 25 years. I've never played a virtual pin that I liked but this video really does show that the tech has gotten better. My opinion on this might be different from others who collect real machines but if it makes you happy, that's all it has to do. I've owned over 50 pins in my life (Currently have 17 including two newer Sterns and a Spooky), the other part of this that you might have glossed over is maintenance. These virtually require none. And there's a LOT to be said for that. Congrats and have a lot of fun with it. Try not to stare at the backglass on Farfalla too much!
At first I totally thought the balls and flippers were real 3D objects and the background graphics were changing for each game - simply amazing! 👍
Same here, it is amazing how realistic it looks. I'd really like to see one in person and see if the effect is still as realistic looking.
Right? I was completely fooled.
@@HerecomestheCalavera It's better in person ... I have AtGames large one (which is 3/4 size of a actual pinball machine) and it's really good right out the box. When I first heard of virtual pinball I was expecting very little but I tried it and had to have one myself.
@@HerecomestheCalavera sorry to say, but there is no effect of 3d in person, if you want that, youll need to hook this up to a pc with the kinect mod, looks amazing with that
The TH-cam video is equivalent to a one-eyed perspective. Pinball is 3D and requires a stereoscopic display -- this machine is pointless unless you're a cyclops.
You left the best bit for the very end...what is possible, the power of positive thinking, ideally, when two or more agree, and believe, this is when the magic happens, those moments in time when we unintentionally briefly come close to touching the true power that is born within each of us.
We had a real pinball table at a previous job. They require a lot more maintenance than you expect. It's not just the upfront cost and the space, you'll also need to keep repairing it
Yep. pinball machines are mechanical and require almost constant maintainance. The light bulbs will blow often, for example.
I've always wanted a table, but after a relative of ours bought one for his home 'bar', I was quickly put off. It was rarely working properly when I visited, and he sold it after realising just how much the maintenance was costing him.
@@joneggelton I understand why people have the desire to build a pub at home, but right from the outset they always forget one of the most important things that visiting the pub involves that you will never get at home; The lack of control over teh environment, the move outside of your comfort zone and the associated situations that occurs from that. It is literally impossible to accurately reproduce the atmosphere of a pub in your own house. (unless you actually run a pub and live there.)
Real pinball table is kind of like owning a wooden boat for all the maintenance it takes.
That's actually part of the fun for me. I bought a late '50s EM table a while back and it was a lot of fun getting it going.
I'm truly blown away by how realistic it looks, even through a TH-cam video. Never in my life I thought I needed one of these and now I'm not so sure.
Also Mat, the affiliate link for the full size and mini for the US is the same.
Thanks for letting me know. I’ve fixed the links but I think they’re also out of stock at the moment - so it’s probably better/cheaper to buy elsewhere (if you’re in the US).
That's a kids toy. Better of making a full size visual pinball table as a project, and putting all the tables you want on it basic setup £1000.
@@garychamley3095 If someone doesn't have the room to have a full size, this is a perfect choice....
@@garychamley3095 Mat literally said he didn’t have room for a full size table in the video - for goodness sake.
@@garychamley3095 making your own table is not terribly hard but getting the software and menu's and tables to work nicely takes quite some fiddling and time. Even if you are quite handy with computers. I have never come across as many weird quirks as with getting virtual Pinball to work. One table works fine and the next suddenly does not have sound, play field or back glass or something is turned 90 degreees. Unless you can straight up copy a large pack tweaked by someone else it costs a lot of time and frustration.
Excellent review of the ALP Micro! I enjoyed it so much, I wound up buying one as a Christmas gift for my family last year that also loves pinball but has very limited space for a machine. They play it often and are having a blast. I want to say a personal "Thank You" for mentioning my channel in your video. As someone who doesn't have a large following, it really means a lot that you took the time to mention other channels that were helpful to you. If there is anything I can do to assist in the future, please don't hesitate to let me know (see the About us option from the menu on the wtt site).
You’ve got a great channel that deserves way more recognition. It’s increasingly difficult to get noticed on TH-cam so hopefully this helped a few more people find you.
I'm impressed by how real it looks. I still want to make my own virtual pinball table one day. I love the videos where people have used software with a Microsoft Kinnect Camera to have rendered perspective as you play. That's a game changer.
It would be awesome if someone ported 3D Space Cadet onto one of those.
It has been done and it plays, looks and feels amazing.
Done by JP Salas, one of the grand masters of virtual pinball: th-cam.com/video/zJiQgQ7x01M/w-d-xo.html
There's a VPX version of space cadet that is absolutely brilliant.
@@zorglub667 You've sent me down the VPX rabbit hole and I may never recover, thanks :P
@@thekosmickollector7748 😄😄 my pleasure and welcome to the rabbit hole, there's enough room for all of us ;)
That would be nice but Simpsons Pinball Party would be even better! That is my favorite pinball machine and I've never actually played a real machine. Only on an emulator on PC.
In Korea, where pinball is hard to come by, I've only played it as a smartphone or PC game, but the object detail and light expression of this look like the real thing!!
Incredible image quality and although I was never a great fan of pinball machines but this is a great retro product and you have presented it well , nice one for the new season, and wishing you a Happy New Year.
I'm really glad you finally found a table system you like. Magic Pixel has done a great job with their Zaccaria tables, probably the most challenging tables I've ever played. I've been playing them for nearly a decade and I still find them really difficult. BTW, your idea of a folding-bed-style pinball table is a good one.
Wasn't sure about this one but wow what an informative and fun review! The d-pad part had me hysterical! I am impressed with how convincing the image is. It really does look like a real pinball machine.
My only complaint is that you launch the ball with a button instead of a simulated plunger. Fix that in the next version (and get rid of the tilt/nudge buttons since you can just snack the machine the old fashioned way) and I'm sold.
@@Psythik The nudge buttons are great for tabletop operation like in the video. This way you don't scratch the table surface or have to bump the table with everything else on it.
"Playing twister with a broken pelvis" - chef's kiss!
WIth my not-full-screen view, it was a very convincing image indeed. I kept having to remind myself that it was a screen.
@@Psythik It wouldn't surprise me if they release one with a plunger sometime in the future. It would really do a lot to add to it feeling like an authentic pinball table.
Looks great! 😄 Now, to top this, they could have included Pinball Dreams and the favourites us PC nerds played for hours back in the early 90s. 🤓
Pinball Dreams is still the best game.
And the Pro Pinball Series! Speaking of which, why are they no remasters on Series X and PS5 for them?
It does indeed look great. Nice to see you here.
Any chance of someone doing a virtual pinball rendition of Super Android from Epic Pinball?
As a person who has built her own virtual pinball machine (welcome to the rabbit hole!), I'm involved in the community. There's a few people who have built their own solutions that fold up or otherwise take up less space when not used, while still presenting the "full size" experience, because they're dealing with similar constraints of available space.
I have been thinking of jumping down the virtual pinball rabbit hole because I keep seeing plenty of flat screen tv's and monitors in second hand stores. Is there somewhere you suggest looking for more information? Thanks in advance.
>her
@@rodflugel4207 and? are you having trouble understanding something? scratch that, reading your channel description you have trouble understanding a lot of things
@@adequatelyadequate7071 Username exaggerates greatly.
As a person who seems to have far more expertise in virtual pinball then Techmoan, what was your opinion on the machine in the video??
It's great to wake up to a new video from you this Sunday morning in Wisconsin, USA! And, as often happens, you found ways to get me interested in something that I knew almost nothing about.
A couple of my many brothers really got into pinball back in the 1970s, and spent all of their very limited packet money on it. That's why I very deliberately chose to have nothing to do with it. But this looks like so much fun! The lighting, even second--hand through your video, looks absolutely real.
Happy New Year Techmoan, love the video and this pinball machine micro has blown my mind on how amazingly effective it is, especially the physically hitting it and the ball moves. Will be keeping an eye out for when they do release the micro in the UK
I could even see the pinball casting a virtual shadow on the field! That's good attention to detail
You're late to the party but finally welcome! I have the larger atgames larger virtual pinball table and the fantastic atgames arcade legends stand up machine (plays all the arcade games from the 70s 80s 90s and laser disk games MACH3, Dragons Layer, Space Ace, etc) the larger pinball I have replaced the D pad with the optional joystick and buttons so great for playing the vertical arcade games on the table -- the larger table has better haptics / sound
Back in the 90's we used to visit the pub of a Friday lunch break, have a quick tipple and blast on the Indiana Jones pinball machine. It was followed by an afternoon of sitting at our desks pretending to work. "You have chosen unwisely" became a usable quote.
My first Patreon video... It's very good. The thing I really liked was the technical ways the manufacturer tricked you to accept this 2D board as being a real 3D object, particularly the side view of the screen that destroys the perspective and also the use of shadows to enhance the movement of the pinballs. When you first showed the video of the table I thought, "Wow, what a realistic looking video table." It was nice that you showed the reasons it was so good. And I won't lie: Seeing my name in the end-credits was pretty awesome.
Video uploaded 19 minutes ago. This comment 1 day old. Awesome work TH-cam 😂
@@GustoTheGamer Patreons get early access to videos.
@@GustoTheGamer Did you not read the first four words of his comment? He's seeing it early on Patreon. Awesome work Joshi.
I don't have a lot of fond memories of playing a real table but I remember enjoying Pinball Illusions and other titles from the 00s. All of which means I like pinball but not enough to buy one.
I've got to say that this video has made me really want one of these machines! The detail on those tables looks incredible. You said you'd struggled getting good shots but you've really nailed it: I couldn't tell if I was looking at a real table or a screen for most of them.
I haven't got the money nor anywhere to put it but I can dream...
I'm happy the shots came across that way because that was the feeling I was trying to capture - it does look real sometimes.
You can also build one yourself, plenty of instructions around on the net.
Might be worth exploring what you can do on your PC alone before putting down money on a physical deivce. It's possible to play practcally every vintage pinball machine in emulators now via vpinmame and virtual Pinball - it's not too easy to setup, and finding the roms for the pinball tables is also a challenge, but they're out there. There's also a couple of decent games in Steam that allow for buying tables from multiple makers rather than the limited range this one supports.
I'd probably buy one of these if Pinball Illusions and Fantasies were available on these as a "proper" table rather than how I played on my Amiga LOL
@@KapiteinKrentebol he said he doesn't have the money or a place to put it but you think he wants to build one?
Impressive camera work…….Thankyou for taking the time to bring this too us……👍💪🇮🇲
Congratulations for your first 2023 video, I was waiting for it since the last one.
I'm so glad you are back, even though the videos will be less frequent than previous years, I would like to thank you for all the effort you put in your videos, Mat. I hope you are doing well health-wise.
I like his videos too..but, what's wrong?
@@gabrielpetcu5502 Matt talked about his (many) health issues in the previous video
@@Alex-fv2qs sorry to read that..
Obviously not as satisfying as the real machines but definitely cool!
Thank you for this review, this looks amazing.
Being from AtGames, I'd've likely written it off without a second look due to my previous experiences with them being officially sanctioned Sega Mega Drive clone consoles. All of them had wonky sound, and most of them had input lag and/or awful slowdown.
It's really nice to see they're improving themselves.
The AtGames was a red flag for me as well but it does look really nice. I might do a little more research before making a purchase just in case but so far, so good. Bubble Bobble Pinball is not something I thought I would want.
I was also very surprised to see what a high quality device it appears to be with it being made by AtGames. Aside from this Virtual Pinball machine I can't think of any other quality device made by them. The Genesis consoles were awful. It was kind of funny just how far off and horrible the Genesis sound was from the original.
When AtGames were making those clone Mega Drives, they were writing bespoke emulators to run on extremely underpowered CPUs designed for cheap graphing calculators, and selling them as handhelds for £20 in 2008. That they managed to have compatibility with the vast majority of the Mega Drive library, with fully functioning graphics, was incredible. The only poor part of the emulation was the sound, which is notoriously difficult to emulate for the Mega Drive even with powerful hardware. People don't give those cheap Mega Drives the credit they deserve; they were made about 5 years before ARM CPUs capable of running open source emulators were a dime a dozen.
@@KingEurope1 The sound wasn't poor, it was completely out of tune. It ruined the experience of every game. The sound is as much part of a game as everything else.
Quality control should never have allowed it out the door in such a poor state and it invalidates any credit they may otherwise deserve.
@@fattomandeibu You are absolutely right. The sound was so horribly off that it made those devices basically unplayable. I don't really care if it was technically impressive since the awful sound ruined the entire device. It would be like if a PS2 mini came out that ran the games at full speed but none of the games has music and the only sound effects sounded like they were being made by an Atari 2600. It would be worthless.
I bought the full-size version Xmas 2021, i just love it. I've been watching your channel for quite a while and I'm glad to see two of my youtube interests cross paths and that your enjoying it!
In September of 2019 I made a virtual pinball "cabinet". Well, it was a 55" LCD TV we had laying around at work, a 27" monitor for the backglass, a 2.1 active speaker system, and some arcade pushbuttons with a USB interface board I ordered from Aliexpress. Running it all was a Dell Precision T3600 with a Xeon E5-2665 and a Radeon RX580. The whole setup was very temporary and was in use only for a couple of weeks, because it was far from the real deal. (I just uploaded a short to my channel about it)
Amazing stuff!
A lot have happened with the virtual pinball games since DICE made Pinball Dreams for the Commodore Amiga back in the early 90's :)
Imagine, in a few years we'll probably be having virtual pinball machines that can track people's eyes to correct perspective on the fly and make these things look as real as the real thing
they already exists. there called parallax screens
@@nikthebrik kickass!
@@nikthebrik Yes, the Nintendo 3DS had such a technology.
I'm kinda surprised they didn't sponsor this video! Absolutely the Best advert possible. I know you don't do sponsor stuff, but they should at least refund your purchase from the retailer! 😁😉 Great video as usual!
I just bought an Akai GX 4000D and thanks to that joyful event i just found out about your channel, what a shame... Your channel is a real gem ! I'm really glad about all the hours of content i'm late on. Thank you for your work, it's really substantial. Cheers.
The build quality looks really good, quite impressed. Can't believe how realistic the 3D effect looks, really does look like its mechanical, especially the flippers. Love modern takes on old arcade hardware.
The video came out fantastic. While the ball's animation wasn't always rendered perfectly in the video, the board's general look and animation was fantastic (funny enough, the balls look better close up than they do further away). They look amazing in execution, so I'm sure in person it would look even better. I can't wait till they get the 4K treatment. Great job on the production! :)
And perhaps higher framerate.
This is very interesting. The graphics are very convincing. I have a 1977 Williams Argosy EM pinball machine in the living room for years.
These virtual pinball machines do avoid the need of waxing the playfield, replacing bulbs, cleaning contacts and solenoids, and replacing bumper elastics.... and we haven't even gotten into maintenance of the mechanical 'computer' for bonuses, scoring, etc.
I'm really shocked at how good this looks! The lighting looks really fantastic. I went to a pinball museum a short while back and they have really captured the authentic look of vintage tables.
This is really cool. They have done a great job with the virtual tables. Seems like some 3D artist and game developers really cared about this project. Well done.
A little over a year ago, and after 30 years of wanting one, I decided to get myself a pinball for my 40th birthday. I got a Terminator 2. I would have preferred an Adams Family, but that was about twice as expensive (and, considering that I'm from Argentina, the T2 was already quite expensive).
However, this virtual one you showed looks really good.
G'day, just curious, are there many pinball machines that were built in Brazil (in the 80's and 90's) available for you to buy?
@@peterbumper2769 I don't really know. I never even thought about where the machines were built. I didn't know that pinballs were manufactured in Brazil.
There's a company in Argentina that restores and sells pinballs called Clark Entertainment, but they are really expensive (around US$10.000). I bought mine through MercadoLibre (if you're from Brazil you might know it) which is basically the same as eBay.
@@federicoae7671 I am a pinball hobbyist from Australia. I find it interesting to see how pinball is viewed in other parts of the world.
Pinball is expensive everywhere at the moment.
Terminator 2 is a great game
Great job! You did a nice job showing off the micro and I must say your pleasant demeanor is perfect for games reviews, etc. glad I found you and happily a new subscriber!
You did an amazing job filming the pinball tabel. I got an amazing feeling how it would be to play. And im surpirzed by the quality of the grapics used on the playing feeld.
Looks great. Hope we get this in the UK. Just the right size for our small houses.
This is a really nice form factor. Not too small like the iPad pinball cabinets out there (although these are still cool), and not so large where you'll need a dedicated area the size of a treadmill.
Truly an excellent product and of course, a sincere presentation. Love the machine and how you showed it to your audience. Cheers from upstate NY!
Watching this on a phone the footage looks PERFECT! I literally couldn't work out what was changing game to game, I thought that the pinball part was real and only the backgrounds were changing. Then the pinball part changed and I was lost. It looks REAL, sounds REAL and looks like it plays REAL! I want one!
I like the idea of a fold out table, that would be perfect in my house. Great vid mate.
Looks great, the ball seems to have a convincing weight to it. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for a uk release.
It's always such a joy to see a new video of yours appear on my notifications. Best of luck !
I have never had any interest in the game of pinball - but I enjoy Techmoan’s presentation style enormously 😊
I enjoy his style unctuously, even though virtual pinball, on a 2017 laptop screen, seems like a sideways step for me, at this time.
I almost bought one of these a while back, but it was an expensive option. Worth revisiting now with this cheaper edition. I've had a project for a while now to build myself a virtual pinball table, but this is a quicker and easier way to get into doing it.
An alternative option is to check out Zaccaria Pinball on Nintendo Switch, XBOX1/S/X or PC. Zaccaria Pinball on consoles only features Zaccaria tables... It was also released on PS4 but only in the USA. The app is free to download and you can mess around with all tables before buying them. It does however look like the console versions have been dropped to support these physical tables as they have not been updated for a long time. That said, there are plenty of tables! BTW The Switch version also supports Tate/vertical view as seen here on this mini machine.
@@MIKandJEAN There is also Pinball FX3 on PC and consoles, or if you can get Visual Pinball+PinMAME which are free but require a bit more effort to set up.
Thank You! I saw one of these in an ad recently - and kind of shrugged it off... but after seeing this, I think I'll be picking one up.
I have 13 games, and always looking for more. Great hobby and I love to see you getting more into it on the channel!
That is actually really impressive. The way they rendered the lighting on both screens really makes it look authentic. The inclusion of the haptic effects was brilliant to add to the illusion, and I love the fact that they added the accelerometer to simulate the effect of smacking the machine around. Honestly, you can barely tell it isn't an authentic mechanical machine in your shots. I'm honestly blown away by how well they've simulated the real thing. It really is bringing me back to my arcade days and I didn't think that would be possible with an LCD based setup. I had no idea I needed one until now. This really changed my whole perspective on these digitized versions.
OMG!!! Never heard of this and I love virtual pinball. Those look really solid simulations. Definitely got to look into this. I totally agree with you about a different form factor. No need for a big empty box.
If you go REALLY deep into virtual pinball that box fills up fast: PC, controller boards for LEDs, buttons, etc., solenoids/contactors for mechanical "thumps", shaker motor, bells/chimes, knocker (think match/free game "pop" sound), blowers and anything else you can think of that a real pinball machine has. The rabbit hole goes DEEP...
Hi Techmoan! Been a subscriber for years, brilliant video. Your videos and the insights are entertaining and useful! Thank you and cheers!
Amazing video! I hope 2023 is a better year for you :) I always enjoy your content.
That effect is simply amazing! Some tables look very real, I'm very impressed. I might look into buying one of these.
That looks WAY better than I was expecting.
I can't explain why but watching one of your videos feels like a letter from home when traveling abroad for a season or two. It begins with the sublime opening jingle and graphic. Anyway, been sub'd for years now.
I absolutely LOVE pinball! Always wanted my own machine to put in my house. This looks like it may just be right up my alley! Great video, Matt 👍🏻❤️
I bought one of the Arcade1Up machines a couple of years ago as a birthday gift to myself - I picked it because it was recreating Williams tables. The one big thing is that these emulations are using existing pinball engines - the Arcade1Up machines use the Pinball FX 3 engine, while I believe the AtGames one uses the Farsight Studios Pinball Arcade engine. The engine is important because that's where the games come from - Farsight Studios Pinball Arcade formerly had the Williams license, and while they had it they had licensed a few licensed tables as well. Since the no longer have the WIlliams license, it means I own one of the few recreations of tables that will not likely be available virtually legitimately - think tables like Star Trek The Next Generation, The Addams Family, Twilight Zone and such. These had to involve the original IP owner and Farsight Studios, and it's unlikely to ever come to Pinball FX because of the trouble in licensing it.
I ended up getting the full sized version here in the US at Sam's Club for 799. One of the things I found that I enjoy with this model is the realistic plunger for shooting the ball. although you can also use down arrow on the D pad to shoot if you like.
That's cool, it sounds like they put the effort into simulating the same thing. I assume the big machine also "thunks" when you hit the flipper?
You may want to try price matching with Sam’s club. I bought the ALP, and recently price matched it for $239! Got a ton of money back! Just have to engage with their chat support and escalate to a supervisor.
You just need a picture of the $239 price, which you can find on the LegendsUltimate subreddit.
@@volvo09 yes it also has haptic feedback. I modified mine with additional dayton exciters on the interior floor of the machine. You can feel the ball rolling, flippers and all bumpers. Has a nice thud 🙂
14:54 (Using the D-pad with the onscreen keyboard) "It's about as much fun as playing Twister with a broken pelvis." Brilliant, unforgettable assessment. Love it. Cheers!
As soon as you said it was LCD screens I thought this is gonna be crap! Well shut my mouth, seeing it in action I had a feeling of excitement on how good it looked!
wow what an incredible optical illusion they were able to achieve! wonder if theyd make a version with a plunger instead of a button I bet it would really help with the feel of it
I'm glad at end of video you suggested a "flat" pack table. I see value in both styles
Great video Happy New Year and glad to see you back all the best
If you're ever in Las Vegas check out the Pinball Museum. All the tables are plugged in and there's a change machine.
Welcome to the vpin community! I purchased one of the full-size ALP units about a year ago, and it's been an absolute blast ever since! One thing I really like about the ALP are the weekly competitions that AtGames will run over the course of the year - it gives me an excuse to try out new tables I might not have before and hunt for a spot on the leaderboards. The external PC capabilities are great too - paired with PinballFX3 and some of their official table offerings from Williams, it is a fantastic machine!
I love this. Also a love for Pinball Dreams / Fantasies (had a world record for a day on Party Land long ago) / Illusions, long ago. So I've also been looking at something like that. That would also play my old time favorites: White Water, Addams Family, Terminator 2 and probably one I forgot. Could play them forever, always a free play on the high scores. But also something that I can physically 'nudge' or tilt. But they were/are SO hard to find. Well, unless you're willing to spend 10k or so.. This looks like a great option! But I haven't seen any of the Atgames Pinball machines in the Netherlands yet...
a love for Pinball Dreams / Fantasies - oh man, me too!
Oh yes on the A1200. My favourite.
@@adamdavies163 I played it on the PC later on, which was slightly better even! Even though I always my Amiga for everything else. But a high score was only viable (for me) on the PC. I played for 6 hours straight on 1 game....
Still play Nightmare on Pinball Dreams regularly. Slamtilt is another newly discovered favourite.
You should take a look at Major Frenchy's channel here on youtube to get some ideas. You can even just load up Visual Pinball X and start playing those very same tables you mentioned for free right now, plus a LOT more.
Awesome to see you made video about it... love your tech reviews. 😄
Hey Matt it's good you didn't actually go with a real pinball machine. Besides the expense, the maintenance is a headache, and yes they do need proper maintenance, especially if you intend to use your machine frequently. Often it involves cleaning and waxing the playfield, checking for burnt or damaged solenoids, insuring the wiring hasn't worked loose, and finally the weight is difficult as most pinballs clock in at about 450 lbs or more. I have three real machines (cocktail Allied Leisure Take Five, Gottlieb Night Moves cocktail, and Gottlieb Super Soccer 4 player upright model) and have just ordered the @tGames 3/4 Virtual Pinball.
And after your always stellar review, I'm glad I purchased it. I was worried it wouldn't be accurate or very playable but now I see it seems to be enjoyable. But anyways, good on you Matt, that seems like an awesome machine!!
Love this video and the intro was superb! Smashed it out of the pack, Sir, and a wonderful start to 2023!
That nudge feature is really cool, I love how Techmoan shows home sized versions of things like Grand Pianos or Pinball Machines
Wow, that's honestly so convincing. Looks like s great product - thanks for the interesting review, I enjoyed this. (As I do all your reviews, to be fair, but this was a bit different, nice to mix things up 🙂)
This is the kind of device that would be made "absolutely perfect" by the addition of Nintendo 3DS-style glasses-less 3D. Especially with New 3DS-style head tracking and some viewer-position-aware adjustment of the on-screen elements. For a 2D video, many of those playfields look *ABSOLUTELY* real. I would imagine that in person, only not having any 3D and no parallax shift when you move your head to them breaks that look.
Because those visuals are incredible. Honestly, looking at this video on a 27" 4K display from only 18" away, the fact that the camera is fixed in place, you could have told me this was video of real pinball machines and I'd believe you.
'It's about as much fun as trying to play Twister with a broken pelvis.' (14:53) Had me in stitches 🤣
This little Pinball table looks great, liked to diy myself one in the near future. Entertaining en informative video as always 👍🏽
I LOL'd at that comment, too.
Me too!
This is extremely impressive especially for at games. That screen looks incredible and it plays so smoothly. Wow.
Thinking that myself, especially with there poor mega drive machines
their customer service is horrible
I'm actually super grateful for this video. I've been trying to think of a gift for my father's 64th birthday and this is absolutely perfect. I just ordered one and did it through Paypal so I can make payments on it. I'm very excited.
Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.
Fantastic video. I play Pinball FX on a Nintendo Switch hooked up to a rotating 24" monitor. Works beautifully. The thing about real pinball is that it requires a suitable slope to drag the ball down via gravity. This is not an issue with virtual pinball and the screen can be completely vertical. Btw the Switch plays it superbly with no lag at 60fps and wonderfully detailed screens. Unless you want that authentic look then this is possibly the way to go with the important element being the rotating screen.
I’m a bit shocked, AtGames is known for making shit Genesis clones, but this looks exceedingly solid. Thanks for your work in demonstrating this, very well presented (as if there was any doubt)
Perhaps owning the whole software stack makes a difference?
I was literally just about to make the same comment about the company being notorious for pretty bad console clones. They really seem to have upped their game, pardon the pun, with this one.
I have an At Games official megadrive copy and it is anything but shit. it has fifty odd built in games, can accept a memory cart which has another nine hundred games, AND it accepts original megadrive cartridges. The only issue I have found out so far is that the four player games such as Micro Machines only support two player.
It pretty good quailty.
@@bagofnails6692 I've never seen an AtGames megadrive run the sound properly. I have one of them with 50 games plus a working cartridge slot (composite video, not an HDMI model) and the sound is messed up. It's the kind of thing where it's mostly not obvious unless you've heard how it's supposed to sound before which anyone with original cartridges would have.
I believe some versions also had awful IR controllers but this one was just original 6-button clones with original-style connectors that worked with original controllers.
Unless they revised all that later I wouldn't recommend them, you get a better experience from regular emulation.
when i was a little kid my parents bought me this lap sized physical pinball game. you put C or D cell batteries up in it (dont remember which exactly) and then you flipped the switch on the back and then it switched on a fan and the electronics and you had a smoothly working metal ball having pinball game. obviously with the way google works these days i cannot for the life of me find anything resembling this from the 90s. but i remember having it and it was so much fun to play.
Matt as ever your vid brings joy and pleasure, best wishes in relation to health, and Thank You for your dedication in providing entertaining (and educational ) ‘content’ via the ‘TH-cam app’ . David 🏴
The capability to have ball effects like the fireball is something that gives the virtual table a real leg up on physical tables. I can also imagine the playfield scenery being much more dynamic.
Very interesting! Also glad they didn't make you sign into a virtual world to play a virtual pinball game. Looks very realistic and like lots of fun 👍
Great Video. I loved it! Great comment by the end throwing some ideas to improvement. Awesome quality video. Keep it up
The graphics look really sweet, realistic. The ball has great detail and looks real. I think you found yourself a winner.
I'm truly stunned! AT Games released a product that is not trash 😯
Long time viewer here. Thanks to your video I bought one when it went on sale in the past few days. Atgames timed their sale right after your video. Also got the VIBS add-on so I can connect another PC to the top screen to run other pinball software from both screens. Hoping it is delivered fine. I don't have a lot of space for a larger size otherwise I would have bought the larger Atgames pinball table since that one sells for 400 dollars at Sam's Club. Currently the micro pinball version in your video sells for 349 USD in the U.S. with 50 dollars shipping.
I’m amazed at how good this actually looks, the perspective effect is really convincing
Thank you for reviewing this.
I play pinball on my tablets and I’ve seen these tables along the years and they’ve come a long way. I hope establishments consider putting them up, so we can play arcade style again
Fantastic video! My dad was a pinball junky and had a classic pinball machine in our garage (Gottlieb Sky Jump). Needless to say, I grew up playing pinball. Over the years I tried many versions of virtual pinball, starting all the way back with the Atari 2600, then the Pinball Construction Set on the Apple II, then the NES, then Sega Genesis... Every new version left me underwhelmed as none could compete with the 1974 machine I grew up with. They just didn't look right, didn't sound right, and didn't feel right. The last virtual pinball I played was the one that came with Windows 95. So your video really got me thinking; The playfield looked amazing and the sounds seemed spot on. Its been over 20 years, and maybe its time to give it another try.
That looks amazing, I think you apologise too much for struggling to film it, I thought it was fine. So tempted to try and get one for myself!
Your Video made me buy a "big" Legends pinball spontaneously :)
Living in Germany a Danish dealer was the cheapest (999,- € incl. freight and taxes). What a nice machine - with such a great build quality (!).
Thank you for presenting your Legends pinball to us.
But one thing makes me crazy:
The position of the start button.
I will change the cables of the start button to the back button, where in my opinion and habits they belong to, and vice versa. Maybe I can turn the caps of these two buttons for 180 degree, so that they fit to start and back again...
Edit: I moved the "start" button cables to the red button on the left noe. This is soooo much better! Completely intuitive!
Ah, those memories of wasted days and wasted nights playing at my favorite tables...
Your info on the haptics and the hudging (IDK if it was a local expression or not but a portmanteau of hit and nudge frequently done with the hip) and that at least this table offers the whack with the hand makes these much more attractive to me. Like you, no room for a real one. I must try and find one to try out. Thanks.
Amazing stuff, graphics and game play are fantastic. Another of my childhood favorite activities resurrected, I guess technology can still be used for good after all.