Could Really use some help here

[JerseyJohnny]

Happy Holidays everyone, 

 

So I don't know if anyone can help me with this but I figured Id give it a shot, since i haven't figured it out on my own yet.   I own all the steam pinball arcade tables.  I never readlly play them, but I do own them and they are in my steam account and I have bad OCD where I will spend hours and hours fixing something until i eventually fix it. Could be a PTSD thing, but regardless whenever I am working on a "project /hobby" I have to finsih it or compelte sets of things etc. Its a messed up thing, but its just how I function now. With that out of the way here is my problem.

 

I want to add my pinball arcade collection to my popper setup. I dont like using hacks and stuff like that, so all my pinball stuff is paid for and done the right way.  However, I kinda of got screwed here yesterday.  The only way I knew how to get my table to work in my popper build, or even on my pinball cabinet for that matter was to pay the $150.00 to Acooda.  Its pretty rediculous, but I already paid for the steam tables, so they are just sitting there.  Anyway, their website says with my $150 purchase it will give me the key to unlock cabinet mode and I will have accesss to 76 tables, (although they did say due to licensing expirations some stern tables won't be available , even if i owned them, in cabinet mode).  

 

The problem is when i loaded it up, all hte screeens worked, fine, but it only allowed me to play 16 or 18 out of my whole collection in cabinet mode.  Even worse, they show me another 50 or so tables that I do own , that it says i don't own.  (these aren't the tables removed for licensing.  For example even though i own ghostbusters, I knew going in that those tables wouldn't be available to me. However, all the other tables I do own, but it says I don't while in cabinet mode. 

 

I immedately emailed and tried to call Acoooda back for a refund, as I only had the code for about 15 minutes but now way was i paying $150 for 16 tables, but it seems like im not getting a refund.  

 

Does anyone know a way around this, so I can play all my tables?  I know this is a grey area, but Im not asking for free tables, or a free cabinet code. I just want to be able to play my tables i own in cabinet mode. And since I won't be getting my $150 back , Im willing to use a 3rd party way of doing it. Please private message me if you know of any way I can play all my tables in cabinet mode. so that i can then add them to popper. 

 

Thank you, 

JT

[petelunacy]

on steam did you buy one of the seasons from the menu inside the game and not on the steam store? does it list all the seasons under manage my dlc? perhaps the one you thought you bought on steam was actually purchased inside the game, and you are experiencing a problem with farsides server. I have no idea why they had that wonky extra way to buy, it's confusing and actually allowed for people to accidentally buy the seasons twice. that should have been against the rules on steam, and actually is, but that was so long ago. it's the dumbest thing. people are going to be so upset when the farsight sever shuts down for good someday and steam can no longer confirm these purchases. I would bug arooda till they get back to you, maybe they have a fix.

[JerseyJohnny]

2 hours ago, petelunacy said:

on steam did you buy one of the seasons from the menu inside the game and not on the steam store? does it list all the seasons under manage my dlc? perhaps the one you thought you bought on steam was actually purchased inside the game, and you are experiencing a problem with farsides server. I have no idea why they had that wonky extra way to buy, it's confusing and actually allowed for people to accidentally buy the seasons twice. that should have been against the rules on steam, and actually is, but that was so long ago. it's the dumbest thing. people are going to be so upset when the farsight sever shuts down for good someday and steam can no longer confirm these purchases. I would bug arooda till they get back to you, maybe they have a fix.

 

No unfortunately when i contacted accodia or whatever they are called they are aware of the issue and i said well change your website your misleading people into thinking every game you own will work in cabinet mode. We know rhats not true for some licensing issues. They said they cant issue a refund for a unlock code (which doesnt work anymore by the way, i showed them) i showed them my steam stats , i played less then 10 minutes of actual pinball arcade gameplay. I didnt want to ask for a refund after playing for hours, so i did the right moral thing and didnt touch it. 

I saved all my emails back n forth with Arcooda for my bank and they stopped the payment. Then i got a email from them saying ok now they can give me a $50 refund. No thanks. I got my full refund and it was deserved, i didnt play any pinball arcade and the code doesnt work so it worked out in the end .

[petelunacy]

awesome, glad to hear you had your money returned.

 

If you wanted an explanation of why it was so janky, here is the backstory: Arcooda really got screwed by farsight's loss of the williams/bally license. with absolutely no warning Farsight told arcooda it's over. arcooda had invested so much time and money into this, and didnt even have it finished. they had 30 days left to try and sell something out of it to recover the loss. And so an unfinished mess was rushed out the door.  Farsight points the finger at Scientific Games (the actual holder of the license). Scientific games played the silent treatment with farsight and didnt tell them what was going on until the last second. It was pretty dirty of them. Farsight & Arcooda were both left looking like idiots, while zen got control of "renting" the rights. Zen has been releasing tables at such a slow pace even their biggest fans are starting to talk smack. bla bla bla. Arcooda recently (several months ago) said it is working on something big, but are being mysterious. Visual Pinball X is better anyway lol. thanks for reading

[JerseyJohnny]

Thanks for the info, and I understand how the industry can screw people over but they need to be honest with customers on their website before someone drops $150 . That being said, I hate pinball arcade, graphics are garbage, physics garbage . Just total mess. Probably due to its age. Zen will get another hundred or so dollars from me when they release FX this spring on pc. It’s gonna be in the origin store I think which means if I want to play my medieval madness in full direct x 12 glory I’ll have to buy all the same tables all over again. 
 

id love if the vpx community could learn and update vpx to the unreal 5 engine etc. the tables are gonna look stunning 

[petelunacy]

Ive been following this for a very VERY long time, ha. been a member of that site digital pinball fans since 2012, user name Pete. It used to be a much more active place but it's mostly cob webs now lol. TPA has sure aged, but it was great in it's day. I first discovered it on the used shelf at a game stop in NJ in a little box called "Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection" and it was the best purchase I ever made. I played that game nearly every single day. I wished & craved for new tables so hard. then TPA came out and answered my prayers. 2 new tables a month was like Christmas over & over, and we would run to the forums and speculate and try and guess what would be next. It was like the golden age of commercial digital pinball. Zen will never have that sort of fast paced release scheduled, hence the cob webs on the digital pinball fans lol. Now these awesome people in places like this constantly give us amazing stuff to play and I LOVE THEM!!!

[sundogak]

@jtravapdThere is TPA Free Camera MOD and the Pinball Arcade Loader and will work with a Steam setup.  The loader is relatively simple and it just features ability to launch via command line direct into a specific TPA table (handy for front ends). Free Camera MOD has launcher coupled with more complex feature set for cabinets.  

Edited January 27, 2022 by sundogak
fixed link

[JerseyJohnny]

On 1/26/2022 at 10:54 PM, sundogak said:

@jtravapdThere is TPA Free Camera MOD and the Pinball Arcade Loader and will work with a Steam setup.  The loader is relatively simple and it just features ability to launch via command line direct into a specific TPA table (handy for front ends). Free Camera MOD has launcher coupled with more complex feature set for cabinets.  

Ive tried the full screen mod. The issue is (it even says it in the mod's .pdf instructions, your playfield needs to be in portrait mode. Ive spent hours trying ways around it. If i switch to portrait mode , everything loads correctly and i have 3 screens of playability. If i try and use the launch script -rotate (then whichever way you want to go) pinball arcade will turn correctly and the  freeze and you have to force close. Same wirh the tpa mod, it loads into my taskbar but just sits there, and i cannot open it or close it out etc. However if i change my playfield to portrait mode , the game loads properly. Im sure there is a way to change the playfield to portrait when launching the game, and then switching it back when closing that table. But honestly all i see is a corrupt display driver, or even worse in windows doing that. That softwsre isnt important enough to me to risk my.buid on. Im just happy i got my full $152 refund. Yes, my credir card even refunded me the $2 american to euro exhcange rate fee. Lol

 

So all is well. Thanks for everyones help.

[mickismmonds2023]

just installed PA cabinet mode and despite using all the settings that work for me with pinup, fx3, popper etc, PA is jacked up and wont display the backglass, dmd correctly, and pf is landscape and not portrait, and after reading this, it seems im SOL for a easy solution, does the loader make things any easier? thanks for any input, help as ever!