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.
@@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 RU-vid 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.
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!
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 RU-vid so hopefully this helped a few more people find you.
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
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.)
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'm truly blown away by how realistic it looks, even through a RU-vid 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).
@@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.
It has been done and it plays, looks and feels amazing. Done by JP Salas, one of the grand masters of virtual pinball: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zJiQgQ7x01M.html
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.
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.
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)
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'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.
'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 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!
AtGames has always been horrible at making D-pads and controllers. I'm amazed that there is no lag between button presses and action on screen like anything else they make.
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.
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)
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.
@@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.
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.
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 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.
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 ‘RU-vid app’ . David 🏴
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Happy New Year Techmoan! Thank you for this video! Remember only make videos when it suits you, not when it suits us! Your health is very important, than anything else! Stay well! (RIP to your mother, who you will see again one day)
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!
Damn man, I didn't know you were an actual pinhead. I can tell my own kind right off the bat when you said "table" instead of "machine". If I'm ever in England maybe I'll run into you at an IFPA tournament! That's awesome.
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.
I also thought about a wall-mounted, fold-out table. Back in the Nineties, I saw a drawing table that was mounted on a wall, then moved into place when needed to save space.
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.
As someone who loves pinball but who has only been good at The Pinball Arcade on PC, this has me very excited. The physics are realistic enough, but far more reliable than real life, lol. And this is gorgeous!
I've built a pretty decked out 4k vpin cab, and, while I wouldn't trade down for this, I think this micro is a brilliant idea, and looks quite nice for the cost, especially for those with space constraints, or lacking the skills/desire to build their own. The fact that they put the analog nudge sensor in is key. I can't enjoy pinball without that 'physical' connection to the game. Super job on putting this video together. Hadn't seen your channel before, but you obviously put a great deal of care into this. Count me in for a sub :)
I scratch built a mini pinball table running a 25" playfield monitor and a 4:3 19" backglass monitor. Pretty small form factor and was able to include a 4-way joystick, 3 buttons, and a trackball and spinner on it. It runs on my old comptuer and old videocard. A 980ti is more than enough to run all of the Virtual Pinball X titles and I'm having the time of my life on it. I put about 100 VPX tables on it and vertical MAME games that use 4-way joysticks like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, but also Centipede and Tempest too. I mainly play Earthshaker on it though--my all-time favorite pinball table. I connected a subwoofer to it and it really makes it come alive. Some day I'll add haptics and a shaker motor to it.
I'm building a pinball table-shaped enclosure for my Nintendo Switch to play pinball, with a custom controller to give the paddle and plunger buttons in the right places. It had got me hooked on pinball, even though I'd never played on a real table before.
I got mine for black Friday and yes I got the legs and it looks great. I'm very, very pleased with this. I wish I knew more about other table collections to buy more.
Making the graphics anamorphic so that they work when seen at player perspective is the all-important final extra mile. It makes this product genuinely distinctive
WHEN you go down the connected PC 'rabbit hole' for your ALP Micro - there's no going back - I will play a few of the included/purchased tables occasionally on my ALP full size but 90% of the time I play FX3 (from Steam) and the 100 tables purchased with a small PC I've managed to place inside the base of the cabinet (again I have the full size machine). I'd highly recommend the arcade stick replacement for the full size machine too as the D-Pad really is pretty bad (as you've discovered). The Wagner's Tech Talk guides are fantastic - really helped in getting the connected PC going with the VIBS and software setup. There's a TON of other virtual pinball platforms to explore as you've mentioned and promises to be a major time investment into the hobby.
I just bought one! You convinced me TechMoan! AtGames is having a sale until January 23rd for $100 off these tables. I also want to mention the legs are on pre-order and will ship Early March 2023. They're compatible with the micro and full-size table.
This checks off everything I want out of a virtual pinball machine. It’s impressive. If I can play all my Zen pinball packs from my Switch on it, I’ll be happy.
4:34 The scale fooled me! At first I thought those were large three-ring binders on a bookshelf at right, only to realize they appear to actually be cassette tapes!
Made a pinball table out of a old 32 inch tv, found a usb arcade stick with 8 buttons, duel monitor thru PC, a old small desk that fits the TV laying down as well as the fight stick (portrait mode for the TV of course) and play pinball FX 3 on steam or the early access build of pinball fx which with the new engine I will say makes virtual pinball even more immersive. Its a rabbit hole to fall into for sure!
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 best thing I have got this year...' its only been two weeks. I had written these off though, now i need to see one in action as they look great
I WANT 1!!! :P That Space Invaders one was AMAZING(I liked the moody music to) :D + Bubble Bobble & Rainbow Islands are still my favourite Arcade games so I like the idea of a pinball version of those :P
The guys who programme these machines and do the graphics are amazing. The table looks and plays so realistically I would love to purchase one. Can't justify the expense though, have to pay our extortionate fuel bills. Thanks for another great and informative video
Dude the realism this table put out was unreal. I had to remind myself those were screens - it liiked so incredibly realistic and... real. Like, wow :o I totally want one now!
Your suggestion at the end makes me wish I was one of those custom furniture makers who put hidden compartments into desks and tables. I’ve never wanted to own a pinball machine before this, but I love the idea of a coffee table with a popout virtual pinball machine.
Mat, that fold-up pinball table sounds like a patentable idea there. I hope to see an announcement in a year's time for Techmoan branded Murphy pinball tables, for sale coming soon 😀
I wish Santa had known about this. As it was, I -- he -- he had to find a vintage physical mini-table on eBay 30 miles away and drive -- sleigh -- up there to pick it up and polish out the acrylic screen on December 23rd. The mini-physical one is cool, it plays a few neat tricks to emulate the feel of the full-scale solenoids at 1/20th the cost . . . But man, if I -- I mean, he -- woulda known. . .
This looked very real. Like if you look at 10:58 its incredibly hard to see that its a screen its all on and not a real pinball table. If i had that clip paused full screen on my tv and someone cam in and saw it they would think that someone was playing a real pinball table. They would not know its just a virtual one. It looks so good.
Great video, thanks. I made a pinball housing for my Nintendo Switch 18 months ago using a 30” monitor, Sanwa buttons and a donor cheap pad. If I could hook my Switch up to this and use the controls on it that would make be a good way to access more tables over the 2 systems.
Looks and screen resolution were one thing and they seem to have that sussed but I was waiting to hear what the "haptics" were like as that is one of he main areas of "connection" when playing pinball, so really pleased and surprised that have that down as well! I did not know these existed also. I know you get them on PCs and have one on my Mac but not very "connected" to the experience due to the lack of haptics and vibration.
I used to have a small virtual pin I built. It worked, but I just didn't have the know-how to make it all work how I wanted. So, I sold it, bought a Arcade 1up table with that money (pretty much an even cost trade). I did the VERY easy hack to add the tables from all 3 machines, as well as tables from ZEN and Pinball Arcade and I love the thing. The best part about it for me is the Williams tables. That's what I was playing when my love of pinball kicked off. I can't play those on the AtGames unless I hook up a computer and do some fiddling. Actually, short of Haunted House, which I owned for a short while, I don't think I ever played any of them. That said, AtGames makes a fine product. I have one of their arcade machines and it was some of the best money I ever spent.
Because I have the space I have the full sized model and I highly recommend it. These machines open up a whole new hobby world, and become the life of any party you throw.
That is an amazing idea. I think they should have prob tried to do it at 120fps if you are trying to mimic reality but i can understand that would push the price up.
A well built and decent quality machine. Very good picture quality and decent illusion of it being a real pinball table. Wouldn't mind having one myself if I had enough throwaway money and a way to get heavy stuff from overseas here. As for the virtual pinball scene, there are entire websites dedicated to this, with tons of really well detailed tables available, great majority of them at absolute no cost. There's also a piece of sofware called vpinmame which allows use of program ROMs dumped from real pinball machines with virtual tables, making authentic virtual re-creations possible. Of course, tables for this machine are made with this machine in mind and are well visually optimized for it. Third party tables would likely not look that good. As for dedicated virtual pinball game tiles, Pro Pinball series are undoubtedly my favorites, especially the first two titles from the series. What worries me is that like with most modern computer hardware, there's a lot of online functionality baked into this device which depends on someone actually providing and supporting it. This isn't your average gaming PC or a smartphone, but an relatively expensive and specialized gaming machine. You really don't want to toss away an otherwise usable machine just because the manufacturer thinks it's obsolette and decides to drop support for it.
