Tag: Zaccaria Pinball

Earth Wind Fire Retro (Zaccaria Table Review)

EARTH WIND FIRE RETRO

Matt on Earth Wind Fire Retro: The line of very deep saucers up the center is a welcome feature. The saucers often grab the ball or change its trajectory (you know, pinball randomness). However, trying to intentionally get into the lit saucer seems to depend on luck and persistence. Some kind of rule that lights multiple saucers would be welcome. There’s not much else interesting on this playfield, but the rollover lanes might suffice. The original Earth Wind Fire has plenty of top lanes, rollover targets, and other targets. Where are any of those?

A distant cousin to 70s hits like Centigrade or Sheriff, only without much in the way of dynamic scoring. Besides a pair of high-yielding bumpers, the targets are four roll-over targets that have to be hit twice in a single ball to score their maximum value. That’s nothing compared to the five saucers that only are worth shooting if they’re lit. Although each saucer is numbered, their number isn’t relevant. Only one is lit at a time, and  sinking the ball in a lit one provides 500 points. That’s five times the value of a lit roll-over. The good news is that none of the saucers are risky. The bad news is I’ve pretty much explained the table in its entirety. It left Matt wondering where the relationship to the original EWF is at all? Cathy and Angela can’t believe everyone else is giving such a nothing table a positive mark, but Sasha and Oscar note that there is a method to the madness. Saucer #1 and especially Saucer #2 has a puncher’s chance of being released, banging off a bumper and going right back into the saucer, and since you can aim at those, this is technically a shooter’s table. Nobody is going to find Earth Wind Fire Retro to be exciting, but they might find some of it satisfying. Sasha actually changed her score a few days ago, saying she thinks it does just cross the line into borderline greatness. Needless to say, she stands alone there.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Model: Zaccaria EM
Table Type: Pick ‘n Flick
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: GREAT– (4 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: GOOD–
Jordi: GOOD
Dave: GOOD
Matt: BAD+
Dash: BAD
Scoring Average: 2.625 – Okay
Final Average: 2.5 – Okay at Best
A Pinball Chick Team 🥶Polarizing Table🥶
🏆Cathy ranks #11 in 3 Ball Arcade – Post Update Highest Score
🏆Sasha the Kid ranks #9 in 5 Ball Arcade – Post Update Highest Score
🏆Cathy ranks #2 in Time Loop Mode – Post Update Highest Score

Devil Riders Retro (Zaccaria Retro Review)

DEVIL RIDERS RETRO

Sasha on Devil Riders: I think that a rating of THE PITS should be reserved for a table that’s either unplayable due to poor mechanical design or one where no amount of skill can overcome luck. Everyone might not like Devil Riders’ scoring system, but you can rebound on it, and you can defend against the gobble holes with the nudge. Both those facts are true whether you’re playing with Zaccaria’s arcade or simulation engines. I don’t happen to like Devil Riders and I’m guessing I won’t like gobble holes going forward, but THIS as one of the worst tables ever? Please. Readers should refer to Clown Retro for what a worst table ever contender should play like. This is just an ordinary 1950s bad table.

Fun fact: This was Sasha the Kid’s first table with gobble holes. These days, Visual Pinball’s EM selection is her jam, but when she first played this on her AtGames Legend, she was not a happy camper. Now in the old days, gobble holes could be tied to specials and extra balls. As a reminder, for whatever reason, Magic Pixel put out a collection of old-timey pins without old-timey scoresheets. As a result, there’s essentially seven tiny drains that score if lit. Lighting the gobble holes only requires a single bounce off the corresponding bumper. We think Sasha’s wrong about the amount of skill that can go into games of Devil Riders. Yes, you can grab rebounds and aim. You mostly won’t be able to since the rails leading to the flippers are bouncy as all hell. But assuming you do grab a rebound, all that does is get you above the bumpers. The gobble holes and the bumpers block anything to actually shoot at. It’s not the scoresheet that’s wrong. It’s the layout. The Kid got this one wrong. It IS Plinko, but Plinko that walks like a shooter’s table. Sasha’s counter argument is that the shots to get above the bumpers are tight enough that they’re “ghost targets” and satisfying in their own right. Agree to disagree.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Model: Zaccaria EM
Table Type: Woodrail
Cathy: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: THE PITS
Jordi: THE PITS
Dave: THE PITS
Matt: THE PITS+
Dash: BAD
Scoring Average: 1.25
Final Average: 1.16
💩Certified a Turd💩 by The Pinball Chick Team
🏆 Cathy ranks #1 in Time Loop Mode – Undisputed World Champion

Combat Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

COMBAT RETRO

Matt on Combat Retro: The flipper gap is still just a bit too wide, even with a helpful center post, making play for the targets and saucer too dangerous. Escaping to the safety of the bumper area makes building a good score a bit of a luck box. It might make more sense to be sinking ships like in battleship, so what about some drop targets in the lower playfield, and the saucer can increase the value of each hit?

Well, at least Combat Retro has one thing going for it: it joins tables such as Theatre of Magic and Zen Studios’ Knight Rider table in that a friendly debate in the Vice Household on its merits and flaws turned into a shouting match. This is one of the other retro tables we already have a review up for, though it’s called “Battle Retro” on AtGames. Our thoughts haven’t really changed all that much. As noted above, this table triggered a fairly heated argument between Angela and Oscar, specifically related to the spot targets. First off, don’t listen to the table art itself. The spot targets say, quote with uppercase/lowercase, “10 points OR 100 points when all red lamp lit.” Well, it’s just a lie. They don’t all have to be lit. You get 100 points for converting any shot on a spot target when the lamp is lit, period, and the rule sheet provided in the game’s menu gets it correct. It’s actually hilarious that they updated the artwork but left the incorrect word bubble on the playfield. As for the argument, Angela says that two bumps of the top bumper gives you the same amount as a spot target, which takes two shots: one to light it, and one to hit it, which also turns off the light. There’s no bonus for lighting all four. Oscar insists he’s not overrating this and that the spot targets work because you can aim at them and don’t have to rely on chaos to score points. Sasha The Kid chimed in that it was still chaos due to the slingshots guarding the flippers, which are VERY bouncy and very dangerous due to a wide flipper gap with a fairly unreliable post. Oscar again said that you can use nudging to prevent the slings from firing. Cathy and Jordi thought there were too many satisfying angles to go BAD while Dave, Angela, Matt and Sasha think Combat Retro’s gap is too big and too bouncy for its own good. Once upon a time, this was the second best table in the Retro Pack by scoring average. Times have changed, but at least Combat Retro remains interesting enough to trigger a shouting match.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Table Type: Woodrail
Model: Zaccaria EM
Reworking of World Champ (1957 Gottlieb)
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD+
Oscar: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD+
Dave: GOOD
Matt: BAD+
Dash: BAD
Scoring Average: 2.75
Final Average: 2.66 – OKAY
A Pinball Chick Team 🥶Polarizing Table🥶
🏆Cathy ranks #3 in Time Loop Mode
🏆Jordi ranks #6 in Time Loop Mode

Clown Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

CLOWN RETRO

Sasha the Kid: “Maybe Clown Retro actually DOES have an Italian Bottom. I don’t know what clown pants look like in Italy!” You know what? I think she’s going to work out just fine as Indie Gamer Chick 2.0 some day.

When you have a roll-over target, I find it really helps that the target be, you know, what you aim at! The highest scoring element in Clown Retro are five roll-over lights that score 1,000 points once all five are lit. One little problem: the actual targets are not one-to-one with the lights on the table. Either that’s the problem or the targets aren’t sensitive enough, because we had moments literally every turn where the ball passed over the targets and didn’t light ’em. Not that it would save Clown. This is a table that lives down to the notion that pinball is a game of random luck. There’s too many chaos elements and no means to defend against them. It needed a lot more flippers just to rise to the level of BAD, but instead, the flippers are separated by the full length of the playfield. Combine that with the nightmare fuel art and the end result is Clown is Jerry Lewis is no longer responsible for the worst thing ever produced involving clowns. True story: Sasha didn’t get that joke at first. We explained it to her and her eyes got as wide as saucers and she said “yeah, no offense, but what you just described to me sounds a lot worse than a stupid pinball table.” Okay, fair. Oscar still thinks Matt’s rating of BAD was a practical joke. “It’s the ‘+’ that makes it suspect” he said, side-eyeing Matt. Everyone agreed multiball would have given the eyes SOME logical, high stakes shooting value. And, like so many Zacretros, this REALLY needed woodrail-style add-a-ball. Without that, there’s just no excitement. Clown is the definitive Plinko pin and one of the worst digital pins ever made.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Model: Zaccaria EM
Table Type: Woodrail
Reworking of Hawaiian Beauty (1954 Gottlieb)
Cathy: THE  PITS (1 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: THE PITS
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: THE PITS
Jordi: THE PITS
Dave: THE PITS
Matt: BAD+ (2 out of 5)
Dash: THE PITS
Scoring Average: 1.125
Final Average: 1.0
💩Certified a Turd💩 by The Pinball Chick Team
🏆Jordi ranks #7 in 5 Ball Simulation
🏆Jordi ranks #7 in Time Loop Mode
🏆Cathy ranks #10 in Time Loop Mode

Aerobatics Retro (Zaccaria Pinball Table Review)

This is our first time using Matt’s +/- idea for ratings. They don’t affect scores at all but rather let readers know if it’s closer to the next rating or the rating under it. Originally I was going to post a massive Zaccaria Retro feature but instead, we’re going to release these in a trickle.

And, because the full eight-person team is here, we’re using Olympic style scoring. The highest rating and lowest rating are not factored into the Final Rating.

AEROBATICS RETRO

Dave the Designer on Aerobatics Retro: Shame about the saucers. Aside from those targets and the top pops being a little far down, everything about Aerobatics Retro is in an appropriate place for the time period. It’s a proper ‘retro’ that’s done its homework and deserves props for it. If they adjusted the eject angles, this might be a winner.

We’ve already reviewed the AtGames Legend build of Aerobatics Retro. The updated Steam build benefits from having a variety of physics options (not to mention tables like this were meant to be played with five balls, not three. Someone please get that memo to MagicPixel and AtGames). Also, we all seem to agree that the saucers don’t seem to dump the ball between the flippers as often. Actually, the right saucer never did it once. Oh, the left saucer still did it enough to Angela that she’s still dumping it in THE PITS. (Dave to Angela: “wait a second, aren’t you the one who defends Jack*Bot?”) Actually, it was pretty funny. In four separate first-to-three duels, Angela only won a single game the entire time, but that one game she won, she set the world record for Aerobatics Retro on 5 Ball Arcade. She basically did it the same way Matt got #2 in 3 Ball Arcade, IE the ball fell into the saucers. So they fell ass-backwards into records. The lack of shooting angles and nearly impossible to defend-against slingshots still shoot down this plane, though Oscar and Jordi felt that there’s SOME satisfaction to be had in the chaotic rebounding. “I think three jet shapes and a slightly wider lane on each side to get back to the top would have been a better layout” said Matt. Hard to disagree.
Set: Zaccaria – 40 Retro Tables
Model: Zaccaria EM
Table Type: Woodrail
Cathy: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Sasha The Kid: THE PITS
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: BAD+ (2 out of 5)
Jordi: BAD
Dave: BAD
Matt: BAD+
Dash: BAD +
Scoring Average: 1.65 – BAD
Final Average: 1.6 – BAD
🏆Angela ranks #1 in 5 Ball Arcade – Undisputed World Champion
🏆Matt ranks #2 in 3 Ball Arcade – Post Update Highest Score
🏆Cathy ranks #4 in 90 Second Mode – Post Update Highest Score
🏆Jordi ranks #1 in Time Loop Mode – Undisputed World Champion

Cine Star (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

CINE STAR

If there’s such a thing as our favorite bad pinball table, then in the Vice Household, it’s Cine Star. I know now that we’re doing AtGames tables, we’re running through a few digital pins we’ve already reviewed before (Aerobatics) and yea, we’ve done Cine Star already. But Sasha the Kid needs the review practice, especially since I took the keyboard to freak out over Battle Deluxe. She kind of knew Cine Star wasn’t exactly a highly rated table, but we were curious, and she noticed the smirks as she stepped up to the plate. “Is… this it?” Yes Kid, that’s it. Cine Star is the definitive one-shot wonder. So what was Sasha’s insight? “It’s exactly like one of the Zaccaria Retro tables, only if it had a full Italian Bottom.” Actually.. yea, that’s a good description of it. Cine Star has one gimmick: a central spinner that scores between 10,000 and 100,000 points, along with a lot of clanking. The playfield is super tight, so the ball is going to bang around and make a whole lot of noise in the style of an old timey boardwalk pin. But, Cine Star is a lot less luck-based than a typical boardwalk because it has a standard layout, so you don’t have to relearn the entire sport just to play defensively. I still think it’s BAD. We all do, even the two GOOD voters. Jordi no longer stands alone with the sole positive rating (it is a good shot is his basic argument in its entirety). Sasha found it addictive and enjoyable, and she also insisted we were just plain wrong. “It’s not ALWAYS a one-shot table. If you get down to one or two stars, that means you’re one or two shots away from an extra ball. Those are SHOTS, and good ones!” Dad and Angela disagree and will never like Cine Star, and I’m not moving off my BAD rating, because I think lucky bounces will always factor in too heavily. But, I concede Cine Star isn’t REALLY a one-trick pony. Plus, we’ve always had fun dueling at Cine Star. Oh sure, my family whines about it, but we care who wins, and that ain’t nothing.
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1
Type: Electro-Mechanical – Real Table
Based on “Cine Star” by Zaccaria (1977)
Part of Zaccaria Pinball (Console/PC)
Vice Family High: Sasha the Kid “KID” 1,694,030 (Top 25 All Time)
Cathy: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Oscar: THE PITS
Sasha the Kid: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD*
Dave: BAD*
Scoring Average: 2.0 –BAD
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC

Battle Deluxe (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

BATTLE DELUXE
AKA COMBAT DELUXE

A BROKEN TABLE FROM ZACCARIA PINBALL PACK 12

Okay, so, this won’t actually be a full review. There’s no point, because Battle Deluxe is broken. The auto-plunger regularly throws the ball between the flippers. If one didn’t know better, they’d swear it’s deliberate because it’s so perfectly aimed that it goes between the flipper and the drain pin itself. This has happened at least once every game we’ve played so far. Jordi gave this a MASTERPIECE rating on Zaccaria and we don’t remember it happening this much on that platform, but this is so bad that we can’t even ballpark a rating on this build. It’s that broken and unplayable. Since it’s the auto-plunge, it’s a game mechanic that you cannot avoid since it’s part of the table’s gameplay. It so commonly kills your balls off that at one point the table threw every single ball during multiball right between the flippers, including one from a ball save. You might be able to nudge once or twice, but eventually you have to TILT to defend against this. Combat Deluxe is yet another AtGames Legends Pinball table that’s a relatively expensive piece of software ($25 to $35 for this pack) on a relatively expensive platform ($400 to $1,500+) that doesn’t work, and because it’s older, we’ll assume no patch will ever come. According to this Reddit post, Combat Deluxe has been like this for two years and counting now. So, to Magic Pixel and AtGames: have a little f*cking pride in your work, because this is shoddy and shameful. It might not be what you want to hear, but we want you to succeed, and this is the type of easy to spot fatal flaw that DRIVES PEOPLE AWAY from your product. Die hard fans who will look the other way on stuff like this are not a sustainable business model. They’ll still be there, but if you keep putting out stuff like this, you won’t be, because you’ll make no new fans along the way. Do better.
WE DECLARE BATTLE DELUXE TO BE OUT OF ORDER

Battle Retro (AtGames Legends Pinball Table Review)

BATTLE RETRO
AKA COMBAT RETRO

We’re typically in agreement that most tables that were originally from the infamous Zaccaria Retro Pack are garbage from a thankfully bygone era. With that said, the table formerly known as Combat Retro and now known as Battle Retro (because “Combat” is more famous as an Atari game) is technically the second best among those twenty-seven pins. It earned that thanks to an average rating of a whopping 2.66 out of 5, earning it an overall title of OKAY. Fun fact: with the exception of the highlight of that set, the genuinely awesome Mystic Star Retro, Battle Retro is the only table that earned even a single GREAT vote. That would be from Oscar, who thinks the AtGames version is even better than the video game one. “Having an actual table to physically nudge will help all the retro pins to some degree, but if they’re quality tables, it’ll really help them. Battle might be THE table everyone new to playing on an AtGames machine should use to practice nudging a physical table instead of wiggling an analog stick. Play this early, and get a feel for how hard you can and can’t nudge. Battle is perfect for it because it’s a key to high scores, but also because games go so quickly and the scoring is low. You won’t ruin a long game by overdoing it and TILTing. The world record probably took around five minutes. I can’t give it a MASTERPIECE because lucky bounces off the bumpers factors too much into the final score. But if you want to show off one old-timey 1950’s pin, show off Battle.” Sasha, Angela, and Dave all consider everything positive Oscar said to actually be a negative. It is a luck based table. Not entirely, but enough that you need a lot of it. If that’s not for you, stick to the EMs and Solid States in Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1, because Battle Retro is almost as good as the Retro tables get.
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1
Type: Electro-Mechanical – Rebuild
Design DNA: World Champ by Gottlieb (1957)
Part of Zaccaria Pinball (Console/PC)
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 4,380
Cathy: GOOD (3 out of 5)
Sasha the Kid: BAD (2 out of 5)
Angela: BAD
Oscar: GREAT (4 out of 5)
Jordi: GOOD*
Dave: BAD*
Scoring Average: 2.66 – OKAY – 🥶POLARIZING TABLE🥶
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC

 

Aerobatics Retro (AtGames Legend Pinball Table Review)

AEROBATICS
RETRO

Don’t expect much from the “Retro” tables, which are all based on vintage pre-70s tables that we’d call “boardwalk type” pins. The designs are typically not original and are usually reworked layouts from the era before the modern Italian Bottom was invented. Twenty-seven of these were bundled for Zaccaria Pinball with the low price tag of $1.99 – $2.99. That sounds like an unbelievable value, and in a way, it is. At the Pinball Chick, we place a $15 value on a Certificate of Excellence, and one of the 27 tables (Mystic Star) won it, making the set worth it just for that pin. Good thing too, because a record setting thirteen others in the Retro Pack were declared 💩Certified Turds💩, and even the ones that weren’t had scoring averages well under GOOD. Only three had scoring averages over 2.5. So, they’re pretty bad. Aerobatics makes you appreciate what an incredible “invention” the Italian Bottom was. The flippers are guarded by slingshots that spoon-feed the outlanes (the left one is especially deadly), and the saucers that score 500 points when lit are capable of kicking the ball between the flippers. I’ve never seen us eat as many TILTs as we did competing at Aerobatics Retro, but unlike the stellar authentic version of Aerobatic that’s part of the same AtGames Legends Pinball set, the TILTs are for the wrong reasons. Oscar thinks there’s some morbid value in competitive play, but otherwise, this is pretty awful.
Set: Zaccaria Pinball Pack 1
Type: Electro-Mechanical – Rebuild
Design DNA: Unidentified
Part of Zaccaria Pinball (Console/PC)
Vice Family High: Cathy “IGC” 4,930 (Top 20)
Cathy: THE PITS (1 out of 5)
Angela: THE PITS
Oscar: BAD (2 out of 5)
Sasha: THE PITS
Jordi: BAD*
Dave: THE PITS*
Scoring Average: 1.33 – 💩CERTIFIED TURD💩
*Played on Zaccaria Pinball for Consoles/PC

Table Review: Circus for Zaccaria Pinball

20210503224054_1A lot of people can’t fathom just how much time we put into these tables prior to writing any review on them. It’s a big effort that takes part in phases. Before I put my fingers to the keyboard, we always make one final run through each table in a set. In the case of Zaccaria’s 1977 release Circus, it made a massive difference. Originally, we all rated it GOOD except Eala, who fully conceded that childhood nostalgia bumped it to GREAT. If Oscar can get away with naming Firepower #2 of 100 Pinball Arcade titles, we can let Eala slide with that one.

But then, during our final play-through, the rest of us (except stuffy-old Jordi) admitted we underrated Circus. It’s worthy of being Certified Excellent by The Pinball Chick team.

A few things strike me about Circus. #1: it’s a looker. Zaccaria is (in)famous for its generic, broadly-themed tables. Having a name like “Circus” with no flare or pomp is typical of their output, but at least this one looks memorable. It terms of layout, it’s not all that different from some of their other tables, especially Moon Flight. But the bright Blue/Red/Yellow/Green scheme here is distinctive and charming.

#2: The intuitive layout is perfect for introducing people to the late EM era of pinball. Really, Circus is electro-mechanical in-name-only. It flows like an early solid-state. Unlike Aerobatics, there’s a clear driver here: the left spinner lane has a free ball attached to it if you charge-up the value enough. You take aim at either spinner, both laid along primary angles, and the value increases. The challenge comes from gaining control of the ball, as either spinner feeds the roll-overs that lead to the bumpers. The center roll-over doubles the value of the multiplier.

20210503221907_1

#3: the Bonus Score Value saucer, laid along a dead-center angle with a backboard to catch the ball, is one of the most difficult saucer shots we’ve had to experience since starting The Pinball Chick. The straight-away angle makes shooting it at the correct speed to not hop over it incredibly difficult. Hitting this shot banks the points you’ve charged-up for the spinners, and resets your progress if you’ve not yet lit the extra ball special. However, you can also get an extra ball if you fully charge the points AND have lit all the C-I-R-C-U-S letters, which lights the special on the Bonus. It’s one of the most surprisingly challenging shots in all of Zaccaria Pinball, and one you’d never see today, where instead a designer would almost certainly make it a cellar instead. It makes Circus a deceptively deep table and one of the best for teaching new players primary angles.

Circus is a ton of of fun. It’s got its problems: the outlanes are absolutely brutal no matter what mode you’re playing in, but that’s typical of Zaccaria anyway. It’s also one of the more sloggy tables, since grinding-up points requires repetitively shooting the same lanes over and over and over, which is to say nothing about dealing with the bumpers when you’re short either the I or U in C-I-R-C-U-S. It’s certainly not going to WOW everyone. Jordi thought the table was perfectly fine, but he wasn’t as impressed by the pair of spinner shots either. But, if you want to hone your Zaccaria EM skills, all the basic shots are on display here. If Zaccaria had any licensing outreach in the 70s, they could have attached the Ringling Bros. name to this and Circus would be remembered as one of the greats of its era. You can say that about a LOT of Zaccaria tables, but in the case of Circus, it feels like it deserved to be remembered more than it is.

20210503221835_1Circus
For Zaccaria Pinball
Nintendo Switch DLC: EM Table Pack 1
Normal DLC: Electro-Mechanical Pack
Certified Excellent Table
Designed by Zaccaria
Released in 1977
Art by Lorenzo Rimondini
Cathy: Great
Oscar: Great
Angela: Great
Jordi: Good
Eala: Great