Very much so. Hamish (the owner) has a background in high end domestic AV and entertainment system installation, so he’s got the expertise, the passion and the means to pull off something really spectacular like this
I’ve been playing some of Zen’s offerings and Champion Pup is easily in the running for one of my most hated tables ever. It’s extra galling that the score threshold to earn three stars is so high that I have to play the table over and over and over…
The board game pack (Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars, and Exploding Kittens) is out along with a new Star Trek pack of tables. Pinball M (their “mature” or “R” rated platform for new tables) also released a week or two ago.
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How is Zen’s offering on other platforms? They’ve lost my trust on iOS. I never tried on PlayStation but if I recall they’ve released a couple versions of the game and tables didn’t transfer between them or something egregious like that. It’s a shame because I love their pinball.
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Yeah. I haven’t really played much until very recently because my preferred platform is playing on my iPad and they seemed to have abandoned it or released ftp crap like the Williams app. Also their latest iteration on other platforms confusingly called pinball fx (we went from fx3 to just fx?) has not supported importing your previously purchased tables into the new platform. I recently paid like $100 during the black friday steam sale to rebuy the most of the old tables I’ve played and also all the new tables that have been exclusive to the new fx platform. Probably like 60-70 tables. Snotty thought I was building a virtual pinball cabinet. I wish. I’ll probably wait to see if there is going to be a christmas sale on these new packs before I purchase them. I’m not certainly not lacking in new tables tomplay.
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I’ve been in the irl pin scene long enough to see a few virtual pins. It’s just a tv in a box with some buttons. A bit of woodworking (with plywood of all things) and some very basic electrical skills to attach the buttons. Make a back glass to your taste (doesn’t have to be glass, any decal will do) and you’ve got yourself a stand up pinball table and conversation piece. Its a totally doable home project, or just buy one outright.
Then once you’ve got your first machine, start filling every square inch of your house with pins like the other pinheads I’ve met
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I played the terraforming mars table on my free pinball pass. It’s pretty good. Between the loops, ramps, mission mode, and side mission mode, there’s plenty going on even though the gameplay is pretty straightforward.
I don’t like that the rover hides the mid table flipper until you advance the rover, and how the skill shot is incredibly hard to get unless it spawns in the right spot.
Overall, I think this table is welcome in the pantheon of pc based space tables
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Zen has a new game on iOS through Netflix. I haven’t been keeping up with Zen as much lately but the tables look new to me. They certainly aren’t tables I’ve seen in Zen Pinball or Pinball Party.
I’m a bit sour on Zen, even though they are by far my favorite provider of digital tables. It’s like the y have tried every distribution scheme available to them at the expense of longtime fans. I own every table in the original app but it hasn’t been touched in years. Instead we’ve had the IAP/unlock nightmare of the Williams app, the Party app locked behind Apple Arcade that shows that Zen can update their UI and tournament functionality but won’t do it for the old app, and now a new app with new tables locked behind yet a second subscription. Meanwhile, there have been shenanigans with them releasing newer platforms for their tables on consoles without allowing purchases to transfer. It’s a shame.
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I don’t have Apple Arcade at the moment, as I had gotten bored with what was there, I will likely pick it up again later this year. Netflix on the other hand, we are watching still regularly, so this is very welcome and I am DLing right now.
Also, I have like a lot of Zen tables on my Xbox 360, but never again will I buy from them table by table.
I don’t know why the tables on Zen Pinball Party and this new Pinball Masters app look like trash on my iPad. It looks so blurry with low res assets. Maybe it’s optimized for just the iPhone? It’s annoying that the now abandoned original Zen Pinball app looks better than the new tables. And I agree with you Mirefox, I don’t understand why they are locking all the new tables behind subscription services instead of just the good old fashioned develop your own app and buy tables with real money like every other version of their games on other platforms.
I could put up with them jumping aboard the subscription bandwagon if they disnt completely abandon their cornerstone app to do so. It hasn’t been updated in 4+ years. I want the game to actually fit my screen. I’d also like some of the tournament support they have added to all their other platforms.
As a total ADD gamer, I am very fond of the subscription gaming model.
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I think they used a new game engine for all the new “fx” tables so I don’t think they can just update the old Zen Pinball app, as much as I would like them to,
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They’d have all my money if they hadn’t abandoned iOS. I’m 4 years worth of tables behind at this point but I’m never jumping over to another one of their platforms. The 60 or so tables I already bought on iOS are plenty of money flushed down the Zen toilet.
If I remember correctly, they even had different apps for iPhone and iOS, then they abandoned the apps and started a new app on iOS and you had to buy it all over again. Or was this another pinball app? I can’t recall exactly but, similar to you, I did spend a lot of money on pinball apps.
I think what you described was what happened in consoles. On iOS, they just stopped any development or updates 5 years ago or so. Their screen aspect is still the old iPhone ratio so the app isn’t even full screen. Instead of continuing to work on their flagship app, they created a new app for their Williams acquisition and filled it with every sort of terrible in-game currency unlock imaginable. They also have an app on Apple Arcade now, which actually isn’t bad, but it shows that they can develop a modern UI, tournaments, etc., but have chosen not to for the people that paid for their tables.
A new mobile app is supposed to be coming out this year called Zen Pinball World. I have no idea if it will be good or not.
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I looked it up in my old app menu on iOS:
At some point in my life, I owned Zen Pinball, ACDC pinball, Star Wars Pinball, Pinball Arcade Plus, Pinball HD and Pinball HD for iPhone… 
there might be more not showing up
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If the new zen app is good i’ll buy the new tables but i’m not buying my old library again unless there is a huge deal.