Pinball Map App Version 5.2.0
Hope you are all well. We’re good, and now we’re extra good because we’re publishing this blog post announcing a new Pinball Map app update: Version 5.2.0!
Our last app update was in March 2020. We began this one in earnest in October 2020, and it quickly ballooned like your JNCOs as you leap from a wall in the quad for the 4th period bell. Basically, we had a couple feature ideas, but there were also some bugs to slaughter. While we were working on the bugs, we kept adding more and more features. So, more than 200 code commits later, we’re ready to go!
Reminder that the code for this app is on Github here. You are free to contribute code. You can also use the “Issues” section to request features and report bugs.
We are a very small person team (the app is largely developed by Beth Poore and Ryan), and we do our best to identify bugs and test things. We greatly appreciate when you give us feedback and report issues. We also like when you rate the app on the app store (iOS App Store, Google Play Store)!
As always, the Pinball Map app remains ad-free and tracker-free. Thanks for using and updating the map!
Here is a list of changes in this app update, and there are some screenshots below.
- Universal links (aka deep links), so a url hyperlink (say, from a website or text) will open up that location on the app.
- Added “share” button on location details screen, so you can text app links to friends.
- iOS only: Show number of machines on the dots/markers on the map (see screenshot below). And places with more machines have slightly larger dots.
- Android only: We moved away from using “custom” map markers styles because it was impacting performance.
- Performance improvement on map: instead of the map auto-refreshing results when you pan/zoom, now you’ll see a “Search this area” button to refresh the results.
- When Filtering by machine, you can filter by “all versions of that machine” (e.g Pro, Premium, etc.) or just that one version.
- Added “stale” text to locations that haven’t been updated in over two years.
- Redesigned colors/styles and many other things.
- Redesigned the location details screen so it is a single tab. All the tools (add machine, confirm lineup, etc) are found upon clicking the Tools button in the lower right. Also added location type icons to this screen.
- Display a Message of the Day on the map screen. It will only display when we have something new to say. The message can also be found on the About page.
- Updated the FAQ. Wow!
- Added a new “Resources” page with links to some useful pinball sites.
- Lots of bug fixes and code enhancements.
Couple screenshots:
