Public Commander Keen Forum

G'day everyone!
Just thought it'd be good to bring up pinball over here (if it hasn't already been brought up).
The earliest memories that I can recall of pinball was at a fish 'n' chip shop in the main street at the age of about 4. My brother and I where facinated by a ball bouncing around inside a cabinet and would always watch very closely as to how it all worked. People would play pinball while waiting for their food and occasionally would leave an extra ball in the machine that my brother and I would play with. About 2 years later that place shut down and was replaced by another shop.
My second entry into the pinball world happened on and old win '98 (This particular PC featured many of my favorite DOS games that I play today, and many that I can't get a grip on the name) about the time the fish 'n' chip place closed down, with 'Extreme Pinball' for DOS by Epic Mega Games. I loved this game and still do with the most memorable table being 'Monkey Mayhem'.

Recently I've got back into a lot of the old pinball games for DOS and I really feel like buying my own machine, even though they are very expensive. I've found recently that your don't usually find too many of these great games around any more, and that is a little sad. Although I predict that pinball will make a comeback in the near future.

So feel free to discuss your pinball expierences here!

Real pinball tables are even bloody expensive to coin-op these days. Tends to be $1/credit, $2/3 credits. We ran a mini arcade at the local carnival over summer this year and the pinball games accounted for only a fraction of the total takings, while the skill testers, particularly the one offering the false hope of a "free" iPad, took the largest share. It's pretty sad. The atmosphere of an arcade is not worth as much to people as the convenience of being able to play thumb-controlled digital versions at home, and even when it is the only motivation is getting something for nothing, about the same thing that hooks people into wasting their money on poker machines.

As for video game pinball, the Epic pinball games were definitely the height of the era. The rock band table was always my favourite of the Extreme Pinball collection, but there's nothing quite like the classic android table for pure imaginative table design.

The only other pinball games I really remember playing were Tristan Pinball and that lame 3D one that came with the Plus! add-on for Windows 95. (The hovercar game from the same era however, that was amazing.)

Only last year I played Sonic Spinball for the first time on a Sega Master System I salvaged from the tip. That makes for a pretty spectacular blend of pinball/platformer gaming.

I actually had the opportunity to take a two-week Pinball class back in high school. We learned about the history of the game, playing techniques, and watched "Tommy", plus there were four Pinball machines which could be played for free.

It turned out also that there's a Pinball Museum somewhere in I think Berkeley which has a ton of machines from across the ages. I feel I need to get back there sometime when I have the opportunity.

There's a pinball parlor not too far from where I live where the have all-you-can play weekends for $10 USD. This guy owns 2 HUGE garages full of pinball machines from the 60's all the way up though the modern tables, and even a few old arcade games. All tables are set to free-play mode, and you can still get high scores!

It usually runs for like 4-5 hours a night, on Friday and Saturdays. And it's BYOB, provided you're of age. And considering it's hosted every other weekend, I get my pinball fix in.

I think my favorite table there is the Indy 500 table. I usually have the most fun playing that one.

I never had the honor of playing Pinball on an actual Pinball Table. My only experience of Pinball was on our old Windows 95 computer. The game was called "3D Pinball Space Cadet." Lots o' cool stuff in that game. It had a bunch of crazy bonuses like "Weapons Upgrade" and "Engines Re-fueled" to name a few. It kept things interesting. I really like the sound FX and the music. Battling for the High Score was always fun.

I wrote:that lame 3D one that came with ... Windows 95.

Yeah, that's the one.

It definitely had some pretty neat effects and stuff, but the main thing that annoyed me was the single-screen thing. Pinball is meant to be waaaaaaaaaay bigger than one screen can possibly handle.

yep smallest pinball ever. I still enjoyed it back in the day.

Pinball Mania and Pinball Dreams 2 were the best pinball games imo. But I do enjoy Epic Pinball and Devils Crush

Fun fact: the Space Cadet pinball table that came with Windows is actually a stripped down version of one table from a (non-freeware) pinball table pack. The only difference I remember offhand is that the Windows version doesn't support multiball play, but I'm pretty sure there are others.

Yeah, I remember having the other 2 pinball games that were in the series: Dragon's Keep and Skullduggery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Tilt!_Pinball

(not sure why this link doesn't want to cooperate)

I used to be so obsessed with pinball when I was younger that I actually tried to build my own real life pinball table with my dad. We took a thin piece of wood and put it on a tilted angle. Then we build flippers that you could control with you hands. We also added a really neat launch thing where we had a nail attached to a spring. When you pulled it back, you could launch the ball up a lane onto the table. There were also a few neat rubber band things we added to make the ball bounce.

We never got close to finishing it, but it was pretty fun while it lasted.

Exactly what I'm up to at the moment Gridlock. I've only just started but I have got designs for the flippers that work by pushing a button on the side of the table.

StupidBunny wrote:I actually had the opportunity to take a two-week Pinball class back in high school. We learned about the history of the game, playing techniques, and watched "Tommy", plus there were four Pinball machines which could be played for free.

Your school is awesome!

I've only played real pinball a few times in my life - it's not common around where I live and the whole arcade game scene had mostly died out by the time I'd have been old enough to see the tables anyway. Is this decline a worldwide thing or just in Australia?

I've found that there aren't as many around in Australia these days as well.
But today I was in at the Adelaide Burger Bar and had a game of 'The Rolling Stones Pinball', which was quite enjoyable seeing as it was the first time I've played in a couple of years.

troublesomekeen wrote:I never had the honor of playing Pinball on an actual Pinball Table. My only experience of Pinball was on our old Windows 95 computer. The game was called "3D Pinball Space Cadet." Lots o' cool stuff in that game. It had a bunch of crazy bonuses like "Weapons Upgrade" and "Engines Re-fueled" to name a few. It kept things interesting. I really like the sound FX and the music. Battling for the High Score was always fun.

I remember that old game. It was decent, I like it. But I got frustrated when the ball just fell back down into the hole without an opportunity to save it. :/

Scarlet wrote:

troublesomekeen wrote:I never had the honor of playing Pinball on an actual Pinball Table. My only experience of Pinball was on our old Windows 95 computer. The game was called "3D Pinball Space Cadet." Lots o' cool stuff in that game. It had a bunch of crazy bonuses like "Weapons Upgrade" and "Engines Re-fueled" to name a few. It kept things interesting. I really like the sound FX and the music. Battling for the High Score was always fun.

I remember that old game. It was decent, I like it. But I got frustrated when the ball just fell back down into the hole without an opportunity to save it. :/

In IRL pinball you jab the machine sideways to change the ball's course. You have to catch it early, and of course do it just right so as not to tilt the machine...and every machine has its own tilt sensitivity.