Super Pinball
Dec 24, 2007 21:51:24 GMT -5
Post by johnh on Dec 24, 2007 21:51:24 GMT -5
Let's start with the good stuff:
Although video game pinball, in my experience, never matches up to the real thing (except in weird cases like Odama which is only half-pinball), these are relatively cool tables, and made by people who understand pinball.
The displays could either be called dot-matrix OR LED. Pinball display boards use a large bank of LEDs, arranged in an array of dots. So really it could be described either way.
These things said....
I have to say I was disappointed with a fair bit of this article. The dismissive tone towards real-world pinball I disliked the most -- while pinball has certainly fallen on hard times, it is certainly not as "out" as you think, and there are certainly more pinball fans than you imply. The best pinball manufacturer, Bally/Williams, left the market several years back, but another company, Stern Pinball, continues to make tables and last time I heard was profitable.
The best (real) pinball games bring an intensity of play that few video games can match. And modern pinball tables (early 90s on) are definitely NOT simple games! Some of their rulesets are complicated enough to require FAQ-reading to fully understand them. Most modern pinball tables contain something buried in their programming called a Wizard Mode, which requires excellent play to reach. A good pinball wizard mode is among the most awesome spectacles to be found in an arcade; six-ball multiball, "immortal" periods, extreme time pressures, billions of points, and sound effects that push the machine's audio system to its limit are common. Yet relatively few players will be able to play them without a lot of practice.
Some resources I'd suggest looking into for later articles:
www.ipdb.org/playing/advanced.html
Link #2 on a Google search for pinball techniques. Good information here.
www.glue.umd.edu/~dstewart/pinball/MISC/bangbacks.txt
A page describing how to perform the two blackest arts in pinball playing, the bang back and the death save. These are ways to save a ball AFTER it drains. No computer simulation of pinball that I know of allows for these.
www.pinball.org/rules/
pinball.org's rulesheet collection. These are real eye-openers for learning about the complexity of modern pinball. Of special interest here are the rulesheets for Adams Family, Attack From Mars, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and especially Twilight Zone, which is exceptionally complex, containing a mini-playfield using magnets as flippers, a working clock and gumball machine on the playfield, magnets under the table that can affect the ball (and help the player!), lots of modes, and one pinball that's not made of metal....
www.randydavis.com/vp/
An information page on Visual Pinball, a fan effort, combining a playable pinball CAD design system and a version of MAME that emulates pinball hardware, that allows computers to somewhat "emulate" arcade pinball games. Not as awesome as a real machine, but the next best thing. Visual Pinball takes some effort to set up but is worth it.
Although video game pinball, in my experience, never matches up to the real thing (except in weird cases like Odama which is only half-pinball), these are relatively cool tables, and made by people who understand pinball.
The displays could either be called dot-matrix OR LED. Pinball display boards use a large bank of LEDs, arranged in an array of dots. So really it could be described either way.
These things said....
I have to say I was disappointed with a fair bit of this article. The dismissive tone towards real-world pinball I disliked the most -- while pinball has certainly fallen on hard times, it is certainly not as "out" as you think, and there are certainly more pinball fans than you imply. The best pinball manufacturer, Bally/Williams, left the market several years back, but another company, Stern Pinball, continues to make tables and last time I heard was profitable.
The best (real) pinball games bring an intensity of play that few video games can match. And modern pinball tables (early 90s on) are definitely NOT simple games! Some of their rulesets are complicated enough to require FAQ-reading to fully understand them. Most modern pinball tables contain something buried in their programming called a Wizard Mode, which requires excellent play to reach. A good pinball wizard mode is among the most awesome spectacles to be found in an arcade; six-ball multiball, "immortal" periods, extreme time pressures, billions of points, and sound effects that push the machine's audio system to its limit are common. Yet relatively few players will be able to play them without a lot of practice.
Some resources I'd suggest looking into for later articles:
www.ipdb.org/playing/advanced.html
Link #2 on a Google search for pinball techniques. Good information here.
www.glue.umd.edu/~dstewart/pinball/MISC/bangbacks.txt
A page describing how to perform the two blackest arts in pinball playing, the bang back and the death save. These are ways to save a ball AFTER it drains. No computer simulation of pinball that I know of allows for these.
www.pinball.org/rules/
pinball.org's rulesheet collection. These are real eye-openers for learning about the complexity of modern pinball. Of special interest here are the rulesheets for Adams Family, Attack From Mars, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and especially Twilight Zone, which is exceptionally complex, containing a mini-playfield using magnets as flippers, a working clock and gumball machine on the playfield, magnets under the table that can affect the ball (and help the player!), lots of modes, and one pinball that's not made of metal....
www.randydavis.com/vp/
An information page on Visual Pinball, a fan effort, combining a playable pinball CAD design system and a version of MAME that emulates pinball hardware, that allows computers to somewhat "emulate" arcade pinball games. Not as awesome as a real machine, but the next best thing. Visual Pinball takes some effort to set up but is worth it.
