Well, puting my computer back together I now have XP back, a semi-decent video card etc… which reminded me of a program my brother had. Future Pinball! I tried it a long time ago and it was so so… but when I tried it now…WOW! It's a free program where you can create your own pinball machines. Yes I know about Visual Pinball…also excelent for free pinball creation programs. But Future Pinball is in full 3-D… not just rendering a table and playing it from one view. No…you can change camera angles…fixed if you like the view locked, different first person views, or get down low on the table, follow the ball up close…you name it. You can even play as if you were standing on the side of the machine as a spectator. =) I still think Visual Pinball has better physics, but this program is so impressive for a free program it is definitely worth snaging for any pinball fan.
http://www.futurepinball.com/The program itself…18 Meg! Hope you don't have dial up!http://irpinball.ztnet.com/Plenty of "real" tables you can download that people have recreated from the 30's to the mid 80's. Mostly 7 to 12 Meg on average.You will need a fairly new computer… 1.8 Ghz CPU with decent graphics aceleration. I have a cheap card on my computer, so I had to turn off Ball Dirt and some Flare effects to get tables to work…but it looks all too sweet. =) Emulators are awesome, but simulators are just as good if done right. For being "free" I can't complain at all. It brings back memories.<a href="http://imageshack.us"><img src="http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/4901/pinballgamesns1.jpg" border="0" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/></a><br/>Be sure to download the audio library files for chime sounds and such. Souinds much better than just electrical relays buzing. And since all the tables are simulated…they are all free! (The best things in life are free sometimes…this is one of those times).
Emulators…what would my life be without them?I'd of nvr played the classics…
With emulators I could play video games going back to about 1962. (Yes…Space War counts). With Pinball Simulators I can go back to the 30's. I just wish there were "other" simulators out there. There were some more original ideas I saw in the 70's I never saw again. A game were you controled a crane putting actual matchbox type cars in a hopper, another where you controled a ping-pong ball on a column of air trying to manuver it thru holes before time ran out, projection racing games, a semi-Space Invaders game (how it looked anyway) where the whole monitor moved and magnified certain areas, etc… Much has been simulated, but there is always room for more to preserve history.
I have this program. It rules.
Well,GM makes recreating simple enough.Guess we'll have to wait for some to work on such projects
Sadly,I have to research the old games to figure them.I've only been around since 1992,so I don't even have the experiences to go byI am a bit currious if a decent pinball simulation can be done in GM. Visual Pinball and Future Pinball are both awesome, but can GM handle a recreation of a real table and play true? (Overhead view would probably be easiest). If an editor was done where the ball reacts properly to everything and was adjustable for strength, elasticity, etc… Then again, a good pinball engine may cause another wave of "Mario" like problems ;) Only around since 92? Yeah, for me growing up, earliest pinball tables I played were mostly from the early 60's in bars when my dad would go out. Always hitting him up for a quarter every 5 minutes. (Dimes in some cases…5 balls for one play, or most machines 5 balls for 2 plays on a quarter). Now it's 3 balls for 50 cents?!? Yeah, I suppose a bit more work went into them.
Hmmm…never saw that one. You don't remember the name of it by chance? I have heard of games that sound kinda like that with an airplane, but not a UFO.
I was knee high 2 a june bug as they say down south(really young).
I do own Devils Crush for the turbografx16.Awsome video pin.Devils Crush for TG16… I have that one! (I only have like 4 games for the TG16… Toys R Us were getting rid of the system for like $20. After I bought one we went to a used place I knew that had tons of TG games dirt cheap just a day before and they were practically all gone! Some guy came in and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of TG games. Awwww. I liked Pinball Construction Set on the C-64 back in the day (yeah, it's far from perfect). Pinball sims seemed a bit flakey on the physics untill I bought stuff like Digital Illusions pinball sims like Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies on my Amiga in the early 90's. Still not "exact" but was a quantam-leap in realistic physics.
I played a mechanical game on vacation at a Holiday inn St Louie back in the late 70's.It was a large glass cube.Inside was a fly'n saucer with a Lil'alien dude under a bubble top canopy on a wire.There were buildings,trees,& ho scale or smaller cars, also I think they were painted with florescent colors that glowed in the dark.
Ya,whenever I go off to find some good free games,I always end up with DOSbased games.But…I can't stand the horrid beepings it makes with the computer speaker and the fact that it forces fullscreen upon me