Pinball machines have been around for a long time. Many of you might have played them in Arcades or local grill bars. Here we could spend quarters with friends, trying to beat each others highscores.
The first tables, going back to 1850 where not coin operated or electricity powered, they didn’t have flippers like we see them today. The older tables where quite hard but for 1 credit you got 5 balls, where as on today’s tables you only get 3 balls.
The addition of electricity in pinball machines was a quantum leap in the late 1930′s. We got to see items such as playfield lights and electric buzzers which made the machines more exciting to play but also attracted the attention of spectators.
The tables quickly evolved and included features like ramps, multiballs, dot matrix displays and digital soundeffects. In the 1970′s there where pinball machines everywhere.
It can be hard to find a playable pinball today. Stern is the only company still manufacturing tables. The good news is you can play a lot of the pinball games on your computer, even the very old ones.
Most tables are emulated. Titles such as 4Square, The Simpson’s, Balls-a-Poppin. So if anyone is in the hunt for Pinball games for your PC, look no further. So how do I find these tables? Visual Pinball is a free emulator where users recreate or even share their own original tables, all these are available to search for on the web. Its a fine community. You can also try building your own pinball machine with VP.
The graphical interface of VP allows you to drop walls, flippers, targets and other Pinball features. You can design the graphics using your favorite image editing program and later import them, the same with the sound. To mention a more technical aspect as a scoring system, this will need to be programmed. It can help to open other tables to use as examples.
An example of one original table is Irina Pinball. The table is inspired by the older machines but in the same time having features from today’s tables. You can experience multiballs, ramps, skillshots and electromechanical sounds. The goal, like most other tables is to beat the highscore. As this table has theme of a Russian ice skater, this is done by scoring a 6.0 and winning a gold medal. An entertaining table for both kids and adults. Have fun and enjoy Pinball on Ice!
You must log in to post a comment.