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Most of the old 8-bit computers have their fair share of pinball games. And, when I say pinball, I don't mean the bat-and-ball Arkanoid style games. I mean genuine simulations of the old pinball tables that dominated arcade halls in the Eighties. A lot of imagination went into the tables themselves, and many pinball-players also loved computer games, so pinball games were produced in droves.

But... not so on the Electron. There's Pinball Arcade from Kansas City and there's this little budget game from Alternative. And that's your lot.

Still, whilst it may look like a pretty unsophisticated game from screenshots, Alternative's Microball is actually a more than adequate attempt at a pinball table. Gravity, and counteracting motions and forces upon the ball, are all modelled well and it's one of the noisiest games the Electron sports. The flippers at the bottom of the table react quickly to keypresses and the gap between them is relatively small, giving you a fair chance to keep the ball in play for a reasonable length of time. There's even the possibility to have four players take turns at play, but that actually just feels like a gimmick rather than a genuine advantage. I simply can't imagine four people ever lining up in single file in front of an Electron playing this game!

The object of the game is, naturally enough, just to rack up as high a score as possible. You have five balls to do this and, unless you're extremely unlucky, a full game tends to last about ten minutes or so. A positive boon is that you can angle the flippers to catch and keep the ball. You can then notch up high scores by playing tactically, letting it always nestle into a position and then firing it into those buzzers that award additional balls (and points) with the certainty that it will indeed strike them.

The graphics are simplistic but it's very clear what everything is and the Electron's most colourful screen mode is used throughout. Screen real estate limits the number of buzzers and bonuses that can realistically be included without the screen becoming too cramped. There aren't very many but I do struggle to see how it could be done differently without implementing a vertical scroll.

Overall, there's just something that's quite nice about this game. Perhaps it's the fact that it's not pretentious and it doesn't try to over-complicate the pinball experience. It just, well, sort of "works". Hence, even though budget games for the Electron often had a bad rap, this meant with unadulterated praise. A&B considered it "an essential purchase" and The Micro User found it a "fast and furious" simulation.

It's well worth playing even today. And, in the Eighties, Alternative games were often for sale at independent computer shops too, which means it's still relatively easy to find a physical copy. Whilst I think you could expect to pay about £3.50 for a physical cassette today, some sellers tar all Alternative games with the same "This'll be rubbish" brush, so it often gets offered for bargain basement prices. I saw it once for just 50p!

Alright, this game is of a type that has very little in the way of competition... but if it did, I am fairly certain it would blow it away.