Previous Next

Those ancient ones among you may recall that in those dark ages before the video game there was a bizarre apparatus called the pinball machine. This game enables those of you with such memories to create a machine of your own within the confines of your C64.

Once booted up, the display gives you, on the right a collection of icons and on the left the framework of a pintable. Using an ubiquitous pointing finger you can select the various items necessary to build the machine. You can choose from a wide range of bumpers, roll overs, flippers and other gizmos and put them where you want. Using scissors and hammers icons you can redesign certain elements, and final artistic touches can be applied with a paint brush. Once the layout is to your taste, you can specify sound effects and scores and link bumpers via AND gates for bonuses.

The system uses multicolour bit mode so that you can tweak the graphics but this led to some blocky areas where colours clashed. When you play you can alter the laws of gravity and the coefficient of restitution of the bumpers. How does it play? Just like the real thing.

The program uses some slick programming and is a joy to use. The infinite variability has great appeal, but only if pinball is your thing. Great fun, but its lasting appeal must be in question unless you're one of the converted. This potential problem may be exacerbated by the high price and its release on disc.

A.W.