i spent many quarters on 'revenge from mars' at national coney island, and was very bummed when they replaced it with golden tee. next to rockband, pinball fx gets the most play on my 360. :smiles:
Pinball is more than a gaming experience. A good machine is a work of art.
I occasionally go to the DE shore and they have a Pizza joint on the boardwalk there, Gotto Pizza. They have Pinball glass all over the place as eye candy. Some of the old machines were so meticulously crafted, a nice arcade machine is cool and all, but a well crafted pinball table, now that's art in motion.
When I was a kid, a friend of mine had a pinball game in his basement. We would play that thing for hours and hours. He was so good he could flip it (999,999 points). The sound of the occational GREAT flipper action and the ball nicks the glass... the slight nudges on the machine to get the ball to do what you wanted... I'd still play if they were around more.
Oh man. Like many others, pinball is one of my favorite things to play at old arcades; I was quite obsessed with it for a long time, and when we got our PS1, I was heartbroken that pinbot wasnt ported. I cant remember the name of the pinball game I picked up later for the PS1.
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KwitkoSheriff of Banning (Retired)By the thing near the stuffIcrontian
edited August 2009
I was a huge pinball fan. I made a promise to myself that I would buy a table as soon as I bought a house. The problem would be deciding which one. So many amazing games out there. I tried PinMAME but it's just not the same experience.
There was a table, Doctor Dude I think it was called, it was at our local arcade and I played it so much one day that I landed the #1 high score. My initials were on that machine, it was one of the hilights of my gaming career. I'd walk in there and look at those initials and be so content with the world.
Then the arcade sold the table
wthww - Pinbot was SO good. Regarding the one of PS1, there was a series called Pro Pinball on the system. They released a few different tables, I had one of them. Pretty good for a pinball game, but I never enjoyed it like I enjoyed Pinbot.
Anyone remember the Ninja Turtles pinball table that had the spinning pizza in the middle? That thing was sweet.
Bobby Miller, where do you live? If you tell me, I can probably find a Pinball 2000 for you to play (unless you're in a very rural area).
--Brian Leonard
Oh man... the Epic Pinball series was one of the first video games I ever bought (that and Iron Lord, I never could get anywhere in that game though). The floppy disks are still floating somewhere around my parents house... or perhaps in one of my unpacked boxes. Those were fun games.
Bobby Miller, where do you live? If you tell me, I can probably find a Pinball 2000 for you to play (unless you're in a very rural area).
--Brian Leonard
I am currently, sadly, located in northern Indiana. Elkhart, to be specific. It's near South Bend.
AKA, middle of nowhere.
Fatcat knows, he's seen it, he knows how horrible it is.
I would LOVE to play Pinball 2000, but I'm almost certain there isn't a location with a working machine anywhere near here.
I cant really remember the name. Its hard to describe. It had weird mini games you could play, and I seem to remember that there was somethign to do with sipders, and a woman. Random huh?
Sure I played it from time to time but you guys are making it out to be like Pinball was the Messiah in gaming form. I'll take my 10 year old StarCraft CD with so many scratches I don't know how it still works over some old pin and ball machine any day
Pinball offers a sort of visceral arcade experience that a video game can not give you. I'm not saying that it is better, but it is a nice change of pace from time to time.
It's a game of real concentration and skill as well. A very small margin of error for the best players. Its like classic static screen arcade games, Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, all simple to play but nearly impossible to master, they are real contests of concentration and skill. A good pinball player gets into a focus zone that is kind of addicting once you get there. I'm not proclaiming to be a great pinball player, but there are a couple of machines that I am more than respectable on, and once you get locked in, its just you two buttons and that ball.
I'm also a classic arcade nut, especially Galaga. I have been so locked in on a Galaga machine from time to time that I literally have this sort of zoned out of body experience where I just focus on that little ship and everything trying to blast it, the patters automatically familiar, the strategy immediately executable, totally in the zone. Guys that love pinball, at least in a competitive sense, that is the experience they are searching for, the zone, total 100% concentration.
Modern 3D games are amazing, but there is something about an old school game of skill and concentration that is really a lost art.
I think you could say a lot of the same things about some more current video games. For good racing games all the top players will be just an inch from perfection. People really get "in the zone" trying to be just a hair faster than everyone else and one little slip up can mean utter failure. Memorizing the tracks can even be related to memorizing patterns in Galaga which is vital to being a great racer.
What gives modern games a big advantage for me is great multi-player. Working directly with or against other people adds so much to the experience. Whether it be an unpredictability element or working with your team to achieve something great multi-player just takes it to a whole nother level.
I think the thing that truly differentiates the 'pinball zone' from modern games is that pinball is a simple game, a game of twitch response and reflexes. It's so simple, that the small nuances begin to create a masterful web of complexity that only the most devoted players begin to uncover and attmempt to harnass. It's a very different experience, playing a game like that in an arcade, than you'll find in a modern game with 31 other people on the internet.
Comments
i spent many quarters on 'revenge from mars' at national coney island, and was very bummed when they replaced it with golden tee. next to rockband, pinball fx gets the most play on my 360. :smiles:
I occasionally go to the DE shore and they have a Pizza joint on the boardwalk there, Gotto Pizza. They have Pinball glass all over the place as eye candy. Some of the old machines were so meticulously crafted, a nice arcade machine is cool and all, but a well crafted pinball table, now that's art in motion.
http://www.okcpinball.com/pics/Buck_Rogers.jpg
There was a table, Doctor Dude I think it was called, it was at our local arcade and I played it so much one day that I landed the #1 high score. My initials were on that machine, it was one of the hilights of my gaming career. I'd walk in there and look at those initials and be so content with the world.
Then the arcade sold the table
wthww - Pinbot was SO good. Regarding the one of PS1, there was a series called Pro Pinball on the system. They released a few different tables, I had one of them. Pretty good for a pinball game, but I never enjoyed it like I enjoyed Pinbot.
Anyone remember the Ninja Turtles pinball table that had the spinning pizza in the middle? That thing was sweet.
--Brian Leonard
I am currently, sadly, located in northern Indiana. Elkhart, to be specific. It's near South Bend.
AKA, middle of nowhere.
Fatcat knows, he's seen it, he knows how horrible it is.
I would LOVE to play Pinball 2000, but I'm almost certain there isn't a location with a working machine anywhere near here.
Sure I played it from time to time but you guys are making it out to be like Pinball was the Messiah in gaming form. I'll take my 10 year old StarCraft CD with so many scratches I don't know how it still works over some old pin and ball machine any day
Pinball offers a sort of visceral arcade experience that a video game can not give you. I'm not saying that it is better, but it is a nice change of pace from time to time.
It's a game of real concentration and skill as well. A very small margin of error for the best players. Its like classic static screen arcade games, Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, all simple to play but nearly impossible to master, they are real contests of concentration and skill. A good pinball player gets into a focus zone that is kind of addicting once you get there. I'm not proclaiming to be a great pinball player, but there are a couple of machines that I am more than respectable on, and once you get locked in, its just you two buttons and that ball.
I'm also a classic arcade nut, especially Galaga. I have been so locked in on a Galaga machine from time to time that I literally have this sort of zoned out of body experience where I just focus on that little ship and everything trying to blast it, the patters automatically familiar, the strategy immediately executable, totally in the zone. Guys that love pinball, at least in a competitive sense, that is the experience they are searching for, the zone, total 100% concentration.
Modern 3D games are amazing, but there is something about an old school game of skill and concentration that is really a lost art.
What gives modern games a big advantage for me is great multi-player. Working directly with or against other people adds so much to the experience. Whether it be an unpredictability element or working with your team to achieve something great multi-player just takes it to a whole nother level.
I think the thing that truly differentiates the 'pinball zone' from modern games is that pinball is a simple game, a game of twitch response and reflexes. It's so simple, that the small nuances begin to create a masterful web of complexity that only the most devoted players begin to uncover and attmempt to harnass. It's a very different experience, playing a game like that in an arcade, than you'll find in a modern game with 31 other people on the internet.