Full Tilt! Pinball is a pinball video game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. It features pre-rendered 3D graphics and three tables — Space Cadet, Skulduggery, and Dragon's Keep. On each table, there are displays on the side that show the players' score, ball number, player number, a display for various information and a table-specific image. The Space Cadet table was bundled with several versions of Microsoft Windows.
3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet[]
3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet is a version of the Space Cadet table that was originally packaged with Microsoft Plus! 95 and later included with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows XP. This version of Pinball, developed by David Plummer at Microsoft, was essentially a rewrite of the game using the original art, developed in C for cross-platform support because Windows NT supported RISC processors and prior versions of the game contained x86 assembly language.
The Windows 98 installation CD-ROM has instructions on installing Pinball on this version of Windows which are partly wrong; Microsoft later issued an updated support article.[1] Windows XP was the last client release of Windows to include this game; 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet was removed from later releases of Windows due to a collision detection bug in the 64-bit version of the game that Microsoft was not able to resolve in time for the release of Windows Vista.[2]
Comparison[]
The look and feel of Full Tilt! Pinball and 3D Pinball are similar, with a few exceptions: The latter contains only the Space Cadet table and only supports 640×480 pixel resolution, while the former supports three different resolutions up to 1024×768 pixels. The image on the side is a two-dimensional image as opposed to pre-rendered 3D. The words Maxis and Cinematronics have been changed from the yellow to a dark red, making them harder to see. It sports a splash screen that merely says 3D Pinball and shows a small pinball graphic with faded edges. Music is not enabled by default in 3D Pinball. It has fewer tracks that are inspired by the original game.
There are only a few minor differences between the gameplay of the two versions. The completion of a mission in the Maxis version results in a replay — actually a ball save, rather than a special — being awarded. In addition, hitting a wormhole that has the same color light locks the ball, which if done repeatedly activates the multi-ball round. This is not the case in 3D Pinball: Completing a mission merely awards bonus points and hitting a wormhole in the above circumstances awards a replay. Also, the three yellow lights above the bumpers (both in the launch ramp and in the upper table zone) act differently: In 3D Pinball these are turned off if the ball passes on them while they are on. This is not the case in the original game, where they just remain activated.
Reception[]
Reviewing the Windows version, a reviewer for Next Generation said that while the Space Cadet table is fairly good, the other two tables suffer from cluttered graphics and weak ball physics, making them "incredibly difficult to follow". He gave it two out of five stars.[3]
Chuzhou North Railway Station Incident[]
On September 4th, 2015, when a passenger attempted to take out a ticket, it was found out that the ticketing machines were displaying screens of the Full Tilt! Pinball game. This incident sparked immediate controversy among train lovers, dubbing Chuzhou North Railway Station as "Pinball North". In response, such games were cleaned from the operating systems.[4]
References[]
- ↑ "How to Install 3D Pinball Using Windows 98 CD-ROM". Microsoft. January 23, 2007. Archived from the original on February 21, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
- ↑ Chen, Raymond (December 18, 2012). "Why was Pinball removed from Windows Vista?". The Old New Thing. Microsoft. Archived from the original on December 19, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
- ↑ "Full Tilt Pinball". Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 88.
- ↑ "滁州北站被网友戏称“弹球北”自动售票机可打弹球-滁房网" (in Chinese(Simplified)). Retrieved 2019-08-18.
External links[]
- Full Tilt! Pinball at MobyGames
- Full Tilt! Pinball at Wikipedia
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