Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an arcade game in which the ball is fired into a specially designed cabinet known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design. The game's object is generally to score as many points as possible by hitting these targets and making various shots with flippers before the ball is lost. Most pinball machines use one ball per turn, and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost. The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include Bally Manufacturing, Gottlieb, Williams Electronics and Stern Pinball.
Zany Golf, also known as Will Harvey's Zany Golf, is a fantasy take on miniature golf developed by Sandcastle Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1988. The game was originally written for the Apple IIGS and subsequently ported to the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS compatible operating systems. In 1990, a port was released for the Sega Genesis. The game was developed by Will Harvey, Ian Gooding, Jim Nitchals, and Douglas Fulton. Harvey was pursuing his advanced degrees at Stanford University at the time.
Rollerball is a video game produced by HAL Laboratory in 1984 for the MSX. A Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game was released in 1988. It is designed to be played by one to four players, in turn. It is an emulation of a pinball machine.
A glossary of terms, commonly used in discussing pinball machines.
Psycho Pinball is a 1994 pinball video game published and developed by Codemasters, released for Mega Drive in the United Kingdom and MS-DOS in the United States and Europe.
Star Trek: The Next Generation is a widebody pinball game, designed by Steve Ritchie and released in November 1993 by Williams Electronics. It was part of WMS' SuperPin series, and was based on the TV series. It is the only pinball machine that features three separate highscore-lists. Apart from the regular highscore-list and the buy-in-list, it also features a reminiscence to The Machine: Bride of Pin*Bot billionaires club. It is also the third pinball game overall based on the Star Trek franchise, following the 1979 pinball game by Bally, and the 1991 game by Data East, and preceding the 2013 pinball game by Stern.
Revenge of the 'Gator, known in Europe as Pinball: Revenge of the 'Gator, is an alligator-themed pinball video game developed and published by HAL Laboratory. It was released for the original Game Boy in 1989/1990. The objective of the game is to score as many points as possible without having the player's pinball eaten by the gator.
Fish Tales is a fishing-themed pinball game released by Williams in 1992. It is one of the top 20 most produced pinball machines of all time, selling more than 13,000 units.
Doctor Who is a pinball machine designed by Bill Pfutzenreuter (Pfutz) and Barry Oursler, and released by Midway in September 1992. It is based on the television series Doctor Who. As stated in the Gameplay section, the rulesheet is rather different from other pinball machines released at the time, which didn't help popularity as casual players did not understand the complex rule changes that occur during the game.
Ruiner Pinball is a 1995 pinball video game developed by High Voltage Software (HVS) and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar. The game features two different pinball tables: the nuclear war-inspired Ruiner, and the medieval-themed Tower. Each table contains targets for the player to hit with the ball, increasing their score before the ball is lost. It was marketed as the first title to support the ProController, a redesigned Jaguar controller that added three more face buttons and two triggers.
Theatre of Magic is a pinball machine designed by John Popadiuk, produced by Midway. The player assumes the role of a novice magician who must develop their skills by exploring the titular theatre and performing an assortment of stage illusions.
Creature from the Black Lagoon is a pinball machine designed by John Trudeau and released by Midway. It is loosely based on the movie of the same name. The game's theme is 1950s drive-in theater. The pinball game was licensed from Universal Studios by Bally so that all backglass and cabinet artwork and creature depictions would resemble those of the original movie.
Jack-Bot is a 1995 pinball game which was designed by Barry Oursler and Larry DeMar, and released by Williams. It is the third game in the Pin-Bot series, following Pin-Bot (1986) and The Machine: Bride of Pin-Bot (1991).
The Atari 2600 hardware was based on the MOS Technology 6507 chip, offering a maximum resolution of 160 x 192 pixels (NTSC), 128 colors, 128 bytes of RAM with 4 KB on cartridges. The design experienced many makeovers and revisions during its 14-year production history, from the original "heavy sixer" to the Atari 2600 Jr. at the end. The system also has many controllers and third-party peripherals.
Jaki Crush is a pinball video game developed by Compile and published by NAXAT Soft. Jaki Crush was released exclusively in Japan for the Super Famicom in 1992. The game is the third in the Crush Pinball series, and was preceded by Alien Crush and Devil's Crush on the TurboGrafx-16.
Video Pinball is a video game programmed by Bob Smith and released by Atari, Inc. in 1980 for the Atari VCS. The Sears rebranded version for its Tele-Games system is Arcade Pinball.
Police Force is a 1989 Williams pinball machine. The pinball machine was initially supposed to be released as Batman pinball, the police car was to be the Batmobile and the Jail was to be the Bat Cave. The machine features anthropomorphic jungle animals in the roles of police and robbers.
High Speed is a pinball simulation video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and published by Tradewest in 1991. High Speed employs the game engine that Rare previously developed for Pin*Bot (1990).
Comet is a pinball machine released by Williams in June 1985. It was designed by Barry Oursler, who was inspired by the Comet roller coaster at Riverview Park in Chicago, and was the first in an amusement park themed pinball trilogy followed by Cyclone in 1988 and Hurricane in 1991.
The Atari CX40 joystick was the first widely used cross-platform game controller. The original CX10 was released with the Atari Video Computer System in 1977 and became the primary input device for most games on the platform. The CX10 was replaced after a year by the simpler and less expensive CX40. The addition of the Atari joystick port to other platforms cemented its popularity. It was the standard for the Atari 8-bit computers and was compatible with the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, MSX, and later the Atari ST and Amiga. Third-party adapters allowed it to be used on other systems, such as the Apple II, Commodore 16, TI-99/4A, and the ZX Spectrum.
