Fucking beautiful, just watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdun_RdmuZQ


You want it now, right? I don't blame you, I own it from GOG already and am eager to see what they do with this remaster. It will include all tables from the original games plus a new table. Just playing this in Full HD and with these lighting effects satisfies me.

More info at http://www.pro-pinball.com/

I see it was being demoed on a tablet. Come to think of it, pinball games are so casual that they are probably better home at tablets and smartphones. Who knows, I might get them.

EDIT: Oh, it is still a kickstarter, and the only mobile device is apparently iOS, not Android. Since Apple is now on the top of my shitlist due to the shit they do with Samsung(*), I think I'm not getting it. I have all the Pro Pinball games (including "The Web", I think) already as retail versions, and also from GOG.

(*) Yeah, American courts are quick to side with Apple now that Apple sued Samsung for some quite silly patents, but back when Nokia sued Apple in American courts for several patent infringements concerning the mobile technologies used in iPhone, the courts didn't seem to have any rush to stop Apple. Smells like American protectionism to me, free market my ass.

But they are still games that are easy to start and stop, something inherent to casual games which you fire up when waiting for your flight to start etc. Not some deep RPG or strategy game. Not that different from Tetris, Bejeweled or Zuma's Revenge.

The fact a game lacks a proper story doesn't make it a casual game.

Most casual players would likely bounce off Pro Pinball games, because they require a LOT of skill to progress.

Appears we have different definitions of casual ;-)

It has nothing to do with story. I know deep strategy games without any meaningful story.

Pinball games have very easy controls, are very easy to learn (but maybe not so easy to _master_, which can be said about lots of casual games, starting from Bejeweled), and are easy to start and drop in a whim. I don't see what is not casual about them.

Your mileage apparently varies, but to me they are definitely the kind of games which I'd launch in order to kill some excess time while waiting for my flight to arrive or whatever. Not something with which I'm looking forward to spend my whole next free weekend.

What I meant when I said casual gamers would bounce off Pro Pinball games is usually because

in Pro Pinball games if you're not good, you will get like 50,000 points and a laugh. If you're lame, you loose FAST. And this discourages most of casual gamers.

It's not that easy to a mediocre amount of points like in Bejeweled.

My mother would play Bejeweled. She wouldn't play Pro Pinball :P

btw. Super Meat Boy and Binding of Isaac are also type of games when you can pop in for 5 minutes. But I wouldn't dare to call them casuals ;-)

Great pinball tables have mission targets and stories, its not just about high scores. What's so strange about spending a weekend learning to play a good pinball table?

I do enjoy pinball on the ipad, but none of the ones I've tried make nudging very easy. Its a lot easier to play on the PC or console. I don't expect anyone on the iphone or ipad to break 80 billion on Timeshock.

Whether it turns up on android as well as ios depends on their engine, its coming to mac and pc...

Interesting. I'm not sure I'd bother buying them again. Both Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey, which I got from GOG, work like a charm on my lappie. Unfortunately, Timeshock, which actually is my favorite table, tends to be a bit wonky at times. Guess DOSBox isn't fast enough for that kind of game. While pinballs are some of my favorite games on my iPod Touch, I don't think they're necessarily better on touch devices. One loses a lot of accuracy without buttons/keys, and as Porkdish has mentioned doing any proper nudging is almost next to impossible. Why the fuck would I want to shake my device to nudge a table (a truly baffling decision made by pretty much every developer)? Nudging, more likely than not, will actually make me lose a ball, so I often don't bother.

Also, a longer lasting game of pinball can go for half an hour to an hour, if not longer in some cases. Handheld devices aren't well suited for that either.

So, yes, I do prefer playing pinball on my computer/console.

I don't know about you guys, but I still prefer my pinball machines to be real. Pinball games, while entertaining for a while, lack the thrills that playing on a real machine gives.

True, but most pinball tables I see in bars are rather low quality, with little power ups and special missions for example. All Pro Pinball games have stories, but I wouldn't compare these stories to stories from "real" games ;-)

True enough. I love pinball machines, and waste many quarters on one of my rare sightings. ...and that's really the problem. Around these parts they're hard to come by unless I'd buy myself one, which is very unlikely at this point. It'd also be an extreme luxury item. If I had the spare few thousand dollars to squander on such an item I'd be all over it, but alas! it shan't be so.

So I make do with the virtual variety. Nothing wrong with that.

Yeah I know what you mean. I don't play digital pinball anymore, but hopefully someday I'll be able to save up enough for a real pinball machine. Otherwise, I may just make one out of LEGO :P

I agree with you on that. I miss the flippers I had for my keyboard years back. There's nothing quite like the real thing, but proper flipper controllers are the next best thing.

Pinball tables tend to be easy IMHO, so I'd rather they either have a casual mode and a hard mode or not bother with a casual mode at all.
I think they used to be better both in terms of quality as well as general play. But, I think they started to go downhill decades ago. I would assume that it had to do with arcade machines, but they were still pretty good in the late '80s and early '90s.

This topic reminds me that I should go to the local arcade one of these days.