Month: September 2019

The limited-ness of pinball machines is a good example of how limitations give way for innovation. This can be seen in the creation of multiple play fields, this allows for variety in play within the game. I always loved the idea of games within games, and the multiple play field can be implemented in so many ways, both digitally and analogously, such as in the Black Knight 2000, or the Game of Thrones games, as well as the digital pinball machine, Sorcerer’s Lair(Can be played in the Pinball FX2 in Strong museum). These multiple play fields cover a lot of ground, in terms of what they can be. In Black Knight, it is a second raised playfield that has its own paddle and gravity, while in the Game of Thrones one is a completely unique, but small, pinball game, while in the Sorcerer’s Lair , consists of around 3 different self-contained pinball machines, as well as one completely unique style of mini-game, where the ball is moved with a few gears, kind of like a Pachinko machine with moveball pins. The multiple play fields always fascinated me, because it requires you to then understand more than just one type of physics and gameplay, but two or more. The best part of most of these smaller games is that they also give you a great number of points for beating them (most of them are beatable in the sense that they have an end).

The other interesting thing I found in nearly all of the newest machines in the Strong museum of their constant digitization. There are nearly no machines in the newer machines that does not include some sort of digitization. This goes from the Star Wars games, to the Game of Thrones machine, or the Lord of the Rings machine. When I say digitization I’m encompassing the use of more complex hardware as well. So in the Lord of the Rings games, this would be the slot where you shoot the ball into the Eye of Sauron, or when you have to fight the Balrog. There is also machines like Revenge from Mars, revolutionary pinball machine that has a holographic screen to interact with. I think it is fascinating to be able to see the pinball machines evolve to have more of these complex or just interesting mechanics, that just were not feasible prior to them, due to technological restrictions. Digitization also comes into play with digital machines, since they allow for things are actually not possible with a regular analog machine, such as tons of interactive locations, multiple play fields, and gravity shifting, where the ball actually slows down or speeds up depending on the buffs you get. It even allows for health and mana points, such as with the Bethesda map, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The digitization of machines just expands the horizons for pinball machines, and gives me hopes that pinball machines will continue to evolve and not become a fad of older days.

I find the fact that the pinball machines were banned for some time to be very interesting. If they were banned, that means that someone must have thought that the machines were dangerous, or the people involved with them were dangerous, which is the opposite of how I see them. As it turns out, because of their ban, pinball machines were seen as a symbol of youth and rebellion between the 1940s to 1976. The use of Pinball as a sign of rebellion can be seen in episodes of “Happy Days” and The Who’s album, Tommy. It’s even more interesting when you realize that this interpretation has been lost over the years, where Tommy, known as the Pinball Wizard, is no longer seen as this rebellious character, while the original purpose for the character was to show the off as such. What this means for pinball is that it evolved alongside Rock n’ Roll as the symbol for rebellion and youth, which is very interesting, as pinball has very much lost that rebellious attitude, while Rock still holds onto its roots as a Rebellious genre (maybe not as much as punk, but still).

Tasked with looking deeper into three things related to pinball history, there were three things that stood out to me. First, was Williams, and the fate of the company after they closed their pinball division after the failure of the Star Wars: Episode I Pinball 2000 cabinet. What happened to the former giant once the turned their backs on pinball for good? Where did they go? I also looked into where they came from, when the company was originally founded.

Second, I was curious about one of the core selling points of the Pinball 2000 machines, the optical illusion of Pepper’s Ghost. Pinball 2000 was the first and last machine to use the Pepper’s Ghost illusion, and I happen to like optics.

Finally, above all else, I wanted to know more about advanced techniques to playing pinball. I wanted to know more about what set the good players apart from the rest of the world, who could unlock all of the secrets the game held.

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First up is WMS Industries, formerly pinball giant Williams Manufacturing Company, today is a slot machine and gambling manufacturer and developer. A sad end to the tale of their now defunct pinball division. We all knew it closed in 1999, when Jar-Jar killed pinball. In class, that was the end of the story. And as far as pinball is concerned, it is. Of course, I wanted to know what happened to Williams after the death of pinball. If anything out of a general curiosity, since it’s been 20 years since WMS left pinball for good. It certainly is no small amount of time, given the fact that accounts for 95.23% of my entire life at time of writing.

To answer that question, we actually have to look at what Williams was up to before 1999. Early into the 90s, pinball sales were declining as machines had a long lifespan, and buyers didn’t see a need to replace them with the new machines being made by the pinball giants, including Williams. Their video game subsidiary Midway Games was enjoying the profits of arcade cabinets such as Mortal Kombat. As we know already, the Pinball 2000 project was created as pinball’s final chance at Williams. So we can take away the fact that Williams had diversified into hotels and video games to supplement the dwindling pinball sales. In fact, WMS doubled down into gaming, by getting into gambling with slot machines in 1994. In fact, as a company, WMS was doing great into the 2000s with their video games and gambling-especially as they introduced digital gambling games.

The latest leg of their story began in 2013 when they were bought and soon after merged into a larger conglomerate, Scientific Games. Today, as I said at the beginning, WMS makes their money off slot machines and gambling. Ultimately, I find the story to be ironic, and a little tragic. When pinball was labelled as a form of gambling, WMS and the other pinball manufacturers were forced to skirt around making games that were considered gambling. And today, WMS wholly embraces gambling as their main income via actual gambling games and machines, and distancing themselves from what used to be their pride and joy. Their business is completely unrecognizable to the one built by Harry Williams. It’s almost as though the company has been losing its soul over the decades, one cabinet at a time.

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That got a little heavy, sorry about that. Let’s move onto the next topic: the backbone of the Pinball 2000 project. That is to say, Pepper’s Ghost. It’s an optical illusion where you can combine two images into a single view. Apparently the illusion isn’t the second image, as that exists in reality, but in the audience not seeing the glass in most cases.

Of course, in the context of Pinball 2000 Pepper’s Ghost is used in lieu of true hologram technologies, as that didn’t truly exist in the 90s, when Pinball 2000 was in development. At least, not in a form small enough to be practical in a pinball machine. We do have to remember why such measures were being taken in the first place. If Williams was to stay in the pinball business going into the 21st century, Pinball 2000 had to set itself apart from every other pinball machine that had been created before it. They needed something new, something eye catching to get their old customers back in the door. Without true holograms viable for large scale use in a pinball cabinet, this old illusion could achieve the desired effect. Certainly much cheaper than hologram technology as well. Overall it was fun looking into an optical illusion that made waves in the pinball industry. Even if Jar Jar was too powerful for Pepper’s Ghost in the end.

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Lastly, and more directly connected to pinball and its history, are the advanced techniques to playing the game. The talk last Thursday about the kinds of things highly skilled players can do with the leaf switches that pinball machines have always used made me want to know more about the kinds of techniques these players know. I decided to look them up, as I am not even close to being anything more than a pinball novice. I’ll mention specific techniques that are the most interesting to me, and then talk about the kinds of choices and knowledge a player needs to have to pull off advanced techniques as a whole.

First of the advanced techniques is the Bounce Pass, where you have to flick the ball from one flipper to the other. It only works on balls moving up to moderate speed, and if they’re close to the middle of the flipper that’ll be performing the pass. If the ball is moving too fast, it’ll bounce off the flipper too hard and fast, and likely go down the drain. If the ball comes in too far from middle, it’ll just follow the flipper straight down the middle and into the drain.

Second, is the Chill Maneuver, is reliant on there being a center post between the flippers. It’s called the Chill Maneuver, because you’ve got to keep your cool as the ball goes straight down the middle and bounces back up onto the flippers. If you flip too soon you’ll miss the ball and it’ll sink into the drain. It requires a large degree of trust that the ball will bounce back, especially since it has to hit close enough to the center to bounce back up instead of ricocheting off to a side and going down the drain for sure.

Third, is shaking and nudging. Unlike an arcade cabinet for a video game, physical contact with the pinball machine will affect gameplay. In fact, it’s within the rules that there’s a certain amount of tilt and shake that can be done and remain legal. My favorite way to determine levels of tilt are the plumb bob tilt detectors but other exist as well. It takes a certain amount of knowledge to know to nudge with the ball instead of against it, since you can only nudge so hard without tilting your ball out.

To sum up the advanced techniques, they require a certain level of knowledge and split second judgments. Is the ball going too fast? Is it going to the right part of the flipper? Will it bounce back if I let it go or do I try to stop it now? It’s shown me an amount of depth I’d never have known with my current skill level.

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That’s all I have time for today. First we started with where Williams went after pinball, becoming the very thing it swore it wasn’t (the slot machines had the high ground after all). Next, was optical illusions and why Pinball 2000 relied on not real holograms. Finally, I decided that I do not have enough cool to pull off a Chill Maneuver, even as someone who plays airsoft for fun; which is to say someone who gets shot at for fun. See you all next time.

Pachinko

Pachinko is considered to be a major feature of Japanese culture. They have massive halls dedicated to this cousin of modern-day pinball, where walls upon walls of these machines sit. Playing this weird game is about as close to gambling you can get without outright gambling. The point of it not being classified as gambling is because gambling is illegal in Japan. The reasons that it cannot be classified as gambling consist of the need to purchase balls to play, getting balls back as reward, and then only being able to exchange balls for prizes. The one caveat and what makes this so like gambling, is that while you can only get prizes at the hall, usually down the street places will purchase the prizes you win for cash. Meaning that you can in a roundabout way put cash in, play pachinko, and then win more cash when you leave.

These big halls of pachinko are called pachinko parlors. These places are loud, crazy, and smoky and are almost always packed. Inside they are bright and colorful and have a wide variety of machines, including many different games. Some even have a few slot machines, which play a form of pachinko called slot pachinko. But the classic game is still the biggest portion of these stores. These machines have many different designs but as arcade machines became more complicated so did these machines. Now a lot of machines have animated screens displaying some information or a separate game, and some are even fully animated.

Pachinko much like pinball has themed machines. These themes vary wildly from different shows, to cute characters, and in the past even representing different games (Such as a popular video game). The biggest difference from a normal casino game and a similarity to pinball is that each game can take a while, it’s not just put a ball in get a random amount back, each game is different and can take a while. For example, 10,000 yen or around 93 USD, takes around 40 minutes to go through.

This was particularly interesting to me because games in other cultures always stood out to me. A game I had never heard of is one of the biggest games in a culture across the world and to me that is fascinating. Another reason why I picked this was because of how interesting and convoluted the gambling system is. While gambling is illegal in the US normally many places get around this with a much simpler solution.

Bagatelle

                Something else that stood out for me was the game Bagatelle. Bagatelle was the precursor to Pinball in that it had pins and a ball, but other than that it was very different from the game we know today. Bagatelle is classified as a gambling game as it was only really designed to have the player launch the ball then land in a pocket at some point. The pockets could be drilled into the board or could be created by pins raised up to catch the ball.

Bagatelle was originally created for the rich with the origins being attributed to starting in the French aristocracy, which was then brought to the French military, and then brought to America. This game was based on a yard game where pins would get knocked down by balls being rolled. The yard game was put onto a table with pins that could be knocked down but setting them up was too time consuming, so as a solution they were fixed to the board. This meant the target of knocking them over had to be changed to something else. This something else became landing them in specific goals like holes or specific areas on the board.

These old versions were played with a larger handheld cue, which would over time change into a spring assisted launcher. The first patented spring assisted launcher game was made by Montague Redgrave in 1871. This launcher and this basic idea are what would end up evolving into the very basic pinball system that we have today.

The reason I chose this is because while the game is so simple, just the way it led into the machines today is cool. Bagatelle was one of the first bar games which would end up leading to all types of games. While the yard games were the first step towards pinball, we would not have anything close to what we have today without the steppingstone bagatelle was.

Mechanical to Electric: Evolution of Pinball

                The final thing that stood out for me was the evolution of pinball machines. This was talked about at the Strong museum when looking at the various machines. While most machines use similar parts in a time period, the way of building machines has changed wildly. Originally machines were formed almost fully mechanically with only very basic circuitry. Now they are games that are electromechanical with lots of circuitry and only some mechanical parts. There are even games that are fully digital.

                From Bingo, to Baffle Ball, and beyond the pinball machine has always been evolving and changing. The pinball machine that exists today is made of many different additions from old machines. Some of these changes consist of the tilt mechanism, bumpers, flippers, and layout.

                Something that was very interesting to me about the addition of flippers is how they found their location. The first game to really feature the flippers is Humpty Dumpty. There were 6 flippers facing towards the inside of the machine and were positioned along the outside edges. Overtime designers tested out different locations, orientations, and spacing until it became what we have today.

                The tilt mechanism was interesting for me to learn about as I always thought the only control the player had was using the flippers, but I found out recently that tilting the machine is an intended part of gameplay. While tilting can cause you to lose your ball if you tilt the machine too much, it can also save your ball if it looks like it is going to go down the wrong way.

                Another big evolution was the progression into a more digital version. Games like Revenge from Mars took one take of combining video games and pinball into one experience, and while that worked partially on a whole, other games tended to fail harshly. Other games took on a different route, with the games becoming fully digital allowing for much more complicated behaviors and processes that would just not be possible in real life.

                The evolution of pinball is just interesting to me because it went from being so simple to so complicated. From a yard game to bagatelle to games like swing time to digital pinball.

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Sources:

https://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-culture/culture-pachinko

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2065.html

https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/10/the-bagatelle-wizard-instead-of-the-pinball-wizard.html

Sometimes you just like bad things, like playing Dustbowl in Team Fortress 2, or using the Kraber Sniper Rifle in Titanfall 1 and 2. Other times you just want to try something so you know what old things will be like, knowing it can’t stack up to the later improvements and developments, like playing the original Killing Floor mod just to see how far Killing Floor 2 has come. Me playing Swing Time was the latter of these two cases.

Before I get into talking about my experience with this game, we should get to know the cabinet I’m talking about.

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Name: Swing Time

Date of Manufacture: May 20th 1963

Manufacturer: Williams

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One of my favorite part of old cabinets are the literal bells and whistles used to make sound. I’m just a sucker for the sound of the old bells these cabinets use, among other retro aesthetics. Aside from playing a machine that probably would have earned the approval of my grandpa if he were still around to see it, I did want to know what early machines were like. For the sake of science, I grabbed my tokens and dove head first into this old machine.

I was off to a great start, as the moment I stepped up I realized I had no idea where the coin op was. After a bit of help I learned it is the slot near the top of the front panel, offset to the left of center. Second, I learned that the ball return is manual, unlike every other machine in the exhibit. The manual ball return actually felt pretty nice, with a solid ker-chunk sound and feel every time it was pushed in to load a new ball.

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Next was a quick double check of the rules. It was as basic as expected for an old machine, with the most notable mechanic being spelling “TIME” by shooting the ball through the letters at the far end of the playfield. In the year of 2019, we’ve seen this mechanic a dozen times at least so I’ll move on.

From there, I could start playing the game. The flippers were quick and responsive, but they were very short. I felt like the gap between them was way too large for the size of flippers they used. Between the sparse field of unpredictable bumpers and that gap, it felt like the game mostly played itself, and I even had balls roll into the gap right off the break so that ball was just about wasted.

Meanwhile, the other half of that equation, the bumpers, felt a little too powerful and sensitive. They made the game feel more random than anything else I played that day because of how much they bounced the ball around. Especially the ones right above the flippers, which felt inconsistent when they bounced the ball. Sometimes, the ball looks like it’ll roll by just fine when the bumper shoots the ball into the gutter opposite it. Other times I’m sure that ball is about to get shot into space and it rolls straight into my flippers.

That’s not to say I didn’t have fun at all playing the Swing Time cabinet. I did enjoy the number of bells the bumper roulette that the far end of the playfield used. And the flippers could make good contact with the ball, which helped it feel responsive despite the age. I couldn’t do much other than hit the bumpers a lot and spell “TI,” “IE,” or “IM” with each ball, nor could I light up all the three big bumpers in a single play. So really, I never did complete a single objective on the field, but there weren’t many to begin with either. I started to slowly get a feel for how it played, but unlike some of the younger games in the exhibit it just didn’t play as well or as intuitively. A lot is learned in 20-30 years after all.

To sum up playing Swing Time, it was fun as long as I didn’t think about it to much. As machines of this era were, the theme of the machine was just a skin that could have been replaced by any other skin and would have had no effect past changing the look of the cabinet and playfield. It was annoying when it felt like I got screwed by random bumping or my flippers being too short. It was a perfectly ok experience, not too bad but not too good either. Would I play it again? Yes, but only as a guilty pleasure. I don’t think it’s nearly as good a game as pretty much any of the other cabinets on display at the Strong Museum, but like I said before: Sometimes you just like bad things.

If you’re interested in knowing more information about Swing Time, here’s the IPDB entry

Name: Revenge From Mars
Date of Manufacture: January, 1999
Name of Manufacturer: Miday Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of WMS Industries, Incorporated of Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Revenge From Mars instantly catches your eye as being an old retro alien invasion pinball themed game. It has the evil green aliens, and it features explosions which also catch the eye. It instantly fills the bar for me in terms of looking like a cheesy ‘80s/’90s alien invasion movie, and I loved it.

The Game (when it was not having issues), was very fun, there was funny conversations between aliens, and there were interesting game loops. The gravity in the machine was very fast, however this was not overwhelming in any way, and made play interesting and action packed. There were issues with the mission, where the balls would be stuck in places in the back, which seemed to just be maintenance issues, however it was still frustrating when I had to sit there for 5 minutes confused, trying to tilt it, and then also getting locked out of any gameplay.

What was fun was the integration of analog and digital, the game featured a holographic screen, that would interact with the physical ball , which was very cool. There were sometimes aliens walking around a bar, and other times tanks and UFOs that I had to shoot down with the ball. The overall visuals were very good and kept me engaged.

There were also around 7 aliens bumpers that you were able to hit for an objective, these were actually quite difficult to hit, and while I managed to hit them, they were a bit too sensitive to the ball, I felt like it would have been better if they were less sensitive, where simply grazing them didn’t trigger a hit, added with making them a little easier to hit, compensating for the decreased sensitivity.

I would definitely recommend playing this, at least once, and deciding whether or not you enjoy the digital and analog integration. I don’t believe it is for everyone, because sometimes you just want the analog version, but for something trying to compete with arcade machines, it definitely fits the bridge between the two types of machines.

Black Knight 2000
April 4th, 1989
Williams Electronic Games

This machine caught my eye (and ears) pretty quickly when I first walked in, with it’s vibrant yellow and red color scheme and its Sega Genesis-like soundchip.

My first impressions playing it were generally positive. It was kept in fairly good condition so the flick on the flippers was still tight instead of sluggish like on other machines. The dual layer of the board was a little difficult to wrap my head around at first, so I ended up missing chances where I could have used the extra flipper at first. After a while I did get the hang of it, but I still had some difficulty due to the shortened board space since half of the board is taken up by the upper portion.

I never got to light up all of the KNIGHT letters (and if I did I didn’t realize it at the time) so I didn’t get a chance to try out the MAGNA SAVE feature where you press the extra button on the side of the cabinet to save the ball under certain circumstances which sounds like a really cool feature.

My overall experience was positive but I did notice some issues. The aforementioned smaller playfield on the lower board does mean you have a shortened amount of time to react to the ball bouncing off things or when the ball becomes visible again when underneath the top board. There was also an issue with the kickback always hitting the ball in the same spot and subsequently straight down the middle multiple times. However I would try it again when I have more time so that I can try out the MAGNA SAVE feature specifically as I’m curious how that works out and also to just get a better feel for the machine since I didn’t have a huge amount of time to play around with it.

References:
Internet Pinball Machine Database
https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?gid=311

Despite not being a basketball fan I really enjoyed the NBA themed Fastbreak pinball machine at the Strong Museum. The game leans into the NBA theme a lot, allowing the player to select which team they want to play as. As far as I can tell this has no effect on gameplay but is still enjoyable.

The goal of the game is to get MVP rings. These are earned by completing six tasks, which will then activate trophy multiball mode and outscoring the other team. The main way of scoring points is interesting at the center of the play field there is a ramp to a basket, shooting the ball into the basket awards you points.

The other way of scoring points is during Pizza power shots or the occasional throw from the foul line. When either of these events happen you can press the shoot button to activate the flipper in the back box to attempt to throw a ball into the net

The amount of points a shot is worth depends on which of the lights at the bottom are lit up.

While playing I got to activate the pizza power shot and the million dollar shot modes, though I was trying to get the shoot around multiball mode, which i was unable to get. Also though it never happened to me at various points the other team will get an attempt to shoot a ball at the net and you can move a defender around the net to block the shot using the flippers. I really enjoyed this game, and would like to play it again sometime.

Of the large selection of machines at the Strong Museum of Play, this Indiana Jones themed pinball game caught my eye the most. I have been a long fan of the franchise and was intrigued to see what types of references and nods to the series would be introduced into a pinball game and how they would be incorporated. The gun styled plunger was a nice touch that was quite fitting to the theme (although it would have been nice if there was some sort of incorporation of the iconic whip into the playfield).

The game felt smooth and in great condition for being 26 years old. The flippers were nice and smooth and the button controls for the flippers required a consistent nicely worn tap to achieve the control one may want with a ball. The gameplay is straightforward, giving clear and concise goals for where you should be putting the ball to maximize points and it was quite easy to consistently get the multiball power up after the third run on the machine.

Overall, I found this pinball game very fun and not overly flashy. The game wasn’t overly frustrating and I felt in control the whole time and was properly punished for making mistakes with my play. I would love to play more on this machine and become more consistent with strategies and ball movements.

More information on Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure can be found at https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1267