Let's establish the biggest point in this I want to make: I love pinball. It's awesome because no game is ever the same, and there's no feeling quite like straddling a table and beating the fuck out of the flipper buttons in the hopes you'll eventually hear that beautifully loud "WHACK!" that signals an extra ball or replay. While the feeling of a real life game can never truly be digitized, there have been some fantastic pinball sims over the years, like Pro Pinball, Zen Pinball, and The Pinball Arcade (real imaginative names, huh?). However, there weren't always completely comprehensive simulations. For most of the 70's your only choice of ways to play pinball was to just go to an arcade or bar that had a table. That changed when Atari released its 1978 coin-op, Video Pinball. (I believe it was the first virtual pinball table, but there may have been an earlier one. I'm not quite certain, and there's not much info online.)
![Posted Image]()
If it was any more 70's, there would be multiball based around the Partridge Family fighting the Vietcong with lava lamps in the Watergate office complex.
That playfield looks a little too realistic for the graphics of the time, huh? Well, that's because it's actually real. The machine has physical cutouts of the playfield objects and LEDs for the lights on the top of it, with a mirror reflecting them onto the monitor, which displays your ball, flippers, and the field's targets. It's a very cool looking effect that would undoubtedly be a lot more impressive in person. It probably helps that there's a black light installed in the cabinet, just to make things even trippier.
I like to think that everything in the 70's sounded like this game.
Eventually Atari made a dedicated home game of Video Pinball, but it was more like Breakout than anything else. Except with less breaking. And less pinball. And maybe less out too.
I'm too focused on this guy's awesome Jeff Mangum haircut to make a comment about the actual game.
However, in 1980, Atari finally "converted" Video Pinball to a home platform successfully. I say that in quotes because aside from the name, it doesn't have much to do with the coin-op original. Sadly, the crazy black light disco theme was sacrificed among other things such as drop targets and an actually round ball (circles cost a lot in the 80's), but most of the game's general ideas were still there. So how did they do? About this well.
![Posted Image]()
Insert joke about the game having blue balls here.
It doesn't look terribly impressive, but keep in mind that prior pinball games looked like this.
![Posted Image]()
Quick, knock that mouthless Pac-Man into those checkerboards before you fall between those mailbox flags!
So yeah, Video Pinball holds the strength of at least trying to look like a pinball table and not just modern art of one. It's also not half-bad in the play department. The rules are incredibly simple. Launch the ball, hit it every which way, and go through that Atari rollover 4 times for an extra ball. My only complaints are that moving the joystick to each side for flipper is a big strange, and the ball seems as if it's made of rubber rather than steel, but hey, it's not a bad pinball game at all for the 2600. It's pretty common, so you won't have trouble finding it at all. I'd personally rather play Midnight Magic, which is Atari's much more refined pinball game from 1984 (but shelved until 1987 due to the market crash) over this, but if you find it anywhere and don't already have it, I'd recommend buying it. It's a pretty nice pinball game for the time, and a good way to kill about 15 minutes.
If it was any more 70's, there would be multiball based around the Partridge Family fighting the Vietcong with lava lamps in the Watergate office complex.
That playfield looks a little too realistic for the graphics of the time, huh? Well, that's because it's actually real. The machine has physical cutouts of the playfield objects and LEDs for the lights on the top of it, with a mirror reflecting them onto the monitor, which displays your ball, flippers, and the field's targets. It's a very cool looking effect that would undoubtedly be a lot more impressive in person. It probably helps that there's a black light installed in the cabinet, just to make things even trippier.
I like to think that everything in the 70's sounded like this game.
Eventually Atari made a dedicated home game of Video Pinball, but it was more like Breakout than anything else. Except with less breaking. And less pinball. And maybe less out too.
I'm too focused on this guy's awesome Jeff Mangum haircut to make a comment about the actual game.
However, in 1980, Atari finally "converted" Video Pinball to a home platform successfully. I say that in quotes because aside from the name, it doesn't have much to do with the coin-op original. Sadly, the crazy black light disco theme was sacrificed among other things such as drop targets and an actually round ball (circles cost a lot in the 80's), but most of the game's general ideas were still there. So how did they do? About this well.
Insert joke about the game having blue balls here.
It doesn't look terribly impressive, but keep in mind that prior pinball games looked like this.
Quick, knock that mouthless Pac-Man into those checkerboards before you fall between those mailbox flags!
So yeah, Video Pinball holds the strength of at least trying to look like a pinball table and not just modern art of one. It's also not half-bad in the play department. The rules are incredibly simple. Launch the ball, hit it every which way, and go through that Atari rollover 4 times for an extra ball. My only complaints are that moving the joystick to each side for flipper is a big strange, and the ball seems as if it's made of rubber rather than steel, but hey, it's not a bad pinball game at all for the 2600. It's pretty common, so you won't have trouble finding it at all. I'd personally rather play Midnight Magic, which is Atari's much more refined pinball game from 1984 (but shelved until 1987 due to the market crash) over this, but if you find it anywhere and don't already have it, I'd recommend buying it. It's a pretty nice pinball game for the time, and a good way to kill about 15 minutes.