Computer Pinball: Visual Pinball Screen Shots: Classic 1

Friday, August 9, 2013

Visual Pinball Screen Shots: Classic 1

Here are a few random screenshots of Visual Pinball tables with nice graphics..

Majorettes, Gottlieb, 1964

Designer: Ted Zale

hubba hubba! the only reason we still have marching bands..

"It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing"

Buckaroo, Gottlieb, 1965

Designer: Wayne Neyens

Ranked #9 all-time for mechanical tables at IPDB

This was my machine at our local bowling alley - I could wear it out because at every milestone, like every 100 points, the horse kicked the crap outta the cowboy and sent him spinning - for me that was worth the price of admission, so I got getter and better on it. When I got the computer version, I won 3 free games the first time I played it (on points). Yehii..

Ace High, Gottlieb, 1957

Designer: Wayne Neyens

Ranked #121 all-time for mechanical tables

Poker in the harem! Love the tables showing the balls already played

All tables past about 1970 recycle one ball over and over.. if it gets

stuck on the table somewhere, "game over, man - game over!"

King of Diamonds, Gottlieb, 1967

Designer: Ted Krynski

Ranked #11 all-time, mechanical tables

Spanish Eyes, Williams, 1972

Designer: Norm Clark

Ranked #118 all-time for mechanical tables

Paradise, Gottlieb, 1965

Designer: Ed Krynski

Ranked #10 all-time for mechanical tables

[c'mon, Polynesian women are all topless in reality, hence paradise!]

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Abbreviations Used

For table manufacturers, I'll use these abbrevs:

Gott = Gottlieb (US)

Bally = Bally (US)

Wms = Williams (US)

DataE = Data East (US)

Mid = Midway (US)

Cap = Capcom (US)

Stern = Stern (US)

Tai = Taito (Japan)
TaiBr = Taito Brasil

Zacc = Zaccaria (Italy)
Geig = Geiger (Germany)

CC = Chicago Coin (US, gone by '60)

Pre = Premier

SE = Sega (US)

AT = Atari (Japan)

If the table is original, I'll just use the designer's name, ie "Starman" (Nova), and "Tii" (Spectrum) are two builder's screen names I'm using.

If you see JP or Salas anywhere, it stands for consummate table designer J.P. Salas, a Spaniard working as a network admin in Norway, who just retired from Visual Pinball work after making about 40 awesome tables, including some of the top rated: Medieval Madness, Addams Family, Funhouse, Attack From Mars (his own favorite), Theater of Magic, Whitewater - all of which are in the top 25 of nearly every list of modern machines. I like his classic machine conversions, perhaps even more, he makes them works of art: Bow & Arrow, Big Brave, Eight Ball Deluxe, and Mata Hari stand out. He has become a master of Photoshop, which was his own reason for doing this initially, "to learn Photoshop better". Salas often includes JP in the table's title for his conversions in case other's have recreated the same tables.

Note: Gottlieb made the most classic machines at the top of the polls, 18 of the top 20 at IPDB, and all my favorites growing up (Buckaroo, 8 Ball. Their heyday had passed by 1980 when video games emerged. Newer multi-media tables are usually made by Stern, Williams, Bally, or Data East, and nearly all the top-rated by fans have movie tie-ins, so one wonders if they even like the pinball game or are just fans of the films, since the top names are titles like Star Trek, Star Wars, LOTR, Haunted House, Jurassic Park, as the top 100 of modern tables is dominated by movies, mostly SF, fantasy, or horror.

ROMs

The read only memory of arcade games are all online now as small code files. Many tables for Visual Basic use these, primarily for unique machine sounds; Future Pinball does not use them. You have to download them into the ROMS folder in VpinMAME so the tables can find them at startup, and leave them zipped up. They are tiny but a hassle: no table tells you which one to use until you run it and the file is not found, ie "ww_l4" is one for Whirlwind; then you download that file and the program will run, often after initializing the ROM with the F3 key to start it for your use. Setting changed like DIP switches will be saved (by pressing F3), ie, for 3 or 5 ball, the game credit level, easy or difficult, etc.