I remember playing the demo of this game when it was first announced and I was happy to see what kinds of things it can do. I had played only Balls of Steel and Epic Pinball at the time so I was not sure what to expect. Although this pinball sim is kind of "Cartoony" it represents the physics of what a real pinball machine would be like if you were in front of one. They really paid attention to the detail of the artwork on screen and even worked with all kinds of display modes at the time to accommodate many kinds of computers. FYI I played the PS1 version of the game when it was released in the USA 2 years after it was released in Europe and it was not a bad game but due to technical issues they had to reduce the amount of balls displayed on the screen plus the game suffered slowdown and frequent loading of scenes which took away the fun of it playing on a TV. Anyhow if you are looking to play PC pinball for this first time, this is an excellent place to start.
The version of this game is not optImized for PC. I remember exceeding the system requirements when I owned the CDROM version of the game and it did not work as I expected. The same holds true today. If you put the quality on the max the game is very choppy.. The same went for the PC version of Super Puzzle Fighter 2 on PC. These ports were not optimized. If you are looking for a better version of this game, wait until Street Fighter Anniversary Edition goes on sale on various outlets. This one just is good on PC.
This happened to be my first PC Pinball experience when I bought a shareware disk at Radio Shack that contained the table Android. And then there was a used computer shop that was selling used games and some of these tables I was able to get Alacarte. And Blockbuster Video even carried these tables stand alone with a price if you rented certain movies you got the tables in a box for cheap. Point being, this is one of the most fun, yet challenging pinball experience you could ever play on your PC. It's not flashy with 3D polygon graphics or anything it's just fun , and fast paced and keeps you flipping like you never have before. The music composed for this game was spot on with each table created. It sounded like it uses one of those XM music modules etc. And the music works reliably too! I remember back in the day I had my old computer, it was a 486 SX 25 mhz computer and remember having issues getting the sound to work at any given time (Sound Blaster Settings in the config file on MS DOS Startup!) No more with this. Overall its a treat to finally have all these tables in one collection, it's something all generations of pinball players can enjoy, even the younger children out there who may be mesmerized by the ages of online games etc.
When you think about graphical dungeon GUI's such as Might and Magic, you will see the simplicity of point and click your way around the town. In this game, the developer combines the text based adventure genre with very simple vector graphics for it's time and creates a wonderful story that's simple to follow once you read the manual and get a feel for it's text commands. I don't think it would be something kids want to play on Christmas Day especially when they are getting their new video game systems or brand new games under the free but it would be a treat on Christmas to play and when you have nothing else to do. True Nostalgia here. Very impressed with this offering and it's free so why not add it to your account without financial risk?
I had to close my door because I could not stop crying and did not want people to think something was the matter with me , there was nothing the matter, it was this game that put me into tears. I had to sit the game down midway through the game and then pick it up later when I was less emotional. Beautiful Music with puzzle solving elements, and some sassy dialog from the two main characters that travel back to time. Go ahead. Its ok to cry, if you had a loved one who was dying wouldn't you want to help them go back in time and help them fulfill a dream before they pass away? Johnny is waiting for you!
Its very rare that you get smooth animation and colorful graphics with NO LOADING TIMES on a netbook like mine. Everything is so perfect about this game and then some. For the visuals everything is pixel perfect from the arcade and professionally smoothed out graphics. Most of the fighters that were released on PC were rushed or poor ports of the game. Any controller will work fine with this game, even my cheap $7.99 Vakoss USB gamepad with 10 buttons. Get it without hesitation.
I played many DOS shooters back in the day , Raptor, Galactix, Major Stryker , but this one really is fun to play. Its not Raiden or R-TYPE by any means, but its unique and has smooth yet reasonable graphics. It says you could use a Gamepad, but I had to unplug mine after the game kept going to the lower right of the corner like it was stuck. But thankfully you can use the mouse to control the ship. I cannot really comment about others saying the game was open source as I have never played this in my entire life before, but for a freebie, its worth it to check this game out.
I must admit, I held off purchasing this game because of all the reviews I saw on the internet regarding the nasty DRM in place. Now thats its on GOG.com I can finally play this game without having to worry about product activation. The tables and graphics are amazing and its a shame there are not anymore pinball sims being made for pc. Worth every penny of the $5.99 spent.