Wednesday 12 December 2012

Specvent Calendar Day 11 - Advanced Pinball Simulator

Advanced Pinball Simulator (Codemasters, 1988)




Firmly in the realm of games that saw me through Uni today, with a game only released halfway through that period. As can be seen from the shots above, it made little attempt to reflect a real table, with onscreen graphics changing as you accomplish goals and a peculiarly square playing area. It also had a fairly unique take on the laws of physics, though I take issue with the SU review which said that the Darlings (for 'twas they) decided to "let the ball go anywhere at random": ball movement may not be reflective of a typical pintable, but it is entirely self-consistent, to the extent of hitting a shot and immediately realising there's a 90% chance it will bounce two or three times then drain.

You just need to play it enough to learn its physics, which I certainly did... couldn't top 12K tonight but back then my high scores were over 100K, though even then I never got near to completing the game. Nonetheless the urge to go again to destroy a little more of the castle, or start to build your house, was intense.

I couldn't find a Crash review, but YS gave APS a reasonable 7/10. SU gave it 42% as "the worst [Oliver Twins] game to date, but there again, it was SU. It's not, in truth, a game I still play, but after firing it up tonight that may change...

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