Video Pinball (Atari)
.thumb.jpg.2b3224b3fbb6279b59b123ee6b29aaff.jpg)
Entry posted by DoctorSpuds
461 views
This game is rather special to me, since it was the FIRST Atari 2600 game I had ever played, and it seems like a good time to review it since in about a week I’ll have something very special relating to pinball and the 2600 coming in, and I’m so very excited. Video Pinball is just one of those 2600 games, y’know the type, the games that sit on your shelf forever, but when you look at it you smile knowingly and nod your head, like “I know this game sucks, but I like it anyway”. And honestly, I won’t sugarcoat it, this is not a good pinball game, nor is it a good game in general, but I still like it anyway, because nostalgia. So let’s stop padding out these paragraphs with unnecessary crap and just dig on into the game.
Frankly the game looks plain awful; this is the worst looking pinball table I’ve ever seen. There are three large squares with numbers in them that represent the bumpers; there are also two sets of parallel lines that are supposed to be rollovers. Those white diamond shapes are spinners, and the diamond shapes that have gooey filled centers drop targets, occasionally another special drop target shows up between the two bottom bumpers, but you never hit it. Honestly if you’re looking for a more graphically competent game of pinball play Midnight Magic on any of the consoles or computers it came out on, or play Pinball on the Intellivision, it came out one year later but looks… uh, I dunno twelve times better. If you’re really set on playing pinball on 2600 but don’t mind breaking the bank then I’d recommend Bumper Bash, but on the AA rarity scale the thing is a 9 so I’d say pass unless you are a true crazy person.
When it comes to sound effects this game has very few, but the few it does have are chunky and give a really rewarding feeling. There are few things better than juggling the ball between the bottom two bumpers, or getting an infinite loop in the rollovers; it just makes you feel good.
This has got to be the most hands-off pinball game I’ve ever played, you spend 95% of you time with this game watching the ball go anywhere but near the flippers. Sadly though whenever the ball does go near the flippers it’s usually through the dead zone that the flippers can, and will, never reach, very much like ‘Thunderball!’ on the Odyssey2. If you’ve played a game of pinball anywhere before you’ve automatically played a better version of this game, since all you do is stare at the screen while the little square is bounced between other squares. Video Pinball also has a tilt mechanic whereby you hold down the action button and you can steer the ball left and right a little bit, but don’t do it for too long otherwise you will ‘TILT’, and you’ll lose the ball and any bonus points you may have earned.
This is one of the first pinball video games and boy does it show, primitive graphics and clunky gameplay make this into more of a collector’s item than anything, but the thing is, almost anybody who owns Atari owns this game, it’s common as dirt. So I find it quite impossible to prescribe a game to the Collector’s Zone that is already in everybody’s collection, you can find loose carts on Ebay for less than 10$ usually less than 5$, boxed copies run anywhere from 10-15 dollars, unless you want the sears version or the purple box version . But seriously Bumper Bash is an incredible pinball game; it really is a pity that it’s so incredibly rare, lucky old Canada. Hmmmm…
-
3
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
6 Comments
Recommended Comments