Pinball Construction Set - Bonus Chapter for Vintage Games Book Posted

[Bill Loguidice]

Gamasutra has posted the second of nine bonus chapters not included in the book, Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, this time on Pinball Construction Set, entitled, "Pinball Construction Set: Launching Millions of Creative Possibilities". You can check it out here: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3923...he_pinball_.php

 

As always, you can read more about the book, which is available from retailers worldwide, here: http://www.armchairarcade.com/vintagegames

 

Comments are appreciated. Thanks!

[carmel_andrews]

Just to let you know Bill, Raster Baster also appeared on the A8 as well (I dunno about the c=64 though)

 

A8 version looks a direct port from the AII version, unfortunately artifacting doesn't work too well on PAL/UK tv's

 

I did get the A8 version of PCS (EA version only)

 

Also the text above your avatar, i think you mean C.E.O (I was told they don't use the term Managing Director/M.D, in the US, that's the term we use over here)

[Bill Loguidice]

Yeah, that's what I mentioned in the article in regards to the ports. Sadly, many versions of PCS were just straight Apple II ports and did not take advantage of the target platform, and in many cases suffered for it in comparison (i.e., tricks specific to the Apple II could not be duplicated on the other platforms without putting more effort into the ports, which they obviously weren't willing to do). Raster Blaster came out for the Atari 8-bit in 1982 and by that time PCS was already released, so it didn't seem worth mentioning in the article. Still, it might have probably been worth it to mention as a footnote. (and I'm not aware of any other versions either other than for the Apple II and Atari 8-bit, though I'd be curious to know otherwise)

 

And Managing Director is just fine in this case. It contrasts with Managing Editor for the other co-founder and is common in the world of publishing.

[carmel_andrews]

I am curious as to whether PCS was a sequal to Raster Blaster, as they both share the same table/screen layout...or was a beta version of PCS used to create the raster blaster game

Edited February 11, 2009 by carmel_andrews

[Bill Loguidice]

I am curious as to whether PCS was a sequal to Raster Blaster, as they both share the same table/screen layout...or was a beta version of PCS used to create the raster blaster game

 

 

Raster Blaster was first. What Budge learned in the creation of Raster Blaster he was able to apply to the creation of PCS. In fact, PCS contains a basic recreation of the Raster Blaster table as one of the sample tables, which demonstrates the amazing power of PCS and how much Budge had learned in the span of about a year. That's why Raster Blaster was important - without it, Budge may not have been able to come up with the construction set. However, calling PCS a sequel to Raster Blaster is a definite stretch as they're two very different programs.

 

The same thing applies to Raid on Bungeling Bay and SimCity from Will Wright. Raid on Bungeling Bay is a classic action game where Wright had so much fun developing the terrain engine for it that it eventually inspired him to create SimCity. Especially on the C-64, where both programs originated, the similarities in graphics engines are striking, but you can't really call SimCity a sequel to Raid on Bungeling Bay. Raid on Bungeling Bay, like Raster Blaster, was however critically important to getting it done, though.

[carmel_andrews]

Only prob. with pcs though is that it relied on gr.8 on the A8 (the infamous artifacting mode) and if you know anything about artifacting and the A8 on pal televisions, you'll know that it's not good for pal telly....we had to wait a few years till someone did a patch for pcs created games (not pcs itself) so that it (pcs created games) could be displayed in glorious ntsc colours (i think the patch was available to all major PD libraries including page 6)