PINBALL DREAMS

There is a deep philosophical question which asks, "If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it in fact make a sound?" This concerns me not. The question on my mind for the last eight weeks has been,"If a game review must be written, and the reviewer can't stop playing the game long enough to write the review, will it ever get written?" The answer is "possibly", provided the reviewer can pay someone to hide the game from him until the review is finished. This is my problem with a new game from 21st century entertainment called "PINBALL DREAMS", which Old Saint Nick was decent enough to leave for me this past Christmas.

To call PINBALL DREAMS a pinball "game" would be unfair to it's ingenious creators. It would be like calling a Rolls Royce just a "car" or the Amiga just a "machine". This is a true Pinball machine Simulator through and through. Made in England by Digital Illusions for 21st Century entertainment, this program will leave you gasping for air like a sturgeon in a sandbox. Usually between games I find myself breathing into a paper bag as I hyperventilate in total ecstacy. The game comes with four pinball "tables". Each one has it's own unique theme and all four are a thrill a minute, white knuckle ride. You see about one third of the table and the screen scrolls fluidly to follow your ball. This takes some getting used to if you suffer from motion sickness. At fifty frames per second scrolling, I sometimes forget it's not a real pinball machine. The ball and bumper action is so realistic you'll find yourself looking for the coin slot, and the sound effects are detailed right down to the inner workings of the ball return. Controls are very simple, and extremely easy to get used to. Down arrow is your ball release, and the left and right Alt/Amiga/Shift keys are the left and right flippers respectively. You may even hit the space bar to "BUMP" the table. But doing this too much results in "TILT"ing the table. When this happens to me, I usually pull a particularly nasty word out of the depths of my mind, carefully dust it off, and then hurl it to the four winds in a voice bordering on maniacal.

PINBALL DREAMS comes on 2 disks which are copy-protected (RATS!!). Fortunately MAVERICK back-up utility comes to the rescue here and makes a perfect back up of both disks. The manual comes in four languages; English, German, French, and Italian and it is by no means totally complete on gameplay. Many of the higher scoring combinations must be learned by just playing the game. High scores are saved to disk #2 which is a good reason to back-up your disks. The odd thing about the High Score Table is that sometimes upon booting up the game, PINBALL DREAMS will erase all of my high scores. I have no idea why the program occasionally does this. It could possibly do it out of jealousy, since my scores are all so mind bogglingly enormous. One nice thing is that up to eight players can play at once, making it a great game for parties or if you've got muchos ninos (lotsa kids). The game also comes with a 16X27 poster of the cover art, which is for the most part goofy looking but I'll take what I can get.

O.K. Lets get down to the tables themselves. First off there is "IGNITION". This table is jam packed with flashing lights and high-tech sound effects. The "theme" of the table is rockets and planets and other assorted extraterrestrial tomfoolery.This is easily the fastest of the tables with scrolling so blindingly fast that I've recently had to install a seat belt and airbag on my computer chair. The manual says that this is the easiest of the four tables, but I say that's a total crock of feces. It's by far one of the hardest (trust me). After several hours of playing IGNITION, I usually find myself wanting to do unsavory things to the game designers with a shrimp fork. But I always come right on back for more.

Next up, "STEEL WHEEL". This table is a riot to play. The "theme" is a cross between old west railroads and railroads of the old west. The bumper's sound effects are Gunshots and bullwhips and the sounds of old steam engines and horses give it a real "hoedown" feel to it. Upon losing a ball you hear a hearty, resounding, "YEE-HA!", the likes of which haven't been heard since "The Dukes Of Hazard" went off the air (my little heart is still all broken up about that - NOT!).

The next table is called "BEAT BOX". The theme is music and chart climbing. The bumpers sound like electronic drums and certain ramps will sound like choruses of female background vocalists. Some voices are used which add a nice touch with things like "USA!" and "EUROPE!", depending on which charts your single (score) is climbing up. The music has a great "Motown" feel to it and really puts a funk in my groove.

Last, but certainly not least, there's "NIGHTMARE". This table is my absolute favorite. The theme is graveyards, monsters and other gruesome tidbits (I'm an old "Horror Buff" from way back). Spelling words like "graveyard", "r.i.p.", and "DIE" scores big points and bonuses. In the center of the screen are big Gothic-looking Roman numerals from eight to twelve. Hitting certain bumpers and ramps gives the message "MIDNIGHT GETS CLOSER" and the next number lights up. Upon reaching midnight a timer begins to tick down and during this time all of the ramps and ball traps are worth BIG points (We're talking five million a pop here!). The sound effects are pretty cool too, with things like creaky hinges, crashes of thunder, and mocking laughter when you lose your ball. The music is great for mood setting and can be toggled off and on. In fact, all of the tables can have their music toggled off, but I think all of the tunes fantastic.

I've always wanted a pinball machine. To me, a pinball machine is a status symbol. Some people like fancy cars and furs; me, I like toys! Thanks to 21st century entertainment and my trusty AMIGA (the love of my life), now I can have total pinball machine action without selling off my living room furniture to make room for it. I recommend this "simulator" to everyone; the young, the old, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you like pounding on your keyboard in spine tingling excitement and screaming like a deranged psychopath when your score of ten million suddenly doubles, check out PINBALL DREAMS. This is the only title by 21st century entertainment that I've ever seen, but it looks like us Amiga lunatics could be in for a wild ride!

Dr. Torgo

PINBALL FANTASIES

In The Beginning...there was nothing. The ape-like inhabitants of the earth walked the land in gloom and agony. They had won out over nature and time and now needed new horizons to conquer. Fire had become old hat, Wheel was no longer impressive, and Disco had long since died out. The mood was generally cranky and things were due to change.

And The Machine Appeared...with it's flashing lights and thundering sounds. And the creatures approached the machine in awe, and placed their hands upon the cool glass top and felt the power contained within. And one brave soul offered up a coin to the new being ...and the machine came alive! And man bonded with machine in a union that would span the millennia. And thus was created the soul of Pinball.

Then Came The New Machines...the computer games. And long battles were fought in the lands of the arcades for the precious offerings of the devout worshipers. And the new machines won out over the old. These soul-less things pushed the Pinball to the rear corners of the arcade territories. Eventually, the computers infiltrated their way into the very homes of the worshipers and Pinball was thus saddened by this.

And One Day...many lifetimes later, there was a merging of the two machines. And from their joining was born new life. And PINBALL DREAMS came to be. It was true Pinball action played on the soul-less computers. And the masses rejoiced...

Okay, enough of that rubbish. By now most Amiga users have at least heard of PINBALL DREAMS, the pinball simulator from 21st Century and Digital Illusions. Well believe it or not, DREAM'S designers have outdone themselves. PINBALL FANTASIES, The newest pinball simulator, picks up where DREAMS left off, and takes the Pinball/Computer experience beyond the boundaries of reality.

Once again there are four stimulating tables, on three disks which are copy-protected (BUMMER). These new tables are more packed with detail than those found on DREAMS. In fact the whole package is better right down to a nicely detailed manual describing all the ins and outs of each table. FANTASIES has got more ramps, more flippers, and more bumpers than DREAMS, and more "oh wow!"s up it's sleeve than you can shake the proverbial stick at. Unlike it's predecessor, FANTASIES has a Dot Matrix score display which is used not only for score but for some impressive messages with special effects ( the "Winners Do Not Use Drugs" message was a nice touch). So lets take a gander at the tables themselves....

Come one, come all to PARTYLAND. This table is centered around things one would find at a twisted carnival/fair and really puts the "Biz" in bizarre. Some ramps represent different rides, some are different foods. So it only seems natural to me that "PUKE" is one of the words to be spelled out. The more you "PUKE", the higher you score. This table is complete wonkiness in it's true form. The music is packed to the gills with extremely silly noises and left me guffawing with laughter when I first heard it.

Rounding the next bend we have SPEED DEVILS. Auto racing is the theme of this action filled table. Different ramps will increase the performance of your car and thus increase your speed and position in THE RACE. Sounds of shifting gears and squealing tires assault your eardrums and a sound like a cadillac hitting a nice, solid brick wall ends your game. This table has an incredible tune that really pumps the old plasma. I can almost feel the wind in my hair.

C'mon down!!!!! You're the next contestant on the BILLION DOLLAR GAME SHOW! If you love mindless game shows (Hey, who don't), then you'll blow a gasket or two over this table. You are greeted by the smiling face of an extremely demented looking Bob Barker-ish type and the sound of a screaming audience cheering you on. Certain ramp combinations will place prizes on the big WHEEL 'O FORTUNE. Get the ball lock and spin the wheel for a description of the fabulous item you've won (example: A 72 inch color television with no commercials!). I like to pretend that my increasing points are actual dollars, but then I've got no life.

Last but never least there's STONES 'N' BONES. This is a ghoulish romp through a ghost filled mansion, complete with a tower that must be unlocked (by spelling KEY, naturally) in order to collect points. Also included are "The Vault" and "The Well", both of which have big points lurking inside them. The castle has 7 monsters roaming around which are lit up by spelling "STONE" and "BONE" for some huge points. This is the only table of the four with only two flippers instead of three but it still cranks up my adrenaline.

The new tables have other nice touches as well. If you are so uncoordinated that you lose a ball before it scores any points (Hey, it happens), you get the ball back for another bash at the table. Also there is the "Random Extra Ball" deal. Upon losing your last ball, the program takes the second to last number in your score and flashes random numbers from 0 to 9. If the number that locks in is yours, you get an extra ball! This, (in my book) is way cool. 21st Century also plans to release expansion disks for FANTASIES with additional tables (my little heart raceth), that will work with the FANTASIES Main program disk. Who knows what table themes they're going to toss at us next? A pirate theme? A World War One flying ace theme? Perhaps a table based on the Amy Fisher story? The world waits and wonders.

So it would seem that Digital Illusions has one upped itself. If you are a new Amiga gamer, DREAMS and FANTASIES are a perfect place to start your collection. If you've had your Amiga for some time now, these programs can bring back the "You gotta see this game!" sense of wonder you had when you first got it. PINBALL FANTASIES will put 21st Century right up there with the best of 'em.

Dr. Torgo