Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!wang!shyoon!tegra!nad
From: nad@tegra.COM (Nancy Durgin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Pinball Games (was Re: Gyrus... and the Classics!)
Message-ID: <1883@harlie.tegra.COM>
Date: 31 Dec 90 17:56:46 GMT
References: <2441@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Reply-To: nad@harlie.UUCP (Nancy Durgin)
Organization: Tegra-Varityper, Inc. Billerica, MA
Lines: 54

In article <2441@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes:
>In <403.277c79d5@vger.nsu.edu>, cs170703644@vger.nsu.edu writes:
>
>>There is an Amiga version of a pinball construction set.  It is called 
>>Power Pinball, and is put out  by KarmaSoft.  It offers a lot of
>>features, including the capability to import and use your own pre-
>>digitized IFF and sound files.  It is still a far cry from the real thing,
>however; I have yet to get so caught up that I try to tilt the keyboard.
>
>Awright! (but I hate to have to ask the following question) Is it copy
>protected?
>

Power Pinball has manual-based copy protection, is HD-installable, and
runs on my 3000 (the latest version v1.06 even runs under 2.0 on my
3000).

As pinball games go, this one is okay, but not awesome.  I just bought
another pinball simulator, "Quiksilver Pinball Simulator", from Actionworks.
This seems to be a much better pinball game.  They took the unique approach of
using the entire screen for the pinball machine, and actually using
two screens (so the "pinball machine" is 2 full screens in height).  The game
swaps between the upper and lower portions, depending on where the ball is.
I thought this was odd at first, but it turns out to be quite playable, and
it gives a much larger, and more realistic pinball machine.  Power Pinball,
by comparison, uses just the left-hand side of one screen, so their
machine is effectively 1/4 the size.

Anyway, this one is not a construction set.  It comes with 4 pre-built 
machines, and promises of future data disks.

It runs on my 3000, but only under 1.3.  The bad news?  It has a stupid
color-pattern based copy-protection (which is fairly easy to
screw up), and *also* appears to have a copy-protected disk.  A backup copy
appears to work, until you actually try to play the game, whereupon it
launches the ball so that it can't actually be brought into play.  I
really hate subtle protection like this -- after trying it in the store, I
*thought* I was buying a game that was going to be HD installable, or at
least would be able to backup (their high-score saving is useless to me if
I must run off the master disk, and leave it write-protected).

So, for a good pinball simulator, Quiksilver Pinball is a winner, but if
you have a thing about disk-based copy protection and HD-installing, then
this one loses, and you should check out Power Pinball.


              Nancy


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Nancy Durgin          | (Usual disclaimers | Tegra-Varityper, Inc. 
uunet!tegra!nad       | apply...)          | Billerica, Massachusetts
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