Intellivision #1: Pinball

Developer: Mattel

Publisher: Mattel

Release Date: October 1983

Atari was king in the early 80s, but by then they weren’t the only console on the block. Both Intellivision and Colecovision would spend time being worthy competitors with the the mighty Atari. Both consoles would be more impressive technically, but both took some wrong turns which kept them from ever being as popular as the 2600. Intellivision’s biggest problem was that it didn’t appeal as much to the casual gamer. It was filled with complicated games utilizing their difficult to use controller. That’s why a fun arcade style game can stand out so much on the console. Pinball might be a minor classic on another console, but on Intellivision it is one of the best. It’s an infinitely replayable game that is more than just a good pinball simulation. It took advantage of the video game format to include things that would be very difficult in a real pinball game.

 It followed Video Pinball by less than two years, but it feels like it’s about a decade newer. Where Video Pinball had a more abstract look Pinball gets it all right. It has the look and the shape of the real thing. Anyone who has played pinball before will recognize the shape of it with the bumpers and lanes in the right place. It also has numerous ways to score points making for almost endless variety. No two games are going to feel that much alike. It has excellent ball physics too. It feels like real pinball, and you can even use the disc on the controller to nudge. It utilizes the controller well. The side buttons can be used for the flippers, but there are also corresponding keypad buttons that do the same thing because they knew pushing down on those hard side buttons starts to hurt after a while. I really don’t like those side buttons very much. Didn’t they know people were going to be using them all the time? It’s nice to have a game that avoids them. The only catch is that there isn’t a keypad button for all flippers at once so you really do have to pay attention to what side the ball is on. No lazy shortcuts in this one, well unless you want to use those painful side buttons.

 What’s especially fun about this game is that with the expanded possibilities of the video game format they were able to pull off a pretty nifty move and add two extra levels to the game. That’s something that pinball tables had never been able to do in the same capacity. The 1982 game Haunted House was the first pinball table to have three levels, but it’s a main table with two smaller, less intricate playfields. In Pinball all three are of equal size and depth. There may even be more to do in the upper tables. It’s impressive that they would put so much into a part of the game that many players wouldn’t even know about without the manual. I didn’t even know about the upper table until I read about it, and yet there it is enticing people with its drop targets and uranium bumpers. I have no idea what a uranium bumper is, but I sure want to keep playing so I can find out. It’s the type of game that writing about it makes me want to go back and play it some more.

 

This game is the gold standard for console pinball games. It wouldn’t be topped at least until the 16-bit era and then only rarely. It’s a game that does everything right, and because of this it ranks high on the list. It’s well into the green section and is all the way up to #24. It’s the highest ranked pre-NES game so far. There are a few better ones that I will review later, but for now that’s very impressive. 

1.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

2. Super Mario Odyssey

3. The Legend of Zelda

4. Galaga

5. Donkey Kong

6. Super Mario Bros. 2

7. Exodus: Ultima III

8. Pac-Mania

9. Wrecking Crew

10. Super Pac-Man

11. Pac-Man

12. Viva Pinata

13. Dragon View

14. Excitebike

15. Drakkhen

16. Todd’s Adventures in Slime World

17. Arc the Lad

18. Clu Clu Land

19. Tails’ Adventures

20. Scrapyard Dog (Lynx)

21. Artifact Adventure Gaiden DX

22. Mickey’s Racing Adventure

23. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars

24. Pinball (Intellivision)

25. Metro-Cross

26. After Burner

27. Double Dragon

28. Alex Kidd in Miracle World

29. Panic Restaurant

30. Felix the Cat

31. Adventure

32. Video PInball

33. Breath of Fire

34. Ice Climber

35. Gaplus

36. Dragon Spirit (arcade)

37. Pinball (NES)

38. Ninja Golf

39. Splatterhouse 2

40. Fast Eddie

41. Super Soccer

42. Gopher

43. Dracula: Crazy Vampire

44. Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour (GBC)

45. Entombed

46. Red Sea Crossing

47. Baraduke

48. Demon’s Crest

49. Brave Battle Saga

50. Evoland

51. Tennis

52. Renegade

53. Beethoven

54. Hogan’s Alley

55. Gamma-Attack

56. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

57. Galaxian

58. Action Fighter

59. Dragon Crystal

60. Cosmic Commuter

61. Hot Pixel

62. PocketBike Racer

63. Wild Gunman

64. Defunct

65. Gyruss (2600)

66. Looney Tunes Racing

67. Squidlit

68. Gordo 106

69. Baseball

70. Space Jockey

71. Home Alone

72. Birthday Mania

73. Bad Street Brawler

74. Burly Men at Sea

75. Wayne’s World

76. WeakWood Throne

77. X-Men (HyperScan)

78. My Name is Mayo

79. Marvel Heroes

80. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends

81. Ben 10

(Images are from Mobygames)

Atari 2600 #11: Video Pinball

 Atari 2600 #11: Video Pinball

 

Developer: Atari

Publisher: Atari

Release Date: April 1981

I love the way they advertised slightly different variations as completely different video games

 

I don’t know why, but deciding to write about Video Pinball made me want to do some research. It’s always interesting to talk about firsts, so I wanted to know if this was the first console game that truly tried to simulate pinball. It wasn’t, but almost every obscure system had something interesting and pinball-esque. Fairchild Channel F had a game called Pinball Challenge that was actually a breakout clone. RCA Studio II had a mysterious pinball game that I don’t think was actually released in its lifetime and is only listed on Mobygames. Microvision had a game called Pinball which was a pinball, breakout hybrid that had a ball bouncing off flippers and a paddle returning it. Thunderball for Odyssey 2 was the first game that truly tried to emulate pinball, and I probably should’ve written about it first, but Video Pinball is much more fun. So Video Pinball wasn’t first, but despite it not getting all the details right it was the first fun one. How’s that for some insightful research?

This is what the game looks like!

 

Video Pinball is a great example of the simplicity that makes Atari 2600 still fun to play. We all know the 2600 only had one button, but this is almost a no-button game. The button is only used to launch the ball while the joystick controls the flippers. Left and right correspond with the individual flippers and up makes them both move at once. It uses one button once and then mostly uses one direction on the controller. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. The screen doesn’t look much like a pinball machine, but it has everything it needs including bumpers, score multipliers, areas that work a little like ramps, pseudo drop targets, and even a start that works like a skill shot. It looks like nothing, but it’s actually impressive how much the programmers were able to cram into that blue rectangle.

 

It’s also more challenging than I remembered. When we were kids my brother and I used to launch the ball and see how long we could play without using the flippers. The way I remember it we were able to last a long time, but I can’t really see that being the case. Today I find the game to be challenging. The ball moves quickly, and it’s designed well enough that you have to actually pay attention. We played this one frequently though, and I always enjoyed it even though I played it after the more advanced Midnight Magic. Of course its biggest flaw is that it doesn’t exactly look or feel like a real pinball machine. It’s not the right shape, and it doesn’t have the typical rails and bumpers where you would expect them to be. It’s hard to deny, however, that this game is a lot of fun. It could’ve had a different name and still be a good game. However, it is a pinball game, and It’s about as good as it could be from Atari in 1981.

 

I would say that even for a pinball enthusiast this is a fun game. It still has that familiar high score gameplay that appeals to pinball people. I would definitely say it’s one of the better Atari 2600 games which isn’t surprising for 1981. The 2600 existed for over a decade, but 1980-1983 was when the bulk of their best or at least most fondly remembered games came out. It was just a special time after Space Invaders but before the crash. I’m slotting this game in at #31 overall which is good for second overall on the 2600 list. Atari might not have known how to make a game that truly looked like pinball yet, but they sure knew how to make a fun one.

 

Atari Quality Percentage: 6/11 or 54.54%

Overall: 31/80

 

Atari 2600

 

1. Adventure

2. Video Pinball

3. Fast Eddie

4. Gopher

5. Entombed

6. Red Sea Crossing

7. Gamma-Attack

8. Cosmic Commuter

9. Gyruss

10. Space Jockey

11. Birthday Mania