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