Video Pinball (Arcade Pinball): Atari Archive Episode 53
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- Опубліковано 13 вер 2024
- Here we have several firsts and two lasts: Video Pinball is the first VCS game to come out with a picture label, the first by Bob Smith, and the first of three attempts at bringing that venerable pastime to Atari's flagship console. It's also the last Sears release to have a unique title, and the last of three Atari games to feature the "Video Pinball" moniker. While it doesn't necessarily resemble pinball all that closely, it nevertheless is a lot of fun, and that's what matters, right?
Special thanks to historian Ethan Johnson for reviewing my general pinball history segment, and to Bob Smith, Bob Ogdon and Andy Modla for taking time out of their days to chat with me about their games.
If you enjoyed this video, consider subscribing to the Patreon at www.patreon.com/atariarchive, and visiting www.atariarchive.org for more information!
Sources:
Bob Smith, interview with the author, February 3 2021
Bob Ogdon, interview with the author, August 17 2020
Andy Modla, interview with the author, June 18 2021
Weekly Television Digest, April 10 1978 and October 12 1981
Merchandising, June 1977, January 1978, January 1981
VT Music & Games, March, April, May, and December 1968
Electronic Games, May 1982 and November 1983
Vidiot, February-March 1983
All in Color for a Quarter, Keith Smith, unpublished manuscript
Computer Entertainer, February 1987
Creative Computing, July 1978
Electronic Exchange, May 1981
Coin Connection, February 1979
Retro Gamer, issue 222
Another absurdly comprehensive video. This is some really valuable archival work you're doing here.
Played this for countless hours as a kid. Thank you for another awesome video.
Welcome back! As always... great work. 😊
I played SO MUCH of this game. It was one of my daily go-to titles on our 2600
I played it a lot and loved it. 11:54 "While it wasn't pinball, it played pretty well." I liked pinball games at the arcade or pizzeria, but haven't played one in years. The last one I really liked, and was good at, about 22 years ago was Medieval Madness.
Excellent! I've been anticipating this video for a while. Atari Pinball always fascinated me as a a kid and got me into pinball regular. It was one of the first "pinball" games I could play without having to stand on a chair at Pizza Hut :)
The last They Created Worlds podcast is about Gottlib company and the evolution of pinball tables.
Learned pinball at age 4 standing on a wooden chair to reach the flippers on Gottlieb '66 Central Park and '73 High Hand machines my uncle bought and put in the basement of my grandparents' house. Naturally this was one of the early VCS games we got, and we had Budge's PCS for the original IBM PC. IMO, nothing matches the experience of those old-school EM tables (or EM games in general).
I became a pint-sized pinball wizard by playing the table my grandfather rented and kept in the bar at his restaurant.
One of the best times I ever had was with a Firepower table that had a broken credit counter. It would show 99 credits so I thought "hellyeah! I gotta play those off before the place opens for lunch!" I'd get it down to 90 and it would go back to 99. I said to myself "HELLYEAHN FREE PINBALL ALL DAY!"
About an hour and dozens of games later, the place opened for lunch and I was chased away from the bar.
This episode is really something else. As the series progressed I realized that the videos are less about the games themselves than a perfect point to stop and talk about early game history in general. The VCS really was the watershed moment for videogames it seems, at least in the USA, so it's a great focus to talk about how game design progressed up to that point.
Likes for the Like God, comment for the Comment God! Carry on with the great work, Kevin!
Another great one! There was a lot to cover with this one, as video pinball (the genre, not just the game) has quite a history. You covered it fairly well, as usual.
Been waiting for some quiet time here at home to watch this one. So we'll done as usual, thank you !
REST in peace to bob smith the maker of video/arcade pinball on the atari vcs
Loved this game. It had s certain something that kept me playing. I was able to build up a huge ball drain bonus withe left rollover using the nudge control. You could clock it and the game would keep count of how many times you did that and would take a while to count down after a ball drain. Great video with lots of interesting historical info....just like all the others in this channel.
Your history of video pinball is fantastic! Thanks, Kevin. I'm always impressed with your Atari Archive episodes!
I thought today would be a boring day and then I saw you released a new video. I bought some Chinese food and sat down to have a one man party! lol
Great video on Video Pinball and other early attempts at imitating a pinball table. Imagic would be a pretty good third party for 2600 games, and I definitely liked seeing Sega Flipper and Pinball as showing the later evolution of pinball video games. (And Solaris from 1986 was definitely a great 2600 game). And another Atari classic next: Missile Command.
Pretty much the rest of 1981 is all major releases!
Congratulations on being a happy father!
Sadly, Robert Graves Smith III (a.k.a. Bob Smith) passed away on May 13th, 2023, at the age of 73. He will be missed and fondly remembered for his contributions to the video game industry.
Despite not really being an accurate pinball recreation, this was one of my favorite Atari games as a kid.
Using the nudge feature, I learned how to pretty much keep the ball in the left bonus slot. I could get the counter to rollover several times.
Another thorough entry! The only thing missing seems to be a photo of a Video Pinball standalone console. (And I suppose an aside about it also being sold by Sears as Pinball Breakaway was going a little too far afield.) Congratulations on the birth of your new boy as well!
Absolutely satisfying episode!
Fantastic video, the history and depth are amazing and really fascinating. I recall the C64 had a scrolling table, brilliant and so addictive, and then along came the Dragons and Crue Ball games on the Sega Megadrive, ridiculously fun. More recently, I lost weeks on end to Demon's Tilt on PS4, phenomenal game! And I recently grabbed an original light-sixer VCS (my first VCS in nearly 40 years!) and snapped up Midnight Magic.
Atari Logbook challenge: Play game number 1 with the difficulty switch on B.
Pro (Pinball Hustler): 280,000
Master (Pinball Pro): 340,000
Wizard (Pinball Wizard): 400,000
I made Wizard in July 1982 after making Master the previous day and a month after got the Logbook. I may have done it when my Atari was broken such that the console thought both joystick buttons were pressed and had to play without flippers, using "Nudge". I then went on to rollover the score multiple times on A and B.
Pinball was also considered a form of gambling by some political groups.. and In Indianapolis IN its still technically Illegal to have a coin op pinball machine in your business.. (Though its one of those obscure, ridiculous old laws that nobody follows anymore.)
Can you imagine the egotistical rivalry of Bagatelle players in the 18th century? "'Thou art mistaken... Ahhh-h-h 'tis no matter... my bagatelle skills are most superior to yours!" "No. Thy art a cheater!!"
like Pin Pong but love Super Flipper
i spent too much of my childlife playing this awful game