[HN Gopher] Play Windows Pinball (Space Cadet) on the Web
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Play Windows Pinball (Space Cadet) on the Web
 
Author : pr337h4m
Score  : 87 points
Date   : 2022-12-05 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago)
 
web link (alula.github.io)
w3m dump (alula.github.io)
 
| pr337h4m wrote:
| Source code: https://github.com/alula/SpaceCadetPinball
 
  | rand0m4r wrote:
  | nice ... it would be nice to know how to play though
 
    | jkingsman wrote:
    | z and forward slash for left and right bumpers. Press and
    | hold space to pull back launch plunger and release to launch.
    | x and period to tilt table.
    | 
    | Worth noting that F8/Player Controls dialogue doesn't work,
    | and neither does disabling the music.
 
      | compsciphd wrote:
      | I'm not sure I ever knew you could tilt the table. child me
      | wishes he had this knowledge. (I assume if you tilt too
      | much it triggers a tilt failure?)
 
        | inanutshellus wrote:
        | My jaw may have dropped at learning this from GP's
        | message. Alllll this time and I'm learning you could tilt
        | Space Cadet _now_?!
 
        | EarthLaunch wrote:
        | I think it's a funny example of great UI discoverability
        | still having failures. I say great because having the
        | tilt keys adjacent to the paddle keys seems like a setup
        | for accidentally hitting tilt in a moment of heat,
        | thereby leading to discovery of the tilt keys. Though
        | perhaps 'moment of heat' is exactly when the player is
        | least likely to realize they hit the wrong key.
 
      | aledalgrande wrote:
      | or left/right click for bumpers
 
| boringg wrote:
| Am I the only one who found this game to be super frustrating for
| some reason? Still tons of memories though.
 
  | narag wrote:
  | It was easy for me after enough hours playing, IIRC I had a
  | ~100M record... must have the record file anywhere.
  | 
  | Actually I have the game installed in Windows 10, but I no
  | longer play it. I lost the aim in the central targets that give
  | endless extra balls.
 
  | Arrath wrote:
  | Its digital pinball why does it have coin-sucking ways for lose
  | the ball without recourse??
  | 
  | Or do I just not know the deep lore of pinball and how to keep
  | the blockers deployed in the side routes 100% of the time.
 
    | ndiddy wrote:
    | It's because you're not tilting, it's an intended mechanic.
 
| monocasa wrote:
| The physics seem really off. Almost no power out of the paddles
| for instance.
 
| x0n wrote:
| Doesn't seem to work with Microsoft Edge :/
 
  | jabberwik wrote:
  | Works fine here, Edge 107
 
    | benj111 wrote:
    | 107 already? Isn't Firefox and Chrome on a similar number
    | despite having a 5 (?) year head start on the stupid number
    | inflation game?
    | 
    | Does MS still believe that higher = better?
 
      | retrobox wrote:
      | I think it's more that Edge follows Chromium's version
      | numbers
 
  | ceautery wrote:
  | Naturally.
 
| rzzzt wrote:
| I can turn off music for ~3 seconds, then it starts up again.
 
  | battles wrote:
  | Same. I didn't even know this game had music. It's ruining my
  | nostalgia high.
 
| throwaway2203 wrote:
| OMG I've been looking for this for so long, it made me so happy!
 
| aliqot wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThxdvEajK8g
 
| hxugufjfjf wrote:
| Would kill for a way to play on a mobile browser. Currently only
| the left flipper works when tapping the screen
 
  | kernal wrote:
  | If you're on Android you can install the APK.
  | 
  | https://github.com/fexed/Pinball-on-Android
 
    | matbatt38 wrote:
    | Crash on startup here :( (Android 10)
 
| [deleted]
 
| swyx wrote:
| i spent so much of my childhood in this game. so glad to see it
| back but grown up me doesnt find the appeal of wasting so much
| time anymore. kinda sad to see my childhood go.
 
| aledalgrande wrote:
| OMGGG so many memories
 
| zelphirkalt wrote:
| Now all I need is rock-paper-scissors from ICQ without ICQ and my
| collection is almost complete.
 
| jarboot wrote:
| typing 'hidden test' before launching the ball still activates
| the same cheat as the original :)
 
| LaLaLand122 wrote:
| Aren't there pinball games any more? I remember spending a lot of
| hours playing Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions in an Amiga
| 1200.
 
  | rzzzt wrote:
  | One or both of these had an MS-DOS port with VGA graphics
  | (smooth scrolling!) and excellent MOD playback using PC speaker
  | output.
 
  | compsciphd wrote:
  | Epic's shareware pinball game, paid for the development of the
  | initial version of unreal. Epic as we know it today doesn't
  | exist without pinball.
 
  | gwill wrote:
  | i recently discovered demons tilt and enjoy it a lot:
  | https://store.steampowered.com/app/422510/Demons_Tilt/
 
  | adamrezich wrote:
  | Pinball FX3 (available on Steam, and other platforms) is pretty
  | good if there's specific real-world tables you're interested in
  | playing. Volume 1 has Medieval Madness, which I have logged far
  | too many hours in.
 
    | agentwiggles wrote:
    | Medieval Madness is my all time favorite table. I recently
    | bought the version for Pinball FX3, and it's not half bad. I
    | could complain about all kinds of things about PinballFX3,
    | it's very emblematic of the problems with modern gaming, but
    | the tables themselves are pretty good recreations.
    | 
    | It's nowhere near as fun as real pinball, but the one thing
    | that I found really cool was that I was able to play the game
    | on "training mode" and get a better sense for the different
    | things I could do and how to set up certain situations.
    | 
    | My best Medieval Madness score is something like
    | 50,000,000... the table I play on has a high score of about
    | 190,000,000 so I have a long way to go to have a chance at
    | putting in my initials. But I can generally go for a pretty
    | long session on a single credit. Even still, I hadn't ever
    | seen half the stuff that I got to see while playing the
    | virtual version, and I've taken some of that knowledge into
    | the real world when I visit the bar where that table lives.
    | 
    | So overall, digital pinball is cool in my book, if flawed.
    | 
    | Quick edit/addition: Medieval Madness is unique among nearly
    | all the tables I've played in that it doesn't bullshit you
    | much. Most of the time when I lose balls, I know exactly the
    | wrong thing I did (in particular, trying to hit the castle
    | gate or the trolls without multiball is pretty dangerous).
    | Most tables I've played will suck up a credit in a few flips
    | in ways that seem pretty unfair, but Medieval Madness seems
    | pretty fair. I would love to own a table but they're
    | shockingly expensive, maybe someday!
 
      | toast0 wrote:
      | > I would love to own a table but they're shockingly
      | expensive, maybe someday!
      | 
      | MM has always been on the higher end (or at least for the
      | last long while). And pricing went crazy during covid. But
      | it's a great table, so there's that. Probably fiddly to
      | keep working with all the dodadds though. Personally, I
      | like the very end of the alphanumeric era, right before
      | DMDs came and started stopping the game to show you
      | animations, but collectors seem to prefer DMD games.
      | 
      | Most games you can do a good job of advancing the plot by
      | just shooting for the flashing shots, but maybe avoid
      | center shots, unless you have a good setup, because a
      | missed shot may be hard to recover, although the trolls can
      | be hard to recover from a hit too. Advancing the plot
      | usually results in good scores.
      | 
      | In terms of video pinball that's not virtual physical
      | tables, Demon's Tilt is fairly new, and pretty fun. I was
      | deeply amused when I got a ball stuck and had to use the
      | 'call attendant feature' and got some sort of bonus. But
      | like a lot of video pinball, at some point it is too much a
      | game of skill, and you can have epic ball times and then
      | it's kind of boring.
      | 
      | Yoku's Island Express is also interesting, it's several
      | years old now, and widely ported. It's an adventure game
      | with pinball segments. Boss battles are pretty fun, imho
 
        | agentwiggles wrote:
        | I like to think (although reality may one day humble me)
        | that I would enjoy the tinkering aspect of owning a
        | table, at least one that I liked enough to make the
        | tinkering worthwhile. I also stumbled on the strategy of
        | just going for the flashing lanes - although you can do
        | quite well for yourself just trying to hit the castle
        | too.
        | 
        | I have been meaning to check out Demon's Tilt. Yoku is
        | fun but didn't grab me enough to go much past the early
        | game.
 
      | adamrezich wrote:
      | this is exactly why I bought Pinball FX3, my local barcade
      | got a Medieval Madness table and I remember liking it as a
      | kid, and I wanted to learn more about how the game works
      | beyond "put a few quarters in and hit some flippers until
      | stuff happens", without having to keep pumping fifty cents
      | in time after time.
      | 
      | I think the _depth_ that pinball tables (I 'm not enough of
      | a buff to feel comfortable calling them "pins" ...yet) have
      | is hugely underrated. I remember learning about the
      | objectives you can go for in Space Cadet but I was blown
      | away by all the different systems/table features/etc. in
      | MM! so much to learn and keep track of at once, but once
      | you start to get the hang of it, playing & learning more is
      | incredibly addictive. my MM high score in PFX3 is somewhere
      | around 50M (with the hugely unfair default, not "realistic"
      | physics--though I play both), but I haven't been able to
      | get anywhere near that irl just yet.
      | 
      | it is interesting just how much irl pinball physics differ
      | from their virtual counterparts, there really is nothing
      | quite like it.
      | 
      | also, for those unaware, some Medieval Madness trivia:
      | 
      | - a pre-famous Tina Fey voices of some of the princesses
      | 
      | - Tim Kitzrow does his NBA JAM shtick as the joust
      | announcer, and even BOOMSHAKALAKAs sometimes
      | 
      | - there's very occasional "Toasty!" and "FATALITY" samples
      | from Mortal Kombat (Dan Forden, the Toasty Guy, did sound
      | for both games)
      | 
      | really, if you're a fan of pinball/arcade history, it's
      | just a real treat, sort of a culmination of the
      | Williams/Midway arcade scene, in some ways.
 
        | agentwiggles wrote:
        | I honestly can't think of another table that's close to
        | as fun as MM, it's got the perfect vibe and so many neat
        | little table features. MM was also the first table where
        | I started to learn the objectives (I can get the
        | multiball with pretty decent consistency now). And again,
        | it's probably the fairest table I'm aware of, I very
        | seldom say "that was bullshit!" when playing MM.
        | 
        | Most of my prior pinball experience was just "bang in a
        | few quarters and watch the lights flash until you lose."
        | Imagine my surprise to find that those little cards on
        | the tables actually tell you how to play :)
        | 
        | My 50M play was a magical one, I lucked out in all kinds
        | of ways. My average is around the 25-30M range (on good
        | runs, I'm still not good enough that I don't occasionally
        | flame out near 1M haha)
 
        | toast0 wrote:
        | > it is interesting just how much irl pinball physics
        | differ from their virtual counterparts, there really is
        | nothing quite like it.
        | 
        | I think there's probably a couple components.
        | 
        | #1 is virtual pinball physics is usually too simple and
        | it plays too deterministically. Real pinball plays
        | differently when the machine clean vs dirty, and it gets
        | (minutely) dirtier as you play, parts wear, etc.
        | Sometimes the ball jumps or otherwise moves in unexpected
        | ways.
        | 
        | #2 is flipper timing variability. In virtual pinball, the
        | controller is usually sampled once a frame, but pinball
        | machines pre-fliptronics had the switches connected to
        | the flippers through a relay, post fliptronics, I'm not
        | sure if there's a sampling delay, but if so, I think the
        | sampling rate is higher than 60Hz. That really increases
        | the possibilities, even if a couple ms here or there
        | doesn't make a big difference.
        | 
        | #3 tilting on virtual pinball is _very_ precise, but I
        | haven 't found it nearly as precise in the real world.
 
      | a_t48 wrote:
      | I also wish MM wasn't so dang expensive. :(
 
      | aidenn0 wrote:
      | Something that no video pinball communicates compared to a
      | physical table is just how violent it is. The force with
      | which the steel ball is launched deflected and bounces is
      | really quite visceral.
 
  | CharlesW wrote:
  | There are! Digital/virtual pinball is huge.
  | 
  | https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/07/atgames-legends-virtu...
  | 
  | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Pinball
 
    | TedDoesntTalk wrote:
    | But they are physical devices with screens for playfields. I
    | think OP means for laptops/desktops.
 
      | CharlesW wrote:
      | The first article focuses on form-authentic cabinets, but
      | the software that powers those (like the open-source Visual
      | Pinball, the freeware Future Pinball, the commercial
      | Pinball FX3, etc.) work on ordinary laptops/desktops too.
 
  | bayofpigs wrote:
 
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