ADG Episode 245 - Star Trek Pinball

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The irony of this whole situation is that the REAL pinball machines based on the Star Trek franchise are freaking AMAZING, but this... I mean... whoooo boy...
Today on Ancient DOS Games, Gemini's taking a look at Star Trek Pinball, one of the last games released for DOS by a big name gaming company, developed by SCi Games and published through Interplay just a month into 1998.
This thing feels like it was on the right track to be an awesome pinball program, but that it needed nearly twice as much dev time to really make it shine. As such, what we ended up with very much feels like an ALPHA build of a game, not a fully finished product, as much of the artwork feels like it was meant as placeholder graphics, as does much of the audio, and the gameplay is a bizarre hybrid of real physics but with the wrong math, leading to all sorts of weirdness.
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Additional Information and Corrections:
* Jim Leonard (aka Trixter) has done a couple vids investigating original shrink wrap versus reshrink and is far better versed on the subject than I am. Check them out here: • Software Collecting: D... and • Software Collecting: B...
* I'm not sure if the holes in the shrink wrap to let the air out are called "registration holes" or not, but for some reason I've always called them that. Anyone know if there's an actual name for them? Also, they're KINDA visible on camera at the right angles, but they're still really hard to see.
* Fun Fact: Even though the manual was sized to fit inside the jewel case, it's SO THICK that it actually doesn't, thus why they put an insert in the jewel case instead! XD
* I should note: When I say "real pins are meant to return the ball in various ways but never straight for the drain", I'm specifically referring to successful shots. Many real pins will punish a player on the return of a FAILED shot, such as if a ball doesn't go up a ramp all the way or you miss a target and hit a post next to it.
* I forgot to put the screenshot I took of the DP_PREFS file in the video proper, so here's a link to the screenshot on my website: www.pixelships....
* There's a few things I neglected to mention. For starters, the tables are forced to play in a 5-ball mode. There is no option whatsoever to switch the tables over to a 3-ball mode.
* The single player capable tables have the same "Ball Save" feature found on most pinball machines, but the DMD always says "Ball Safe" even though the manual properly calls it a "Ball Save". Weird.
* Another butchered (but at least present) feature is the Status Report. On virtually every mid-80s pin onward, if you hold one flipper up for a few seconds, a status report shows up and you can scroll through pages of information by flipping the other flipper, ultimately returning to the current score display. Star Trek Pinball goes to the status report within just a couple seconds of holding a flipper up and does NOT allow you to return to the score display, not to mention your score isn't showing during modes, meaning you don't often get to see your score while in the middle of a ball unless literally nothing's happening AND you don't have the ball on a flipper. :P
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Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
ADG on Pixelmusement: www.pixelships....
Alphabetical Index of ADG Episodes: www.pixelships....
Kris' Patreon Page: / kasick
@Pixelmusement on Twitter: / pixelmusement

Опубликовано:

17 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 60

@KeeperBvK2 5 лет назад

Always great to see how knowledgeable you are when it comes to pinball. You're going a lot deeper here than I ever could.

@TheOnlyToblin 6 лет назад

OMG, they actually spelled Qapla' correctly! So many games and other media get klingon spellings, even such famous ones as Qapla' and betleH, completely wrong. Also, funny to hear a pinball aficionado rip apart a really bad pinball game.

@jasonblalock4429 6 лет назад

Seriously, he sounds like this game touched him in a bad place. Although looking at those ball physics, I can't blame him.

@Darxide23 6 лет назад

The gripe I have is that that table is clearly based on the Original Series television show, but Klingonese wasn't even conceived of until The Motion Picture (in a very rough, almost made up on the spot form) and Qapla' didn't appear until Star Trek III.

@AnonymousFreakYT 6 лет назад

I remember getting Interplay games that the inside were all dusty. Best I could figure out, the cheap crap cardboard they used for the inner box just disintegrates easily, spreading cardboard dust everywhere.

@SuperMoleRetro 6 лет назад

I have several where the shrink wrap shrunk around the box, going all the way back to Commodore games. It happens a LOT unless the company used the air holes in the shrink, which all of them did not do.

@legionofdoom2009 6 лет назад

20:08 Best pinball physics ever :3

@SeekerLancer 4 года назад

Wow, a 1998 DOS release, don't see too many of those. I guess it's not surprising given this is basically shovelware.

@mstandish 6 лет назад

In the 90's I worked at Software Etc. We were allowed to 'check out' software for a few days and when we returned it we would re-shrinkwrap it. Some software would not be shrinkwrapped when we received it and we would have to do it. I don't understand collecting unopened old software.

@jasonblalock4429 6 лет назад

Out of curiosity, how did you deal with all the weirdass boxes that were popular around that time? Stuff like Gabriel Knight where the package wasn't even remotely rectangular. Was that re-shrinkwrappable, or did you have to stick to games in conventional boxes?

@mstandish 6 лет назад

Honestly, this was 1994-1996 and I don't remember. The shrink wrap would melt to form the box with a heat gun so maybe we just used extra shrink wrap or we just put it on the shelf without wrap.

@SuperMoleRetro 6 лет назад

We did that at Babbage's too. The really bad thing was they let employees bring home one of floppy disks that only allowed a limited number of installs before the disk was useless. Do you remember those?

@Darxide23 6 лет назад

Unopened computer software? No. That's dumb on many levels. Unopened console games? Sure, why not if you have money to burn.

@joe--cool 6 лет назад

8:02 OH MAN. An ad for the Secret of Vulcan Fury. I always wanted this so badly but it was never released. All those voice recordings of the original cast for nothing. :(

@SeekerLancer 4 года назад

My Judgement Rites CD had an ad for that on it. I remember being really excited and then it just disappeared. I wish they'd at least release the voice work, somebody could edit together an animation or something.

@doktoroptimo 6 лет назад

that's not dust. it's the cardboard falling apart over the years

@goopah Год назад

Yeah, I'm not seeing anything that indicates a non-factory re-seal here. Lots of factory sealed game boxes get concave just because the poly shrinks over time and squeezes the box. I'm not big into collecting sealed games or anything, but I do own quite a few simply because I never got around to playing them back in the day, so they're still sealed.

@petman515 6 лет назад

Literally everything you are complaining about is stuff ive seen regularly on nib games I bought back in the day and in the last few years.

@TrollDecker 6 лет назад

I can't say I regret finding a covermount edition of this game in a charity shop for 50p, then. :\ Speaking of shrink-wrapping, my brother picked up an Amiga game that was missing a disk from Electronics Boutique UK (which later got swallowed up by GAME), and he ultimately returned it. Several months later, he saw a shrink-wrapped copy in the same shop and - I kid you not - IT WAS THE EXACT SAME COPY. >:(

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Jo Decker Yeah... Another common problem, specifically with cartridges, is "relabelling", where a different label is applied to a game cart to be able to sell it for more. Thus you buy it, pop it in, and realize it's totally not the game you paid money for. D:

@executivebexley252 3 года назад

I worked at a print factoryry that shrink-wrapped. Original printing is dusty, it's spray powder from litho printing look it up! It stops set off. And it's dusty inside from static so it's not been handled much. I think it's a good thing its dusty inside, especially the printing. Also that cd had clearly never come out the case!

@iteachvader 3 года назад

I used to play this all the time, and spent WAAAYYYY too much time on the Qapla' table!

@zintosion 6 лет назад

To boldly go. Shows kirk and a bunch of chicks. Seems accurate.

@j.a.8224 6 лет назад

I'm no pinball affectionado, so I can't comment much... but the balls look.... fast but floaty for some reason, instead of having weight and bounce like a real pinball does. Which is weird because as noted it doesn't bounce at all. Thus a nudge makes it float instead of staying in place while the machine moves underneath like a real thing. Also look at @20:19 where one ball on the multiball sinking just makes the other up and vanish. Beam it up, Mr. Scott!

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+J. A. Every time you see the ball move off-course from nudging in this video I've literally nudged three or four times within a split-second. ;)

@pixelflow 6 лет назад

Genuine space dust!

@JomasterTheSecond 6 лет назад

I'dve suggested old console game emulators for DOS for the filler but with all those ROM sites shutting down that'd be a little uh... tricky.

@JomasterTheSecond 6 лет назад

Emulators maybe, but ROMs, not really.

@herbiehusker1889 6 лет назад

Who uses ROMs for DOS games?

@JomasterTheSecond 6 лет назад

I meant stuff like NESticle and Genecyst.

@EdmondDantes224 6 лет назад

Roms would've been hell anyway because emulators like Nesticle didn't actually use the same rom files that emulators today use, you'd have to download a version meant specifically for that emulator. That's how I remember it working, anyway, and it led to a lot of emulator loyalty.

@jaysistar2711 6 лет назад

@Lassi Kinnunen ? Why? It should work the same that it did on a real machine. System 16 uses a YM2151, though, so it would be missing 2 operators per channel.

@marccaselle8108 2 года назад

I like DOS pinball games but other then epic, and extreme pinball, you have pinball dreams and illusions. The other option is pro Pinball the web, the other pro Pinball games are win 95/98. I might give this a whirl.

@t.adamcollins2162 6 лет назад

Also the person selling it on eBay could have just put shrink wrap on the box. Everything on eBay is "factory sealed." Those machines aren't hard to get, especially once video rental stores all died out.

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Tim Collins I know, but the fact that every sealed box I found had the same dust issues and the same shrink wrap is what tipped me off because I seriously doubt half a dozen sellers in multiple regions would all have had their boxes resealed by the same guy. ;)

@midiman22000 6 лет назад

Guh, the physics in this game, combined with the no proper feedback on nudging the machine and seeing the ball go all over the place, legit gives me anxiety

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+The Gaming Contrarian Because I've played so much of the real thing now I've kinda had to accept that digital "pinball" is just entirely different, but then, this game was intentionally going for realism and accuracy, even promoting being that way, so of course I'm going to berate them for missing the mark... by a few light years. :P

@SchizoMelody 4 года назад

You can get a shrink wrapper for cheap.

@manicscarecrow3011 6 лет назад

I think I recall having this game at some point, or maybe I played it somewhere else. But I know for sure I played it.

@negirno 6 лет назад

Does this game and many other pinball games like Pro Pinball use the same engine? It looks and feels very similar to Timeshock.

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Negirno I doubt it. This doesn't actually do any 3D rendering on the fly, just a scaled ball graphic imposed on a 2D graphic with masking based on ball distance up the playfield. :P

@AirknightTails 6 лет назад

So Basically just stick with Star Trek Pinball on Stern Pinball Arcade (or TNG if you owned it on TPA before the Williams and Bally table takedown)

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Airknight Tails That still bugs me that the license was done in such a way that it could be cancelled like that and prevent all continuing sales. It essentially chopped the size of Pinball Arcade from the huge thing it was to a FRACTION of its former glory. :(

@AirknightTails 6 лет назад

Agreed. I do like SOME Sterns and Gottliebs, but TPA will never be the same for me :(

@TheJamieRamone 6 лет назад

It's more like the table is standing on the front end and ur looking up, so the normal force of gravity pushes the ball way faster than normal towards the sinkhole!

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Jamie Ramone You say that... but if you wanna see what effect doing that would REALLY have, check out the real pinball machine "Banzai Run" ;)

@taskanawa9604 5 лет назад

pro pinball

@bananaramamark 3 года назад

Will it play in windows 10 as is, or do I have to do something to the program? I installed it in Vista, a few years ago, but it never worked. I guess it's something to do with the DOS format?

@Pixelmusement 3 года назад

DOS software will not run on Windows 10 as is. You will need to use an emulator like DOSBox.

@lilwyvern4 6 лет назад

I recognize some of these assets. I think this game runs on the same engine as Hyper 3D Pinball, another DOS (and console) pinball game published by Virgin Interactive. The giveaway was the bonus counter and the plunger cutin, which are both identical. Is there a reference to "NMS Software" anywhere? On that note, I'd like to see you cover that game too. The gangster table was my favorite.

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Torcularis ...hey yeah there is, it says NMS made the game engine. So yeah, some of what's here might've been from the earlier games using the same engine. :o

@lilwyvern4 6 лет назад

Hyper 3D pinball came out a year or two before, to boot. Double shame, Interplay. Double shame.

@wolfgangervin2582 5 лет назад

I have the Sega Saturn port of Hyper 3D pinball. IMHO as far as Saturn pinball KaZe's Digital Pinball tables are much more fun lack of multidirectional tilt aside.

@EdmondDantes224 6 лет назад

Here's a filler idea: Compare this game to the real Star Trek pinball tables. Or the Doctor Who pinball table. Also if you've finally watched Doctor Who, give opinions on it (if you haven't seen both the classic and modern Doctor Who shows tho, I would hold off--the gap between the two is MUCH wider than the gap between Classic and Next Gen Trek). If you haven't, well now I have duplicate copies of certain episodes I could send your way..

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+Jispy Moe Dantes As neat of a filler idea as that is, it would be more work and effort than several ADG episodes COMBINED, just from the amount of travelling around I'd have to do, combined with capturing footage and everything, plus there's a couple older Star Trek pins which would be extremely difficult to find just about anywhere, and going all digital wouldn't be a fair comparison really. As for Doctor Who, I haven't had time to look into it more-so than discovering that watching through the entirety of the original series is impossible. :(

@TheFifthHorseman_ 6 лет назад

Personally I'm not a big fan of Twilight Zone either (have a recreation from Pinball Arcade). Just doesn't feel very cohesive in theme, layout or mechanics

@Pixelmusement 6 лет назад

+The Fifth Horseman Yeah, that's kind of my sentiment. Not that I can't PLAY it in a tournament setting, as three people in the local league own a real one, it's just not something I'd actively want to play.