A long time ago in this 1001 list, I played Pinball Dreams, an early attempt to bring classic tables onto television screens. A year or so ago, I played Flipnic, an attempt to reimagine pinball without the constraints of having to be played on a pinball table. Or make sense.
Now, though, we're back to attempting to bring classic tables onto television screens again, only this time with far more care and attention, in Gottlieb Pinball Classics.
If the name Gottlieb means nothing to you, don't worry. It means nothing to me, either. Say what? They did Q*bert? Well, apart from that, Gottlieb means nothing to me, but to pinballers, it means the very best, and this museum quality collection aims to show you why.
Frustrations
I looked for a while to find the PlayStation 2 release of Gottlieb Pinball Classics and eventually bought it second hand. I was frankly surprised that anyone would bother to buy what is obviously a waste of a PS2 disc, right? They could have been playing literally anything else and having a better time.
Sadly, my PS2 won't read the disc, and emulation struggles with it too. I blame the blue dye. Looks good, though.
Running out of options I saw that there was a PlayStation Portable release, and having a good run with PSP games recently, I made sure to try it out, where I was met with a grubby, compressed intro video showing off each and every pinball machine you might be playing on in an uninspiring fashion.
It was not a good start, but at least it was running at a frame rate you needed more than two hands to count up to.
Fun Times
And then, picking a menu option that seemed like a good place to start in the world of Gottlieb Pinball machines, my view changed in an instant. This... this looks good.
No. Good is an understatement. The menus look generic, but beyond them lies the stuff of legend. Pinball machines lovingly rendered in the virtual world, complete with lights, sounds, and reflections in the glass that separates you from the action.
This is VR before the headsets were required. I know that doesn't make sense, but I want to stress how good it looks. Not only looks, but feels. Slick and responsive don't do the controls justice either. I need better words for them.
Gottlieb Pinball Classics feels better than 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet. How's that for high praise?
The analogue nub is used to spring your ball into play and nudge the table, with the shoulder buttons acting as flippers in what must be the most obvious use of shoulder buttons in a pinball game ever, are you listening Pinball Dreams on the SNES?
I'm not really very good at pinball, either physically or digitally, so some practice will be required to unlock some of the tables in Gottlieb Pinball Classics, though I do read that there are some cheat codes to speed the process along, which is nice.
It's nice because you'll want to see these tables in all their glory, and the PSP version in particular has a neat trick up its sleeve in that regard.
Verticle screen output. The flippers switch to the X and triangle buttons, but the nudge stays on the analogue nub, strangely. Not sure how you're best meant to hold the PSP to actually play it like this, but you can if you feel it's a better experience.
Like an idiot, I forgot to press the 'change camera' button to see if it switches to an overhead/full table view. I bet it does, even for a screen the size of that on the PSP.
It wasn't long before I switched back to the default view - it's hard to play pinball when you're emulating it sideways, after all - but I wasn't making a whole lot of progress through the Gottlieb Challenge anyway.
Other modes are available, including a tournament mode and some other challenges which test you with achieving a certain goal on a table, like hitting a particular target.
As these goals are specific to individual tables, it's a chance for the game to introduce players to the history of those original pinball tables. You can even check out the flyers advertising these tables to the masses.
Big Shot here is themed around Pool, and I need to hit a bunch of balls before hitting the 8-ball, just as I could do on the actual table to score all the points, I'd imagine.
I wasn't very good at hitting all the targets, as usual, but this time there was another reason. Big Shot sounds surprisingly like Darude's Sandstorm, 25 years before than trance classic emerged. You really need to have a listen for yourselves, be it on YouTube or through a copy of Gottlieb Pinball Classics.
There are at least seven tables to play on in each version of the game, along with some historical extras, like Play-Boy here. Not the main attraction, I can say that for sure, but a distraction from pinball should you find yourself needing one, yet also need to continue to play Gottlieb Pinball Classics. Bit weird...
Final Word
To make this a game, you've got to unlock tables and spend credits wisely, and if you just want to flip some paddles and admire the pretty lights, having to earn a go on the table of your choice is a bit of a bummer, but as I say, there do appear to be some cheat codes to speed things along.
That won't help you develop any pinball skills, though. You'll have to practice for that, and I'm no pinball expert at all. I don't know how well Gottlieb Pinball Classics captures the feel of pinball, but whether it does or not, the actual game, in the hands of an idiot, feels really good.
I would normally have absolutely no reason to go back and play a pinball game, but this time, knowing how good it looks and feels, knowing how much attention has been put into it, I might actually learn something interesting about pinball here.
Do I want to? Not urgently, no, but I know where to turn to if I ever need a game of digital pinball. Sorry, Space Cadet.
Fun Facts
A fortune teller and love tester machine are also included, in just as much detail as the pinball tables.
Gottlieb Pinball Classics, developed by FarSight Studios, first released in 2004.
Version played: PlayStation Portable, 2005, via emulation.