''Balls of Steel'' is a pinball

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

developed by

Wildfire Studios Wildfire Studios is an Australian video game developer that was established in 1995. It is based in Brisbane, Australia. Wildfire has developed several pinball games for video game publishers, but their most recent games are released through R ...

and released on December 12, 1997. It is the only game to be published under the Pinball Wizards label, a division of Apogee Software (today known as

3D Realms 3D Realms Entertainment ApS is a video game publisher based in Aalborg, Denmark. Scott Miller (entrepreneur), Scott Miller founded the company in his parents' home in Garland, Texas, in 1987 as Apogee Software Productions to release his game ' ...

). When the game was originally released, it was possible to upload high scores to the WorldScores server, for a global ranking. This feature has since been discontinued.

Tables

''Balls of Steel'' features five original pinball tables: *''Darkside'': Set on a remote

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

under attack by

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

creatures. *''Barbarian'': A classic medieval

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

quest with a huge

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

on the table. *''Firestorm'': Set in a crime-ridden US city, a mad bomber is on the loose. *''Mutation'': Set in an underground science lab where a bio-hazardous accident has occurred and a large, slimy monster has taken over the lab. *''Duke Nukem'': A special table featuring the Apogee video game character

Duke Nukem ''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms) as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various co ...

. Another table, ''Devil's Island'', was dropped from the game when Wildfire was given the opportunity by Apogee to include a Duke Nukem table. ''Devil's Island'' was later released as a standalone game.

Duke Nukem tie-in

The game includes a table based on the Apogee/3D Realms video game ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...

'' including graphics from that game and original voice-overs by Nukem actor

Jon St. John Jon St. John (born December 19, 1960) is an American voice actor, former radio personality and ordained minister. He is best known for his voice roles such as Duke Nukem in the ''Duke Nukem'' video game series and Big the Cat and E-123 Omega i ...

. Pinball missions include fighting monsters like octabrains and pig-cops, and using powerups such as

jetpack A jet pack, rocket belt, or rocket pack is a device worn on the back which uses jets of gas or liquid to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and became widespread in the 1960s. ...

s and the Holoduke, from the Duke Nukem 3D video game. Graphics of a pinball game named ''Balls of Steel'' appear in ''Duke Nukem 3D'' itself, in the first level, "Hollywood Holocaust", when Duke encounters the table. ''Balls of Steel'' reappears in ''

Duke Nukem Forever ''Duke Nukem Forever'' is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Duke Nukem'' series and the sequel to ''Duke ...

''.

Development

Balls of Steel was in development since 1995. The game was showcased at

E3 1997 E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...

Reception

''Balls of Steel'' was a finalist for ''

Computer Games Strategy Plus ''Computer Games Magazine'' was a monthly computer and console gaming print magazine, founded in October 1988 as the United Kingdom publication ''Games International''. During its history, it was known variously as ''Strategy Plus'' (October 1 ...

''s 1998 "Classic Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to ''

Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

''. The editors wrote that ''Balls of Steel'' "demonstrated that you can do the Bally table on the PC, and do it well."

References

External links

Official website''Balls of Steel''
on

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{Duke Nukem series Classic Mac OS games Windows games Pinball video games 1997 video games 3D Realms games Video games scored by Bobby Prince Video games developed in Australia