''Virtual Pinball'' is a follow-up to EA's 1983 title ''

Pinball Construction Set ''Pinball Construction Set'' is a video game by Bill Budge written for the Apple II. It was originally published in 1982 through Budge's own company, BudgeCo, then was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 along with ports to the Atari 8-bit family ...

'' from the same author,

Bill Budge Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954) is a retired American video game programmer and designer. He is best known for the Apple II games '' Raster Blaster'' (1981) and ''Pinball Construction Set'' (1983). Early games Budge says he became interested i ...

, released 10 years later for the

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Syst ...

. One to four players can choose from either 29 premade tables or design one using in-game editor tools. Designing options include ten different backgrounds and six themes, and a player can choose where objects are placed, the style of music, and the ball speed. ''Virtual Pinball'' lacks the unlimited floppy disc storage used by the original, and the ability to create

self-booting disk A self-booting disk is a floppy disk for home or personal computers that loads directly into a standalone application when the system is turned on, bypassing the operating system. This was common, even standard, on some computers in the late 1970 ...

s that can be played without the construction set software.

Gameplay

The player can play the 29 existing games, go to the blueprint plans, or play one of the ten user created games. It also allows the player to change the Game theme, Parts theme, Board background, Skill level, ball action, and music. Workshop Mode allows starting with a blank game where up to 256 parts can be placed anywhere on the board. These parts include Bumpers, Flippers, Walls, Kick Walls, Targets, Tracks, Specials, Launchers, Blasters, and Grabbers. All of these items are related to items found on a real table. A game starts with four balls. The ball is launched by pressing and holding the A button, with the time held determining the power of the launch. All left flippers are controlled by the D-pad, while all right flippers are controlled by the C button. Hitting B will nudge the table, and can be used in conjunction with the D-pad to nudge in a certain direction.

Scoring

References

{{reflist 1993 video games Electronic Arts games Pinball video games Sega Genesis games Sega Genesis-only games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States