Subject: Pinball 2000 Report From London
From: [email-masked] (Jeremy Wilson)
Date: 26 Jan 1999 14:38:58 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball

Hello fellow pinball players!

I was fortunate enough to attend the pre-show unveiling of Pinball 2000 - 
Revenge From Mars - last night in London, so I thought I would offer up some 
info that the website and speculation hasn't addressed.

First, the technical details:

The CPU is a standard Cryix (sp?) based PC motherboard, running a Phoenix BIOS 
and booting off a flash card - no hard drive.  All of the custom stuff that WMS 
normally uses, such as DCSII, are contained on a single PCI card.  
Communication with the driver board is made via a parallel interface, down to 
the cabinet itself.

It has *full stereo sound*, with the speakers aimed directly at the player and 
mounted just below the backglass.  The backglass is about the size of two 
standard videogame marquees, so it's not small.

The head takes up just under half the top of the game, which makes the game 
itself seem much smaller, almost Safecracker sized, but rest assured this is 
merely an optical illusion.  The RFM playfield is only 2" shorter than a 
standard playfield, and there is room in the back for a full length one.

The monitor is a standard low-res 19" colour tube, which anyone who has owned 
or repaired videogames is very, very familiar with.  It has a custom mounting 
bracket, of course, but otherwise is the same style as the old G07s dating back 
to the early 80's.

The cabinet itself is similar to the standard we are all used to, with the 
exception of the keyed lockdown bar, which allows glass removal without access 
to the rest of the machine.

The playfield glass is standard tempered - there is no extra stuff for 
reflectiveness.

To those concerned about height or viewing angle, rest assured.  I viewed the 
image from right down at eye level (ala Lyman Sheats style) all the way to my 
tiptoes (I'm 5'8"), also at extreme right and left angles and I had no problem 
whatsoever seeing the images.  The implementation is *excellent*.

Putting on and pulling off the head is a two-man job, unless you're He-Man.  
Fortunately, the way the system is set up, you'll likely never need to remove 
it.  The CPU is located just behind the marquee, with easy access to the top of 
the motherboard, and pulling out the playfield is easy, as it stands on it's 
own, allowing access to the driver board.

This will probably be the easiest pinball machine to fix that has ever existed 
- each fuse has it's own LED, and the game *tells you* where to find burned-out 
bulbs, among other things.  Once again, *excellent*.

Now, on to the playfield layout:

Standard flippers, slingshots.  Two ramps are located on either side of the 
centre ramp which works like the one in Goldeneye, popping up and down as 
needed.  The side ramps lead to the inlanes.  Lock shot on the right side to 
the left of the right ramp leads to the right ramp (perhaps elsewhere, I only 
played a few games with all the crowds).  Left and right consists of an orbit 
loop, with three jets on the left, beside roll-overs.  The centre ramp leads to 
a ball trough, which deposits the ball in a lock mechanism feeding out the left 
loop.

For those concerned, yes - you can see the back of the playfield, *if the game 
wants you to see it*.  It turns the GI on when the ball is back there and it 
can be seen perfectly fine.  However, when the screen gets going and you have 
to shoot at images, it turns the backlighting off.

Now, for the all important game play:

If you liked Monster Bash, you'll love Revenge from Mars.  It has a similar 
layout to Attack from Mars, but the goals and modes are more straight forward 
and easy to understand for the new pinball player, while still maintaining a 
level of difficulty to appeal to the experienced player.

At game start, you can choose what "set" of modes you'd like to start with by 
selecting them using the "action" buttons, which are part of the standard 
button, surrounding it in a semi-circle.  Most people will not even notice 
buttons, but the designers were well aware of that and their use was limited in 
this game.

Once you select, the mode begins.  The easiest mode, which I selected, was 
"Alien Abduction", where you must shoot the ramps to stop the saucers from 
stealing various objects, such as cows.  Shooting any of the ramps or orbits 
fires missles at the saucers as well.

Please, do not take my statements as a ruleset.  I am going completely by 
memory and I only played a few games, but I will try and explain as best as I 
can.

Anyway, all modes are completed by shooting the centre ramp, which allows the 
ball to be captured and your performance evaluated.  If you did your job 
flawlessly, you are awarded an extra bonus, which apparently works like a 
wizard mode - ie. you must complete a mode to a certain level to be awarded a 
level, otherwise you must re-do the mode until you complete it fully.

This will appeal to newbies, as they can go through modes beating the crap out 
of martians and feel like they've accomplished something, while the good 
players will know what they need to do to really excell.  Once again, Lyman and 
the other excellent programmers have made a two-layered game.

As for ball feel, the playfield is very wide open, ala No Fear, but without the 
frustrating rubber-post-hell feeling - every point leads to a switch, a ramp, a 
drop target (yes, on the right side, like the lock in T2), or the back loop.  
There are some very satisfying shots on the game, and I imagine ball flow from 
one ramp to another will be good, but for the most part I found the "flow" (ie. 
constant ball movement) to be missing.  There is a lot of ball stopping in this 
game.

That is merely a matter of taste, and in my opinion indicative of the 
designer's, in this case George Gomez's, style overall.  It is very much one of 
his games.

The games I played were about 70% complete - not all the modes were complete 
and the final "polish" was missing.  Even so, they were completely playable and 
I have to say, a lot of the graphics were *spectacular*.  The final shot up the 
ramp to destroy the saucer and the resulting explosion was awe-inspiring.

I found I rarely looked at the playfield at all - the graphics display just 
sucks you right in and you can't take your eyes off of it.  Even though, 
compared to the polished look we get from videogame these days, Mars seems a 
little blocky, it is still a quantum leap for pinball.  You really do feel like 
you can reach in and touch the martians on screen.  Interaction, even in this 
early version, between the ball and the screen is *excellent*.  All in all, I 
believe the programmers deserve a medal for their seemless integration effort.

My final verdict?  Classic pinheads will probably be weary and suspicious of 
the machine at first, and it will require a complete re-thinking of how pinball 
works for those of us used to a basically static playfield.  

However, the market that WMS solely lacks - the video player - will be *very* 
interested in this baby.  There's even one mode where a Lincoln "transformer" 
battles a martian that will look instantly familiar to anyone who has played 
Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat.  I think that's a key to getting the new players, 
and the new players will be what saves pinball.

Revenge from Mars is, in my opinion, an excellent opening volley from WMS to 
help gain market share.  It's not perfect, it's not polished, but it's only the 
first game on this new platform... Who knows what will come down the pipe in 
the next while!  

This game blew me away, and it's only the beginning.

--
[email-masked]  - Jeremy Wilson  -  Modern Pinball Game Collector
Wonder what's inside my wallet? http://www.inforamp.net/~xeno/wallet