The revival of ‘90s PC pretend pub highlight Pro Pinball was first championed on this very site nearly a year ago by wandering PCGamesN sage Paul Dean. Armed with a Kickstarter pitch, series creator Adrian Barritt promised sky-high tables too economically unfeasible to construct in the real world.
Sadly, one enthusiastic conversation wasn’t enough to see the developers past their $400,000 goal – but now they’ve returned with a slightly different pitch and a far more modest target that’s already within reach.
Ade and team have a revised plan to remake all four tables released under the Pro Pinball name in the ‘90s – The Web, Timeshock!, Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey – and, should they succeed, to embark on a new series of designs beyond. But for now, they’d like $40,000 to bring Timeshock! to market. After three days of Kickstarting, they’re already halfway there.
The money will fund a new physics engine, plus front-end and graphics enhancements. I’m amused to note that Barritt’s concession to contemporary game development is “motion blurred flippers”.
The virtual machine is eventually destined for Mac and Linux, and already runs a treat on PC:
Cor, that’s a lot of melodrama even for a magic table, isn’t it?
As you can see, Timeshock’s ULTRA edition will incorporate a lovely lighting engine – as well as a new Glass-Off Mode, in which you can remove the machine’s glass and tinker with it. Steamy.
How many of you remember Pro Pinball? I’m afraid I used to head straight to Accessories for my flipper fix.