Basic Overview

MacPinball opens to present a basic set of instructions for which keys operate the different functions—left and right flippers (or “bars” in MacPinball terms), the shooter, and—as a very nice touch—even a nudge is provided. From there, all you have to do is start playing.

The gameplay is a good approximation of real play, allowing many of the same tricks as a live machine might offer. You can trap the ball with the flippers, for example, just like in a real pinball machine. You don’t have to wait for the ball to drop in to pull back the shooter. Sound effects are good, not too annoying, and also fairly approximate a real machine. I can tell that the developers have actually played pinball before, and enough to appreciate the nuances.

Three different “machines” allow variety for gameplay. One has a series of chutes and ramps, with a magnetic spinner; another has chutes, tunnels, a spinner, and more bumpers than the first; the third has a double set of flippers, ramps, a spinner, and a big tunnel. Each machine has a different table-top too, and very different looks. And each supposedly emulates a different ball—plastic, wood, or metal—for further variation. All three are about the same difficulty level, however.

An option for two-player mode offers competitive play. I haven’t had an opportunity to try this out; my wife isn’t much of a gamer! But apart from two sets of balls, there is apparently very little difference otherwise.

Though the settings are sparse, they are useful. You may choose from a handful of camera angles, largely designed to enhance the realism of the gameplay. You can also choose to use a faster ball—which is, I’m guessing, intended to represent a higher level of difficulty. Frankly, I didn’t notice a substantial change here, and I ended up leaving this setting on for the whole time I played. Window size and turning sound effects off and on round out the settings.

Problems

Finding how to switch from one “machine” to another was tricky and required probing until I found it. I’ll let you in on the secret: it’s in the different ball types. Each of the three balls is directly tied to a different machine. In other words, you can’t play the same machine with three different ball types. This might be a fun switch, particularly if there are actually variations in the way they emulate the ball action. (This matters in real-life play; a metal ball is heavier and hard, while the plastic ball is hard but lighter, and a wooden ball has the weight but is softer with a bit more give.)

MacPinball is written to run on the multi-platform Mono environment (somewhat like Java, from what I gather). Thus, though MacPinball is a “Mac-only” game according to baKno, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why it would be difficult to port it to other platforms. The bare-bones interface (due to the Mono setup) gives the game a less-than fully Mac-like experience. This isn’t a problem for playing the game, but users looking for a true Mac game might frown.

Concluding Thoughts

Somehow, the experience of Pinball doesn’t translate into a computer game like I want it to. I suppose it is sort of like playing poker or blackjack through one of the many locally-installed card games—the lack of investment (in the case of pinball, hard-earned quarters!) makes the experience less fulfilling. MacPinball does a good job of bringing the game-play part to my Mac, but the joy of the whole experience is lessened.

Still, MacPinball is, overall, a good pinball game, as computer games go. It does a fine job of emulating the essence of the pinball experience, as much as one can expect it to do so on a laptop or desktop computer.

Copyright © 2008 Ed Eubanks, Jr. Reviewing in ATPM is open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us at reviews@atpm.com.