A hobbyist is rebuilding Microsoft’s 3D Pinball: Space Cadet as a real machine, crafting a physical playfield with working bumpers, ramps, and lighting.
tech press and the internet at large is standing at attention.
Meanwhile tech press and the internet at large
3d? What about it was 3d?
It was okay I guess. Not really all that great, but I don’t recall a 3d aspect.
It had that Skeuomorphic faux-3D look to it, kinda.
I guess the ramps did go over the playfield, so in that way I guess it was 3d.
I had to look it up: cinematronics called the platform “Full Tilt! Pinball”, AKA “Pinball 95” and it came with three tables, space cadet being one of them. But it was not 3d space cadet pinball, it was just space cadet. The one that came on the windows plus for 95 was a shortened version - less content- as well.
Then microsoft licensed it for themselves and merged that name “3d pinball for windows”.
It’s 3D compared to pinball videogames from the 70s/80s, which were decidedly not. It actually looks like a pinball game that could exist, the ball moves relatively realistically, and has paths that go ‘over’ the main play field.
That’s just what Microsoft chose to name it… Many games back then were called 3D even if they were just pre-rendered like this or Donkey Kong Country.
Heck yeah it counts as retro. I imagine we all have happy memories of that little game.
I remember just a couple years ago, when I was on a pinball kick, I did some research to see if anyone had made a real Space Cadet machine and was surprised to see no one had. I remember reading some claims that doing so would be virtually impossible because the mechanisms necessary to recreate the behavior of the game could not feasibly be arranged on the underside of the playfield.
I hope this person proves them wrong
I don’t remember exactly how the game plays, but just looking at the table I don’t see anything that looks impossible. There is that subway/tunnel that iirc works in both directions which would require some trickery but totally doable at least in one direction.
I vaguely remember the middle of the table turn into a black hole, pulling the ball in. That might be tough to implement in a real thing.
Dont most tables with something like that either have a rotating plate or an electromagnet that only magnetizes the ball when it is powered? Probably could so something like that.
The new DUNE table has a similar feature for the sandworm. It’s a magnet on an elevator and will grab the ball and bring it below the playfield to a subway that feeds to a VUK. So it’s possible. The only issue would be the pop bumpers on the upper playfield for the launch, pop bumper assemblies drop down a good 4-5 Inches from the playfield, so they would need to be changed.
Oh man, I’ve thought about this many many times. I don’t know shit about real pinball tables so I had no idea if it were actually possible, but I leaned more towards probably not. The physics didn’t seem recreateable. I even thought about how I’d probably put a small vacuum pump for the gravity hole in the center!
I hope they succeed and I hope it feels as authentic as possible.I’d go with magnet for the gravity hole.
This is awesome.
I forgot all about MS pinball - IIRC it was pretty fun. Making it a real thing would be a blast!
Someone decompiled it and there’s now versions of it available on the play store and other places. It is a real blast from the past.
One of the first things I did, when I installed Linux Mint, was install a port of Space Cadet Pinball
how did I never think to do this!?
I did a post on it a while back, it runs on everything!
Last update is 3 years ago. The project is dead. /s (just joking around BTW)
This hit me right in the nostalgia.
I play it on my phone. I would love to have a physical table of it.
That’s awesome
A Remake.
