08 August, 2012

The first pinball, LittleWing and Amtex



The first Mac Pinball worth the pinball name was Tristan (1991) by Littlewing


This game was the first in a long series by Mr. and Mrs. Fujita. You can visit their web-site by clicking on the link above. Although the table was a little simplistic the physics were marvelous with that special Littlewing touch (realism but also some cheating with the gravity laws whenever it's needed in order to make the game interesting). The game was produced by Amtex and had a crazy protection (look-up table; but at least you could photocopy it). The game played on all Macs but it was a pain in the neck since it required a math co-processor. Fortunately Littlewing released what they call the Internet Edition: it plays without FPU and with just a serial number protection. 

Soon after Tristan, Amtex produced 8 Ball Deluxe (1992) a simulator of the pinball with the same name by Bally. 


The code was written by Littlewing again and it represented a substantial improvement over Tristan. Amtex announced also Royal Flush and Funhouse for both Mac and PC's but only the PC version of the first appeared and the Funhouse project was cancelled. Well, we know now that Amtex was moribund at the time: no more pinball will be coming from this direction. The downfall of the Littlewing-Amtex collaboration is that 8BD may be tied up in some legalistic imbroglio and I don't know if there will ever be an internet edition of this superb pinball.

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