I have this sort of love and hate relationship with video game versions of pinball. I hate the concept of trying to recreate the joy of a manual arcade machine with digitized pixels, but I still love playing games of this variety, and in all honesty, a video game cartridge is a lot cheaper to purchase than a genuine pinball machine, and it takes up a whole heck of a lot less space too.
The Atari 2600 version of Video Pinball was released in 1980 and it was programmed by Bob Smith. Smith would eventually become one the founders of Imagic, a video game company that would go on to create a number of great titles for the Atari Video Computer System.
The game is fun to play, but the limitations of the joystick controller become very apparent rather quickly. Pulling back on the joystick brings back the plunger and hitting the single button on the controller releases the plunger and launches the ball. The flippers are controlled by moving the joystick to the left or the right to move the corresponding flipper. Sure, the controls work, but they do lack the feeling that one would get using something more akin to the kind of controllers that would be used with more modern gaming consoles.
The game's graphics are really good too, better than a lot of the other cartridges available for the Atari VCS at the time. The game-play is quite enjoyable once you get beyond the awkwardness of the setup of the controls. It's not a great game, but it can certainly be addictive once you have decided to succumb to the game's charms.
-Jay
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