Pinball Construction Set
AMG AllGame Guide:
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Pinball Construction Set
- Release Date: 1983
- Genre: Traditional
- Style: 2D Pinball
- Similar Games: Pinball Wizard (Commodore 64/128)
Game Description
Electronic Arts' Pinball Construction Set contains all the tools and utilities needed to create your own table filled with hazards and bonuses. Designing a table involves moving a hand cursor around the screen, pressing a button over the desired item to grab it, and then placing it where you think it should go.The work in progress is located on the left side of the screen while the various parts are on the right. Parts include standard pinball items such as triangle bumpers and different sized flippers with round bumpers, tunnel pieces, slanted platforms, and dots. The latter items can be used to create shapes where the ball can bounce around.
While the table's border is brown, there are decorative items of different colors and sizes available. Once all the pieces have been placed on the table, you'll have the option of saving and testing it out. If the ball gets stuck between bumpers or the flippers are too far apart, you can exit the test mode and fix the problems. Once all the kinks have been ironed out, invite some friends over for a little pinball competition.
~ Matthew House, All Game Guide
Roots & Influences
Early pinball simulations include Video Pinball (1981) for the Atari 2600, Pinball (1983) for the Intellivision and Pinball Wizard (1984) for the Commodore 64.~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Designer, Developer and Programmer: Bill Budge; Package Design: Steinhilber, Deutsch and Gard; Creative Direction and Linernotes: Goodby, Berlin and Silverstein; Photography: Larry Keenan; Producer: Dave Evans
~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
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Pinball Construction Set
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Pinball Construction Set
| Pinball Construction Set | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | BudgeCo |
| Publisher(s) | BudgeCo Electronic Arts & Ariolasoft (Europe) |
| Designer(s) | Bill Budge |
| Platform(s) | Apple II Atari 800 Commodore 64 Apple Macintosh DOS (booter) |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Pinball simulation, Game creation system |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Media/distribution | 5¼" disk |
Pinball Construction Set (PCS) is a video game by Bill Budge published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Apple II and Atari 800 in 1983 and was later ported to other platforms, such as the Commodore 64 and DOS (as a booter).
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Contents
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Description
Pinball Construction Set created a new genre of video games—the "builder" or "construction set" class of games. With PCS, users can construct their own virtual pinball machine, by dropping controls onto a table. Controls included bumpers, flippers, spinners and other standard pinball paraphernalia. Attributes such as gravity and the physics model could also be modified. Users could save their creations and develop custom artwork to go along with them. Tables could be saved on floppy disks and freely traded.
History
Budge originally published and distributed this game via his publishing "company" (Budge and his sister), BudgeCo. In the competitive publishing era of the 1980s, however, he willingly allowed EA to publish his game when they approached him in 1983, since he didn't really want to be an entrepreneur.
Budge was inspired to program the game after developing Raster Blaster, the first pinball game for the Apple II. He encountered many hurdles in trying to develop an open-ended pinball development tool, mostly because of the Apple's relatively limited processing power and graphics capabilities.
Pinball Construction Set was ported to the numerous home computers of the era, including the Commodore 64 and as a PC booter. PCS went on to sell over an astounding 300,000 copies in all platforms. EA followed with Music Construction Set, Adventure Construction Set and Racing Destruction Set all from different authors.
Reception
Computer Gaming World considered the game quite revolutionary, and easy to understand because of its representative icons and drag-and-drop method of constructing a table. The nine-page manual was considered "overkill", since Pinball Construction Set required no programming knowledge; CGW reported that an eight-year-old had no problems creating his own tables.[1]
Legacy
In 1993, Budge went on to port his game to the Sega Genesis under the name Virtual Pinball.
Will Wright cited the game as an inspiration.[2]
Awards
Pinball Construction Set is an inductee in GameSpy's Hall of Fame.[3]
In 2008, Pinball Construction Set was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for "User Generated Content/Game Modification". Bill Budge accepted the award.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Besndard, John (May–June 1983), "Pinball Construction Set", Computer Gaming World: 12, 43
- ^ GDC 2012: The games that influenced our influential game designers from Gamasutra.com
- ^ GameSpy Hall of Fame from GameSpy
- ^ 2008 Tech Emmy Winners from Kotaku.com
External links
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