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Blinky

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Tilt: documentary about the valiant effort to save pinball by merging it with video games

June 21, 2008 8:41pm

I look forward to seeing this. I loved Revenge from Mars when it came out, and it's still one of the machines I love best. The gameplay wasn't as deep as something like Twilight Zone, but it was rich and satisfying, and I got to really enjoy the closer-up shot style it seemed to require. Star Wars had a bit less to it and could be repetitive, but was always worth a quarter or two, and was a great machine for introducing friends to pinball.

I think the years have been pretty kind to Revenge from Mars, partly because its gameplay survives indifferent maintenance, which a lot of the great '90s machines don't. Addams Family is a wonderful, wonderful machine, but it's been years since I've been lucky enough to play one with a top flipper strong enough to get the ball up the left ramp. It's a good game to spend a few minutes on even hobbled like that, but no good for serious play. A lot of the really brilliant games--Twilight Zone, Funhouse--are the same or worse; the maintenance standard you usually encounter isn't high enough for the games to be more than shadows of themselves. Revenge from Mars, on the other hand, can survive moderately mushy flippers, and seems to overall stay in better shape (I assume because it's mechanically simpler).

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