Mastertronic Plus
£2.99

Pinball games have been around on the Spectrum since the year dot, so why have Mastertronic decided to produce another one? The only thing that makes 3D-Pinball any different to many of the others is that it's supposed to be in 3-D. All that's really been done is the pinball table has been drawn on an angle - the ball itself isn't in 3- D, and the game controls exactly the same way as any other.

There are no really special features about the table, all the bumpers and dials have been used hundreds of times before. They all have fancy names to make them more interesting though. 'The Black Hole' for example, is really a little hole at the top of the table and the 'Tombstone Targets' are three things that look like dominos!

The name of the game is collecting a high score: not too exciting, but all fans of pinball will find it a challenge. You are supposed to collect massive bonuses by spinning a gadget here and twiddling a thingamigig there. Trouble is that when I play, the ball only stays on the table for a couple of seconds! Sound effects are basic, with an interesting (ahem) 48K tune at the beginning of every game. Colour unfortunately clashes quite a lot, as you can see from the screen shot.

3D-Pinball will keep fans of the game occupied for at least half an hour as long as they're not expecting anything original from it.

Mastertronic Plus
£2.99 re-releasse

Despite the inlay and the software referring to totally different games this is quite a reasonable attempt at pinball. The game on the inlay is called 3-D Pinball and on the tape it's Pinball Power!

All the features of a normal pinball table are here. Bonus dials, rollover lanes, bumbers, hairpins, targets and of course the all important flippers have all been included (It's a good job the flippers have or you wouldn't have much fun!).

The board is drawn 3D style, tilted slightly backwards and the ball goes in front of and behind the various obstacles very convincingly. My main moan is that there's only one pinball table to choose from. This severely restricts playability as you very easily get fed up of going through the same motions and hitting the same bonus targets all the while. The main aim in this seems to be to get the biggest score possible, but this just does not excite me. 3-D Pinball is a very basic pinball simulation and lacks lastability.

BARGAIN BASEMENT

It's time to tiptoe down those creaky old stairs again. JONATHAN DAVIES leads the way...

Mastertronic Plus
£2.99
Reviewer: Jonathan Davies

Ho hum. A pinball game.

But, astonishingly enough, it's quite a good one. In akchawl fact, though, most pinball games tend to be on the right side of acceptable. I mean as long as the ball bounces around in a fairly reasonable manner, and the table's nice and cluttered-looking, you've got yourself a pinball game.

So what distinguishes this one? Well, for a start it's sort of verging on being 3D. The screenshot can probably explain it better than I ever could. The ball bounces very convincingly and can really shift when it wants to. The only anomaly here is that you can't vary the speed with which it's initially launched. You just press a key and away you go. Oh, and the table's a bit vacuous. There are only a handful of things to bash into, plus a couple of bonusy bits, but that's about all.

So, um, what else do you want to know? I can think of better ways to spend the money (but I'm not telling you them). If, however, you've got your heart set on a pinball game, look no further than this one. It'll have you rushing to open a Nat West account immediately.

Label: Mastertronic
Price: £2.99
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Who's idea was this? Talk about setting yourself difficult targets. 3D graphics are pretty tough to program, and the inertia effect of gravity on rolling balls is such a complicated mathematic formula it's almost impossible to get right. Since no-one (to my knowledge) has actually perfected either, it seems a bit ambitious to try and incorporate both in one program.

Nevertheless, 3D Pinball comes about as close as any I've seen.

The aim, of course, is to simply keep your ball on the table as long as possible, collecting the available bonuses.

Since there's only one table (unlike some other pinball outings) and bearing mind that there isn't even a second playfield, the onus is very much put upon the playability to bail out 3D Pinball on the interest front.

Unfortunately, while the ball travels quite convincingly in the lower (nearest) area of the table, it behaves most strangely up the other end. It's as if there are magnets at the top end of the table and the ball continually slows down and speeds up as it's pulled this way and that. Don't get me wrong. We're not talking impossible irrationality here, but it doesn't feel right.

There are nine bonus tricks to perform, ranging from simple bumpers through tricky tombstone knock-downs to ultra-impossible round-the-hairpin shots.

The action's fast and you can perform all the experts' pinball tactics, like trapping the ball in the crook of your flipper, letting it roll gradually towards the end and - at the right point - whacking it, thus attaining more accuracy.

Until you've mastered such tricks, you can forget any ideas about intentionally collecting any bonuses, since the perspective on the ball at the nearest point on the table makes it hard to time your flips.

Each time you operate a flipper, the bonus indicator wheel (centre, front) clicks round to the next position. This is the time to get your ball into the bonus trap, where your rewards fluctuate from paltry to extremely generous.

The biggest problem with 3D Pinball is that, despite quite an impressive number of bonus features, the single table won't hold your interest for too long.

Tlmatcanner, from Activision definitely offers a better variety of levels, is uncomplicated by the 3D novelty and has a better ball logarithm, but, for the price, 3D Pinball comes out on top.

Mastertronic
Spectrum, C64 £2.99

For extra realism the pintable in this simulation is tilted into the screen, so you get a real perspective! 3D! view of the action. What this amounts to is a ball that grows smaller as it moves up the table, and though this is impressive for about a minute it doesn't really add an awful lot to the game, which turns out to be pretty dull. the actual table layout lacks any of the interesting features you'd find on a modern (ie post 1950) machine so if your a pin-freak you'll find the action soon becomes yawnsome. Anyone new to this game, though, should be able to eke an hours play out of this game.