Epic Pinball

The Good
This was the first game I ever owned that was released in installments. Each package contained the basic game and menu system together with four or five tables. I had packs 1 & 2 so that meant nine tables in all.

I must have owned it back in 1994/5 and the whole family played it. There was competition to set the highest score on each table and at one point this led to rationing access to the PC in one hour sessions. It was the ideal game for us at that time, easy enough for any of us to play, interesting enough that we all wanted to play it, and with enough bonuses and mini games to remain challenging for ages.

It's now 2012 and I've just loaded two tables that I can play using the DOSBOX emulator and they still hold my attention.

The music in these games is excellent. I played the game again today, just the Jungle and Enigma tables, and it still holds its own against other pinball games I've played, and uninstalled, over the years.

The Bad
Only two things really, one being that eventually the rest of the family had better scores than me on all tables, and the other being that my wife eventually got such a high score on the Deep Sea table that it was stored as a humongous negative number.

The Bottom Line
An oldie and a goldie. It runs in DOS so you'll probably need an emulator to play it but, if you get the chance, give it a go.

I've just re-installed two tables and would not hesitate to install more when I can.

The Good
For pinball fans, Epic Pinball was a godsend - the fast-scrolling screens were a big improvement over the tiny screens of older PC games. The variety of pinball tables made for hours of enjoyment - if you got bored with one table, there were many more. Some tables like Deep Sea and Pangaea had excellent pixelled graphics.

The Bad
Even if "nostalgia" tables like Magic were reflective of gameplay at their time, they did get quite dull to play after awhile. I at least credit Epic for putting them in. Also, the music is perhaps a little "cheesy", at least compared to what the PC MOD-scene was creating at the time of its release.

The Bottom Line
If you've ever played the classics Pinball Dreams or Pinball Fantasies on the Amiga (or their PC ports), you will find Epic Pinball comparable. All these games have demoscene roots. Somehow, I just haven't found the more recent "3d-rendered" Windows pinball games as enjoyable, probably since they take a step backward in that the table doesn't move.

For the record, Epic developed two other pinball games: Silverball, similar to Epic Pinball except a commercial release, and Extreme Pinball, a sequel of sorts which was also released commerically (expect reviews for these two games in the future).

The Good
Big tables with great personality each one (that girl table really has some nice personality eh?) nice music and great physics, my favourite table was 'The Android' you had to bring it to life by hitting some spots in the table, really innovative and original.

The Bad
Some of the tables are a bit silly and the ball-launching game was the same as the tilt key, some times it sucked getting your table accidentally tilted...

The Bottom Line
Im not an expert in pinballs but if you are a pinball maniac you should like Epic Pinball a lot.