Table animations are slightly choppy and the game does not scale up very well at all - while you can maximize the table window to make it larger on higher resolution displays, this results in a pixelated mess and only serves to accentuate the "rippling" effect. As the ball passes through certain tunnels, you will see the tunnels ripple a bit. One thing 3-D Ultra Pinball does seem to have going for it, though, is its kindness to players with disabilities: you can play the game entirely with two mouse buttons.Īesthetically speaking, the quality of the 3D rendered tables isn't bad, but given the game's target platform of Windows 3.1 or later, the tables were designed to show at 640x480 and 256 colors, resulting in some graininess and loss of detail. Perhaps most aggravating to established pinball players is the uselessness of the table bump feature - meaning if your ball is out of reach of the flippers and about to go down the outlane, you're screwed. It's certainly a helpful gesture, though, that the game will offer you a "bozo ball" if you fail to score any points after launching your ball. Most flipper tricks like juggling do not work due to how overly powerful the flippers are, though it is possible to hold the ball (if it's not already moving too fast by the time it reaches your flippers). The ball has an alarming tendency to get stuck between two jet bumpers for a second or so, which scores a lot of points but makes a horrible racket. When struck with a flipper, the ball seems to go in almost random directions, making it near impossible to even attempt to aim your shots. The ball floats all over the place like a balloon filled with air, never really feeling like the heavy steel ball that it is. With as much depth as Ultra has, it's almost inexcusable how bad the ball physics are. The modes are usually pretty simple just smack whatever just appeared a few times with the ball and then hit whatever target the game specifies for you (through speech samples and a bulls-eye target). Bonus modes often involve extra targets being added to the table, either warping in or folding out of the table like transformer robots. Otherwise, these buildings really only serve to enhance bonus points and enable some extra modes. In doing so, it is possible to eventually build and launch a starship, which effectively wins the game. In Play All mode, completing certain bonus modes and entering the construction building will allow you to build and upgrade structures in the Colony. In addition to the pinball action, Ultra has a sort of mini strategy game buried beneath the surface. So all of the tables are sci-fi oriented, with the Colony table being on the planet's surface, the Mine being underground, and the Command Post being aboard a space station. The overarching theme of this version is a space colony, actually based on Sierra's previous ambitious (and ultimately failed) strategy game, Outpost. And the best part, for some, was that Ultra did not require users to buy Windows 95, which considering that Win95 cost $205 at launch and 3-D Ultra Pinball barely priced at $50, was quite the savings.ģ-D Ultra Pinball spans three "main" tables - Colony, Command Post, and Mine - and several sub tables, with the option to play the main tables individually or play all of them at once, shifting between tables by completing certain skill shots. 3-D Ultra Pinball had not one table, but three (and further tables within those tables), more music, more graphics, more amazing skill shots, and digitized speech and computer-rendered animations to take advantage of its CD-ROM format. When 3-D Ultra Pinball was released, the magazine page ads declared dominion over Space Cadet.
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