Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Nostalgia: Pin*Bot


All Systems Activated


        I'm digging through the piles of obscurity for this post. I don't really expect anyone to have heard of this game, let alone know what it is. Now, relax as I tell you about a little pinball simulator named Pin*Bot.

        Pin*Bot is a pinball game developed by Rare and released in 1990 for the NES that attempts to be the most accurate depiction of the Williams pinball machine as possible. The gist of the NES game and the pinball machine is to move through the solar system by hitting targets that represent the planets. The player starts with the wanna-be planet, Pluto and progresses toward the Sun. The player can also light up the lights arranged in a 5x5 grid to reveal the robot's eyes. After this is where the NES version differs from the pinball table. On the NES version, the player progresses through six levels that change the color scheme and add crazy enemies to the mix such as an evil blob and an bomb-dropping plane.
        What I remember about this game the most is the music and sound effects. The music was spacey and atmospheric and almost reminiscent of Metroid. Whenever the player did something important, the robot would say something in a really low-tech, metallic voice. I think this was originally the main reason I played the game as a kid, since I hadn't figured out how to advance through the solar system or move through the levels. The thing is, it was a simple pinball game which easy to figure out with anyone, and I would go so far as to say that this game is why I like pinball so much, now.
 

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