Pinball Deluxe

Title
Publisher Pinball Deluxe / Spidersoft / GameTek

Genre Pinball

Features 256 KB Rom

Reviewer Matthias

Summary
Gameplay
Pinball deluxe combines the tables of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies on one cartridge. These pinball games have been originally released on Commodore Amiga, but have been ported later to other systems. The sequel Pinball Illusions hasn't been converted to the GameBoy as far as I know. At Pinball Deluxe for the GameBoy, you can choose between seven tables.

PartyLand (topic of this table is a theme park)
Ignition (topic of this table is a rocket launch)
Steel Wheel (topic of this table is railroad)
Graveyard (the topic is obvious, isn't it?)
Speed Devils (topic are fast cars)
Billion Dollar Gameshow (again you should guess the topic from the name)
Stones & Bones (scary)

As if you play at a real pinball, you can rumble the table (with the B button), and like in real life, you loose your ball, if you cheat too much... If you got a high score, you may enter your name, but unfortunately, the scores are not saved. There isn't much more to tell about what the game is about, because am sure everybody knows what Pinball is ;^)

Verdict To be honest the conversion is not very good.

I am not complaining about GameBoy typical problems, like e.g. if the table scrolls the LCD matrix is too slow and the graphics is jerky, but I am complaining about the bad programming. If the ball moves fast, it doesn't move fluently, but it "jumps" several pixels, so sometimes it looks like the game has only 5 - 10 frames per second (this is true, I am not exaggerating).

Also the graphics is bad. The original was so colorful. I know such a graphic isn't possible (until GB color is released ;^) but GameTek doesn't even use continuing background-graphics. The tables usually have only one little graphic from the topic of the table in the background. That's all! An exception is Speed Devils where there is also a checkered pattern at the back of the left screen.

So my opinion is, that the graphics could have been done much better. Why don't they use a background pattern with the light gray and white and use dark gray a black for ball and border? And why is the scrolling so bad? So all that is left as an advantage is in my opinion "the GameBoy advantage" - that I can play it in my bed or anywhere else and that's the only reason why I am playing it and since it's my only pinball for GB I play it really often and also like it a bit. The tables themselves are good and so the game can be fun.

If you like Pinball then why not try it?!

Title Publisher	Pinball Deluxe / Spidersoft / GameTek
Genre	Pinball
Features	256 KB Rom
Reviewer	Matthias
Summary Gameplay	Pinball deluxe combines the tables of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies on one cartridge. These pinball games have been originally released on Commodore Amiga, but have been ported later to other systems. The sequel Pinball Illusions hasn't been converted to the GameBoy as far as I know. At Pinball Deluxe for the GameBoy, you can choose between seven tables. PartyLand (topic of this table is a theme park) Ignition (topic of this table is a rocket launch) Steel Wheel (topic of this table is railroad) Graveyard (the topic is obvious, isn't it?) Speed Devils (topic are fast cars) Billion Dollar Gameshow (again you should guess the topic from the name) Stones & Bones (scary) As if you play at a real pinball, you can rumble the table (with the B button), and like in real life, you loose your ball, if you cheat too much... If you got a high score, you may enter your name, but unfortunately, the scores are not saved. There isn't much more to tell about what the game is about, because am sure everybody knows what Pinball is ;^)
Verdict	To be honest the conversion is not very good. I am not complaining about GameBoy typical problems, like e.g. if the table scrolls the LCD matrix is too slow and the graphics is jerky, but I am complaining about the bad programming. If the ball moves fast, it doesn't move fluently, but it "jumps" several pixels, so sometimes it looks like the game has only 5 - 10 frames per second (this is true, I am not exaggerating). Also the graphics is bad. The original was so colorful. I know such a graphic isn't possible (until GB color is released ;^) but GameTek doesn't even use continuing background-graphics. The tables usually have only one little graphic from the topic of the table in the background. That's all! An exception is Speed Devils where there is also a checkered pattern at the back of the left screen. So my opinion is, that the graphics could have been done much better. Why don't they use a background pattern with the light gray and white and use dark gray a black for ball and border? And why is the scrolling so bad? So all that is left as an advantage is in my opinion "the GameBoy advantage" - that I can play it in my bed or anywhere else and that's the only reason why I am playing it and since it's my only pinball for GB I play it really often and also like it a bit. The tables themselves are good and so the game can be fun. If you like Pinball then why not try it?!