Pinball Fantasies

There are games that can imitate a real pinball table so faithfully that you can almost feel the tremor of the spring beneath your fingers. Pinball Fantasies, from the Swedish studio Digital Illusions (later DICE), is exactly the title that set the bar for digital pinball on home computers in the mid-1990s.

The game offers four distinct tables, each with its own theme, rules and hidden goals. Mechanically it stands on faithful ball physics, smooth table scrolling and an elaborate scoring system with multiball, bonus rounds and ramps that entice you to repeated attempts at the highest possible score. It was precisely the depth of the individual tables' rules that set Pinball Fantasies apart from simpler arcade imitations.

The title was a sequel to the successful Pinball Dreams and pushed the series' quality up a level. With it, Digital Illusions built a reputation as a team that understood both the technical side of the Amiga and what makes pinball fun. This reputation later helped the studio grow into one of the most significant European game studios.

On the Amiga, Pinball Fantasies was among the flagship demonstrations of what the platform could do: fast redrawing, excellent sound and music that lodged itself in players' memories. The Amiga CD32 version and a range of ports to other systems spread the title to a wide audience and cemented its standing among the highest-rated pinball games of its time.

Thanks to the timeless principle that pinball is, the game did not age as quickly as many other titles. The rules are comprehensible within a moment, but perfect control over the ball and maximising your score is a challenge for long evenings.

Why play it: For one of the best digital pinball games ever, with an addictive hunt for score and music you'll remember for years.