For those who enjoy their gaming to be an undemanding yet unpredictable affair, life has never been so good. Anyone who yearns to whack a ball around a colourful environment in a merely vaguely controllable way doesn’t have far to look: from the frankly terrible Pinball 3D that comes with Windows XP, you can progress up to the likes of Marble Blast, a game so addictive it managed to hook me in from its secret base on someone else’s iMac.
Those who truly believe that life has no meaning without a computer game to occupy their every waking moment can become chemically dependent on Peggle, the gaming equivalent of being hooked on sherbet: you’d dearly love to try that proper gear you paid good money for (Half Life 2: Episode Two in this analogy), but can’t get past the sweet, sweet allure of the cheap and easy stuff.
Despite the wide availability of this gaming crack, one game that’s stood the test of time is the excellent Pinball Dreams for the Amiga. Now well over a decade old, I still find myself going back to it on a regular basis with the help of emulation via WinUAE.
The really odd thing: I’m still terrible at it. While I’m sure there are people in existence who’ve managed to master it, I’m not one of them. But still, it’s a game that’s done so well - providing the player with just the right balance between whacking a ball around quasi-randomly and giving you real, rewarding targets to aim for - that it’s difficult not to return to its pixellated beauty.
Seriously, it’s beautiful. Observe.
