I know I'd love to see it just because it would be such a great showcase for the power of modern machines, especially the integration of super realistic physics. Imagine bumping the machine hard to cheat? Or being able to smash the glass with a hammer and then put objects in the case and see what happens to them while you play? Could also be an amazing physics education thing if you could see real-time free-body diagrams overlaid on the ball that you could freeze in time and study showing all the forces acting on it. You could turn a dial and see what it would be like to play pinball on the moon! I hope someone sees this and makes it!
Concerning physics, we're using VPX's engine, which is very well tuned to pinball. Not sure if the breaking the glass is going to be a thing, but PR welcome if you think so. ;)
[1] https://github.com/freezy/VisualPinball.Engine [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CfZImFl1ME
1) PC Pinball games have basically been done to the platonic ideal, unless you're intent on recreating something in like VR which would truly change the experience. The reason PC pinball games emerged early is because the physics of a solid, heavy sphere of uniform density are pretty well known from classical mechanics. The fact that a ball is a sphere means that it can be rendered as a circle, and the fact a pinball machine can be rendered entirely without the need for 3D processing means that you can build a large degree of fidelity into that physical simulation. Adding more 3D gimmicks or raytracing BS does not improve the core pinball experience (and is more likely to detract, truth be told).
2) The market for a "high-fidelity PC pinball" game is not large enough to justify development costs. A 3D game is significantly more complex than a 2D game. A modern AAA game has artists specialized down to making materials that other artists can then put onto geometry. All these people need to eat and pay rent in order for the game to exist, and it's a hard sell to get people to pay $40+ for a pinball game when the platonic ideal has existed from the 90s.
[0] https://virtuapin.net/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Pinball [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Pinball
https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualpinball/
they sell pre builts. I can't attest to the quality. https://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Games-Licensed-Invaders-Blue...
edit: apparently there is kinda like "MAME" for pinball. Its called "Visual Pinball". Its a pinball emulator and people make tables for it. A world I didn't know existed.. "Simulates pinball table physics and renders the table with DirectX or OpenGL"
And its on github.
https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball
A website thats mostly forums.
"VPUniverse is a site dedicated to digital pinball simulations and anything pinball in general. Our primary focus is on Digital Pinball formats including Visual Pinball, Future Pinball, and many more pinball simulators. All content is provided on this site for free to all registered members."
There are hundreds of VPX format tables available online including original works, replicas of physical tables and replicas of existing digital tables. I've played dozens of hours of Stern's Tron Legacy both on a physical table and in Visual Pinball X, and I prefer VPX over the real thing.
There's also a high quality remake of 3D Space Cadet [2] available. Playing that one in VR feels like stepping into a PC in the 90s.
[1] https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball [2] https://www.vpforums.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=16...
https://store.steampowered.com/app/547590/Pinball_FX2_VR/
but it's getting old but it is out for the quest
https://www.meta.com/experiences/1995306573932043/
like it or not the quest is the mainstream of VR, I kept away from it because I didn't want to log in with a Facebook account but I am likely to get a Quest 3to support 3D software development, stereogram viewing and stuff like that.
Everyone thought "Gee, we've got all this storage space! What should we build?"
... and everyone answered "A pinball game!"
I have no idea why, but essentially every PC game magazine demo disc, bargain bin "20 games!" collection, etc. had at least one pinball game.
It was bizarre.
I guess the game design space was constrained enough for pinball games that fly-by-night companies had no problem getting funding to build one?
My most bizarre memory was actually playing a ton of Outpost Odyssey pinball.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz24m_5Zki4
Which was a Sierra pinball game... built in the theme of another Sierra game (Outpost)... that itself was a bit harder scifi SimCity.
I guess it was good pinball?
If you want to play your favourite pinball game in 4K, or VR, right-now-today, chances are that you probably can. Not necessarily in the OPs vision of "full nvidia 4090 pizazz", but that'll come, as those standards percolate down through the masses.
Licensing is one of the bugbears, where recreations of actual tables are concerned. Many of the most popular tables contain images, voices, IP, of some pretty huge individuals and companies, and the rights to use each were painstakingly negotiated and carefully limited, originally. Who now will go to Schwarzenegger? to Universal Studios? to the casts of Star Trek and the Addams Family?, and ask "how much?" - nobody without a very fat wallet could even dream to.
This also comes with the less-spoken implication that parts of the semi-anonymous underground modern scene take liberties (and, as such, must stay 'underground') that commercial projects could not.
The market niche of people who'd appreciate insane fidelity of physics simulation in pinball is shrinking every year, so we'd expect less games now than yesteryear, and even less such games in future. On the other hand, there could be a market for more 'gamey' mechanics (as you say, smashing the glass with a hammer) in the style of many 'physicsy' virtual reality games, but the preferences of that market is probably the opposite of what pinball purists would want.
1 - https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg?si=hlZxp2yI-BSTYmOY
Historically this has been windows only but support for Linux, MacOS, Android in work and shaping up very nicely. https://github.com/vpinball/vpinball/blob/standalone/standal...
Then check out the incredible multitude of tables for it here. Some of these are phenomenal: https://virtual-pinball-spreadsheet.web.app/
And then when you decide you want to build your own table, you go here. But be careful, it is a slippery slope, and before you know it, you're buying a 42" OLED TV for a display and a pretty capable gaming PC to run the show http://mjrnet.org/pinscape/BuildGuideV2/
There are expo's and stuff, people love this shit. In pinball there is a real strong connection to a physical (either with LCD, or mechanical) machine, it just isn't nearly as good on a computer, phone, tablet or in VR.
Windows Vista and 7 were peak in that regard. Then with Windows 8, no more fun allowed.
For software he mentions both https://store.steampowered.com/app/238260/Pinball_Arcade and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Pinball . They both looked quite good even back in 2016. Not sure how they've aged.
It's also worth noting that Zen Studios is best known for Pinball FX which is available in various flavors for just about every platform. https://zenstudios.com/games/pinball-fx/
Good for a casual pickup on your xbox or ipad or whatever you like, and they put a lot of effort into their tables, although it can be pricey to buy a lot of them.
Though, you probably don't need high end-cards and big money for a high end-pinball today. Maybe just some motivated well skilled small team would be enough?
Maybe for these virtual pinball tables that use a screen instead of an electromechanical table, but with all sorts of stuff to give some tactile feedback and actual mechanical sounds. There are typically accelerometers and tilt sensors in there too, so you can bump the machine and the software simulates the effect on the ball.
The first is open source and relies all on homebrew content, and most are remakes of existing games as you would expect, with MAME software emulation for the digital games. The software package contains a painful, CAD-like tool to define the playfield - very precise but hard to work with. You can make a new playfield in probably a month of effort, and then tinker with the game's rules for much longer.
The second, Pinball FX(which dropped the numbered titles in its fourth version), has a mix of licenses and originals, and which it's definitely become more accurate, the goal is primarily a visual showcase. It already pressures a modern GPU reasonably well when you crank the settings.
Neither one is doing anything to push the physics simulation further. Visual Pinball's physics rely on analytic methods for each mechanism, and while it has little details like computing the movement of the skirt on the pops as the ball rolls over them, it does not simulate whole-table vibrations, which are actually essential to gameplay because control is achieved through nudging the entire cabinet. And there's a huge realm of details that emerge from that where thousands of physics objects, down to the individual screw, need to wake up and interact in very fine detail, and the force creates a directed wave across the playfield, the wood needs to be able to wobble a bit. Adding a force to the ball is not sufficient. And actually achieving that means you now have to model everything the game has, including the insides, which is far more work than a playfield and magic mechanisms.
Pinball FX is not open source but I already know it isn't trying to be that detailed either.
But when you ask the broader audience about pinball video games, they point at Demon's Tilt. Which is not even trying, as far as the simulation goes - it is a video game, through and through. The problem is that broad demographic isn't really there because people who don't play pinball don't know the difference, and the niche of people who do, go play real pinballs. Which leaves a tiny space for roughly three or four companies that are focused mostly on licenses.
Of those, the pinball video game I play the most is Pinball Deluxe Reloaded, which is all originals, but most importantly, it's intentionally 2D and ideal for phones. And the sim quality is decent. And just by doing those things, it's done something none of the competition achieved, even in their mobile ports, because they put the sim first and have a 3D camera and no way of getting a simple flat projection.
I’m not saying the market is zero though, but small enough that even most indie studios wouldn’t see any profit.
Where I am the retro arcade scene has been almost completely taken over by physical pinball machines and collectors, and everyone notices that kids that are exposed to it seem to be amazed. Those of us that prefer basking in glowing phosphor seem to be in a very distinct minority.
Or more like star trek holo-emersion and you're the pinball take on dance-dance, sprinting to keep up with where to move cues?
Or video project 3d pinball game of choice onto surface?
PICO-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
WASM-4: https://wasm4.org/
I wonder why games like "where is my water" disappeared. It is probably one of the best mobile games.
lots of indie games today are becoming more arcadey and pinball-like in many ways, if you squint.
in many ways, pinball is the original "roguelite"—I fully expect indie pinball (both in video game form and even in physical form) to take the scene by storm, any day now, as soon as someone makes the Vampire Survivors of pinball games.
I note that Full Tilt! released in what is often referred to as The Dark Ages of Pinball. There was a slump there in the 90s where every manufacturer of pinball tables folded, except for Stern, and they subsisted on making a pretty thin, bog standard sequence of tables. Pinball would resurge in the mid-to-late '00s.
I think the 90s was a moment where there was a group of people who enjoyed pinball, but it was hard to find venues that took care of tables. You certainly weren't getting very cool new tables every year. Full Tilt may have filled that gap.
Nowadays, you can just look up your area on pinballmap.com and find tables near you. That wasn't an option in the 90s. If you didn't know of an arcade with good tables, your only option was digital.
Stern releases a new, awesome, KME-designed table every year or two. Multiple other manufacturers have emerged to answer the increasing demand. A new company just announced a Labyrinth that I am so, so stoked to try.
Personally, I don't much care for digital pinball. The physical nature of the game is core to it. The simulated nudging doesn't do it for me. The consistent kickouts on many virtual pinball tables makes it a bit samey. I think they're great for learning and internalizing the rulesets of classic tables, and certainly there are things that a digital medium can do that the physical medium just can't. That's just my two cents.
Even if Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Flight Control, Subway Surfer, Candy Crush, Temple Run, and their thousands of descendants are not anything like actual pinball-based games, I expect that they're occupying much of the mindspace that would be filled by pinball in the market.
Even indie games trying to do pinball-y things are having to build considerably on the formula to make a "big" enough game, eg turning it into a Metroidvania a la Yoku's Island Express.