Let’s go back to the early 2000s. In those years, when most of us first met computers, the internet was not as common as it is these days, so we had games such as Solitaire and Minesweeper, apart from CDs. We also had Pinball in particular, which was to us what Chrome’s dinosaur game was to modern times.
As we mentioned, there are two facts about this game, which relieved our boredom in a time when the internet was not widespread, that you probably did not realize. First, we haven’t seen this game on our computers for a long time. And second, this game was just a demo.
Let’s start over first. How did this game come about?
- version named MAELSTROM
Pinball, or Space Cadet as it was originally called, was originally Microsoft Plus!, originally released as a development pack for Windows 95, not Windows XP. appeared with. So we first saw the game in 1995. Later, with the Windows XP version, it became widespread and settled in our minds as a legend.
You may not have noticed in the game, but at the bottom of our table, there are two inscriptions that appear to be ‘hidden’ in red.
If we look carefully, we can see the Cinematronics and Maxis articles. Looking at the About tab, it says that the game was ‘made by Maxis for Microsoft’. It should be noted that Maxis is the company that created Sims games but was later closed by Electronic Arts.
Before it was acquired by Maxis, Cinematronics had made a prototype Pinball game called Maelstrom. In this game, the projection of the 3D-created scene onto the Pinball table at an angle was quite unusual for that time. When Maxis discovered this, it bought Cinematronics.
But until the release of this game, lessons had to be learned from certain events.
The idea of producing games with 3D graphics was quite foreign for the years 1994-95. But a game developer named David Stafford saw this as an empty place in the market and wanted to make a game for Windows 95 that would explode later.
Later, Cinematronics was founded with the invitation of a few colleagues.
The company, which initially made a two-dimensional action game, could not see its response, so it came out in 1993 and revealed a ‘copy’ of the DOOM game, which is seen as the ancestor of the FPS genre. When this production, called Gluem, disappeared so that Microsoft would not attract the harsh restrictions and criticisms of Mortal Kombat and DOOM at that time, the team turned to the 3D Pinball game we know.
The game that comes on Windows operating systems and that we probably all play, is just a demo. So what’s the difference in the full version?
We talked about the red writings on the bottom of the table in the game before. In the full version, these texts turn yellow to be more conspicuous. Of course, that’s not the main difference. 2 new tables are added to the game, apart from the one we know. While one of them has a pirate theme, the other has a medieval theme.
In addition, the full version of this game, where more than one ball can enter the table, is Full Tilt! pinball
So what happened to this game and why is it not available in current operating systems?
The Space Cadet demo is no longer available on 64-bit versions of Windows XP. But the game’s files were still included in the operating system and you could install and play the game via command. At that time, Raymond Chen, who moved the 32-bit codes of Windows XP to the 64-bit version, stated that due to an error in the game in this process, the ball was constantly passing through the objects and therefore did not work consistently.
But on the NCommander channel it was later proven that this was resolved. At the end of the day, Pinball was removed from Windows Vista, which we saw after Windows XP—unless we included Longhorn.
But why did they remove this game that everyone was enjoying?
Although there is no concrete reason for this issue, there are logical theories. For example, we know that with the arrival of Vista, Microsoft has made a graphics update to the stock games. But it wasn’t that easy for Pinball. Because Microsoft didn’t make Pinball.
As we mentioned at the beginning, Pinball or Space Cadet was a demo developed by Cinematronics that showed what the game had to offer. So it was not so easy for Microsoft to develop graphics for this game.
As a result, the company may have chosen to eliminate a graphically grinning game on its already brand-new Vista operating system, rather than giving it the workload. Unfortunately, we can only talk about assumptions here. You can also share your own thoughts in the comments.
- Sources: Raymond Chen, LGR, NCommander, PhilSTAR L!fe
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