Pinball is a pinball video game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. It features pre-rendered 3D graphics and three tables — Space Cadet, Skulduggery, and Dragon's Keep.On each table, there are displays on the side that show the players' score, ball number, player number, a display for various information and a table-specific image. Dec 31, 1995  Find reviews, trailers, release dates, news, screenshots, walkthroughs, and more for 3D Pinball: Space Cadet here on GameSpot.

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• Space Cadet Pinball Game For Windows
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• 3d Pinball Space Cadet Game 1

Full Tilt! Pinball is a pinballvideo game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. It features pre-rendered3D graphics and three tables — Space Cadet, Skulduggery, and Dragon's Keep. On each table, there are displays on the side that show the players' score, ball number, player number, a display for various information and a table-specific image.

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Tables[edit]

Space Cadet[edit]

The Space Cadet table features the player as a member of a space fleet that completes missions to increase rank. Players can attain nine different ranks (listed from lowest to highest): Cadet, Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Commodore, Admiral, and Fleet Admiral. Players accept a mission by hitting 'mission targets' which select which mission they will take, and by going up the 'launch ramp'. Each mission has a set number of things for players to do, such as hitting the 'attack bumpers' (which are a set of four bumpers at the top of the table) eight times (this is the 'target practice' mission). Some missions involve a number of steps which must be completed in sequence. Missions end either by being completed, or by being aborted due to running out of 'fuel', as indicated by the lights in the passage that passes under the launch ramp. The 'fuel' lights go out one by one at a time interval, and can be re-lit by having the ball go over them, or all at once by going up the launch ramp again. Upon completing a mission, some of the blue lights in a circle in the middle of the table turn on. When all of the lights in the blue circle turn on, the player's rank increases, and a light in the orange circle turns on.

Skulduggery[edit]

The Skulduggery table features a treasure hunt where the player must find Peg Leg's loot. The player can accomplish that two ways: either by piecing together a treasure map or by activating and completing a series of mini-games on the table called modes. Modes are like missions and quests of the other two tables. They are all pirate themed mini-games, such as ship battle, tavern fight, escape Bermuda Triangle, mutiny, and sword fight.

Dragon's Keep[edit]

The Dragon's Keep table features a fantasy environment where players must accomplish various quests, leading to the slaying of a dragon. The quests include Dragon Hoard (steal the hoard), Fire Lizard Attack (defeat the fire lizard), Rescue Maiden (rescue the damsel in distress), Dragon Pass (find the path to dragon's lair), Wizard's Fury, and Slay Dragon. The player can acquire awards such as spells, weapons, and armors. While weapons simply add points to the score, armors and spells temporarily turn on various gates, magnets, and chutes on the table to change the gameplay.

Elements from each of the three tables were elected for representation by Maxis in the illustration for the box art by Marc Ericksen, creating a montage below a hurtling Pinball.

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet[edit]

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet is a version of the Space Cadet table bundled with Microsoft Windows. It was originally packaged with Microsoft Plus! 95 and later included in Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows XP. This version of Pinball, developed by David Plummer at Microsoft, was essentially a rewrite of the game using the original art, developed in C for cross-platform support because Windows NT supported RISC processors and prior versions of the game contained x86 assembly language. The Windows 98 installation CD has instructions on installing Pinball 3D on this version of Windows which are partly wrong; Microsoft later issued an updated support article.^[1] Windows XP was the last client release of Windows to include this game.^[2]

The look and feel of Full Tilt! Pinball and 3D Pinball are similar, with a few exceptions: The latter contains only the Space Cadet table and only supports 640×480 pixel resolution, while the former supports three different resolutions up to 1024×768 pixels. The image on the side is a two-dimensional image as opposed to pre-rendered 3D. The words Maxis and Cinematronics have been changed from the yellow to a dark red, making them harder to see. It sports a splash screen that merely says 3D Pinball and shows a small pinball graphic with faded edges. Music is not enabled by default in 3D Pinball. It has fewer soundtracks that are inspired by the original game.

There are only a few minor differences between the gameplay of the two versions. The completion of a mission in the Maxis version results in a replay — actually a ball save, rather than a special — being awarded. In addition, hitting a wormhole that has the same color light locks the ball, which if done repeatedly activates the multi-ball round. This is not the case in 3D Pinball: Completing a mission merely awards bonus points and hitting a wormhole in the above circumstances awards a replay. Also, the three yellow lights above the bumpers (both in the launch ramp and in the upper table zone) act differently: In 3D Pinball these are turned off if the ball passes on them while they are on. This is not the case in the original game, where they just remain activated.

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet was removed from later releases of Windows due to a collision detection bug in the 64-bit version of the game that Microsoft was not able to resolve in time for the release of Vista.^[2]

Full Tilt! Pinball 2[edit]

Full Tilt! Pinball 2 was released in 1996 and features three new tables: Mad Scientist, Alien Daze and Captain Hero.

Reception[edit]

Reviewing the Windows version, a reviewer for Next Generation said that while the Space Cadet table is fairly good, the other two tables suffer from cluttered graphics and weak ball physics, making them 'incredibly difficult to follow.' He gave it two out of five stars.^[3]

Chuzhou North Railway Station Incident[edit]

On September 4, 2015, when a passenger attempted to take out a ticket, it was found out that the ticketing machine were displaying screens of the Full Tilt! Pinball game. This incident sparked immediate controversy among train lovers, dubbing Chuzhou North Railway Station as 'Pinball North'. In response, such games were cleaned from the operating systems.^[4]

References[edit]

1. ^'How to Install 3D Pinball Using Windows 98 CD-ROM'. Support. Microsoft. January 23, 2007. Archived from the original on February 21, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
2. ^ ^abChen, Raymond (December 18, 2012). 'Why was Pinball removed from Windows Vista?'. The Old New Thing. Microsoft. Archived from the original on December 19, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
3. ^'Full Tilt Pinball'. Next Generation. No. 15. Imagine Media. March 1996. p. 88.
4. ^'滁州北站被网友戏称'弹球北'自动售票机可打弹球-滁房网'. m.chz.ahhouse.com (in Chinese(Simplified)). Retrieved 2019-08-18.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)

External links[edit]

• Full Tilt! Pinball at MobyGames
• 'Windows Vista's Casual Games'. Joystiq.Com. 25 July 2006.

If you ever used an older version of Windows such as Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows ME or Windows 2000, then you probably remember that there was a pinball game included for free with the operating system. The game was called 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and for the time it was a great little version of classic pinball. It was a fun way to blow through a break period at work, and many of us did just that. Unfortunately, with more recent versions of Windows, Microsoft decided to stop including games, and so 3D Pinball disappeared forever…or did it?

Also see our article The 10 Best Roku Games You Can Play Right Now

However, 3D Pinball Space Cadet was a customized version of a commercial release by the old gaming company Maxxis, and the executable files are still available online. If you have the urge to play 3D Pinball Space Cadet, you can still get it and run it in Windows 10.

Play 3D Pinball Space Cadet in Windows 10

The original game was dropped partly because Microsoft decided to stop including games in the operating system, but also because it wasn’t optimized for 64-bit computers. This is a dumb decision for multiple reasons, the most obvious of which is “oh no, the game written twenty years ago won’t run at top speed on my computer that is a hundred times faster than the one the game was designed for? However shall I continue to live?” There was also apparently a ‘collision detection bug’ but it doesn’t seem to be an actual problem in play. Here’s how to get 3D Pinball running on your Windows 10 machine:

1. Go to this website and download the executable.
2. Extract and install the file onto your computer.
3. Find the game in your Windows menu.
4. Play!

I downloaded the game from the source and it passed my browser’s security check and a virus scan. The game should run just fine on any version of Windows 10, whether 32- or 64-bit. No crashes, no issues and nothing that would prevent you losing more hours of your life chasing high scores.

The controls for the game are simple. Use the ‘Z’ and ‘/’ to control the flippers and hold down space to pull back the plunger to launch the ball.

As 3D Pinball Space Cadet was originally created for early computers, the resolution isn’t great. It runs in a small 640×480 window which you may have to squint at to see. You can use it full screen which might make it easier to play. Open the Options menu and select Full Screen.

You can also modify the controls from the options screen should you wish to.

3D Pinball Space Cadet cheats and codes

As usual with games of the time, mischievous coders built secret codes into their games to allow a few extra modes or features. I’m going to list some of them below so this is where you see the spoiler alert. Only continue reading if you want to know the cheat codes.

Type these codes when you first launch the game and before you launch the first ball.

• Type ‘hidden test’ to enter debug mode
• Type ‘Incredible or Imax’ to increase the field multiplier
• Type ‘hmax’ to get 1,000,000,000 score
• Type ‘omax’ to play in red
• Type ‘gmax’ to enable the gravity well
• Type ‘rmax’ to advance one rank.
• Type ‘1max’ to get an extra ball when you lose your current one
• Type ‘bmax’ to get an unlimited supply of balls

Debug mode, available through typing ‘hidden test’, allows you to dig under the hood a little. Press H to edit your high score. Press M to show how much system memory is available. Press R to increase your game rank. Press Y to display the FPS. You can also click the left mouse button on the ball and drag it wherever on the table you like. Press Space to exit debug mode.

3d Pinball Space Cadet Gameplay

There are a couple other hidden tricks within 3D Pinball Space Cadet.

To use the Skill Shot tunnel in 3D Pinball Space Cadet, you need you get the ball halfway up the launch chute so it rolls back down the yellow arch light. Hit those lights for bonuses.

• 1 light = 15,000 Points
• 2 lights = 30,000 Points
• 3 lights = 75,000 Points
• 4 lights = 30,000 Points
• 5 lights = 15,000 Points
• 6 lights = 7,500 Points

Knock down all three tombstones directly above the flippers and you advance one rank. Do it again within one minute to advance another rank and get a replay. Do it again before all the lights go out for another rank and another replay.

3D Pinball Space Cadet was immensely popular at the time even though most players thought it was their guilty secret. If you’re looking for a bit of nostalgia, 3D Pinball Space Cadet delivers.

Get Other Classic Windows Games

3D Pinball was probably the most visually-exciting basic Windows game, but there were a number of other classic Windows games available in different versions of the operating system, from Solitaire to Mahjong. Luckily, versions of those games are also available online, and for free! You can download the installer here. I have tested this download for viruses and malware and it is clean.

The install is simple. Just follow these steps.

1. Download the ZIP file.
2. Extract it to a directory on your computer.
3. Run the setup program.
4. When the setup program asks, give it permission to change your computer.
5. Select the game(s) you want to install from the setup program.
6. Unselect the “Discover Winaero Tweaker” option on the setup screen to avoid installing their utility program.
7. Hit “Finish”
8. Enjoy your new games!

3d Pinball Space Cadet Game Download

The new games will now appear in your Start menu and you can run them like any other Windows 10 application. Note that some users have reported that the games disappear from their Windows install after a Windows 10 update runs, so you may want to keep the original install package in your downloads directory so that you can reinstall if necessary. The games included in this package are Chess, FreeCell, Hearts, Mahjong, Minesweeper, Purble Place, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Internet Spades, Internet Checkers, and Internet Backgammon.

Looking for more games you can play on Windows?

Space Cadet Pinball Game For Windows

We’ve got a tutorial on how to play classic Nintendo games on your Windows 10 PC!

Space Cadet Pinball Game Online

Similarly, here’s our walkthrough on playing PlayStation 2 games on your Windows 10 machine.

Remember the Game Boy Advance? Yep, you can play GBA games on your Windows desktop.

3d Space Cadet Pinball Game

And of course you can also play Android games on your Windows 10 computer.

3d Pinball Space Cadet Game 1

If you’re trying to play games on a budget PC, you’ll definitely want to read our article on enabling Game Mode on Windows 10.