Virtual Pinball Game "Moving Parts" Addictive Even In Cooperation Mode
Today, when we visited NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program spring 2008 show, we were immediately drawn to "Moving Parts," a crazy pinball game that's the brainchild and thesis of physical-interaction designer Daniel Soltis. It's made of real wood, with wooden buttons and plungers, but the board itself is empty, and stays that way. The game you see is merely a projection from above, but man does it feel real.
Today, when we visited NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program spring 2008 show, we were immediately drawn to "Moving Parts," a crazy pinball game that's the brainchild and thesis of physical-interaction designer Daniel Soltis. It's made of real wood, with wooden buttons and plungers, but the board itself is empty, and stays that way. The game you see is merely a projection from above, but man does it feel real.
The experience is so immersive you forget that it's not real—no wonder real pinball is on the endangered-species list. The virtual kind gives you different types of play, four in fact:
• Cooperative, where you have two paddles on your side and one on your partner's side, and you both share a score
• Synchronized, where both sides tap the buttons simultaneously to make the paddles swing fully, so you lose if your partner doesn't help
• Competitive, straight-up pinballin'
• Multiball! You'll see this one at the end of the video, a total clusterfuck with balls flying everywhere
I give Daniel bonus points for cool virtual realism: The actual wooden playing board peaks in the middle, sloping downward. The virtual balls react to this, slowing as they roll uphill to the middle, then speeding up as they roll towards either end.
It was so much fun I almost forgot to ask what the point was. Daniel says that in the age of Wii, it's important to study interaction of players who are not necessarily competitors. Also, he likes to observe how mechanics affect gameplay. We couldn't get Daniel to admit he was merely trying to come up with a great game to sell to bars, but hell if he didn't invent that too. [Moving Parts; ITP]
View: AU Comments (0) | US Comments (8 comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this entry.
I'm torn between virtual pinball and the real thing. One thing that virtual pinball has never seemed to account for is ball spin, it's merely calculating angle of hit. Ball spin has a huge difference in where the ball ends up, not to mention they never seem to get the metal ball property correct (ends up being more like a rubber superball).
With that said, I think mechanical pinball machines are labor intensive and not very profitable, and will likely die soon from lack of support, not to mention they require a lot of maintenance (both from parts failing, and from the ball getting stuck in places), plus it would seem easier to update (or create your own custom) tables if it's digital. I don't think projection screen is the answer (especially in brightly lit areas), it needs to be 2 LCD screens.
toyotaboy
I love me some pinball. This is a neat diversion, but won't replace the real thing for me. =-]
BigDanInTX
That is the first "virtual" pinball that actually looks fun.
maven2k
I thought at first this was going to be a pinball machine that you design yourself with moving pieces of wood, then a fake ball that interacted... that sounded better to me than this.
TheCapt
I bet the guy that came up with this also thinks his virtual girlfriend is a good idea too.
I KEED I KEED!
dragonphyre
Not as exciting as the real thing.
[www.bmigaming.com]
bms
also, how is this better for the world than a real pinball machine? With all the funkiness that comes with them, surely they will never be replaced with machines like this?
Raz
Don't know what exactly the point was. There's plenty of fake pins using plasmas and LCDs, that all suck because nobody can get the physics right (and, oh yeah, they cost more than a real pin). I think NES Pinball played more realistically than that.
And there have been two-player machines for decades...
[www.ipdb.org]
[www.ipdb.org]
TVGenius