Screenshot of the pinball table Space Cadet from the game 3D Pinball for Windows

Space Cadet Pinball

  • Adam Douglas

The games that came with the operating system Microsoft Windows were not exactly something to get excited about. Most games were played for a bit and then forgotten. However, there was one of those games that was the exception. A pinball table Space Cadet was initially released as Full Tilt! Pinball developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. The port of the pinball table was developed by David Plummer at Microsoft and was bundled with Microsoft Plus! 95 and later included with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me and Windows XP.

Reverse Engineered

This classic pinball game 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet has been reverse engineered by Muzychenko Andrey. Thanks to Muzychenko’s hard work the game can be played on 32-bit/64-bit Windows along with Windows XP. Other people have taken this project and ported it to other platforms to play on AmigaOS 4, Android, MorphOS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Wii U, PS Vita, Web and webOS TV.

For Arch Linux user’s the game can be installed as an AUR package.

$ pikaur -Sy spacecadetpinball-git

Public Domain

I’ve also noticed that apparently Microsoft has made the game available as public domain and is available for download at Internet Archive, 3D Pinball - Space Cadet (From Microsoft Plus! 95).

Arch Linux user’s can install this version as an AUR package. Though I should note that I haven’t been able to figure out how to get this one in full screen mode without it screwing up and making it unplayable.

$ pikaur -Sy mspinball-bin

Closing Thoughts

I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always found pinball games very attractive type of game to play. One could say I’m almost addicted to pinball, because for quite some time I’ve been collecting every pinball video game I can find. The one aspect I do realize is that when I play a pinball game it seems to allow me to focus on the game entirely and allow for everything else to disappear. Maybe it is my form of zen (smile).

Though Space Cadet Pinball is a simple game, it is still challenging and entertaining.

This is post 43 of 100, and is round 2 of the 100 Days To Offload challenge.

    • remove tags gaming, retrogaming
    • change 100DaysToOffload message

Comments

Reply via email