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Any arcade rat of the ‘80s and ‘90s remembers the pinball machines. They stood, two or three of them, off to one side or in the corner, relics of a time when microprocessors couldn’t handle sophisticated games like Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Besides, videogames lasted as long as you could stay alive. A bad bounce or a cruel twist of gravity could drain your ball down the center and your 25 cents would be gone faster than you could blink.

As many of us discovered as we grew up and no longer viewed each quarter as being on par with the Treasure of the Sierra Madre, pinball was evolving alongside videogames. The late ‘80s and early ‘90s boasted some of the best pinball tables ever created, and Crave Entertainment has seen fit to educate the vidiots of today with a collection of some of the best games to feature flippers and jet bumpers.

I got a pocketful of quarters…

The top notch presentation has you wandering the floor of a two-story arcade, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for over a decade in the U.S. A DJ spins retro tunes, the low light flickers above, and you can almost smell the cigarette smoke and spilled Pepsi. The pinball tables are scattered about, and you can shift around between them to pick which you wish to play. Unfortunately, you have to endure a just-long-enough-to-annoy load screen whenever you shift to or from the arcade screen.

You start with a handful of credits in your account, and can win more by hitting “replay” high scores on the machines, matching at the end of a game, or completing preset goals for each table. These Xbox 360 achievement-style goals help you get a lot more out of each pinball table. They can also help teach you some of the tricks of the games. Completing goals and earning credits lets you purchase each table’s “free play” mode, so you no longer have to worry about credits when you want to take Whirlwind or Black Knight for a spin.

These goals are an excellent addition, although some of them can be intimidating to newcomers. If you’re not a skilled hand at pinball, you may find yourself low on credits before long. Each table also has a set of advanced “Wizard Goals” that probably do require you to be a deaf, dumb, and blind kid named Tommy to complete. To help out, extremely detailed and fully-voiced instructions are provided for each game.

…and I’m headed to the arcade

The Williams Collection’s lineup covers the late ‘80s era of pinball exceptionally well. Many old favorites that you’ll recognize from just about every arcade, pizza parlor, and movie theatre are here, such as Taxi, Funhouse, and the classic Pin*Bot. More obscure but equally fun pins like Whirlwind and Space Shuttle are also represented.

The original Black Knight is present, a piece of pinball history that features the first multi-level playfield ever. A couple more esoteric choices round out the collection, including the uniquely challenging Firepower, arguably the most skill-based table on the disc; and Gorgar, a simple table from 1979 that bridges the gap between the older pre-digital pinball games and the modern ramp-happy extravaganzas that most of us are familiar with.

Perhaps the only really questionable inclusion is Jive Time, a seeming relic that doesn’t even have a digital scoreboard on it. Surrounded by more lively and complex pins, this table feels like more of a waste of space that could have been filled by something more interesting, like High Speed or F-14 Tomcat.

Getting physical

Any simulation of pinball lives or dies by its physics, and Pinball Hall of Fame should have no fear of death any time soon. Unlike many other pinball sims (most notably Pinball FX which is like playing pinball on the moon), this one manages to nail the feel of a pinball on a flipper. While I only have extensive real-life experience with four of the pinball machines in the collection, they all feel like they did when I played the solid-state games. Gorgar’s strange bounces still happen, Funhouse drains down the left side like a bastard, and the ball whips off Whirlwind’s spinning cyclone discs just like it does in real life. Extreme purists will probably find oddities here and there, but most players will be very satisfied.

The Williams Collection is a top-tier set of pinball tables that fans should not pass up. Even if you’re only curious what all the fuss over the shiny balls and complicated ramps has been about after all these years, you’d be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive and reasonably priced introduction. Not all of the tables are winners, but they’re all crafted in the virtual world with real care. Now how about a follow-up collection with The Addams Family and Twilight Zone?

Review by: Matt Keil