Shorah! The below text is a copy of the club mail I send out early january. The editorial is late as usual, but that you all know is a one time happening every month. :) A thing I just want to mention is that a Addiction Pinball demo is circuling, PC Zone and PC Gamer are two magazines I know of that has the demo on their coverdisk. See the addiction news page for more... Hopefully AP will get out soon!! Oh, not to forget that a pc version of the Sega Saturn pinball Last Gladiator V.9.7 is under developement!!!

The end of the year Editorial - January 1998

And so a pinballish year has passed, I thought I'd try to very quickly summary the year a little in this editorial.

This year a number of different pinballs was released, here they are (I probably missed some)...

3DUP3: The Lost Continent
Balls of Steel
Electronic Pinball
Pro Pinball: Timeshock!
Pinball Warrior
Cyberball
Pinball Deluxe
Slamtilt
Doka Pinball
CyberPinball
Tsumera Pinball
+ some to me unknown japanse pinball and misc rumored pinballs

Addiction Pinball didn't get out before xmas as I thought, but that just makes this year more interesting. In my opinion the winner of the title of the best pinball of the year 1997 is timeshock! (but that is my opinion). A thanks to you ppl in the pro pinball team, we're all looking forward to pp3 (but I guess we wont see that one this year).

A pinball that almost missed 97 didn't... (that doesn't sound dramatic now that I read it again) I'm talking about Balls of Steel!! Although some problems with my graphics card I got it to work and I definitively believe it is one of the best scrolling pinballs (somehow it doesn't beat my alltime favorite pinball fantasies, nothing can, but it still is one of the best). I'm looking forward to receive the full version soon.

21st Century also got out with a pinball, Electronic Pinball. But that was a quiet release. Well, as the interview with them reveled we might see a 3d pinball from them soon. I still like that quote:

"in the early part of '98 you'll see that 21st Century haven't been sat on their laurels whilst Empire have been producing TimeShock!"

Ah well, back to the past. Pinball Deluxe was released this year, actually a re-release of some older pinballs, Royal Flush, Eight Ball Deluxe, Tristan, but it was nice to see them for sale even though Amtex definitively is out of business now (which many were happy to find out).

Then we have the pc conversion of Slamtilt, the popular Amiga pinball. Yet another good pinball to remember this year for.

The third pinball in the 3D Ultra Pinball series came out, not one that I looked forward that much but still one that has some fans.

Then we have these more or less serious pinballs, but still ones that shouldn't be forgotten, like: Doka Pinball, Pinball Warrior, CyberPinball etc... MoraffWare who made the sort of classic, at least it is a pinball name many know of or knew of when it came out, Moraffs Pinball released CyberPinball! Moraffs Pinball is a pinball that in it's time was very popular, today it doesn't stand that high, but you can't avoid liking it a little. ;)

A pinball that was due this year was the follower to Tilt! / Hyper 3D Pinball called 2UP-Tilt!, it never got out and never will (at the time at least). A demo of the pinball was featured in a magazine, but it appears noone has that demo, which is sad since I'd like to try it and I know many other ppl who would want the same. Since I'm writing all this I might just as well ask if anyone has it and if you do please contact me!! :) Anyway, the 2UP!-Tilt! project was apparently taken over by Interplay who now developes the upcoming Star Trek Pinball (yeah). That reminds me of a joke I'm not going to tell you about now.

What else have we got, Cyberball is also a pinball that mysteriously disappeared. An advert with pictures and all was featured in a magazine (PC Format, don't remember which issue offhand). Investigation is needed.

Oh, a interesting hardware title was released on December 31st (I think, not totally sure), the Keyflip keyboard. A keyboard with special flipper buttons on the side and tilt switches in the corners, cool or what? More on that when I have tried it..

Ah well...

             Merry X-mas and a
                Happy New Pinballish Year!!