Pro Pinball: Timeshock!	Dev.: Cunning Developments Publisher: Empire Interactive
Reviewed: 1998

- The pinball

Realistic looking table, magnificent sound and lovely feeling. That is just some things that describe the table. The pinball is the second one in the Pro Pinball series, it has been awaited for a long time and as those who have played it can say, it was worth the wait.

The table futures lots of things found in real pinballs, a Advanced Operators Menu, Ballsearch, MagnoSave, Tournament Mode and more I wont bother to list here. The table is the most realistic one to have been released so far. It feels right, you can do Dead Catches, you have been able to do that in some other sims too, here it really feels natural and correct when you do one.

What more can present it, the sound, the music (good music, some parts are not the best but most of the time it is very enjoyable), the sound fx and the mechanical sounds (ball rolling sounds and similar). And the fact that you can really hear the ball hit the glass cover (love it when it happens!).

The table can be configured in all ways, it simply don't miss anything (so far I have noticed).


- Interesting futures

- The Operators Menu

This thing really makes this pinball unique, you can customize it, reset hiscores, check it is working and in all do everything you can do in a real pinball machine. The Operators Menu holds all the settings for the pinball, the number of balls you play with, in this case what timezone you start in, the sort of play (Novice, Tournament, Challenge, Normal) and so on.

From the beginning most settings are locked and can't be altered, but as you advance in the table more settings are unlocked and can be altered. I belive only settings at Factory default will qualify for the hiscore table at Empires site.

If you see no use with this future, think of all the fun you can have with it, like changing ball numbers (have many!? ;). There is also a future that tests if the different parts of the table is working, rather pointless on a sim but fun anyhow.

- Playing styles

For those not happy with only being able to play in one way, you can choose between these styles: Novice, Tournament, Challenge, Normal. These can be set trough the Operators Menu.

   Novice Mode .. One ball in play with a Ball Saver active for
   120 seconds.

   Tournament Mode .. Disables random and bonus game
   adjustments, allowing score obtained on different machines
   (simulations) to be compared more equally.

   Challenge Mode .. Shares all game features and memories among all
   players in a multi-player game.

- Timeshock!

The background story for the table is imo wonderful, here is a part of it...


" I have created - God help us - a shock wave of anti-time which is travelling back to the dawn of history. The wave has nearly reached your time already. We must return to the beginning of time and bring together the crystal fragments from the future to create a counter-shock wave. "

" My past has gone already. but, if we succeed, we can save your past.. and your future... "


How do I describe the table... in the middle is a big Time Crystal which can be activated during play. Also on the table is the Timemachine, which locks balls using a neat robot arm, of course you also timetravel with it. The main theme is to reach the Wiz mode where you during timestress have to save the world...

As the background tells you there are crystal pieces to be collected, these are spread out in different time zones that are accessed using the time machine. Collecting these gives you access to the Wiz mode, The Dawn of Time... If the Shockwave of antitime reaches this place, The Dawn of Time, everything is destroyed, so when reaching it you must complete it or...

To reach the Wiz mode you need to do lots a things that can't be described easy, complete different explorations that might give you crystal pieces, unlock time periods, collect pieces of Tachyonium and most important of all, stay alive. You need to learn the secrets of the table that gives you extra balls and those extra high scores... it all gets kind a though... to say it in a kind way.

From the start (if you haven't read the manual, seen the slide shows) you have basically no Idea where to shoot in the table. But as in reals (after having wasted a gigantic staple of coins) you soon begin to understand the table, seek the secrets (there are a lot of hidden things in the pinball, supposedly a hidden Wiz mode) and get the hang of what to do. If not you can look at the instruction card (one like those on real machines).

This is all a interesting and challenging pinball, new things to do all the time, new Time zones means new modes and so on, it all just gets better and better and in the end it is simply the best...

It is a lasting table, hard, you learn to master it and you will most definitely return to it.


- The Feeling:

If you played The Web (the first pinball in the pp series) and found the feeling good, it is improved here, not just improved, totally different and better. Catching the ball is a chapter for itself, now you just don't raise the flipper and let the ball bounce down on it, you can for example do Dead Catches and Live Catches. It all turns out to depend more on skill and feeling for ball handling than simple aiming and shooting by flipping the flippers.

In a real pinball (funny to be able to say real and unreal pinballs?) the ball can get a uncontrollable speed or similar, but you might be able to reduce its speed or get back control of it using different neat flipper techniques, possible to do in here. Controlling the ball is possible in most ways, nothing that has been either easy or natural to do in any bigger way before.

You never really think about how you flip, you do what you find natural, realistic, yes... What does realistic mean, natural feeling - nothing strange - simply the way it should be...


- The Whole:

Want a pinball just for fun, think 3D Ultra Pinball was the greatest, well this might be to advanced then (no harm meant to fans of 3DUP, it is good in its own way). Timeshock! is hard, it takes time to learn and master and most of all realistic. It gives more pleasure in playing and when you master it, you will still have more to explore. Thanks to the Operators Menu you can really make this pinball feel like "your own" (eh?).

There is really no minus with it, can't complain about anything, they thought of everything (most at least)... if you have played it you know how to start explorations and lock balls. When starting a exploration you prefer to go for the loop/ramp combination, when lock is lit you shoot into that loop but instead of it rolling out to the right flipper so you can shoot the ramp it gets locked. Irritating, but then there was a future so you could disable the lock a while and thereby get to do your loop/ramp, nice...

...but one minus I guess is that it demands a computer that at least is a pentium 60... The switch between different sound tracks is at least smoother now than it was in TW.

A pinball I recommend, and that simply because it feels so good...

I .. love .. it - the past can't be altered - the future will get interesting if not...

Platform: PC
Operating System: DOS, Windows 95
Pentium 60 (recommended: Pentium 166)
8 MB RAM (recommended: 32 MB RAM)
1 MB PCI/Local Bus Graphics card (recommended: 8 MB)
10 MB hard disk space
CD-ROM drive
(recommended: Soundblaster 16 or Windows 95 compatible card)

Also available for: MAC, PSX

Screenshots: Timeshock! Timeshock! (big picture)