121 episodes tracked since 2023 about →
Episode 5 - Video Modes
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago34 min listen
Highlights
- Dwight Sullivan is responsible for approximately 11 out of 18 games he led as programmer having video modes, meaning he's responsible for over a quarter of all video modes across all pinball machines of all time.
- Terminator 2 (Bally Williams) was the first pinball game with a DMD-based video mode, designed by Dwight Sullivan.
- Indiana Jones (Williams Pinball Adventures) has the most unique video modes in a single game with three distinct video modes.
- Junkyard technically has more video mode variety than Indiana Jones because it includes a time machine feature that cycles through video modes from other Williams games.
- Approximately 40 games across all companies and time periods have at least one video mode, with many having multiple.
- Caveman (1982, Gottlieb) was the first hybrid arcade/pinball game with integrated video gameplay, using a joystick.
- Baby Pac-Man (1982, Bally) was an immediate copycat to Caveman, leveraging Pac-Man IP.
- Granny and the Gators was released by Bally in 1983, part of the early hybrid game wave.
- Star Trek Next Generation's video mode is broken from a competitive standpoint because it rewards 200-300 million points plus an extra ball if memorized, skewing tournament scoring away from pinball skill.
- Theater of Magic's virtual pinball video mode is atrociously bad, featuring pinball gameplay from a wrong perspective angle on the DMD.
Notable quotes
“You're just moving a reticle left and right. It automatically fires at the robots walking past the screen.”
“a good video mode is like a five to 10 second break from an otherwise frantic game”
“it's like a buddy cop movie with pinball, right? Like they're an odd couple... Except for in this instance, it's like a buddy cop where one of the cops is a dog.”
“you're just making the people that like pinball upset, and the people that like video games are never going to accept it anyway, because it's going to: it's always going to be a worse video game”
“your high score on a pinball machine should be based on how well you play pinball, not how well you played a shitty video game inside of a pinball machine”
“I term Dwight Sullivan the video mode cult leader.”
“Fishtales, probably... is like, true. Yeah, it's the best game of all time.”
“So there's something to get out of it, but the points wise, it's not going to be huge. And they're fast.”
“It's humiliating to die on the first round of video mode on BST.”
“now you're playing a really shitty version of pinball. And you're like, what are we doing here?”
Entities
- Bally· company
- Gottlieb· company
- Williams· company
- Baby Pac-Man· game
- Bram Stoker's Dracula· game
- Caveman· game
- Fishtales· game
- Fishtales· game
- Getaway· game
- Granny and the Gators· game
- Indiana Jones (Pinball Adventures)· game
- Junkyard· game
- Star Trek Next Generation· game
- Terminator 2· game
- Theater of Magic· game
- Toy Story· game
- Alan· person
- Alex the Waterboy· person
- Dwight Sullivan· person
- Mark Ritchie· person
- Megan· person
- Rhodes· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead· venue
