Finally found something Vista is really useful for

I've been distinctly underwhelmed by Microsoft's latest OS like most people. However I have finally found at least one advantage over most other iterations of the Windows OS.

I'm a huge pinball fan and own a copy of (amongst many others) "Timeshock!" which I consider to be the only "real" pinball game for the PC nothing else is quite as good. However because it's very old (1997) it's damn difficult to get the thing to run well. This is mostly because it pre-dates most hardware acceleration and in fact pretty much all hardware acceleration caused a lot of problems for the game. However because Vista doesn't use acceleration in the same way as 9x/2000/XP this is not a problem and the game plays superbly well at default settings and on maximum resolution.

So if you want to play the best pinball game ever created for the PC, Vista is perfect. BTW, you can buy this game from Amazon for £2.99 at the moment. It's probably the last time you will be able to buy it and with it running perfect on Vista if you like pinball at all it's a must have.

Darkheart

Lol, likewise. the only useful thing ive found so far is the cool chess game.

I gots pinball on my DS thanks to Metroid Prime Pinball. It's awesome. Just figured I'd throw that out there if you like your pinballage.

LOL

Never had any trouble running timeshock on XP???

I agree about the game though, best pinball game.. EVER. think my top score is like over 1 billion. Spent many a week (yes week) playing that game!

for me the best part of vista was finding someone had put a pr0n dvd in the box instead of the vista one :))

Glad there's still someone else out there playing it, I think it's a bit sad that there arn't any games that can touch "Timeshock!" 10 years after it's release. There must be a lot of pinball fans out there yearning for someone to make a really decent game.

I mean these days it SHOULD be pretty easy:

Reflection map a simple sphere.

Design a cool pinball table with SHOTS that really work well and feel natural. Playtest it to hell with people who play a on real tables, autheticity is important.

Use simple bog standard physics (plugin libaries these days) and everything is sphere to something collision so nice and simple.

Then give it a nice professional finish with quality, appropriate artwork (my downfall).

Add a kickass soundtrack and some authentic sounds.

Find yourself a "hook" to differciate it (shouldn't be too hard given that the "state of the art" is ten years old), and your done.

If only...

Darkheart

For pinball fanatics (like myself), you might enjoy 3d ultra pinball classic. Its REALLY hard to find but a lot of fun. The new versions don't live up to the original though...

Yeah im pretty suprised that no-one has released something to beat that game in 10 years!

What I like about it over many other pinball games, even other futureshock titles, is that it just feels MASSIVE! Your not just playing a pinball game where you bump stuff to get points, and hope to get a crummy feature that doesn't actualy give you anything other than points at teh end of it.

Timeshock is more like an adventure game (if you play it long enough to realise this). Capture continents by completing the feature modes. Collect crystals. Build up your time drive on the side ramps. Turn your speakers and bass up loud. Turn the lights off. Plop the ball in the green time machine. Sit back in awe as the enchanting music plays and the table glows.

And what do you get?

Not 1 trillion points, no you get a completely different time zone, with different features to play on.

Love it!

Also love the 5 ball multi ball ;)!!

I think thats the hook you talk about. Design a table that can be used in many situations. Then make the game play like pinball (duh), but give it a story. Yes with cut scenes and what-not. That would be awesome if you progress through "levels" in your pinball game. Fight bosses. Make choices on what path to follow in the story and so-on.

If only...

My personal useful thing for Vista is the Vista-DVD Coffeecup trivet ;)