
The reason for creating digital replicas of real machines came down to the fact that while programming a virtual pinball game is not hard, designing games that are actually fun to play is very difficult.
It therefore made more sense to reproduce the works of successful pinball game designers from the past, believes Bobby King, FarSight's vice president of product development.
"The pinball machines produced in the 1990s and beyond were very deep and had complex rules, and I certainly didn't feel comfortable trying to design better ones," he says.
Preserving pinball culture
A side effect of this decision is that the machines that FarSight has reproduced in virtual form are now being exposed to far more people than was possible when they were only available as physical tables.
Some titles had production runs of less than 3,000 units when they were manufactured in the 1990s.
But the digital replicas have been bought and downloaded many times more than that, says Mr King.
"We are introducing classic pinball tables to people who would otherwise never get an opportunity to play them, and we are also preserving these machines and their culture," he adds.
FarSight's digital tables are also used by competitors in pinball competitions - which are also growing rapidly in popularity - to practise on and familiarise themselves with the rules of individual tables that they may never have played on before.
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I never tried virtual pinball but I love playing pinball when I go to the local pub.
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