A few years ago, in 1997, Empire Interactive released a pinball simulation called "Pro Pinball: Timeshock" to the market – in my opinion probably the best pinball simulation ever. The game was available for MS-DOS, Mac OS and the Playstation. Unfortunately, it stopped working on my Mac when Apple dropped Classic support in OS X.
In 2013, Barnstorm Games launched a Kickstarter campaign with the aim of providing a new edition for PC, Mac, iOS and Android. Of course, I had to immediately pledge it. The campaign was a success, and with minimal delay (planned was a release in 2013) the first official version of the remake made it to the App Store this year. And it was definitely worth the wait!
The table looks exactly like the one in 1997, but of course with improved graphics, lighting and sound effects. The level of detail is impressiv, you can actually see every screw used to built the table. The physical properties of the ball are absolutely astounding and you get the feeling as if you where actually sitting right in front of a real pinball table. The difficulty of the game is also pretty high.
Unfortunately it is not yet possible to change the view of the table, which was possible in the original version of the game. I hope this feature will reappear some day. Also, there are still some minor bugs and issues, such as audio dropouts. However, these do not spoil the fun of the game at all.
The story of the game: In a distant future, a scientist accidentally releases a shockwave of anti-time that runs backwards through time and threatens to destroy the present. To prevent this you have to produce a second shock wave, which will then eliminate the first one. For this you have to travel through a total of four time zones where you have to capture time crystals. However, time traveling itself is not so easy to achieve because it requires Tachyonium – which you need to gather on different continents. If you succeeded to collect all crystals you can travel to the end of time, and get big points there in a six-ball multiball. For me however, this is still a distant goal. I haven't gotten more than two crystals yet, even by using various "continues".
The game is available for free on the App Store, but you can only really use it after an in-app purchase. Because in the free version you can gain a maximum of 30 million points – which can be reached relatively quickly. The standard version in-app purchase costs € 2.99, the deluxe version is at 6,99€. In addition, there is an upgrade path from the standard to the deluxe version which costs 3.99€. So you can save 1 cent when you first buy the standard version - crazy. In the deluxe version you get additional features such as the glass-off mode, which allows it to move the balls on the table by hand.
