by Dan

I love pinball. Ever since I was a kid I was quite fascinated by the pinnies and now they're so rare I find myself enchanted by the mystique.

There's something so visceral about an actual metal ball that video games don't seem to be able to catch.

That's not to stop them trying of course. I've never been able to afford a real pinball machine but I've played a number of virtual ones in my time.

There was some sort of WWII themed game on the PC back during the monochrome years.

And Midnight Madness on the Atari 2600 was a lot of fun.

Then something extraordinary happened. Epic Megagames came out with Epic Pinball. A chrome ball, scrolling background and all the bells and whistles that you couldn't do without a computer.

I played that game over and over again. Now I've downloaded a pinball game on my Xbox and it's all the nostalgia and fun all over again. It'll do,.. until I finally get myself a real one.