Still nothing like the sold feel of a metal ball hitting the bumpers into the jackpot hole and scoring a top score... But still pretty sweet!

@Zgradis: That sounds like a Terminator´s hot night description

With today's technology there's no reason why a decent pinball simulator can't be made.

The bastards just keep lowballing it, that's all.

No pun intended, I think the money should go into machine licensing, ball physics and reproducing the tactile feel of a machine in operation.

Won't the plasma display develop burn-in?

@strider_mt2k: Yeah, there is a reason why a decent pinball simulator can't be made. It would suck. In 20+ years of trying, there's yet to be anything that remotely emulates playing the real thing. It will never be realistic, since it's always going to be 2D, and they physics of nudging will never work accurately.

MULTI-BATTLE!

Oh crap, another "Pirates" themed pinball table!

The thing I would love to see accurately simulated is the tilt and bump mechanics, where the machine lets you bump it (to a degree, or else you "tilt" out) to get the right slight tweak on the ball trajectory to hit those targets. Instead of a "tilt" key, I'd prefer a motion sensitive mechanism to detect the physical left right up down bump on the machine and apply that to the ball. Now that would be awesome virtual pinball.

@OldSchoolGadgetLover: Exactly!

I can see a whole niche of table collectors and creators being created by this!

(-and at least one classic table strapped to a scientician's table for researching!)

Yeah... You goTTA have accurate TILT mechanics!

I have a pinball ball machine at home, and I have to say, virtual representations don't come close. The physics always feel fake, and there's no feedback. Half the fun of playing pinball is watching the ball shoot down the ramps, and tilting the table (although not too much, I have it set pretty sensitively). Also, the older machines are like an electrical engineering marvel. I've never seen so many wires before in my life.

If you want a pinball simulator, that's like playing a video game. Of which, there are many of them at the arcades already.

There's something about a real ball bearing (or derivatives) hitting some real mechanical stops and stuff. Also about how a badly done shot can actually have the ball hit the glass with a satisfying "thwack".

I can already download a pinball emulator for free and also download nearly every pinball machine that's ever been made. What's to stop me from building a cheap PC and hooking it up to a plasma screen and add a couple arcade buttons to the side? Nice for nostalgic reasons when the real thing isn't available, or it's too unreliable..

But nothing, nothing will ever replace the chaos of a physical ball and physical bumpers.

Actually, there is one with feedback. I forget the name, but it emulates real pinball games, and has a real plunger, and when you press the flipper buttons it actually clicks something inside which sounds and feels like a flipper. Of course, that one costs like $10,000...