Full Tilt! Pinball

Full Tilt! Pinball is a pre-rendered 3D pinball game which was developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis. It was released on March 13, 1996 and was available on Windows PC and Mac platforms.

When it came out it was by many touted as a clear improvement on the, by then well populated, pinball simulator market. Gamespot pointed out that "Cinematronics has combined some fancy extras with realistic physics and fantastic visuals and served up a digital pinball simulation that is not only beautiful but highly entertaining too." The physics was what most reviewers agreed was the main selling point of the title, as it ventured from the more common 'path' limitations by many other titles and gave the player more realistic responses and ball movement than was common up to that point. The ball movement is good enough that even today you can sit down and enjoy this classic without that little voice telling you it's so old it isn't realistic anymore.

The game only had 3 tables, but those three tables were rendered with what was at the time a very high resolution, giving the game an eyecandy factor. The three tables were; Space Cadet, Skullduggery and Dragon's Keep. Each table had 'missions' or 'quests' which awarded points and progressed the player up in rank in the case of Space Cadet, or towards the final goal of slaying the dragon in Dragon's Keep.

The game would be succeeded by Full Tilt! 2 Pinball the very same year, which might seem a very short time by modern standards but was a relatively common practice for some types of games in the 90's.