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I've tried to be open-minded about what constitutes a sports video game, largely because the genre has so few new titles or competing products in a given year. Pinball FX 2, one of my favorite games of 2011, has struck me as a quasi-sports video game for a while, I just couldn't really articulate why. More »
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Zen Studios' pinball renaissance on the Xbox 360 and PS3 is one of the best values in downloadable gaming on consoles this past year. Never better than when it's handling licensed tables—the kind you always wished you got at the pizza parlors of your misspent youth—Zen returned this week with another four in its Marvel Pinball suite. More »
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Pinball played right is an act of violence. More »
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Zen Studios, the master maker of pinball tables, will offer a free treat by Halloween for all Pinball FX2 owners. Anyone who picks up the free Pinball FX2 platform on Xbox Live can get the Paranormal table for free from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2. More »
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Today Zen Studios revealed that X-Men will be the latest entry in its Vengeance & Virtue series of Marvel-themed tables for Pinball FX2, joining Ghost Rider. More »
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Diehard pinballers looking for another couple thou or so on their Wizard Score in Pinball FX2 can pick up another table on Oct. 12, developer Zen Studios just announced. "Sorcerer's Lair," an all-original table, will release then, promising "a gothic world of mystery, ghosts and ginormous spiders!" The table offers six missions. More »
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Earlier this week we talked you through what Zen Pinball 3D would have to offer on the 3DS when it hits the Nintendo eShop this fall. More »
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The makers of the popular Zen Pinball series on PlayStation Network and the Pinball FX 2 series on Xbox Live Arcade will bring the silver ball to the 3DS with Zen Pinball 3D, a downloadable title releasing this fall on the Nintendo eShop. More »
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Although known primarily for its Marvel Comics tables, the pinball simulator Pinball FX 2 has other crossovers, like Rocky & Bullwinkle and Street Fighter. The game's latest team-up is with Twisted Pixel's Ms. 'Splosion Man, and it is available Aug. 31. More »
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Slick teaser trailers for...pinball machines? It's a wonderful world we live in. More »
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Back in July, FX Pinball 2 creator Zen Studios revealed that Twisted Pixel's Ms. 'Splosion Man would supply the theme for the next table for the pinball simulator. Six fresh screens of that went out today. More »
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In the amazing version of tilt-free pinball shown in this video, one person is the pinball. Other people are the flippers. Or sometimes fences are the flippers. Maybe a manhole cover is the hole down which the human pinball will be lost. More »
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The well received Marvel series of tables for the acclaimed pinball simulator Pinball FX 2 will be getting another set of four tables by winter, and also will expand to other platforms in 2012. More »
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It may not have the pulling power of bigger shows, but California Extreme remains one of the best arcade events on the gaming calendar, luring in attendees from the Bay Area (and beyond!) to play hundreds of great old coin-op machines. More »
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To the dedicated pinball enthusiast, the existence of a Tron: Legacy pinball table won't be a surprise. But Stern Pinball, the company still cranking out pins, made its latest pinball machine extra official today with word from Disney. More »
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While it might be tempting to poke fun at M.A.C. for making a saccharine "Quite Cute Pinball" game to market their cosmetics to women on Facebook, truth is that it's a totally decent little timewaster. It's generous with the number of balls, the advertising doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, and excepting the typical Facebook "We're going to root through your profile and friends list like a starving pig" thing, it's actually free to play. More »
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The American arcade, on the verge of extinction, has been given new life with the opening of a New Hampshire based arcade. Writer Jon Lynch visits the newly opened Pinball Wizard, speaks to its proud, passionate owner and returns with this report. More »
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You only ever seem to hear about arcades closing these days, so let's break that depressing trend and welcome the opening of a big new arcade instead. More »
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His bombastic boothman persona in NBA Jam isn't Tim Kitzrow's only gaming credit. The guy also was the voice of Rod Serling in the classic Twilight Zone pinball table. He got his start from his bandmates, who worked for Midway. More »
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Having sufficiently mourned the passing of that pinball machine you've nurtured over the years, until it finally, irrevocably gave up its blinking ghosts, it's now time to move on and celebrate the good times. More »
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You think it's hard being the only company around that still makes pinball machines? What about the people left who still repairs them? More »
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Forty minutes of expert level pinball, that is, from the deciding game at this month's Professional/Amateur Pinball Association World Pinball Championships. If you've got a thirst for pinball and the better part of an hour to spare, watch. More »
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The video game pinball wizards at Zen Studios are bringing Pinball FX 2 to the Xbox Live Arcade, with free graphical updates and new achievements to every Pinball FX table released so far. More »
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Fred Bobrow, owner of the Retro Arcade Museum in Beacon, New York, might not look like a criminal to you, but he has broken Beacon Law, and paid the price. More »
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Not since Electronic Arts' Crüe Ball hit the Genesis in 1992 have we been this excited to experience the unholy marriage of pinball and heavy metal. Thanks to thrash metal outfit Slayer's new iPhone game, heavy pinball is back! More »
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On the third floor of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, visitors to the Penny Arcade Expo East get to visit an actual arcade, filled with free-to-play arcade cabinets and pinball machines, just like mother used to make. More »
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The incredibly talented (and patient) Ben Heckendorn, hacker and modder extraordinaire, has revealed his latest and greatest creation, a built-from-scratch pinball table based on the works and quotes of actor Bill Paxton. More »
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As seen at the ceBIT Technology Fair on io9. [Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images] More »
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Nintendo distributes three new games to its three digital download services today, with DSi pinball, WiiWare gravity battles, and WiiWare getting a fight so final it had to have a 2 at the end. More »
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Juggle balls with Ryu, Ayane and friends with a special Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 table for Zen Pinball, coming to the PlayStation Network later this month. More »
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Modder extraordinaire Benjamin J. Heckendorn always wanted to build his own pinball machine from scratch. So what did he choose as its theme? Playboy? KISS? Nope. Bill Paxton. More »
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I spent most of my time at California Extreme reminding myself why I never beat Dragon's Lair, but other people were busy winning tournaments and stuff at the massive arcade and pinball show. More »
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At 98, the father of modern pinball still has some lessons to impart to the video game industry. More »
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While video game robots are all well and good, it takes a special sort of robot to carry a pinball game. Sure, he may bear a striking resemblance to Cobra Commander, but we love Pin*Bot. More »
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The man behind such pinball greats as Fun House, the Addams Family and The Twilight Zone, Pat Lawlor, recently sat down with Gamasutra to discuss the history and design of pinball games. More »
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I've seen plenty of edumacational games and I'm always delighted to explore how they surreptitiously teach people as they play a game. But this is the first time I've played a edu-pinbal game. More »
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Earlier this decade, Todd MacCulloch was a center with a lot of promise, and a lot of money. A foot injury sent him into early retirement. Now he collects and plays pinball machines. More »
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In a recent tell all interview with Vanity Fair, Tina Fey of Sarah Palin fame (I kid), tells the magazine that she did a bit of voice work for a pinball machine back in the day. More »
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Now I've stated in the past that I am one of the world's biggest fans of video game pinball, from both a height and width and level of devotion standpoint, but I'm just not sure if I am ready for Nanotech Entertainment's Pinball Wizard Controller. Sure it features real flipper buttons, a real plunger, and the ability to detect motion for realistic table nudging action, but there is no way in hell I could ever justify spending $299 on a controller just to play pinball. An actual pinball table, perhaps, but not a controller, no matter how appealing the thought of having a real plunger may be. More »
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Many years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Todd Tuckey, owner of TNT Amusement, for a story I was working on about arcade machine ownership and restoration. The man is a font of information and a genuine arcade aficionado. He also makes a living restoring, storing and selling arcade and pinball machines. More »
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