#3D Pinball for Windows Space Cadet

[videogamepolls]

Requested by anon

[marchharedraws]

When you set up an old-school Windows computer workstation...

Originally started out as a Drawpile doodle but I made it an actual drawing on Windows 2000.

[lewisclarkmate]

Getting Full Tilt Pinball Running on 64 Bit Windows

So I'm sure a lot of people have nostalgia for 3D Pinball: Space Cadet right? You know the one:

Well you may also be aware that this is actually a demo for a game called Full Tilt Pinball. Full Tilt Pinball features 3 tables to play and the full boxed release has become a bit of a rarity. It's a real pain to find cheap:

Well there is an affordable way to get it and that comes in the form a different Maxis game called Marble Drop. Turns out the full retail version of Full Tilt Pinball is just on all copies of Marble Drop along with a demo for Full Tilt Pinball 2:

Now there is one issue with playing this on modern 64 Windows though - 64 bit windows no longer supports 16 bit applications. But you can get around this! There's a cracking bit of software out there called 'otvdm' and you can download it for free from Github: https://github.com/otya128/winevdm/releases

otvdm allows you to run 16 bit software. Just double click the otvdmw.exe and then it'll ask you to open an executable. Direct it at the setup.exe file for Full Tilt Pinball on your Marble Drop CD-ROM and it'll install the game.

With the game now installed all you need to do is run otvdmw.exe again and point it at the executables for the 3 tables in Full Tilt Pinball to play them. The advantage of playing the tables this way is that the games will save your high scores.

There is another method to run Full Tilt Pinball on 64 bit Windows that uses batch files. This was sorted by Federico Dossena and you can read about it here: https://fdossena.com/?p=fulltilt/index.md The only issue I've found with this method is that it only makes the game run and won't save your high scores which is a bit of a shame.

I just wanted to share my method because I like being able to play on modern hardware using a CD-ROM I could source cheaply that maintains the full functionality of the game like high score saving. If you like collecting video pinball games and actually playing them then here's another way to play Full Tilt Pinball! Enjoy!

[haveyouplayedthispinball]

Have you played this pinball?

Fun Fact: Space Cadet was bundled with Microsoft Windows, and Windows XP was the last client release of Windows to include this game.

[talucidy]

thinking about the 3d space pinball guy

[cringywhitedragon]

Imagine this, you’re listening to a numbers station and then you hear noises from Windows XP and 3D Pinball Space Cadet

Well believe it or not, that happened for a numbers station in Germany.

specifically, G06 The German Lady

Here’s the video (as well as many other error and shutdown noises)

[photo-roulette-wheel]

3D Pinball Space Cadet

[bob-belcher]

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) devs. Microsoft and Cinematronics, LLC

[apeildotnet]

NEW HIGH SCORE!!!!!!! :D!!!!

[everygameover]

3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet 1995 - PC

[petrichor-musings]

Tilt is great for fine manipulation or if your ball gets stuck. Like real-life pinball machines, excessive tilt counts as cheating. Also if you don't hold space as long the ball will pop out somewhere else.

So I've just reinstalled Space Cadet Pinball. Which button launches the ball? Why is there a tilt button? Why would I want to press a button to lock me out of the controls. Bullshit. Also why is the board so bullshit why does it always send my ball down the center? Also why can't I stop playing it? It's been like three hours?

[videogamepolls]

Video Games Polls 1-Year Report

I've been running this blog for a full year and I've polled nearly 3,000 games, so I wanted to post an updated report with the top 10 games for each of the four options included in my polls, plus a couple other categories.

📊 General Stats

Games Polled: 2,864

Average Sample Size: 728

Games with 40%+ "yes" votes: 149 (5.2%)

🏆 Most Played

Games with the highest percentage of "Yes" votes:

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 93.9%

Pac-Man (1980) - 93.4%

Wii Sports (2006) - 87.7%

Tetris (1985) - 86.9%

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 85.5%

Pokemon Go (2016) - 82.9%

Minecraft (2011) - 81.1%

Angry Birds (2009) - 80.1%

Stardew Valley (2016) - 79.3%

Space Invaders (1978) - 78.5%

🏆 Most Known But Not Played

Games with the highest percentage of "No" votes:

Raid: Shadow Legends (2018) - 85.8%

Final Fantasy XI (2002) - 82.1%

Far Cry (2004) - 79.3%

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) - 78.3%

Far Cry 2 (2008) - 78.2%

Halo Infinite (2021) - 77.6%

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) - 75.4%

Final Fantasy V (1992) - 76.4%

Baldur's Gate (1998) - 76.1%

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) - 75.8%

🏆 Most Watched

Games with the highest percentage of "I watched someone play it" votes:

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (2017) - 54.2%

I Am Bread (2015) - 51.3%

Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014) - 47.0%

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (2021) - 45.6%

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (2018) - 43.5%

Amanda the Adventurer (2023) - 42.5%

Phasmophobia (2020, Early Access) - 41.3%

P.T. (2014) - 41.0%

PowerWash Simulator (2022) - 40.4%

The Mortuary Assistant (2022) - 38.7%

🏆 Most Obscure

Games with the highest percentage of "I've never heard of it" votes:

Jessica's Uncomfortable Hanukkah Adventure (2023, Early Access) - 97.8%

Batty Zabella (2022) - 97.6%

Citampi Stories: Love & Life (2019) - 97.0%

Tears - 9, 10 (2002) - 97.0%

Just, Bearly (2018) - 96.9%

Anito: Defend a Land Enraged (2003) - 96.6%

That Damn Goat (2023) - 96.5%

Star Seeker in: The Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff (2020) - 96.4%

Cisini Stories: Girl Life RPG (2024) - 96.4%

Dear Substance of Kin (2019) - 96.3%

🏆 Most Balanced

Games with the most even spread of votes:

Human Fall Flat (2016) - 19.3% Yes | 28.5% No | 26.1% Watched | 26.1% Never Heard

Kerbal Space Program (2015) - 21.9% | 31.1% | 24.5% | 22.5%

The Henry Stickmin Collection (2020) - 19.3% | 29.2% | 22% | 29.5%

Ib (2012) - 24.1% | 26.8% | 19.2% | 29.9%

Superhot (2016) - 24.9% | 25.1% | 30.5% | 19.5%

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010) - 25.8% | 31.1% | 20% | 23.2%

Limbo (2010) - 30.2% | 28.7% | 23.9% | 17.1%

Wobble Dogs (2022) - 18% | 25.4% | 25.2% | 31.3%

Slay the Princess (2023) - 30.2% | 27.4% | 26.1% | 16.4%

Golf with Your Friends (2020) - 13.9% | 16.9% | 23.6% | 30.8%

🏆 Most Votes

Games with the most number of votes:

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 11,773

Robot Unicorn Attack (2010) - 7,600

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) - 4,329

Flight Rising (2013) - 4,132

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004) - 4,053

Final Fantasy XV (2016) - 3,056

Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2009) - 2,844

Dark Souls (2011) - 2,823

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 2,758

QWOP (2008) - 2,636

*I did not take most Pokémon games into consideration since I handle those polls a little differently.

Check out my results spreadsheet for an alphabetized list of all poll results plus some other stats, and in case anyone is interested in comparing results to past reports here are the links to my 6-month and 9-month posts.

[commodorez]

Start Me Up: 30 years of Windows 95 - @commodorez and @ms-dos5

Here's a look at some of the attendees enjoying our exhibit over the course of the weekend at VCF East this year. Popular choices included Space Cadet Pinball, Doom 95, Atomic Bomberman, LEGO Island, Full Throttle, Solitaire, Word 97, MS Paint, Kidpix Studio Deluxe, Photoshop 3.0, Minesweeper, Duke Nukem 3D, Microsoft Flight Simulator 95, Ski Free!, and Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

Can you spot the Logitech Kidz Mouse? More than a few folks heard about it being part of the exhibit from tumblr, and made a point of trying it out. That's one of the coolest things that has ever happened as a result of me posting here, and it genuinely warmed my heart.

Usagi Electric stopped by and was super excited to find out that we had Full Throttle installed, as it's one of his favorite games. Sadly, it threw a BSOD when it ran out of RAM, and locked up the system in a perpetual buffering cycle. Can't win 'em all...

A few folks got into the zone playing Doom 95, while others were competing for the high score in Space Cadet Pinball. I kept looking for folks willing to play Atomic Bomberman with me, as it's a personal favorite.

Another exhibitor, Mike, asked if he could use our floppy drive to perform an archival backup of a rare piece of TRS-80 software on a floppy disk someone brought to the show. As you can imagine, we were happy to oblige.

Thank you to one and all who took the time to play a game, draw a picture, explore, ask questions, or listen to us talk about our favorite operating system.

VCF East XX

[arconinternet]

Full Tilt! Pinball (Windows, Cinematronics, 1996)

Return to 3D Pinball Space Cadet - and beyond! You can download it here, or download it configured to run on modern versions of Windows here.

[cosmonautroger]

3D Pinball Space Cadet, Windows XP, 2001

[pyramidgirl]

my girlfriend installed arch linux for me and helped me skin xfce4 to look like windows XP and it was a very sapphic experience

(yes i did install 3D pinball space cadet and winamp from the AUR for the bit)