Hello fellow pinball players!

I was fortunate enough to attend the pre-show unveiling of Pinball 2000 - Revenge From Mars - last night in London, so I thought I would offer up some info that the website and speculation hasn't addressed.

First, the technical details:

The CPU is a standard Cryix (sp?) based PC motherboard, running a Phoenix BIOS and booting off a flash card - no hard drive. All of the custom stuff that WMS normally uses, such as DCSII, are contained on a single PCI card. Communication with the driver board is made via a parallel interface, down to the cabinet itself.

It has *full stereo sound*, with the speakers aimed directly at the player and mounted just below the backglass. The backglass is about the size of two standard videogame marquees, so it's not small.

The head takes up just under half the top of the game, which makes the game itself seem much smaller, almost Safecracker sized, but rest assured this is merely an optical illusion. The RFM playfield is only 2" shorter than a standard playfield, and there is room in the back for a full length one.

The monitor is a standard low-res 19" colour tube, which anyone who has owned or repaired videogames is very, very familiar with. It has a custom mounting bracket, of course, but otherwise is the same style as the old G07s dating back to the early 80's.

The cabinet itself is similar to the standard we are all used to, with the exception of the keyed lockdown bar, which allows glass removal without access to the rest of the machine.

The playfield glass is standard tempered - there is no extra stuff for reflectiveness.

To those concerned about height or viewing angle, rest assured. I viewed the image from right down at eye level (ala Lyman Sheats style) all the way to my tiptoes (I'm 5'8"), also at extreme right and left angles and I had no problem whatsoever seeing the images. The implementation is *excellent*.

Putting on and pulling off the head is a two-man job, unless you're He-Man. Fortunately, the way the system is set up, you'll likely never need to remove it. The CPU is located just behind the marquee, with easy access to the top of the motherboard, and pulling out the playfield is easy, as it stands on it's own, allowing access to the driver board.

This will probably be the easiest pinball machine to fix that has ever existed - each fuse has it's own LED, and the game *tells you* where to find burned-out bulbs, among other things. Once again, *excellent*.

Now, on to the playfield layout:

Standard flippers, slingshots. Two ramps are located on either side of the centre ramp which works like the one in Goldeneye, popping up and down as needed. The side ramps lead to the inlanes. Lock shot on the right side to the left of the right ramp leads to the right ramp (perhaps elsewhere, I only played a few games with all the crowds). Left and right consists of an orbit loop, with three jets on the left, beside roll-overs. The centre ramp leads to a ball trough, which deposits the ball in a lock mechanism feeding out the left loop.

For those concerned, yes - you can see the back of the playfield, *if the game wants you to see it*. It turns the GI on when the ball is back there and it can be seen perfectly fine. However, when the screen gets going and you have to shoot at images, it turns the backlighting off.

Now, for the all important game play:

If you liked Monster Bash, you'll love Revenge from Mars. It has a similar layout to Attack from Mars, but the goals and modes are more straight forward and easy to understand for the new pinball player, while still maintaining a level of difficulty to appeal to the experienced player.

At game start, you can choose what "set" of modes you'd like to start with by selecting them using the "action" buttons, which are part of the standard button, surrounding it in a semi-circle. Most people will not even notice buttons, but the designers were well aware of that and their use was limited in this game.

Once you select, the mode begins. The easiest mode, which I selected, was "Alien Abduction", where you must shoot the ramps to stop the saucers from stealing various objects, such as cows. Shooting any of the ramps or orbits fires missles at the saucers as well.

Please, do not take my statements as a ruleset. I am going completely by memory and I only played a few games, but I will try and explain as best as I can.

Anyway, all modes are completed by shooting the centre ramp, which allows the ball to be captured and your performance evaluated. If you did your job flawlessly, you are awarded an extra bonus, which apparently works like a wizard mode - ie. you must complete a mode to a certain level to be awarded a level, otherwise you must re-do the mode until you complete it fully.

This will appeal to newbies, as they can go through modes beating the crap out of martians and feel like they've accomplished something, while the good players will know what they need to do to really excell. Once again, Lyman and the other excellent programmers have made a two-layered game.

As for ball feel, the playfield is very wide open, ala No Fear, but without the frustrating rubber-post-hell feeling - every point leads to a switch, a ramp, a drop target (yes, on the right side, like the lock in T2), or the back loop. There are some very satisfying shots on the game, and I imagine ball flow from one ramp to another will be good, but for the most part I found the "flow" (ie. constant ball movement) to be missing. There is a lot of ball stopping in this game.

That is merely a matter of taste, and in my opinion indicative of the designer's, in this case George Gomez's, style overall. It is very much one of his games.

The games I played were about 70% complete - not all the modes were complete and the final "polish" was missing. Even so, they were completely playable and I have to say, a lot of the graphics were *spectacular*. The final shot up the ramp to destroy the saucer and the resulting explosion was awe-inspiring.

I found I rarely looked at the playfield at all - the graphics display just sucks you right in and you can't take your eyes off of it. Even though, compared to the polished look we get from videogame these days, Mars seems a little blocky, it is still a quantum leap for pinball. You really do feel like you can reach in and touch the martians on screen. Interaction, even in this early version, between the ball and the screen is *excellent*. All in all, I believe the programmers deserve a medal for their seemless integration effort.

My final verdict? Classic pinheads will probably be weary and suspicious of the machine at first, and it will require a complete re-thinking of how pinball works for those of us used to a basically static playfield.

However, the market that WMS solely lacks - the video player - will be *very* interested in this baby. There's even one mode where a Lincoln "transformer" battles a martian that will look instantly familiar to anyone who has played Street Fighter/Mortal Kombat. I think that's a key to getting the new players, and the new players will be what saves pinball.

Revenge from Mars is, in my opinion, an excellent opening volley from WMS to help gain market share. It's not perfect, it's not polished, but it's only the first game on this new platform... Who knows what will come down the pipe in the next while!

This game blew me away, and it's only the beginning.