Let's get to know each other

[basigram]

Hi

I guess somebody has to start populating this empty entry, so I decided to introduce myself.

I am Basil Grammaticos. I am a pinball fan (that should have been obvious). In the same time I am a Mac fan (many say that I am an Apple fanboy) and I combine my two passions in a blog

http://macpinballhistory.blogspot.com

I was previously maintaining the page on Mac pinball history in the Tower of Pin site but since the latter went down I decided to go for an independent blog.

[cottonm4]

Hi Basil,

I am Craig Day. I like Pro Pinball, Visual Pinball, and I like my Macs (although I am not happy with the way Apple has marginalized my 2006 Mac Pro).

I used to spend time on Tower of Pin. Perhaps we met there. I went looking through the archives and see Tower of Pin messages only go back to 2000. I don't see any of my posts so maybe I was there in 1999.

There used to be a website called Games4mac.com. The webmaster was evangelizing for game makers to makes more games for the Mac. We communicated and I wrote him a review for The Web. He liked my review and had me review some long forgotten puzzle game. If my memory is correct, I think I reviewed Timeshock for him, as well. The site is long gone and so is my review. I printed out a copy of that review but, unfortunately, I have not been able to find the printed copy. Nor have I been able to locate my Mac box for Fantastic Journey. All my other Pro Pinball items I still have.

Here is one website I used to frequent. Amazingly, it is still up after 14 years ! This guy, Martin Mathis, wrote what I considered to be the best reviews of Pro Pinball.

http://www.lastbandit.com/pinrevue.html

[basigram]

Hi Craig,

Yes, we probably met in the Tower of Pin. Alas, it's one more nice site that disappeared.
I did also like a lot the Games4mac site. Also gone now.
Fortunately some sites do live on. Martin Mathis' pinball site is one such example of longevity. And I adore his reviews. They are great. One sees immediately that the guy is a pinball specialist.

A pity you do not have Fantastic Journey anymore. It's a great pinball (although my favourite is BRUSA). Let's cross our fingers for the ProPinball revival to be successful so that you can get the ultra edition.

[LoB]

[Phlum]

It's like a housewarming party!

I am a human who likes playing computer games a lot. So much so that I built my own machine a couple of years ago - what a beauty it is Only recently got into pinball, and I've only ever played one physical table...

Might as well stick a link here to my YouTube channel -
http://youtube.com/captainslow202

[Vince]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd get an early intro' in. I'm not so good at pinball, but I like it a lot. In the future you will doubtless marvel at how my scores are so low when it appears that I like the game so much, I ponder this myself. Perhaps it's because I'm not that much of a veteran player: it was only in the last couple of years that the Zen game piqued my interest.

I just had a read of cottonm4's reviews, and the herculean power of a gaming rig in those days made me chuckle.

Oh, and I've never even used a Mac, not even in a shop.

[basigram]

Hi VInce,

Go try a Mac in the Apple Store closest to your place. You'll never look back

[nonfamousd]

I'm David Smith. I first got introduced to Pro Pinball when I played The Web, which for me was the first "real" pinball game available on the PC. I wrote what I think is the first in-depth rulesheet for a virtual pinball game:

http://www.dos486.com/pinball/webrules.txt

I was also a beta tester on the original Timeshock. I bugged Ade and the team so much about tweaks to the rules that they brought me on as a design consultant for Big Race USA and Fantastic Journey. It was a lot of fun visiting the Empire Interactive studio in Oxford and meeting with Ade and Champie and the team and going through many revisions of the designs. I think my name appears on the playfield for those games somewhere -- I'd love some screenshots if anyone still has them. (I haven't had a PC in years since I switched to Mac.)

Anyway I'm super excited that Pro Pinball is coming back, and it's great to see a community building up here.

[Lucuis]

Nice to see some folks already in here, and good to meet all you fellow backers. My name is Lucas Maruk, long time pinball fan since Timeshock was released. Unfortunately I have only had the pleasure of playing on one live table. Difficult as they aren't so common as they once were, and being only 24 i wasn't around when they were. Luckily Timeshock is as real as it is Looking forward to the Ultra version!

I'm also looking forward to the remake of the other Pro Pinball games, i have not had a chance to play any of the others as of yet. Very exciting.

[cottonm4]