What is Sci-Fi Pinball?

What do Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jeff Goldblum have in common? They both make appearances on your Mac’s screen as you play Fox Interactive’s new Sci-Fi Pinball based on four hot science fiction properties — Aliens, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Predator, and The Fly — each with its own challenging table consisting of bumpers, ramps, and traps.

The tables themselves take up only half the screen, with the other half devoted to the presentation of the scoreboard and more than 100 movie clips that appear as a reward for good gameplay. The clips are hard to see, due to a screen mesh that keeps the pictures dark, and they tend to get a bit repetitive, but they’re mildly interesting if you’re a science fiction film fan. You’re also treated to odd little sound bites from the movies, though the running commentary doesn’t always correspond to what’s happening in the game. “I think it’s time for champagne,” blurts Goldblum out of the blue, for example. Unless your score is pretty high, you’ll wonder what Jeff’s celebrating. All four tables play well, but the Predator and The Fly tables work best. Secret: when you score 10 million bonus points, there’s a bonus table based upon the classic version of The Fly starring David Hedison.

Okay, so Sci-Fi Pinball is basically a straightforward pinball game with multimedia window dressing. But it’s four decent pinball games for one low price, and the sci-fi elements are a nice addition.

Lee, John. (November 1999). Sci-Fi Pinball. MacAddict. (pg. 79).

Download Sci-Fi Pinball for Mac

Architecture

IBM PowerPC

System Requirements

From Mac OS 7.5

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: SheepShaver