Obsession

Obsession is an arcade-style pinball game for one or eight players reminiscent of the Pinball game series by Digital Illusions and 21st Century Entertainment, featuring four types of pinball tables and each one has their own main objectives, gameplay mechanics and thematic. The player can set a number of settings in the options menu or during gameplay by pressing key commands on the computer.

"Aquatic Adventure", a table included in the April 1994 covermount of ST Review magazine, is oriented around Bobby Bubble searching for a treasure using a map stolen from Captain Notpolite. "X-ile Zone" is focused on an assassination mission against an enemy tribe leader taking place in a post-nuclear war setting. "Balls 'n Bats" is a baseball-style table where players attempt to win a world series. "Desert Run" is based on racing, where players start from Paris and reach Dakar. Each table has their respective letters that must be lit to start a high-scoring event.

Obsession was the first project to be developed by Unique Development Sweden (now Unique Development Studios), a Swedish video game developer consisting of Atari ST demosceners, composers and artists founded in 1992 by Peter Zetterberg and Michael Brunnström, both of which began writing games for the STe and found the idea of earning money from their hobby as appealing. Its development was helmed by a crew of approximately seven to eight members with Zetterberg as both project manager and designer along with Magnus Zetterburg. Brunnström also served as programmer alongside Kalle Lundqvist, Hans Härröd and Tord Jansson, who acted as sound programmer and wrote the replay routines. Jimmy Gustafsson was responsible for the table artwork, while the soundtrack was composed by Per Almered. The team recounted its creation process and history through various publications.

The team stated that the original idea behind Obsession was to develop a simple shareware pinball game inspired by Pinball Dreams for the STe at the level of an earlier release by Zetterberg titled Smash Hit, starting early design work before the project was expanded upon. Jansson was brought to the team due to his proprietary sound driver called "Octalyser" but also suggested bringing Almered to compose music and Härröd to use his routines for border breaking and raster colors. Gustafsson was later brought in after the staff realized they needed improved visuals. Because of the lack of quality pinball games on the ST besides Starball, the team settled with developing a pinball project with a "no compromise" approach for the STe as both Zetterberg and Brunnström had previously discussed creating a game that made use of the hardware features in the STe computer, while Jansson stated they did not wanted to make a "bad copy" of Pinball Dreams.

Obsession garnered critical acclaim from reviewers when it was released on the Atari STe. ST Review's Tina Hackett praised the visual presentation of each table for pushing the limits of the STe hardware, sound, controls and addictive gameplay but criticized the lack of a multiball system and a double set of flippers on the tables. German magazine Atari Inside commended Unique Development Sweden for creating a "great" pinball simulator, praising the ball and table physics as well as the overall audiovisual presentation. ST Format's Trenton Webb also commended Unique Development for making use of the STe hardware, praising the physics, graphics, sound, speed and accessibility, regarding it as one of the best games for the computer alongside Zero-5 but criticized the "Ball & Bats" table for being dull and relying heavily on its main gimmick.

STart Micro's Arnaud Pignard gave positive remarks to the colorful graphics, playability and soundtrack as well. Despite having positive reviews, Tord Jansson stated that very few copies were sold due to its late release on the STe.