1990 · Pinball

Pinball Jam

Atari exclusive

Pinball Jam is a Lynx conversion of two pinball tables: "Elvira and the Party Monsters" (Midway, 1989), and "Police Force" (Williams, 1989). Both feature authentic table layouts, targets, and bonuses; the conversion of Elvira and the Party Monsters also features digitized sound effects, including the voice of Cassandra Peterson (Elvira).

Released: 1 February 1990
Platforms: Atari Lynx
Genres: Pinball
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Action
Country: United States

About

Pinball Jam is a 1992 video game for the Atari Lynx, developed and released by Atari Corporation. It features two pinball tables licensed from Williams, with playfield graphics and rules based on Elvira and the Party Monsters and Police Force, but with different music and sound effects.

Keywords

abstract
licensed game
digital pinball

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game uses an overhead view, which scrolls to track the ball. When multiple balls are in play, the game tracks the lower ball, with arrows pointing to other balls. The end of game match sequences from the physical machines are not used. The game has an easy mode where the player has five balls per game, and a hard mode where the player has the traditional three balls per game, and certain targets reset after a ball drains.

Players can nudge the tables. The game manual summarizes the main rules of the original games. Pinball Jam has a high score leaderboard which shows the top three scores on each table. Some digitized voices from the original versions are included, but are somewhat scratchy, and rearranged.

Reception

Pinball Jam received mixed reviews from critics.

IGN found the game closely resembles the original pinball tables, with game physics sufficiently convincing; but when the ball moves quickly the scrolling becomes "jumpy" to keep pace. It concluded that while it is a fun game, it wouldn't satisfy die-hards.