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A Mediocre Sim Filled With Careless Gliches

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I was never much of a Gottlieb fan when trolling the arcade with a fat pocketful of quarters. I found their machines to be an exercise in frustration, with their lazy board angles, weak kickbacks, and exceptionally wide spaces between flippers. When the machines were in anything but tip-top condition (which very few actually were), frustration could easily lead to a smoldering anger as the balls seemed to naturally be drawn to the gutters while you had nothing to respond with except anemic flippers and a bruised hip to send the offending machine smashing against the back wall. "The Gottlieb Collection" by Crave Entertainment not only has helped me relive these unfortunate experiences of a misspent youth, they have compounded these frustrations by providing a product so full of glitches that I have relegated it to the back of my video game collection. It's all there in unfortunate detail; the anemic flippers, sleepy kickbacks, and quarter-cheating gutters that had me steering clear of these devious machines in the arcade. As if this wasn't enough, Crave has magnanimously added virtual balls that magically pass through flippers, bumpers, and targets along with becoming eternally ensconced in holes that will not release even after a tilt, forcing you to reset the game. These are only a few examples of why beta testing is so important before releasing a product for retail. I gazed at my Playstation 2 in wonderment as the multiball feature in "Tee'd Off" was reduced to a sputtering, frame-skipping, inaccurate mess. It had served me so well during all of the GTA mayhem....was the processor finally on its last legs? Did anyone at Crave Entertainment double check the game coding before sending the DVD out? It is a shame, because the emulations really do show a potential for fun. I only ask that I be given a semblance of body english without an over eager tilt (the way these machines truly are played in the arcade), and for the flippers and bumpers to become solid once again.

I would pass on this collection, but by all means, purchase "The Williams Collection", also by Crave Entertainment. They seemed to have learned from their mistakes and released an exceptional product, one which has me lofting high the "Crave Entertainment" banner and reliving the golden age of pinball once again.

Not bad, but not as realistic as you might think

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you aren't a real-world pinball aficionado, you might not be as aware of the slightly unrealistic physics during gameplay. I've played tens of thousands of games of pinball and never have I seen a solid steel ball bounce around like it commonly does in this game. Plus, many of the so-called "pinball games" are actually not pinball, but other types of amusement games. However, this is still a pretty nice package. The newer release, "Williams Pinball Classics" dramatically improves on the gameplay physics, but suffers from bugs that will crash the game while you're in the middle of it.

This game suffers from a number of serious problems. First and foremost, there are bugs in the code which will cause pinballs to disappear or get stuck and you will lose your game. I didn't like this in the real world and I can't imagine the designers intended the software to emulate this behavior - it's annoying, especially if you're in the middle of the challenge - kiss an hour's worth of time goodbye.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, as a pinball aficionado, I wax nostalgic for all the old games and many of these I've played in real life. And it brings back a lot of memories... bad memories of how profoundly bad many of Gottlieb's machines were. Some games are simply unenjoyable to play. There is very little skill involved when in at least 1/4 of the games, a significant percentage of the time the ball will drain before you can even get a flipper on it. I don't blame the programmers. I blame Gottlieb for designing machines that eat money and are only worthy of being in a bar played by drunk people who don't care. But on the PSP, this becomes an exercise in frustration. The Williams version is dramatically better and shows how superior Williams pinball games are. The developers could have done much better with virtually any pinball company other than Gottlieb. I look forward to Stern and Bally versions -- anything is better than the eternally frustrating tables in this game.

Third, the game physics seem to alter depending upon the view. This is not a figment of my imagination. There are some targets I can more or less easily hit depending upon the cam view. This does not happen in the later Williams version. The developers definitely had some problems in this game they fixed in their newer Williams release. Some of the machines, like Tee'd Off are an exercise in frustration to play, as some essential targets to hit in order to complete the table goals seem almost impossible to complete, due to some bizarre program logic that makes the ball go in one extreme direction or another. You cannot execute any reliable ball-flipping accuracy in this game like you can in the Williams version.

If I could take this game back, I would. It has been more frustrating than entertaining and fun. It reminds me of my worst pinball experiences, playing unforgiving tables that required more dumb luck than skill, and malfunctioning machines that ate my quarters. That's not the type of nostalgia I was hoping for.

Williams collection is so much better.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This compilation of tables is pretty typical of how Williams tables were always so much superior. This one features slow and boring Gottlieb tables with very poor layouts and questionable mission objectives that always made little sense. Most of these tables are enough to put you to sleep!! Crave should just concentrate on making Williams and Bally tables from here on out. These tables are just a waste of time.

Best Version of a Good Collection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is essentially the same game as on the PS2, except it has an extra 3 tables. The best part, though, is that it has a great viewing angle - tilt the PSP vertical, and it fills the screen. It didn't include very many modern tables (1992's Teed Off was the most recent), and Victory is about as generic as you can get, but at least they were based on real tables. I might have knocked off a star for the table selection, but, considering how great the rest of the presentation is, and considering there really aren't any other games out there like this, then this is a must have for pinball fans.

just pick it up

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

listen, if you like pinball, have a psp, and roughly $20 you can't go wrong with this game.

Awesome recreation of classic pinball tables

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

You can't beat the value of this game at $20 or less. Take a stroll through an arcade and play some note-for-note replicas of pinball tables ranging from 1932 up to 1996. Excellent all-around. the scrolling gameplay is a sneeze less than perfect, but that's to be expected on the smaller screen of the PSP, versus playing it on a computer screen or TV. highlights include Black Hole, Tee'd Off, Aces High and Goin' Nuts (an unreleased game that is a lot of fun). can't wait until their next release comes out on February 20th, 2008. it will feature Williams' tables (including Whirlwind, Black Knight, Funhouse, Gorgar, etc).

Different

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: July 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is more like standing in front of the machine VS a Pinball game for the game unit. It was not exactly what I was looking for. I wanted it to be like pinball games normally are on the PSP. This made you feel like you were in the arcade.

Over all it is not really bad. It was just not comfortable for me to play. It made me a tad dizzy. It took a bit to figure out how to view it easiest. I ended up trading my copy in at the local game store.

Gottlieb Collection kicks!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I scored this game for $9.99 new and can't think of a better way to spend ten bones. I usually dump at least $10 in pinball machines whenever I see them, and now I can play some of the oldies that I remember (and many that I never saw) for as long as I want. The replication of the tables is quite good. It's not perfect, but considering the inherent limitations of the platform, the effort is substantial.

Nice graphical touches abound, featuring all of the original games' samples, a comprehensive historical fact mode, and the really generous game sharing mode.

Pinball review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nice recreation of some old time piball tables. Also true to the graphics and sounds. On the PSP some of the tables could be considered smallish. when playing in 'career' mode, you must beat the tables challenges to move on to the next table. more and more challenging as you go but you could always just play in practice mode. All in all a nice solid game if you are a pinball fan. Not sure what else i could possible want out of it

Great game that accurately pay homage to Pinball machines of yester year

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is neat, it includes background history of each pinball machine and even includes a a built in tour of the Gottlieb factory. A must have for any pinball fan. Graphics and sounds are authentic and game play is fun. This game is challenging at first because you have to reach certain goals on certain machines first, before you can play the other machines. I wish you could just choose whatever machine you wanted directly, but on the other hand, it is more challenging they way they did it.

I can see playing this game for a long time, it's not the time of game that is so simple that you will get bored of it easily.

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