Balls of Steel

Before I go into this, I want everyone to keep in mind this is technically the third time this has been released. The release timings are as follows. 1995-Original Game for Windows 95/98 era-Released by GT Interactive, Apogee Software and Wildfire Studios 2014/2015- Interceptor Entertainment, Devolver Digital (they helped with Duke 3D Megaton Edition so they've worked with them with their IPs pre Gearbox) and 3D Realms This particular re-release of Balls of Steel is included exclusively as part of the 3D Realms Anthology bundle, which is sadly now delisted 2024-Current and ONLY way to play this game which was released by Big Boat Interactive as the developer and Atari as the publisher I'll go into the meat and potatoes of the 1995/2014 releases, which imo are better versions and are honestly what make this game a poor re release. sad to say ): I really hate to say this, but as GREAT as this collection and this video/digital pinball classic is overall. This is sadly an improper re-release. It is passable and works good enough yes. But it overall feels rushed. I'm going to elaborate for those unaware and also give a rundown of this game's history. Because the game plays good emulation wise and plays well, but the problem is it's so lazily ported This isn't the first time Balls of Steel has been on Steam and or GOG (its been on both which is why I mention that). Originally this game was actually made by GT Interactive and 3D Realms, case and point Balls of Steel actually was bundled with the good old 3D Realms Anthology. I'm lucky enough to own that, but sadly it's been delisted because Gearbox and everything. That reason is because Balls of Steel actually used to have a Duke Nukem 3D Table. This table sadly isn't in this release because of course licensing can be a ♥♥♥♥♥ and it was delisted once Duke Nukem changed hands from Devolver and 3D Realms to Gearbox once they bought them out But as a person who's played at least 30-40 hours by now of the 2014 release of Balls of Steel. I can tell you this. In the ORIGINAL RELEASE AND THE 2014 RELEASE (Big letters=emphasis), you had MULTIPLE MODES. Those being 1 Ball, 3 Ball, 5 Ball, and Tournament between up to 4 players. Top this off is you could alternate and change the camera angles/resolution and you can play the game in multiple ways. Do you want to have the game and have it up close and stretched visuals? Then you can do that, you can do things zoomed out, you can even literally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rotate the game on its side or upside down if you wanted to None of that is here. No extra modes, no adjustable camera, and lazily and sadly the absolute WORST part, you can't even rebind or change the controls. It breaks my heart as a fan of pinball of all kinds. Top this off where the 2014 release of the game ran 95% smoothly (mild glitches are the other 5% that would cause a small restart to be needed or visual bugs but that's it) because the developers actually essentially ported a mod in an official manner and the modder got credited and got a bit of work. But essentially the 2014 release had a custom made program loader so that it could run Balls of Steel extremely smoothly and the emulation was almost perfect minus these small visual glitches I mentioned. The mod that was made was called BOS Loader. Sadly. this loader is nowhere to be found to in this re-release. Why they couldn't add it here is beyond me. Now DON'T get me wrong, for some people, this may be good enough, and this game isn't all bad. All the tables are good and to be honest even the new tables are pretty damn cool in my opinion For context, I'm going to give an abridged version/quick review of each table, even the Duke table not featured here. Barbarian-This is essentially a Conan the Barbarian homage with an Arnold Schwarzenegger sound alike. You try to advance your score taking on medieval monsters such as dragons and giant snakes as you gather sacred elemental gems and try to get gifts and reverence from mythological gods Darkside-This feels like a hybrid homage to Starship Troopers and Alien put together. You go through space as part of a crew fighting off bug like aliens but and fending off infestations while surviving the dark reaches of space Firestorm-You are a firefighter/bomb squad member trying to stop an arsonist/mad bomber as well as attempting to rescue any potential victims and stop his harebrained schemes Duke Nukem (RIP)- This table was based on Duke 3D and had animated pig cops as well as animated hovering aliens. Keycards, powerups, and even original and remixed music from Duke 3D (specifically Hollywood Holocaust) and even better, John St John recorded new voice lines for this, for that matter his voice is in a multitude of the other original tables, such as a soldier in Darkside or the professor in Mutation as well. Mutation-This is essentially a mix of/homage to Resident Evil and the Thing (Minus the Antarctica and zombie elements respectively) where you are a scientist in a team working on genetic experiments that are top secret to better mankind in an underground facility. However, a mutation occurs and a blob like green monster with red eyes comes out to play. Now, your only objective is to survive and live to tell the tale Now here's where some of the few positives of this 2024 release come into play These 2 new tables plus old DLC brought back Devil's Island-Now why do I say old DLC? Because while this table was NOT in the 2014 release or even at launch of the original 1995 game. The kicker is this table was actually added as an add on to the 1995 original at a later time akin to the, to quote postal dude "Good Old Expansion Pack" days. So while technically not new, this hasn't been re-released until now. This wasn't in the 2014 re-release of the game either, so you can think of this as Duke Nukem's replacement. In this, you are a group of survivors trying to avoid and survive a cult like tribe of people who want to sacrifice you and your crew who crashed on this island. You have to do your best to find the resources you can and your cunning to survive the island. The last 2 tables added are ACTUALLY new, and they are instead in the form of Missile Command and Centipede, based on their respective Atari arcade games. And while I like the designs, colors, and visuals as well as the side art (these are made to look like their respective arcade cabinets are next to them) unlike the original BOS tables, these aren't animated and to be fair while this doesn't ruin them, it feels like these new tables are basic. They're good enough, but long story short if the developers had more time, they could've been designed and animated just as good as the original tables. Now you may be wondering, with all this in mind and if this is a great game. Why a bad review? Because this particular re-relase isn't good, it IS passable and GOOD ENOUGH, but good enough doesn't always mean a good review, and for that matter it's barely passable when compared to the original game or 2014 re-release. I can only hope to God that things like alternate camera views, rebindable controls and things like the BOS loader get added in updates. Hell if this stuff gets fixed I'd genuinely pay for the Duke 3D table to come back as DLC as long as it's fairly priced. But this is a rare time where if/when the game gets fixed or patched I'll update the review to a positive. (I honestly wish steam would allow a yellow or "neutral" review option, this is a perfect example) but until then I sadly can't in good conscience reccomend this re-release unless you either have not played the other versions, can handle the flaws, or you get on sale. To put it humerously, these balls of steel may need a bit more testosterone injections before things get better (For anyone curious, this is the steam community hub link to the 2014 re-release for anyone unaware or who doesn't believe me) https://steamcommunity.com/app/358430/

A poor excuse of a port of a great 90s pinball game. The Duke Nukem table is gone (Thanks Randy), options and customization has been gutted beyond any possible belief, the default presentation of the tables is awful with no way to change anything, the two new tables included by Atari are unworthy of the Balls of Steel moniker. Not to mention the new tables have sound design that could literally make a person deaf. Miserable port. Don't buy it. Search the Internet for the older version of the game that comes with BOS Loader and play that instead. Atari doesn't deserve a dime for that botched porting job. 2025 EDIT: The game has been updated in order to add a new scrolling mode, which still feels weird because the developers insisted that the table should be widescreen at all costs, so it makes the tables feel fat. However, the full screen mode has been updated in order to fill up the screen more, making the game feel less like it needs a microscope to play. However, be wary that the physics are affected by framerate; run the game in 60 hz as otherwise some physics will be wonky. The Atari tables remain utterly terrible with deafening sound work.

My impressions video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cou-on___xA I'm a huge pinball fan (to the point where I own an actual machine, it's a sickness) and Balls of Steel is to this day, one of my favourite video pinball titles. Thanks to the weird engine its original developer Wildfire Studios wrote for it, it's also extremely difficult to get running reliably on PCs running an OS newer than Windows 98. Crashes, running too slow or too fast, and an inability to go fullscreen are among the problems. The original release used to be available on Steam and GOG, but was pulled, originally I thought for these compatibility reasons, though I've since learned it was because of the Duke Nukem table and them needing an expensive license from greasebag Randy Pitchford to include it. This re-release came out of nowhere and I was pleased to see it, though confused to see it being released by Atari, without the involvement of Wildfire Studios or publisher Apogee Software. The retail version was originally published by GT Interactive, which after a tortured series of mergers, became Atari so I assume that they got the rights to this somehow. I'm sad to say that this is one of the worst re-releases I've ever seen and frankly, if this is the best they could or were willing to do, they shouldn't have bothered. For starters, the excellent Duke Nukem table is missing entirely. Of course, Duke Nukem is now owned by Greasy Randy Pitchford's Gearbox Software, so I'm guessing the license was either too expensive, or that a deal couldn't otherwise be reached. This is frustrating, but at least they put the also excellent add-on table Devil's Island into the collection in its place. The frontend for the collection is basic, but looks nice enough. However, it will randomly not respond to controller directional inputs, meaning that if you're trying to play this with a controller, you sometimes just won't be able to select a table without acquiring a keyboard and mouse. That will be extra fun on devices like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally, which don't have a mouse built-in. Once you launch any of the tables from the original pack, you will get one of the most bafflingly awful visual presentations I've ever seen. The screenshots of these tables shown on the Steam page and straight up false advertising. What you will get is a small representation of the table on the left side of the screen, with a proportionally small version of the scoreboard on the bottom-right and above that, the table's poster art. That's it. There's a huge amount of wasted screen space, no scaling options, no ability to reposition the elements, not even so much as a background image to cover up the massive black voids that take up most of the screen. The developers have claimed this is because the original assets were in low resolution. So? Either hire an artist to redraw them in higher resolution or even use AI upscaling if you have to. You can run the original games using dgVoodoo upscaling and it looks better than this. This isn't good enough and other retro rereleases have done far better. To their credit, they did an excellent job at solving the other major issue Balls of Steel had, which is play speed. The tables play at the exact speed they should and the controls are responsive. This isn't something often guaranteed in a re-release and I'm happy to see it done well here. The original Balls of Steel had online leaderboards through a third-party service called WorldScores that's long dead and while I don't count it against the collection that it doesn't have a new implementation of those, again, it's been done in other collections and could have been a nice value add here. The sound effects are still played at the lower bit rate of the original, but that much is understandable as they are probably the only sound effects they had and unlike the horrible presentation, don't have a negative impact on gameplay. As for the two newer tables based on classic Atari properties, they're fine at best. I don't care for the messy art in Centipede, but I do quite like the cleaner and more popping look of Missile Command. These releases also have custom art filling in all the black space that was just left as-is in the original tables for some reason. However, the tables are just boring to play. They have a lot more empty space than the original tables, they don't have good ramp design or flow to facilitate rapid combos and have very few active elements on the table. The originals have tons of animated elements that could only be in a video pinball table. These new tables just lack any dynamism. They're not bad, but also not a reason to buy this collection. The new incarnation of Atari has actually been putting out some great stuff the last year or so between Atari 50, Mr. Run & Jump, Akka Arrh and more. I don't know if either the developer couldn't handle this task (they've been around a while and have put out some solid stuff) or wasn't given enough of a budget, but everything about this release screams "We have to ship something with this or we'll lose the rights." I don't know if that's true or not, but as a big Balls of Steel fan, this pack is insulting and not worth your purchase at any price. Find the original and a guide to get it running on a modern PC (I may put one together and will update this review with it if I do) and play some of the best video pinball there is. But this? Not like this.

Balls of Steel é um jogo de pinball com gráficos "pseudo 3d" (na verdade 2d com gráficos pré-renderizados em 3d). O game foi lançado no mítico ano de 1997. Naquela época as empresas Williams e Bally chegam ao seu auge e lançam respectivamente as máquinas físicas Medieval Madness e Circus Voltaire. Depois disso o gênero entra em declínio e nos leva a situação que estamos hoje com apenas a Stern e outras empresas pequenas ainda investindo na construção de máquinas de pinball. Porém, naquele mesmo período, o pinball começou a ganhar força no meio digital e iniciou o processo que nós vemos hoje. Em 98 se você queria um jogo de pinball descompromissado e com coisas impossíveis de se fazer em uma máquina de verdade a opção era Balls of Steel. Se a sua preferência fosse jogar algo mais pé no chão e voltado à simulação o seu jogo era Pro Pinball: Timeshock. Na prática esses dois jogos fomentaram o conceito de desenvolver uma engine de pinball única e aplicá-la em inúmeras mesas. A física de BoS foi muito bem aceita na época e a desenvolvedora do jogo (Wildfire Studios) continuou a produzir mesas que foram lançadas tanto para PC quanto PS1. Naquele tempo não existia DLCs então cada conjunto de mesas formavam um jogo novo, mas com a mesma física que todos gostavam construída em BoS. Basicamente esse jogo é o pai do Pinball FX. Alguns anos atrás o jogo original estava disponível na Steam embutido com um “mod” feito por fã que deixava a aplicação compatível com os sistemas atuais. Ainda tenho essa versão na biblioteca e funciona até hoje no Windows 11. Não tem placares online, nem compatibilidade com joystick, mas usando as opções do Steam você pode mapear os botões do teclado e funciona muito bem com controles. Estava esperançoso quando vi esse relançamento, entretanto foi tudo feito de qualquer jeito e não tem como defender... Do original foi retirada a mesa Duke Nukem, o que eu entendo considerando os direitos atuais e a versão para o Pinball FX, e adicionado Devil´s Island (que deveria fazer parte do jogo original, só que foi vendido separadamente depois na época) e mais duas mesas baseadas em franquias da Atari (Centipede e Missile Command). Sendo um remaster o mínimo que esperava era uma compatibilidade com controles decente e placares online. Apenas isso valeria muito a compra mesmo com a ausência da máquina de Duke Nukem. Porém, a compatibilidade com controles é toda cagada (é necessário teclado para algumas funções e o botão de “launch” também aciona os flippers, o que deixa alguns “Vídeo Mode” injogáveis) e não tem nem como consultar os placares locais sem a mesa estar rodando (o que até o jogo original fazia). Devil’s Island é um excelente bônus, entretanto só ela possui um bug que deixa a visão “scrolling” com a imagem esticada e horrível. Injogável pra mim desse jeito. As duas novas adições não possuem o modo de visão “scrolling”. São mesas que usam a física clássica de BoS, bem competentes até, sendo um pouco mais simplistas que as clássicas em termos de regras e recursos. Caso lancem uma atualização corrigindo esses detalhes eu refaço este review. No estado atual, tendo a versão anterior, não compre. Se você tem nostalgia dessas mesas pegue, mas sabendo dessas questões.

Leider richtig schlecht! Ich habe schon die GOG-Version, dachte, sie hätten diese verbessert, aber leider nur verschlimmbessert. 1) Es gibt kein Optionsmenü, in dem man die Bildschirmgröße einstellen kann. Bei 1920x1080 ist links das Spielfeld sehr klein, rechts Tischartwork...das DMD nicht oben links beim oder über dem Flippertisch, sondern rechts unten, also komplett falsch. 2) Bei der GOG-Version scrollt der Schirm und ist groß oder man sieht alles, dafür ist der Screen klein. Hier ist alles immer klein..Scrolling ist deaktiviert. 3) Ich habe einen Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, der in allen Spielen wie ein Xbox Controller für Windows funktioniert...leider funktioniert er hier gar nicht... Finger weg!

At release I would have struggled to recommend this re-release of Balls of Steel, as it was a somewhat buggy affair with limited graphics options. However, as of late-May 2025, it's enjoyed an update that has really turned this around. It's now a much more playable title, with full-screen (and sideways view) options for all tables, better resolution and several bugs fixed. As for the underlying game, it's all there and quite solid - though this game does not include the Duke Nukem table from the original due to licensing issues, it instead has the table that one replaced, Devil Island, which is great to see reincorporated into the Balls of Steel package. Darkside is an all time classic table and the other BoS tables are all enjoyable. The new tables, based on Atari properties, are solid and enjoyable 2d virtual pinball from the classic era. BoS was, in many ways, the last hurrah of the 2d pinball game - a genre unto itself - and it's wonderful to see it represented to faithfully here for a new generation of players.

⛔👎 Se Atari deve sviluppare remake con questa impalpabile mediocre qualità è meglio che lasci perdere. Remake degli anni 90 con 7 tavole a disposizione rivisitate ( 😂👎) tra cui 2 tavole Nuove per l'occasione ovvero Centipede e Missile command il cui risultato globale nel giudicare quest'ultime è veramente imbarazzante. 1️⃣👎 Azione, velocità della pallina, potenza dello spinner a livelli della forza e dalla dinamica di un piccione 2️⃣👎 Grafica assolutamente insoddisfacente anche se rivisitata, ma essendo appunto un gioco presentato nel 2024 con una concorrenza spietata, era d'obbligo uno sviluppo decisamente più profondo e drastico delle Tavole. Le stesse tavole erano già modeste negli anni 90, figuriamoci dopo 3 decadi. 3️⃣👎 La scelta del pov è disastrosa nelle 7 tavole a disposizione. Nelle 2 tavole a disposizione aggiunte in questo Balls of steel 2024, Centipede e Missile Command, avremo la completa visione totale a differenza delle altre, che seguono il movimento della pallina con conseguente mezzo schermo a disposizione..,lascio a voi le considerazioni. 4️⃣⛔Centipede e Missile Command create per l'occasione, paradossalmente hanno tavole meno complesse, con grafica e giocabilità nettamente inferiori alle stesse tavole create negli anni 90. Anzi senza ombra di minimo dubbio, sembrano 2 giochi degli anni 80 sviluppati per console come colecovision o atari 5200/7800 5️⃣❌📛 Non è questa la strategia commerciale per voler far risorgere e presentare iconiche leggende degli anni 80 da parte di Atari. Decisamente un pessimo titolo, e di pessimo gusto voler spremere i vecchi nostagici come me con questa spazzatura. ⛔👎 If Atari has to develop remakes with this impalpable mediocre quality it’s better that you let it go. Remake of the 90s with 7 boards available revisited ( 😂👎) including 2 new boards for the occasion or Centipede and Missile command whose overall result in judging this is really embarrassing. 1️⃣👎 Action, speed of the ball, power of the spinner at levels of strength and dynamics of a pigeon 2️⃣👎 Graphics absolutely unsatisfactory even if revisited, but being precisely a game presented in 2024 with a ruthless competition, it was necessary a development decidedly deeper and drastic than the Boards. The same tables were already modest in the 90s, let alone after 3 decades. 3️⃣👎 The choice of pov is disastrous in the 7 tables available. In the 2 tables added in this Balls of steel 2024, Centipede and Missile Command, we will have the complete total view unlike the others, which follow the movement of the ball resulting in half screen available.. , I leave the considerations to you. 4️⃣⛔Centipede and Missile Command created for the occasion, paradoxically have less complex boards, with graphics and gameplay much lower than the same boards created in the 90’s. On the contrary, without a shadow of the slightest doubt, they seem to be 2 games from the 80s developed for consoles like colecovision or atari 5200/7800 5️⃣❌📛 This is not the commercial strategy to want to resurrect and present iconic legends of the 80s by Atari. Definitely a bad title, and of very poor taste to squeeze old nosaisons like me with this garbage.

I want to recommend this, but can't currently. Firstly, it doesn't feature any video settings. Not being able to orient a pinball game with a vertical resolution really detracts from the experience. Secondly, the controls on gamepad (and in general) are a bit of a mess, and need some customization options; no analog plunger detracts from the experience, and without it, some sort of visual or audio-based cue would have been appreciated for the sake of timing skill shots. Thirdly, the loss of the Duke table as many have mentioned is a sad thing, as it was a standout table. The 2 new additions are okay; I like the Centipede table's layout quite a bit, actually. The sound design...not so much. There's a horrid noise that plays whenever you nudge that makes me want to rip my ears off. And for anyone who has never played the original...this was never the pinnacle of pinball physics; I always preferred games like Epic Pinball and Pinball Dreams over this. That said, there are worse pinball physics out there, and in general if you like pinball, you'll like these tables. Lastly, I hate that there's no leaderboards nor achievements for this. You can save scores locally (whoopdie-doo) but that's about it. I only recommend this currently if it's on sale (and as of writing this review, it is). Pass otherwise.

The screen format is so bad the playfield is crammed on the left side of the screen while the DMD and a generic 'backbox' graphic take up the majority of the real estate. The tables themselves might be fun, but I couldn't bring myself to play it for more than 5min because of the eye strain. I don't know who this is for, but I don't even want it on sale for $3.14. Refunded like a MF.

Refunding the game because the view of the tables is not allowing me to play them. Basically there is a massive black desktop that covers almost all screen, with the table using a small space of it. The Dot Matrix Display is placed in a weird position and is smaaaaaaaall. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3260848104 Love Pinball games, but sadly this one is unplayable for me. I´m allowing comments to see if there is a fix, and someone comment it, or if a fix appears over time to give the game another chance and a DEV replies :)