Video Pinball

Video Pinball is a series of three games released by Atari between 1977 and 1980. The third version (for the Atari 2600) is now available on Xbox Live Arcade.

The first version was on a dedicated console, similar to the Pong machines of the time. It also had a basketball game and Breakout. The second was an Arcade Game, complete with flashing lights. The third was the 2600 version. Each game gave you control over the ball shooter and flippers. The arcade and 2600 versions also had a nudge feature, similar to tilting a real pinball table. Ball physics were fairly realistic.

Video Pinball provides examples of:

 * Difficulty Levels: A combination of game variations, and on the Atari 2600, difficulty switches.
 * Endless Game
 * Everything's Better with Spinning
 * The Golden Age of Video Games
 * No Fair Cheating: Too much nudging and TILT!
 * No Plot, No Problem
 * Pinball
 * Pressure Plate: Rollovers.
 * Ragdoll Physics
 * Scoring Points: Though the 2600 version avoids Pinball Scoring, and has a couple of spinners worth one point.
 * Springs Springs Everywhere: Bumpers and spinners.
 * Top Down View
 * Video Game Lives: Or in this case, balls.
 * Wide Open Sandbox