Virtual Pinball X - A virtual pinball machine simulator (and the table I edited for tiny-brain casuals like me)
Pinball machines have always been conceptually more digital for me than others. My introduction to pinball was not an actual pinball machine, it was the 3D Space Cadet pinball game included in operating system "enhancement packages" and, for a couple Windows operating systems, included as standard. From there I played games like Pokemon Pinball on the Gameboy Colour, and the Sonic Generations spinball level in the new Sonic x Shadow Generations game. It's not like I didn't know they existed, but I was aware they were a lot more difficult than video game pinball machines.
My girlfriend recently started working at an arcade where she fixes pinball machines, so her obsession with pinball machines kind of flared up my own - but as a very casual player, I would need a really sentimental table to encourage me to give a hardcore simulator like VPX a shot. Lo and behold, JP's Space Cadet pinball table exists. It's a realistic virtual recreation of the less-realistic virtual table created by Cinematronics and published by Maxis, the first pinball "thing" I ever interacted with. It held enough nostalgia within it to encourage me to grab VPX and JP's Space Cadet table.
As expected, this game was incredibly difficult. What made me feel worse was that JP himself describes his recreation table as "too easy" for some hobbyists, acknowledging to me that tables are generally much harder than this. I play hardcore racing simulators so I totally understand the appeal of pinball sims, but as a hardcore racing sim fanatic I also understand the value of a casual racing game too. So, I took some snooping around the VPX UI and realized I could change the table to my own sensibilities and tastes.
So, I dove in. The first thing I did was make adjustments to the sound effect leveling that emphasized the backglass speaker noises over the table itself and the music, and instead tried to keep them all a bit closer in volume. I also reassigned sound effects that were inaccurate to the WinXP table, then fixed some missing sound effects. Then I started making simple physics changes; the Wormhole waits a bit longer before kicking the ball out, the Hyperspace kicker now kicks the ball out rather than just letting it drop... just small stuff.
Then I realized the table seemed to have quite a heavy slope compared to the WinXP table so I reduced the slope. Then I realized the ball seemed a bit big, so I made it smaller. Then I made the flippers bigger and stronger, changed the elasticity and friction of various surfaces, decreased slingshot activation thresholds, increased the ball count, made the drain rail guides slightly taller to make draining on the side of the table a little more difficult... the list kept going.
Eventually, I'd changed the table from a fairly easy simulator table to a fun-for-me "casual table." It's now much easier for me to progress through the table and achieve high scores, and thus a lot more fun. Some may feel like I've committed a great sin to their precious hobby, but to be clear, I can understand that reaction; I used to feel quite protective about the passion required to learn how to get really good about sim racing, too. At the end of the day though, I want people to enjoy track racing the same way I do - but everyone's own pace, not mine. I don't want every racing fan to know how to tune suspension or what air pressure to use in the tires, I want them to have the same fun experience I do when I'm on the track.
This, to me, is just applying that logic to a different hobby from the other end. I'm no longer the enthusiastic hobbyist, I am the simple casual who appreciates a fun pinball game but just can't be fucked to spend time learning a game I don't have a deep-seated interest in. I would hope arcade racing game developers would do the same in my own hobby: make track racing accessible and fun to play so people of all skill levels can have fun doing what I love to do the most, in the same way I made a pinball table more accessible for me.
I haven't (and won't) release this table publicly because I don't want to disrespect JP's beautiful table design; aside from the audio bugs, it truly is a fantastic simulation of what a real Space Cadet table would play like. If you want to play the original table (and make your own adjustments to your tastes), you can grab the table here.