The History and Problems of Experimental Digital Pinball and Developing a Pinball Video Game Concept Based on Music

Abstract

Pinball games may have lost their popularity over time; however, developers revived their features inside other video games or completely renovated them. While arcade pinball machines offer limited gameplay, digital pinball can be much more flexible. Nevertheless, according to the author’s preliminary investigation, academic research is lacking in pinball gaming. This artistic paper attempts to close this gap by shedding light on experimental digital pinball games. Moreover, the author focuses on music visualization features of digital pinball games, and he developed an experimental pinball video game concept based on synaesthesia by answering a simple question, “How does a classical music-based pinball video game would look like?”.