Variations
1-4: The standard game at its normal speed with 1-4 players taking turns.
5-8: The standard game played in “slow motion” with 1-4 players taking turns.
Flipper Game is a simple pinball simulation, with its main gimmick being the fact it is possible to move the flippers at the bottom of the screen left and right to a small degree.
Pulling the joystick back and releasing fires the ball, with the length of time the joystick is held determining the power. The ball then bounces around the screen-size “table”, and the player may move the flippers left and right slightly with the joystick, or activate them both simultaneously by pressing the button.
Points are scored by hitting the various bumpers around the table, which change colour and make a sound when they are hit. Launching the ball into the “spinner” in the middle adds to a bonus counter, which is added to the player’s score when the ball drains. The most points are acquired by hitting the “knockdown” targets at the top of the screen — represented as thin, coloured lines — but these are hard to hit as the spinner often gets in the way.
Each player gets five balls with which to score as many points as possible. Play alternates between participants whenever a ball is drained, with the current player being indicated by a number on the left of the screen and the colour of the playfield frame. At the end of a multiplayer game, each player’s score is displayed in sequence so you can see who “won”. There is no high score facility, however.
Original release date: 1980
Also known as: Thunderball! (USA)
Pete’s Take
Flipper Game (or “Flipper” as it is more commonly called) is an extremely simple, easy to understand game with some enjoyably exaggerated ball physics and not a lot of variety to it. But that simplicity is its strength; anyone can pick this up and have some fun with it, and indeed back on its original release this is a game that my whole family enjoyed playing, often for hours at a time.
There are a few bewildering elements. The fact you can move the flippers, which was heralded as something of a revolutionary, exciting feature on the game’s Odyssey 2 release in particular, doesn’t really do all that much because their range of movement is so limited, and the separate “bonus counter” that you build up through knocking the ball into the “spinner” is hard to see the point of. But despite these odd aspects to the game and the fact that there simply isn’t a lot to it… Flipper is one of the most addictive, enjoyable Videopacs you can plug into your G7000 for a quick blast.
It’d be nice to have the “type your name in” high score facility from later Videopacs such as Satellite Attack and Munchkin, and even nicer to have a wider selection of alternative table layouts — or even a table editor! — but considering the whole thing is crammed into just 2K it’s hard to be too mad about the things it doesn’t do. As it stands, this is a great addition to any Videopac collection, if only for the glorious cover art.
Videopac Games 