This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
True Pinball for PlayStation 1
True Pinball for PlayStation 1 gives you four tables, each with its own decoration and set of objectives. Law N' Justice concerns police and crime, Babewatch heads to the beach, Extreme Sports offers sporting challenges and Vikings draws on Norse adventures. You choose a table and use targeted shots to learn its lanes, targets and bonuses. Simply returning the ball is not enough to achieve a high score: the order in which you hit targets determines which opportunities open up.
Every table can be played from an overhead view or an angled three-dimensional viewpoint. This lets you read the same lanes differently. The flippers determine when a ball returns to the playfield; nudges to the left, right or upwards help adjust its path. Nudging too hard risks a tilt. Several balls can be active together during multiball. Music, spoken sounds and the table display react to what you achieve during a game.
You can practise alone or compete for a high score with up to eight people taking turns. You pass the same controller around; neither a Multitap nor a separate controller for each participant is needed. The triangle button adds players before the contest starts. Standard digital controls let you launch the ball, operate both flippers and nudge the table. After achieving a high score, you enter three initials for that table's ranking.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
True Pinball for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of True Pinball
Digital Illusions made True Pinball for PlayStation and Sega Saturn, with Ocean publishing it in 1996. The Swedish studio had previously established itself with Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions on computers. True Pinball built on that experience, but co-founder Andreas Axelsson describes it as a complete rewrite of Pinball Illusions. Among other additions, the developers introduced a three-dimensional table view. Familiar table concepts thus moved to the then-new generation of consoles and their controllers.
Axelsson describes how the team set up its first shared office after moving to Gothenburg. Digital Illusions still had only eight people and built its own desks and computers. The move to consoles was partly prompted by the shrinking Amiga market. Choosing Ocean also affected development: previously used code was covered by agreements with publisher 21st Century Entertainment and could not simply be reused. A familiar pinball concept therefore still required a new technical foundation.
The four tables retained distinct themes, music and objectives, while the console presentation offered overhead and angled views side by side. True Pinball also appeared in the European Platinum range. The game shows an early phase of Digital Illusions, before the DICE name became chiefly associated with Battlefield. The studio's next steps included the racing game Motorhead. Here, its attention to movement, sound and technical execution still took the compact form of four virtual pinball tables.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
Pro Pinball: Timeshock! shares the practice of aimed shots, nudges and multiball with True Pinball. It centres on one elaborate table, however, with time-travel objectives that build on each other. True Pinball divides its content among four different themes and layouts. If you enjoy moving to a completely different playfield after a few games, it offers more variety; Timeshock! demands longer attention to the same lanes and the connections between their objectives.
Like True Pinball, Pro Pinball: The Web uses a virtual table operated with a PlayStation controller. Its science-fiction story and complex objectives are built around one playfield. True Pinball gives you four separate tables, including Babewatch's beach theme and the police setting of Law N' Justice. Both involve learning routes and timing, but being able to choose between different tables changes how you organise an evening of play.
Pro Pinball: Big Race USA links pinball objectives to a road trip between American destinations. Like True Pinball, it uses recognisable themes to give targets meaning. That journey keeps you occupied on one large, cohesive table, whereas True Pinball offers four separate layouts. In both cases it helps to aim deliberately for a particular target. Big Race USA's recurring journey structure makes progression different from separate score attempts on each table.
Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey shares True Pinball's imaginative decoration, particularly when comparing its adventurous table with Vikings. Fantastic Journey develops that imagination within one table full of unusual machines and interconnected objectives. True Pinball also allows very different settings, such as sports and the beach. Both require practice with ball trajectories and flippers, but Fantastic Journey relies more heavily on knowledge of one design that you try to progress further through.
Worms Pinball uses the worms, weapons and jokes from the well-known strategy series as the backdrop to its pinball action. True Pinball shares the target hitting and bonus activation but uses four original themes without those same characters. Both attach recognisable sounds and events to a successful shot. In Worms Pinball, the established cartoon world provides much of the familiarity; True Pinball chiefly lets you choose between different kinds of tables and their atmospheres.
