5 ms·

How Space Cadet pinball won the Windows desktop

67 points by davidst 11y ago

mrspeaker 11y ago
In 2005 I started to dabble with reverse engineering, and the first target I ever attempted was 3D Pinball... and amazingly enough I found a never-before-found cheat code (and some other bits from Cinematronics). I wrote up an article that went a bit viral at the time: http://www.mrspeaker.net/2006/01/07/hacking-pinball/ http://www.mrspeaker.net/2006/01/07/hacking-pinball/. 3d-pinball-related keywords are still among the highest search terms in my logs ;)
- coldpie 11y ago
  You discovered that? Neat! I came here to post this link, which includes info about the debug mode and other hidden features. https://tcrf.net/3D_Pinball:_Space_Cadet https://tcrf.net/3D_Pinball:_Space_Cadet
tacos 11y ago
"[David Cole, head of the Windows 95 production team] grumbled… ‘Can’t we just get a game of pinball or something like that?’" I can't decide whether to deride the lameness or celebrate the pragmatism of this statement. It does capture Mr. Cole perfectly, though -- and perhaps hints why everything he touched after Win95 turned sour.
SeanDav 11y ago
Available at Majorgeeks: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_pinball_space_cadet.html http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_pi... Anyone want to comment on how safe this download site is?
- richardboegli 11y ago
  Majorgeeks is fine to download from
- scholia 11y ago
  Majorgeeks is excellent. However, their refusal to accept money to distribute crapware means they are extremely dependent on donations. ISTR they were having to lay off staff...
clamprecht 11y ago
Does anyone remember Night Mission pinball for the C64 and early PC? Is Space Cadet related to Night Mission at all? http://thehouseofgames.org/index.php?t=10&id=358 http://thehouseofgames.org/index.php?t=10&id=358 And a video of game play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttoAfg7Ehc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttoAfg7Ehc
DDR0 11y ago
There was an updated version of Space Cadet on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Drop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Drop I got as a kid. (I somehow played that before I found the standard windows version, so I might be a bit biased. ;) ) The Marble Drop version is way more polished windows version, everything 'just works' a little better. Shots line up better, graphics are better... it feels like a really solid patch. Plus, two new tables, "pirates" and "dragons"!
- DDR0 11y ago
  Ah, here it is! https://tcrf.net/Full_Tilt!_Pinball https://tcrf.net/Full_Tilt!_Pinball
bluedino 11y ago
Anyone know the story behind Hover! Including something like that on the Windows 95 CD was an odd decision. Sure, on one hand it shows Windows 95 can do 3D graphics/games, but it was such a terrible game and the performance was so terrible, it just added fuel to 'Windows sucks for games' fire.
- ambiate 11y ago
  I am very thankful for Hover and Pinball. They made me want a faster and less buggy computer. This resulted in wonderful mishaps -- deleting Win system files, recovering into Vector Linux, trying Win 3.11 for WG, and finally ending up in Win98 SE. All the in between is free knowledge. All due to Hover running at 3FPS on my Cirrus Logic onboard gpu/100mhz cpu. In my heart, the reason for Hover -- to plant a seed forging low level algorithm programmers.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
Alongside Windows 95 Plus!, it was also in Windows NT 4, which incorporated most of the 95 Plus! stuff. Which is kinda ironic given it's a business OS. Office workers get Pinball free, home users have to pay extra!
- jon-wood 11y ago
  NT 4 was fantastic. It may not have run games particularly well, but it was so much more stable than Windows 95, and gave me my first introduction to networking.
nsxwolf 11y ago
I always enjoyed how it would instantly peg the CPU to 100% on every system I ever ran it on.
- art0rz 11y ago
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/12/01/498882.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/12/01/49888...
greggarious 11y ago
Ah pinball. I got banned from all school computers for "hacking" after I started using the MS Word 97 pinball easter egg to play pinball in typing class when they removed the "official" pinball game: http://www.eeggs.com/items/763.html http://www.eeggs.com/items/763.html

67 points by davidst 11y ago

In 2005 I started to dabble with reverse engineering, and the first target I ever attempted was 3D Pinball... and amazingly enough I found a never-before-found cheat code (and some other bits from Cinematronics). I wrote up an article that went a bit viral at the time: http://www.mrspeaker.net/2006/01/07/hacking-pinball/ http://www.mrspeaker.net/2006/01/07/hacking-pinball/. 3d-pinball-related keywords are still among the highest search terms in my logs ;)

coldpie 11y ago
You discovered that? Neat! I came here to post this link, which includes info about the debug mode and other hidden features. https://tcrf.net/3D_Pinball:_Space_Cadet https://tcrf.net/3D_Pinball:_Space_Cadet

tacos 11y ago

"[David Cole, head of the Windows 95 production team] grumbled… ‘Can’t we just get a game of pinball or something like that?’" I can't decide whether to deride the lameness or celebrate the pragmatism of this statement. It does capture Mr. Cole perfectly, though -- and perhaps hints why everything he touched after Win95 turned sour.

SeanDav 11y ago

Available at Majorgeeks: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_pinball_space_cadet.html http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_windows_pi... Anyone want to comment on how safe this download site is?

richardboegli 11y ago
Majorgeeks is fine to download from
scholia 11y ago
Majorgeeks is excellent. However, their refusal to accept money to distribute crapware means they are extremely dependent on donations. ISTR they were having to lay off staff...

clamprecht 11y ago

Does anyone remember Night Mission pinball for the C64 and early PC? Is Space Cadet related to Night Mission at all? http://thehouseofgames.org/index.php?t=10&id=358 http://thehouseofgames.org/index.php?t=10&id=358 And a video of game play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttoAfg7Ehc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ttoAfg7Ehc

DDR0 11y ago

There was an updated version of Space Cadet on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Drop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Drop I got as a kid. (I somehow played that before I found the standard windows version, so I might be a bit biased. ;) ) The Marble Drop version is way more polished windows version, everything 'just works' a little better. Shots line up better, graphics are better... it feels like a really solid patch. Plus, two new tables, "pirates" and "dragons"!

DDR0 11y ago
Ah, here it is! https://tcrf.net/Full_Tilt!_Pinball https://tcrf.net/Full_Tilt!_Pinball

bluedino 11y ago

Anyone know the story behind Hover! Including something like that on the Windows 95 CD was an odd decision. Sure, on one hand it shows Windows 95 can do 3D graphics/games, but it was such a terrible game and the performance was so terrible, it just added fuel to 'Windows sucks for games' fire.

ambiate 11y ago
I am very thankful for Hover and Pinball. They made me want a faster and less buggy computer. This resulted in wonderful mishaps -- deleting Win system files, recovering into Vector Linux, trying Win 3.11 for WG, and finally ending up in Win98 SE. All the in between is free knowledge. All due to Hover running at 3FPS on my Cirrus Logic onboard gpu/100mhz cpu. In my heart, the reason for Hover -- to plant a seed forging low level algorithm programmers.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

Alongside Windows 95 Plus!, it was also in Windows NT 4, which incorporated most of the 95 Plus! stuff. Which is kinda ironic given it's a business OS. Office workers get Pinball free, home users have to pay extra!

jon-wood 11y ago
NT 4 was fantastic. It may not have run games particularly well, but it was so much more stable than Windows 95, and gave me my first introduction to networking.

nsxwolf 11y ago

I always enjoyed how it would instantly peg the CPU to 100% on every system I ever ran it on.

art0rz 11y ago
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/12/01/498882.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/12/01/49888...

greggarious 11y ago

Ah pinball. I got banned from all school computers for "hacking" after I started using the MS Word 97 pinball easter egg to play pinball in typing class when they removed the "official" pinball game: http://www.eeggs.com/items/763.html http://www.eeggs.com/items/763.html