Date: Dec 20, 2020

One of the games I enjoyed so much is where I spend lots of coins in the arcarde centre to play the pinball machines. In the past, I am not able to enjoy the pinball games on the iPad simply because there is no “physical buttons” for you to press. I can’t played it on the iMac either because sometimes it gets laggy and the framerates is somewhat not there.

I just got my new Mac Mini 2020, and the 32″ Pro Display XDR, and Pinball games is no doubt my number 1 first choice for the gaming on these new devices. Here, I am going to recommend two different app for the MacOS Big Sur. The first one is cool, is digital. The second actually is more cool, because it is retro, and feels real. And I can rotate my Pro Display XDR to potrait mode and play the full pinball game in Pinball Arcade. 🙂

Zen Pinball 2

There are a lot of tables you can download in Zen Pinball 2. So, you can google around to find out which table gives you best game play. For me, I bought and downloaded mostly Star Wars games.

Most of the table cost about S$4.48 per table.

The table is beutiful. The control is using the left and right SHIFT keys and the ENTER key as selection key.

I found that the control is very responsive on the Apple keyboard. The only thing I worried is I might need to change the keyboard soon after me and the kids abusing the keyboard SHIFT keys extensively paying these pinball games. Wahahahahahaha

The graphics is of course very beautiful on the Pro Display XDR. The refresh rates is excellent and I could not feel any bad things to say about these pinball games. And hence we have since been playing for many many hours.

The Clone Wars is my favourite game at this moment, because of the ease of playing and is the only games that I have yet break the Game record (by developers 100 million) yet. I am No. 2 at the moment at 90+ million.

Why I said that the game is easy to play because I have figure out on my own what I need to do to play this game. i.e. hit the center 5 times to activate scenes and play the scenes in a certain sequence, i.e. start from scenes 6, then 5, then 1, then 2, then 3 & 4. It is so far the only game I failed to break the record, and I completed one cycle of scenes. hahaha

Let’s take a look at the game play, It is fantastic… You will see why I love the scene 6. Because this is where Rey learned how to move the rocks, and you have so many multi-balls to deal with. And the best part, if you lost every single one, it does not mean your game play has ended. hahaha. You actually continue playing it.

Let’s look at the other video at 2:45min I activated BB-8 to control the walker to shoot the Storm Troopers. So cool.

Of course, one of the best thing is to get your kids to play Pinballs. Sometimes you just need to let them have a break from Minecraft, Roblox or Among Us. Let them play something that needs lots of thinking, coordination, skills, and that got to be Pinball games.

Having the good sound systems for Mac Mini is key too. I attached a Beat speaker to my Mac Mini.

Kay is playing Fish Tales here. This is the first pinball game he played.

Then, I researched and found out that Boba Fett is a good game too. So, I downloaded that game.

I have an older 27″ iMac 2019 just beside my new Mac Mini 2020. I installed the same games and let both the kids compete together.

Very cool right. But you can see the color of the Pro Display compared to my iMac 2019 is way better and natural. And the performance I must say is quite the same as my iMac 2019 comes with 64G ram. This is comparing to my new Mac Mini that comes with only 16G ram.

Of course Jay will have better brain and can beat some of the high score. Oh ya, press ESC key in the game play you get to go to the Table Guide, where it will tells you how to win more points, etc.

The goal of these pinball games is to keep breaking each other palyer’s high score. hahaha. If you like Ready Player One, you know what I mean. hahaha. Now, who can beat my 60 million score on Dart Vader, kids?? hahaha. The proud moment when you beat your kid’s score.

Tips: Select HOTSEATS and play 4-Players game at one go. And tell yourself, every game is important. And try to beat your ownself each time. That is how you can improve the gaming experience and break high scores. hahahahahahaha

Pinball Arcade

Today, I just tried out another Pinball game on my New Mac Mini 2020. It is called Pinball Arcade. Again, there is a lot of table to download. And you can buy them.

Again, you need to purchase the table. This one, they will bundle a few tables like 6 for S$14.98.

Again, do your research and find what is the best table to buy.

Now, why I need this Pinball Arcade if I am already comfortable with Zen Pinball 2?

Well the answer is simple. Zen Pinball 2 did not cater well for Potrait mode. My Pro Display XDR can do Potrait mode.

See, what I mean? hahahaha, I can rotate the Display to Potrait, and then, this Pinball Arcade allow me to play in Potrait mode. And it is more reaslistic.

Don’t you find it realistic??

See Flight 200 in action…

I found that the Pinball table here are retro style and feels really realistic. Unlike the Zen Pinball 2 which is too digital and animated.

So, actually these Pinball games are pretty decent. Of course you need to have a good machine, good display so to have a seamless game play. You don’t want the screen froze for 0.01ms even. Expose these retro gaming to your kids, they may say “stupid games” at first, but I am sure they eventurally will enjoy it pretty much.