Night Mission Pinball

It is certainly one of finest stand-alone pinball games made for the Atari. One neat thing that I liked was the "tilt" feature -- an important feature for any pinball enthusiast! It came in handy if the ball got stuck (you did this by tapping the "T" key).

The very first time I played this I was very startled to hear the sound effects coming out of my Atari 800's internal speaker. I had no idea it was capable of making those kinds of sounds (and at that kind of volume, too!). I had expected to hear traditional musical pings and chimes from the POKEY chip. The only thing I had heard through the internal speaker until that time was simple popping and buzzing sounds (i.e., when you hit the system reset button). Still, I thought it was a very cool thing to hear. It's one of those games that loses some of the coolness factor when played on a XL/XE (and emulator!) because the sound comes out through the TV rather than the dedicated speaker of the 400/800 line.

This was an odd game, but I bought it because I love pinball, and there were no other titles available for the Atari 800 at the time. The sound effects were delivered through the small speaker in the 800. I have no idea why the Pokey chip was not used. Ball action was bizarre and unnatural, but extremely fast. The playfield was very original with lots and lots of bumpers, spinners, ball locks, etc. I was so very pleased when David's Midnight Magic was released. It was clearly superior with great arcade ball action, sound effects, and other surprises. Simple playfield did not distract.