Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

You may not need the sudo call if your installation was per-user. Mine got installed to /var/lib/flatpak so I needed root.

It’s possible you’d need to repeat step 3 if the game gets updated. However, the flatpak hasn’t seen an update in over two years. I doubt one will happen, and if it does, it won’t be frequent.

If you want, you can keep the original files and merge them together so that you have the full set of both the original (referred to as “3DPB” for 3D Pinball in the game) and the new (Full Tilt) data. Then, the game will let you toggle between them if you’d like.

The data files seem to have some impact on the game rules. For instance, in the original 3DPB version, the reentry lanes (and launch lanes) have lights which toggle as the ball passes over. In the Full Tilt version, the lights stay on (rather than toggling), making it easier to complete the set of lights and upgrade the associated set of bumpers. (Yes yes, I know I’m a nerd for noticing this.)

Apparently, there was a game called “Marble Blast” which came pre-installed on some Macs in a roughly similar time period, which I know people developed similar relationships to growing up. Unlike this pinball game, the Marble Blast series grew, and there are newer versions available to play today.

I think it’s great that this old game was beloved to enough people (and especially at least one very competent & motivated person) to do this work. Having (any) source code available makes this game portable to all sorts of platforms, which is really great. You can play this on Mac, Windows, Linux, and even Android & Nintendo Switch, apparently.

Personally, I would be happy to pay the original developers for their work on this game, and I understand that there’s some concern about the legality of downloading game data files, especially for the Full Tilt version of the game. After all, they are copyrighted art & data which was part of a commercial product. It seems like an unpopular opinion in today’s world, but I don’t advocate for piracy. Paying people for their work is important, even when it feels like you’re paying a faceless corporation. While I’d prefer things be created with a FOSS license, the world doesn’t always work that way. At the end of the day, I want people to be paid to create good things, because that’s how we get more good things!

On the other hand, I feel software preservation is an important goal too. Ideally, I’d like to see a world where proprietary software like this could be placed into some sort of source code escrow. As long as the original copyright holders are in the business of selling their product, their rights should be respected. But if they elect to stop selling it, I think that code should revert to a FOSS license that allows users to improve & maintain the software they use. This would help balance the rights of creators, users, and the goals of preservation.

I also played another pinball game called 3D Ultra Pinball, but that came on a CD presumably for purchase. I have no idea whether my parents went out and bought it, or if it came in a cereal box. (Yes, game CDs did show up in cereal boxes sometimes.) ↩