Mindless fun with my first pinball sim

Raster Blaster, now there’s a great pinball simulation game. Come to think of it, it’s probably the first home computer pinball simulation game. And I had it on my archaic Apple IIc, and played with it from dusk till dawn—at least, during long summer vacations.

Of course, compared with today’s generation of pinball simulation games, Raster Blaster looks crude, with only a handful of bumpers, slingshots, and targets. We have to hand it to Bill Budge, writer and designer of Raster Blaster and its successors, though. He, and not Raster Blaster, paved the way for more elaborate and accurate pinball simulations.

So what made Raster Blaster such an accomplishment for Bill Budge? Well, for its time, the 1981 game featured full-screen high-resolution display of a real pinball game table. It actually resembles the classic Firepower table. The Apple II also wasn’t designed to support fast graphics, but Budge found a way to go around this such that Raster Blaster ran at such speed that it overshadowed other arcade-style video games in its generation.

So whatever happened to ol’ Bill Budge? Here’s the lowdown from Wikipedia:

Electronic Arts was formed in 1982 even as Bill Budge had been having problems running the business of writing video games and marketing them. Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins was so impressed by Budge’s titles that he invited Budge to join the initial group of EA developers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Too bad I wasn’t able to get my grubby hands on EA and Budge’s Pinball Construction Set. Now that would’ve been a blast (pun intended).

Image downloaded from Wikipedia and modified by Joel. The copyright to Raster Blaster and images pertaining to it belong to Bill Budge and BudgeCo.