Introduction and Installation
Fastlane Pinball was developed by Framework Studios in 2006 and is distributed by Merscom LLC.
I thought I recognized this as it has been the only pinball game ever given away. It was actually given away over on the giveaway project while the game giveaway team took their summer break. It received a positive 70% of 352 votes. From the 130 comments which you can see by following the link below it would seem that many were disappointed in the game due mainly to is unresponsiveness; even on faster machines community members were experiencing slow flipper movement though some said it was fine (eg Labrat with his quad core cpu and high end graphics card – 8800) Also some found the large size which for this download is 64.5Mb (when installed it is just over 75Mb)
Previous comments
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/fastlane-pinball/#comments
In particular check Fubars comment #27 which mentions links to adware. I did get requests to open up my browser which I blocked. (see images via the links below); Thereafter the game appeared to work okay with no lag (though my main computer has been set up for gaming - Dual core 3.2GHz cpu with an NVidia 8800GTS 640Mb video card and 4 Gb of RAM)
The Game
I’ve just copied my original comments from the first time this was given away with some minor corrections and uploaded a few more screen captures:
This is another good game from Merscom. This is the first pinball game (to my knowledge) that has been given away on the giveaway project. Checking Games site such as Alawar (who have already generously given away several good titles) and Reflexive who haven’t yet, I was unable to find one pinball game; so there must be a market out there for some developers :) (Hint) Oh yeah just remembered you can get ‘3D Thrill Ride and ‘Devils Island’ from Real Arcade. And I’m sure there are others if you dig deep enough. They just don’t seem very common these days.
The game installs and plays fine on the slowest of my systems (1.4GHz, 500Mb RAM mid range graphics card. Although as with a lot of Merscom games there’s no shortcut installed on the desk top, so make sure you see where the game is being installed:
The default is C:\Program Files\Fastlane
I really like pinball games, and have purchased boxed sets from games shops, eg such as Adventure Pinball Forgotten Island and Pro Pinball Fantastic Journey, both of which are superb examples (though by todaysstandards the graphics are looking a little pixillated. There are more, but all of them appear to be available on disc only, which is a surprise as this game alone could define the arcade era because (IMO before computers this was the only out of home activity you would find in arcades apart from slots of course.
Images: All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Fastlane%20Pinball/
Images: As a Slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Fastlane%20Pinball/?albumview=slideshow
There are at least 10 sound bites of between 30 to a minute in length, all of which are electronic. They are all MP3 so you should easily be able to change the music if you wish; however remember to rename the music to what you are changing it to. I think some of the tracks are played in layers, so I’d experiment, otherwise you may get a cacophony of ‘Mash’ that will hurt your ears, lol
The game is standard pinball, so anyone who likes pinball will like this. The menus are all keyboard controlled as is the game play (which you would expect for a pinball machine. There’s no mouse or game pad support whatsoever.
I must say that the graphics aren’t the best I’ve seen but for less than $10 you cannot complain. The boxed titles above actually only cost me around $10, so if I was to buy another pinball I’d definitely check out the bargain bins of Wal Mart or other shops that specifically sell computer games as I think you will find much better ones that are themed and have far superior graphics. For a give away though this is definitely worth having. (It’s inspired me to reload one of the ones I mentioned above for some afternoon relaxation - despite me buying the latest Ricochet game Infinity (Breakout fans you’ve got to download the demo if you haven’t already – it takes the Ricochet series one step closer to Nirvana :) )
About 34Mb of the game size comes from the intro AVI file and several smaller ones within the game. Personally I don’t think they were necessary (although the intro one was interesting to see) as they are only secondary to the game. The present size will probably preclude those on dial up from downloading it. :(
There is the oppertunity to play this online, though I think it's a Local area network and not the www. Which means you'll be able to set up your home network so that the family can play against each other without having to fight over one computer. I've not bothered to check this part out though as no one else in the family is remotely interested in pnball games :(
Thank you Merscom and the Giveaway team for giving us another playable game.
Conclusion
I originally gave this a 5 out of 10, but after playing it for the past hour with no problems I’ve enjoyed playing it so would revise my original score to 7 out of 10. Of course I am playing it on a reasonably fast machine with an expensive graphics card attached. Still it also worked previously on what was my slowest computer (no longer exists). I tested it on what is now my slowest which has a 2.4GHz single core cpu, a Nvidia 7500 128Mb video card and 1.5Gb of memory and it also worked like a dream
Other Relevant Information
You can get a free pinball game from the following address (thanks to yoyo)
Someone else calling themselves not yoyo posted a link to a forum where you should be able to find more free pinball games. I would have checked this out if I’d have had time, but this review needs to get posted soon. :lol:
It seems that this game also suffers from a need to have an Indeo video codec installed on your computer. You will be informed by a pop up window if you require the codec, Don’t follow the link provided as this leads you to a web site that’s selling the codec for nearly $15 whereas JanW posted a link last summer to a site where you can get the codec free. Just unzip and install the file and re-run the game.
Indeo Video Codec: