Pinball
Three Balls, Then It Is Over
A steel ball, two flippers, six pop bumpers, a pair of slingshots, a bank of five drop targets, a spinner and a round target at the top. You launch, you keep it alive, and when the third ball drains the game is over, unless you earned an extra ball. There is no level to reach, only how long you can keep the ball in play.
Where the Energy Goes on Each Bounce
A pinball table is a machine for putting energy into a ball faster than the table takes it away. Rolling friction and every soft collision bleed speed continuously, and gravity is always pulling toward the drain. Against that, the bumpers and slingshots are powered: they do not merely reflect the ball, they kick it, adding energy that was never in the shot you made. The flippers do the same under your control. Once you see the table as a running balance between what is injected and what is lost, the layout stops looking decorative - every powered target pays for the losses of the region around it.
How to play
- Left and right work the flippers and Space pulls the plunger; hold a flipper up to trap a slow ball and aim instead of swatting.
- The spinner pays 5,000 a pass and adds to the bonus counted when the ball drains.
- Drop targets stay down until all five fall; clearing the bank lights an extra ball, which the round target collects.
- Up nudges the table, making every bounce harder for half a second; there is no tilt.
