Pinball — Neon Table

About this game

Pinball is the arcade cabinet that never went away, and this is a full table you can play in a browser tab. Pull the plunger, send the ball up the lane, and everything after that is you and two flippers against gravity. The table is simulated rather than scripted. The ball has real momentum, the bumpers throw it hard and unpredictably, the slingshots above each flipper kick it back into play, and a shot that comes off the flipper tip goes somewhere different from one that catches it at the base. Nothing is on rails. The same launch twice will not give you the same game twice once the ball is loose in the bumper cluster. Scoring builds through the cluster at the top of the table, where a run of quick bumper hits chains into a combo worth far more than the same hits spread out. Down the left there is a bank of three drop targets, and knocking all three down raises your multiplier for the rest of the game — up to five times. The bank resets when you clear it, so it is a shot worth going back for rather than a one-off. You get three balls. A ball saver covers you for the first few seconds after each launch, once per ball, so an unlucky first bounce does not simply take one away from you. After that the drain is the drain: the gap between the flippers, and the two outlanes down the sides that no flipper can reach. It plays with the arrow keys on a desktop and with one thumb on a phone — tap the left half of the table for the left flipper and the right half for the right. There is nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and your best score is kept on your own device.

Controls

Hold to charge the plunger, release to launch. Then work the flippers.

Keyboard

• Left or A swings the left flipper, Right or D the right one.
• Space charges the plunger. Release it to launch.
• N starts a new game.

Touch

• Tap anywhere to charge the plunger while the ball is in the lane.
• Once the ball is in play, tap the left half of the table for the left flipper and the right half for the right. The buttons under the table do the same thing.

How to play

Launch the ball and keep it in play with the flippers. You have three balls.

Launching

• Hold the plunger to charge it and release to fire. Every launch clears the lane, so the power only changes how hard the ball enters the table.
• A ball saver covers the first few seconds after each launch, once per ball.

Scoring

• The four bumpers at the top score on every hit, and hits in quick succession build a combo worth more each time.
• The slingshots above the flippers score a little and kick the ball back up the table.
• Knock down all three drop targets to clear the bank, score five thousand, and raise your multiplier. The bank resets so you can do it again.

Losing a ball

• The ball is lost down the gap between the flippers, or down either outlane at the sides where the flippers cannot reach.
• Lose three and the game is over.

Read the full Pinball — Neon Table rules and strategy →