Space Cadet Pinball on Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#131

Post by aa-jv » Tue, May 12, 2026, 7:09 AM UTC

x______________ wrote: post #124

aa-jv wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fellow pinball enthusiast here - I didn't get into it because of SCP, though, but rather grew up with the machines being regularly rotated and maintained in my Dads hamburger shop in the 70's .. halcyon days indeed! What part of the world are you in that doesn't have a professional pinball tournament roster? Just curious ..

Hello fellow enthusiast pinball wizard! Good ol' days indeed! That picturesque glimpse of the past brings a smile to my face! I didn't get more than 1 chance to play physical machines back in the day and only started in the last decade with a machine popping up at my office, to which I became the defacto repairman after it needing maintenance regularly. I'm located in Prague, Czechia. The pinball scene in the country…

Ah, very interesting! Here in Austria, we have a number of great tournaments being put on by various private clubs and enthusiast groups - but yes, machines are hard to find, if you don't join these clubs. I recently joined one (FlipperAsyl.at) and have had a lot of fun rejuvenating my youthful interest in this subject, joining tournaments, leasing a machine for my apartment to practice on, designing my own table, and so on. ;)

I have a plan to visit the Pinball Museum in Krakow (Poland) some time this summer .. perhaps similar jaunts are worth the effort? I know for a fact you could come to Vienna for the weekend and get quite satiated, if only at the Prater .. ;)

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#132

Post by cyberdick » Tue, May 12, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

mghackerlady wrote: post #120

davidst wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was CEO of Cinematronics (to be clear, we were a tiny startup so a CEO title didn't mean much - everyone pitched in wherever they could help.) I negotiated the contract with Microsoft. My engineering contribution was not in the gameplay itself but in the game's memory manager and low-level rendering code. That was all performance-critical X86 assembly. I doubt any of that code lives on today. Yes, there were a lot…

Wikipedia editor here! It would be much better to write a blog post or something, as anything you add will be removed as unsourced original research

[dead]

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#133

Post by x______________ » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

davidst wrote: post #129

x______________ wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rights aside, would you be willing to explore other options to release a new pinball table to existing fans?

Never say never but I think it's unlikely. Our motivation was to restore pinball to Windows (with modern updates) so every Windows user could enjoy it. Any other form of distribution wouldn't have the same coverage or impact. It would have been great to not only please the fans of the old game but to introduce a new generation to pinball just as Space Cadet once did.

I appreciate the time you've spent discussing the situation, thank you for that.

While today's gaming landscape is a bit different with hundreds of millions of pc's are running windows, it'd be a quick boon at getting a product out there and promoting the pinball scene (a bit cheeky for other gaming devs but I digress..).. Since it's been a few years, why not reach out to the Microsoft team once more and see what they have to say?

Alternatively, in a potentially smaller yet equally good view, Space Commander Pinball sounds like a great sequel which may not have the legal hurdles currently faced with Cadet. A potential follow-up could be Space Admiral Pinball, allowing the audience to follow through with a full career within the Pinball Space Force.

Whichever route you take, I wish you the best of luck and success! If you ever need to bounce ideas off of, it would be nice to keep in touch.

-X

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#134

Post by giancarlostoro » Tue, May 12, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

rvnx wrote: post #64

koolala wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just need two AI for a second party.

That also was exposed to proprietary assets or binaries at some point during training

I really doubt that any AI model was ever exposed to the original Space Cadet Pinball game.

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#135

Post by x______________ » Tue, May 12, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

aa-jv wrote: post #131

x______________ wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello fellow enthusiast pinball wizard! Good ol' days indeed! That picturesque glimpse of the past brings a smile to my face! I didn't get more than 1 chance to play physical machines back in the day and only started in the last decade with a machine popping up at my office, to which I became the defacto repairman after it needing maintenance regularly. I'm located in Prague, Czechia. The pinball scene in the country…

Ah, very interesting! Here in Austria, we have a number of great tournaments being put on by various private clubs and enthusiast groups - but yes, machines are hard to find, if you don't join these clubs. I recently joined one (FlipperAsyl.at) and have had a lot of fun rejuvenating my youthful interest in this subject, joining tournaments, leasing a machine for my apartment to practice on, designing my own table, an…

That's so cool and I appreciate the recommendation!

I do need to get out of the country soon for a weekend and the Viennese recommendation does sound nice! Looking at the Pinside map[0], there are a few hundred tables to try in the city! I might have to hit you up somehow whenever I finalize travel plans. Also, a few friends have been mentioning the Budapest Pinball museum lately so the idea of visiting there was also in the cards for this summer on top of ?Krakow? (didn't know about that!)

Leasing a table is indeed nice.. I opted to purchase one in an attempt to build a collection but that effort fizzled out but still have a table a few hundred km across the border waiting for me to pick up. I think the universe has better plans tho.. will need to wait and see :)

[0] https://pinside.com/pinball/map/mapbox#10.73/48.1852/16.4336...

Re: Space Cadet Pinball on Linux

#136

Post by aa-jv » Wed, May 13, 2026, 8:27 AM UTC

x______________ wrote: post #135

aa-jv wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, very interesting! Here in Austria, we have a number of great tournaments being put on by various private clubs and enthusiast groups - but yes, machines are hard to find, if you don't join these clubs. I recently joined one (FlipperAsyl.at) and have had a lot of fun rejuvenating my youthful interest in this subject, joining tournaments, leasing a machine for my apartment to practice on, designing my own table, an…

That's so cool and I appreciate the recommendation! I do need to get out of the country soon for a weekend and the Viennese recommendation does sound nice! Looking at the Pinside map[0], there are a few hundred tables to try in the city! I might have to hit you up somehow whenever I finalize travel plans. Also, a few friends have been mentioning the Budapest Pinball museum lately so the idea of visiting there was als…

Oh yes, you could indeed enjoy a fair bit of flipping spinners and bumping dodgers in Vienna, while having all the other great things to see and do as well .. if you time it right, you might even get to participate in a tournament - check the roster at FlipperAsyl.at - I'll see you there. ;)

Didn't know much about the Budapest Pinball museum, but yeah - that's what fellow enthusiasts are for! I'll add that to the Day Trip roster, since Budapest is absolutely gorgeous this time of year .. but I'll do the Krakow day trip in the next few weeks, since it'll be a new (and fascinating) city for me, whereas I've been lost in Budapest too many times to count so far, lol ..

I'm not .. quite yet .. at the point where I will purchase a table, but leasing one for a few months has been very, very rewarding - it was an immediate catalyst for cohesion and mirth among my circle .. we're even printing t-shirts for our Pinball Gang this weekend, hehe.

May your balls drain to great bonus and your bumpers drop like they know how to score!