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Actually, the pen is used for support.

The movie I think of when I hear about retina scanners is Demolition Man.

In my opinion, the best pinball game ever was Black Knight 2000.

Asteroids doesn't use a joystick. Which makes things simpler I think.

This method is much more compact.

Kind of puts me in the mood for a popsicle though. =\

This method is much more compact.

While i really tried back in the day to get into Robotron and its sister Defender, I just never could "get the groove". For me the best of that period was Vanguard and Pleiades. Man I used to get into a zone playing those two. I would often play for hours on a quarter and then let some kid have the game, especially Pleiades, as I already had all the high scores on it at the local pool hall. Good times.

Did anybody ever make a home version of Pleiades or does it run on MAME? Because I would love to sit back and give it a spin for old times sake. My boys laugh their asses off at the games we used to call fun back then (like my Colecovision with the Atari 2600 addon so I could play Zaxxon AND Yars Revenge!) but without the eye candy to fall back on the designers really had to work on gameplay and finding that elusive balance between hard and fun.

It makes me wonder if there could be a way to make competitive pinball -- a double-ended table made more like a hill than a single slope.

This has actually been done. However, only one game that I am aware of had such a feature, and it only had a production run of 402 units. Which is probably why no one knows about it...

Joust Pinball

The machine features a double-ended table. The two players play across from each other. They are able to pass balls back and forth. When I've managed to track one down at the various pinball and classic arcade expos, I've found it to be a fun and unique experience. But so few got created that it is near impossible to find one.

While it is possible to create a competitive pinball machine, it doesn't look like the idea ever really took off.

Enter Xenon!