Pinball Illusions Vikings table

[quahappy]

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I had been playing Pinball Illusions earlier today and also True Pinball (via PS1 emulation) because I really liked The Vikings table and was, like many of you here, know that this table wasn't included because it wasn't considered to be of "high quality" and the fact that Digital Illusions wanted to limit it to four disks.

What's interesting me is that according to Wikipedia there's this:

The original Amiga release featured three tables. The PC CD version added a fourth, "The Vikings" (this was written for the Amiga version but not considered good enough for inclusion). This was the first version of the series to feature more than 1 ball in play at a time (known as 'multiball'), and the first to be released for AGA based Amigas. The game also marks its nationality as a Swedish product in "The Vikings" table (at the top left corner).

It was written?!!!

Heck! So I wonder if the program code still exists?

[quahappy]

I took the liberty of asking 21st Century Ltd at FB the above question and this is the replies I received:

Hi guys! I'm wishing to verify something.... according to Wikipedia, the missing Vikings table from Pinball Illusions (Amiga) was written but not included because the table was not of "high quality" and I believe there was also something to do with limiting the release to four disks. I eventually got to play the Vikings table several years later via True Pinball on the Playstation One... and I really liked it! My question is: does this mean the original Amiga Vikings table code is still around somewhere? Or is the info within Wikipedia incorrect? (Reason why I say that is because according to an interview with Andreas Axelsson (found at Lemon Amiga website) when asked why there were only three tables, Andreas replied with: "I don't really remember the exact reason." Now wouldn't this be cool if The Vikngs table code (if it does exist) was found and a rebundled Illusions released to the Amiga community to make up the magical four tables? Just a thought lol. Well, when you think what happened with Putty Squad heh.

21st Century Entertainment Ltd Good question! Let's see if either of these guys remember Andrew Hewson Stewart Gilray

Stewart Gilray It wasn't ready in time initially, if memory serves though the deal with DICE was only for 3 tables as we wanted the game out by a certain date and there was no way DICE would have it ready in time.

Andreas Axelsson That sounds about right. We had added a lot of stuff to the game so we needed a disk per table, and in the previous games we had been able to fit the fourth (first) table on the boot disk, but that was no longer possible.

As for the source, I'm not really sure how complete the stuff I have is anymore. It's some 20 years old after all. I wouldn't hold my breath that it's possible to resurrect it.

Fair do's as I agree we are talking about source code from 20 years ago and things have moved on a great deal since then. For those that always wanted to see the missing Vikings table, it did appear in the PC version (DOSbox) and in the renamed True Pinball game on the Sega Saturn and Playstation One. Great table in my opinion.

[mc68060]

I think we should start an initiative to finally get the Vikings for Amiga. I'm pretty sure it was finished. We probably just need some nagging... we finally have Putty Squad so why not the Vikings?!?!

[AmigaHope]

Bumping necrothread in the hopes that somebody knows the DICE guys to make some progress on this. =)

[Wiking67]

bumping this and hope anyone will zone it

[Megalomaniac]

I'm so tempted to link to The Lost Vikings by Interplay here.

Such a pity they didn't include it as a bonus with the CD32 version. If 21st Century couldn't find it 8 years ago, I doubt they'll ever find it now (though miracles do happen, look at the recovery of Daffy Duck on the C64 for example). Sounds like converting the PC version code back isn't feasible either, at least for the music.