Balls of Steel (Game)

Balls of Steel

GAME » on September 30, 1997

A virtual pinball game for Windows PCs featuring five tables with "edge and attitude", including one based on the hit first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D.

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Overview

What if Duke Nukem 3D was a pinball table...

Balls of Steel, sometimes known as Balls of Steel: Pinball on Steroids!, is a 2D virtual pinball game developed by Wildfire Studios (along with Apogee Software, under their brand Pinball Wizards (Company)) and published by Pinball Wizards (with retail distribution by GT Interactive) for Windows PCs on September 30, 1997.

The first game developed by Wildfire Studios, as well as the only pinball game designed and released by Apogee (under their short-lived "Pinball Wizards" division), Balls of Steel features five original virtual pinball tables with "edge and attitude", as hinted by some of its marketing. Its name comes from a joke in Apogee's 1996 game Duke Nukem 3D (Game), with one of the tables being based on that game.

It features two playing views, one with a scrolling view of the table (similar to Epic Pinball (Game)) and one with a static view of the table (similar to Full Tilt! Pinball). It also featured an online global leaderboard system (powered by WorldScores). A sixth table, Devil's Island, was later released as a budget standalone title by Wildfire on 1999, under the name Devil's Island Pinball.

It later received a digital release (for both PC and Mac (Platform)) by 3D Realms via GOG.com on January 31, 2013 and via Steam (Concept) on May 5, 2015. It later received an updated release from Atari on January 30, 2024, featuring four of the original tables (Barbarian, Darkside, Firestorm, and Mutation!), the Devil's Island table, and two new tables based on classic Atari games (Centipede (Game) and Missile Command (Game)).

Tables

Barbarian - A sword-and-sorcery fantasy table where a barbarian must quest to rid the land of evil.
Darkside - A sci-fi table where an elite team must use their firepower to take back a remote space station infested by alien bugs. Included in the game's shareware release.
Duke Nukem - A sci-fi table based on the 1996 first-person shooter Duke Nukem 3D (Game), with the titular hero taking on alien hordes.
Firestorm - A crime-themed table where a bomb defusal squad must prevent a psychotic bomber from blowing up the city.
Mutation! - A sci-fi horror table where a slimy monster has taken over a top-secret genetics laboratory.

It was later revealed that during development, the creation of the Duke Nukem table caused one table to get scrapped. This table, Devil's Island, was later developed as a standalone table release.

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