Pinball Fantasies: Encore revives the Amiga pinball classic for Windows, macOS and Linux

Pinball Fantasies is getting a modern version, though this isn’t a remake chasing new tables, flashy modes or a completely different game. Pinball Fantasies: Encore takes the 1994 DOS release and runs it as a native application on Windows, macOS and Linux, complete with its four original tables and a choice between classic graphics and newly redrawn high-resolution artwork. It’s a fairly direct proposition. You get Party Land, Speed Devils, Billion Dollar Gameshow and Stones ‘N Bones, each playing much like the DOS release people might remember. The rules remain in place, the scoring systems haven’t been rebuilt around modern progression mechanics and Encore doesn’t try to turn Pinball Fantasies into a new pinball game wearing an old name. There is one catch. You’ll need the original DOS game files.

Pinball Fantasies started on the Amiga

Pinball Fantasies first appeared on the Amiga in 1992, developed by Digital Illusions and published in Europe by 21st Century Entertainment. It followed Pinball Dreams, keeping the vertically scrolling table format and expanding the idea across four very different machines.

Party Land goes for the amusement park theme. Speed Devils is built around racing. Billion Dollar Gameshow turns a TV quiz programme into a pinball table. Stones ‘N Bones heads for horror, complete with its own targets, bonuses and scoring routines.

Each table uses the same basic controls, yet learning where to send the ball is where most of the game sits. High scores come from working out table rules, setting up bonuses and keeping a run alive long enough for those systems to start paying out. Versions appeared across several computers and consoles during the 1990s. Encore focuses on the 1994 DOS edition rather than pulling elements from several releases into one package.

This isn’t DOS emulation

Encore takes a different route from launching Pinball Fantasies through a DOS emulator. The new application handles the game natively on modern operating systems, reading data from the original DOS release for its tables, graphics, collision information, scripts, music and sound. In practical terms, you open Encore like a current desktop game instead of setting up a virtual DOS machine first.

Current builds support Windows, Linux  and macOS. The approach keeps Encore closely tied to its source game. It’s not trying to recreate Pinball Fantasies from memory or redesign how each table works. Original game data still provides much of what happens once the ball starts moving.

The biggest change is right on screen

Encore’s most obvious addition is a new high-resolution graphics option. Rather than stretching the old artwork across a modern display, the tables have been redrawn at higher resolution. Playfield graphics, lettering, flippers, the ball and surrounding elements follow the DOS layouts, only with far more pixels available.

Prefer the original presentation? You can switch to it. Both graphics modes sit on top of the same table geometry and rules, so picking the newer artwork doesn’t give you a redesigned Party Land or a modified Speed Devils. It’s a presentation choice. A CRT display option can add scanlines, glow and a shadow-mask effect. It’s optional, so anyone after clean pixels can leave it switched off.

It still plays like Pinball Fantasies

None of this changes the main point of Pinball Fantasies. It’s a high-score game. There isn’t a campaign bolted onto Encore, nor a new progression track asking you to unlock tables one by one. Pick a machine, launch the ball and start chasing points.

The keyboard setup stays familiar. Left and right controls operate the flippers, the down arrow works the plunger and space nudges the table. Push your luck too often with nudging and tilt rules come into play. Multiplayer uses the traditional turn-based format, letting several people compete on one computer. Each player takes a turn, hands over after losing a ball and waits for the next round.

Scrolling matters too. Pinball Fantasies uses tables taller than the visible play area, so the screen follows the action vertically. Encore includes options for how this movement behaves, along with settings affecting table angle and flipper strength.

You’ll need the 1994 DOS files

Pinball Fantasies: Encore isn’t a complete commercial copy of Pinball Fantasies. It expects files from the 1994 DOS disk release and checks them before running the game. Other editions aren’t interchangeable, since Encore relies on data from this particular version for graphics, table behaviour, scripts, music and effects.

So this is closer to a modern native engine for an existing DOS copy than a fresh retail edition. For anyone with the required files, the pitch is easy to grasp. Four Pinball Fantasies tables, modern operating-system support, original or redrawn graphics and no need to run the game inside DOS emulation. It’s still Pinball Fantasies. Encore mainly changes how you get it running on a current computer.