Francisco created a fairly accurate reproduction of Bally's 1986 classic table "Strange Science". I didn't actually like this table the first time I played it because of the quirky nature of the table. After I played it a few times, I grew to like it a lot. What other pinball table allows you to perform a brain transplant! Historically, this is one of Bally's last tables before they were bought out by Williams. You should play it long enough at least to start multiball that has some amusing sounds that it produces.
The purpose of this revision is to not only update the physics but also to correct several problems I found. The table was released with Day and Night versions of the table. Oddly, the day version of the table as posted on pinsimdb has a script error that prevented the table from being played but was easily corrected. It also had several other problems that I fixed. Francisco had placed an invisible plate slightly higher than the diameter of a ball above the table. The intention of it is to keep the ball from flying off the table. Unfortunately, the entire playfield was not covered and the ball would sometimes jump up on top of the plate and either drop back down onto the playfield in front of the drain or the ball launch. I thought about deleting the plate but instead extended the area covered by the plate. The table has a wire ramp that goes across it. I found that the ball would sometimes jump off the ramp and land on the plate I discussed previously. I also found six different places where the ball would get stuck. A nudge would allow the game to continue on three of the locations although the ball would get stuck in three other locations that required the game to be restarted. Even though Francisco left behind these problems, he should be commended for creating this table because I would never be able to create it from scratch. You may still occasionally get a stuck ball even on my rev but a nudge should free it.
The original Bally table had a promotional comic book flyer that I happened to find. I thought I would simply include a copy of it in the download although Miownkhan said he could add it to the table. He cleverly added it to the back board. It may be displayed by pressing the "C" key after you start playing the table. The flipper keys change the pages and the display can be turned off by pressing the "C" key again.
I didn't alter the strength settings of any of the objects on Francisco's original table so you can play this table with Future Pinball's original physics which is also known as Physics 1.0. This download has *.xml files associated with it that contain the data needed for custom physics. Miownkhan created an *.xml file that he used on another table and found it works on a number of other tables. I started with his file and changed the ball characteristics to work on this table.
Miownkhan also set up the table so that the "Toggle HUD" key (usually the ` key located above the tab key) will turn the HUD on and off which might be useful to those that have pinball cabinets.
This download contains Day and Night versions of the table. The only difference between the two versions are the use of lighter and darker versions of the playfield and plastics. Francisco did not make a Night version of the translite so I created one for this version.
This table is a mod of :
Strange Science
