Well dang, BAM is such a great project.
By comparison, we used to have fun discussions & debates like this /all the time/ when it came to VP, but trying to get the attention of Randy Davis (the original programmer) was like a carnival crapshoot. "Who's this year's lucky winner going to be!?" lol
Not to mention, Randy could be active for a few months, sometimes listening to feedback, sometimes not so much, then we wouldn't hear from him again for a couple &^#$ years at a time.
Like-- you want to know how to develop neurosis as a VP author / programmer / thinker? It would be coming up with some
really nice ideas for the project, getting agreement almost all around (other than fucking PacDude's), but sadly, nobody back on Earth hearing the message.
Which is again, why I love (and am utterly blown away) by how Rafal
@ravarcade keeps listening and adding features requested. I'd venture to say it's downright incredible to old fools such as
@Pop Bumper Pete,
@LeeVanCleef,
@bob and myself.
I guess my rambling point is-- FP-BAM is just -so much- more of a dynamic project than we used to have 15-20 years ago. Like, when the dev listens to the community and responds accordingly, it's just the right kind of fireworks.
I would to get you guys opinion on something. I created a version of Space Shuttle where you can open the menu during a game. In the past, you could only open the menu before the game starts. The only problem is you can't see the playfield when the menu is open because the menu takes up the whole screen. So the only times you can open the menu without the ball draining is before you launch the ball or you can cradle the ball with one flipper and operate the menu with the other flipper. I am not sure how much appeal this would have to the average user. What do you guys think?
Anyway, getting back to your original question, George... I've played a boatload of games across a boatload of platforms. When the 'freeze' function isn't available, yeah, you just pick your spots.
I'd say practically-speaking, if you're letting the user bring up that menu between balls (before launching), or cradling ball-on-flipper, you're already doing them a HUGE FAVOR that doesn't rely on restarting the game.
So your original concept is more than fair IMO, just that it's really cool to think about doing a FULL FREEZE in FP!
Matrix! Bullet-time! lol