Pinball simulation brought to life with wonderful graphics and atmosphere. Choose from six tables, four difficulty levels and get different types of balls during play.

Release Date

August 2006.

Pros

The graphics are beautiful. There is glass reflection which looks realistic, but makes the table more difficult to see. The ball and everything else in the table also looks great with nice lighting and animations.

The sounds are also excellent. Dream Pinball 3D is the first pinball game I played that has ambient sounds. It gives the atmosphere that you are in real place playing pinball with other people around.

There are six tables to choose from. Not as many as Pinball Gold Pack but much better than the single table of Pro Pinball Timeshock.

There are seven camera angles to choose from. Only one of them is the all viewing static camera though. The other cameras range from sticking your head right up against the glass and following the ball very closely, to viewing most of the table with only slight movement. The close camera views really show off the beautiful graphics of the game, but it is a bit difficult to play.

While playing, you can get balls made of different material which have different weights and give different scores. I have never seen a real pinball table that changes ball type during play, so I do not think this is realistic. It sure gives an extra challenge for a computer game though.

Cons

On my Windows 10 PC, the maximum resolution the game would allow me to set is 1280 x 1024. Unfortuantely, it is not playable on this resolution. For some strange reason the game keeps minimizing, sometimes at the main menu and sometimes when I start a table. For the game to be playable I have to set the resolution to 1280 x 960 or lower.

There are sparkles that pop out from the places where the ball scores points. Yes, it shows where points can be scored but it looks out of place and there is no option to turn it off.

The tables do not feel as balanced as Pinball Fantasies or Pro Pinball Timeshock. Some of the targets seem impossible to hit, but sometimes the ball will just hit that target after randomly deflecting from something else.

Other Points

There is speech and music for the pinball tables, but they do not sound anywhere near as good as Pro Pinball Timeshock.

There are four difficulty levels which determine how many balls you get as well as a few other things.

If you are feeling competitive, you can submit your high score to the official site and see how you fare against other players. Only the Flash version of the page displays high scores.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I really like pinball in real life, although I have not touched a pinball table in over 20 years.

On computer I really liked Raster Blaster, Night Mission and Pinball Construction Set on the Apple II.

On the PC I liked Epic Pinball and really liked Pro Pinball Timeshock and Pinball Fantasies.

I also really liked Space Cadet, the pinball game that came with Windows XP.

DRM

Dream Pinball 3D is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1 GHz Processor (1.4GHz recommended)
256MB RAM (512 recommended)
NVidia or ATI 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

If you have the GOG.com version of the game and want to submit high scores to the official site, you can get an activation code by contacting GOG support.