That is actually an awesome idea Aaron, we could even hunt down the forum posts from that time as well.

I can't say much about the pinball games history personally though, since when i came on the scene in 2006, all the  with draconis being esp and adora and what not had already happened and both of the esp pinball games were in the form we know now.

I do remember they weren't the first game I picked up from Draconis (that was monkey business), because I didn't think the idea of audio pinball sounded too interesting. Luckily I did try them in my "go through and try everything phase" of 2006 and that was when I enjoyed the games, which put me in a great position when the party pack rolled around in I believe 2007.

Again I really! wish draconis would release more tables, they even hinted at one time there would be a table creator, how far that would go I don't know.

I am surprised that this isn't the norm. Just because they're old, doesn't mean they aren't good ...

I too have the old CD, as an ISO. Draconis editions of the games are playable but, IMO, lack some of the distinctive features of the older originals, for instance several music themes were changed (Ghostbusters, Bad Boys, etc) and of course any aspect where the in-game voice makes references to ESP Softworks (and, later, Adora Entertainment).

These games, and especially Pinball Classic, were a regular feature of my uni days. No doubt, if I were still primarily on Windows, they'd be installed, along with the BSC games.

I always liked the idea of the table editer, though how this would work with things like adding minigames I don't know, unless there were some precoded minigames which people could tweak the properties of (after all the tombstones and bagging animals games in the original Esp pinball classic are rather similar).
The first versions I played personally were the draconis ones, and as I said I do enjoy those.

With pinball extreme, extreme wildwest really is an upgrade of the wild west table, indeed I confess that is the esp pinball table I've played least, old man stanley's house is wonderfully silly fun, though surprisingly tricky to get all of the bonuses and extra scenes, while revenge of shockra is probably the most goal orientated table after the pinball extreme with it's psychotic clown, even though I do confess the acting of both dynaman and Shockra is a bit ropy (I have no idea what sort of accent dynaman is supposed to have).

OK, so for various reasons I went a little bit insane and got the game running under Wine on my Mac. Now it's wrapped in an app, I'm already firing it up casually. Strange how that works. Naturally, the experience is totally awesome and beats virtualisation hands down for latency (maybe it comes close when using a USB sound card) even when I'm using a Bluetooth keyboard and a cordless headset using Kleer.

The reasons only make sense to a Mac user who's suddenly realised that the real reason he doesn't play many games is that he's never adventured far enough down this road, in light of such a high probability of failure, born out by past bitter experience. It also helps that virtualisation, while helpful, is still ultimately a barrier, that this Mac install didn't have much to lose by the addition of extra software, that I've been feeling I should chill out more, that I've been questioning a return to Windows at the end of this OS X release cycle in no small part owing to the gaming scene and the abundance of practical solutions, that I've been meaning to do this thing properly with WINE for a while now, and that I'm generally irascible when confounded by stupid limitations caused by mere absence of convenient accessibility even though it takes a great deal to actually goad me into looking for solutions. Now I've got it working, it's absolutely amazing and I wish I'd done it before. It sheds a very positive light on the Mac, actually, and although I'll probably always need virtualisation it points the way to a practical solution to the general problem of audio-gaming on the Mac without virtualisation so long as the game doesn't need the use of a screen reader. If anyone wants to follow this path, and I've now got a working wrapper for ESP Pinball Classic by way of example, let me know. Inspiration can be sought, in the first instance, from this on AppleVis.

Pinball in particular from ESP, and in fact ESP in general, were really a stand-out contribution to the audio-gaming scene.

Without getting into yet another Mac vs Windows debate again, all I'll say is that it's definitely not a black-and-white issue for me. Using WINE certainly changes the equation somewhat, although it is of course by nature imperfect it might still be enough to swing things. I'll see how it looks when they announce the next macOS release. In general though I think each platform has its strengths and weaknesses, and gaming (or, more specifically, quick, off-the-cuff, casual gaming) is where Windows just wins, by nature. I think more games should be cross-platform, but that's the reality today, both in the audio-gaming scene and elsewhere.

Well in terms of Esp's other games, I'm afraid monkey business always struck me as something of a flawed gem.
the soundscape is great, the acting is, ---- well interesting, but the actual sound detection and tracking was always so imprecise as compared to the Gma engine used in games like shades of doom.
It frequently happened that I'd hear something in front of me and then find I was turned slightly to the side, and the sonar system never seemed particularly accurate.

These days thanks to the likes of swamp people seem pretty sorted on what an audio first person game needs, but monkey business seemed fairly experimental at the time and for me it was an experiment that never seemed to quite pan out.

Alien outback is pretty cool as far as it goes, though I do wish there was a bit more randomness in what ships appear and some variation in difficulty, still it's nice to see a space invaders game where firstly it's not all just about the pacive invaders landing (they actually have to attack you), and secondly where it's as much about accuracy as speed of fire, actually Rockey's space invaders rather reminded me of alien outback for this.

Dynaman (which I still think was esp), is probably the game I've played least.
Great idea, but the soundscape always felt a little flat what with the same levels, layout and sounds  again and again, also the capacitors giving you an infinite power pill did make the game a bit too easy.

I always wondered if Esp would consider adding to dynaman, eg, more obstacles and enemies or different things to collect, which they partly did in revenge of shockra, but not quite in the original game.

Btw, I need to play silver dollar as their most recent release, I've still not tried it.

I read somewhere in here, that someone was wanting an audio  recording of the original ESP Pinball from ESP Softworks.

I can do one better for ya!
Here below, courtesy of the "Wayback Machine," is v1.3 of the "demo":
http://web.archive.org/web/200111260940 … pbdv13.exe

Note:
In "this" demo, the tables featured are "PacMan," and "Socker Star." While in later versions, its always been "PacMan," and "Wild West." 
In addition, in the "Highst" table before the "Launch ball" message, you would here quoted by James North:
"Highst" is a program on location with ESP Softworks."
Sadly, when Draconis Entertainment took over the game, they "dropped" that part of the table's "intro" sequence.

Oh! The "Haunted House" table, before Draconis took over, a version of the "Ghost Busters" theme played in the background. As ya know now, it ain't  there anymore.

@Trenton, odd, since in the draconis version when the gate to the graveyard opens you hear the spooky bit that starts off the ghostbusters theme.

@sljI always found Monkey business a bit less than precise. I'd have something in front of me and walk past it which got down right annoying. Admitedly it is a long time since I've played it though.

As regards dynaman, it plays the same as packman. You eat electrons instead of dots, you have the sparks brothers instead of ghosts, and the capacitors instead of power pills, though the capacitors give unlimited time.

The game is played in first person, though you can  face north south east or west, up arrow takes you forward and left or right arrow will turn you into the next passage on your left or right, though if you hit the left or right arrow while your moving you will turn automatically.

The two major differences from packman are firstly the layout, since instead of one flat maze with different corners you have five mazes stacked atop each other and you pass between them by finding a teleporter and zapping up or down, and of course the layout of the maze itself. You also occasionally come up to broken circuits which you can't get around until you find a coil which bounce along and which you need to collect.

There used to be a main menu demonstration of the game which explained it fairly well.

it's not a bad game but once you understand what is going on it's pretty easy to get extremely far, and I don't believe it had an ending, I thought it just went on with the sparks brothers getting faster and faster. Likewise while it had a grid creator for you to make your own level layouts, changing them didn't make as much difference to the gameplay imho, though again if the game had ever been expanded with more objects it might have done.

Hi all.
Here you have two recordings: A recording of ESP Pinball, and a recording of ESP Pinball Classic.
There is not much difference between those two versions. It's quite sad that Draconis have shut down the scoreboard.
I had a lot of fun playing all the tables. I suck at the haist, or how to spell this. I don't know how to reach the job in time after you've got it. The Packman table is just not my kind of thing.
Well, I hope you enjoy the recordings. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
ESP Pinball recording:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/979 … ording.mp3
Pinball Classic link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/979 … ording.mp3

DynaMan was next on my list of games to get running under wine. Sadly I met with less success than with Pinball Classic. It starts, plays for a while, then crashes with an exception. This doesn't occur on my XP VM. Shame, dammit.

I actually think DynaMan was one of ESP's simpler and more enjoyable works. Yes, it's basically a revamped PacMan, but so what? It's still plenty exciting for me, even with the power-ups in the corners. The game does have an ending, but it's very far off and I always play in hard mode, with walking and scanning speeds cranked up to maximum. And while the spark brothers could surely use a bit more intelligence--enough to avoid as well as to menace--they, and the circuits, and the coils, and the twisty passages all alike, and the generally fast-paced nature of the game all work for me. At any rate, it's just the thing for testing your reflexes after you've come home from the pub.

I found the object navigation a little bit easier in SOD than in Monkey Business, but not markedly so. I imagine it actually had more to do with the tone itself (a feeble solo beep rather than a pronounced two-tone pulse) than the actual method of object detection and navigation. I've never liked the Swamp approach, mostly because I found myself thinking too hard just to navigate relatively successfully. It's always going to be a tough problem, in stereo at least, but SOD probably got it about right for me.

I could maybe come to love virtual machines more in the pursuit of gaming, but really there's nothing like just typing Pinball into Spotlight and it runs just like a native app, with remarkable speed. SLJ, if you're a registered user, I'd be happy to send you an app bundle so you can see how it feels for yourself with Pinball. You might even change your mind about it. At any rate, try using a USB sound card with a VM, as that's the closest you'll get without the VM sound overhead.

Alien Outback I found probably to be the most conventional of the lot. But at least it had flare, and the bonus rounds were always fun to play (I'd love to play those standalone).

Nice recordings. You're right, they aren't that different at all. But I do still prefer the original, for the flare. It's not enough to make a fuss about though.

I usually play the tables in "insane" mode.

How right you are, SLJ. I'm fairly sure that thought crossed my mind, at some point.

(Although, looking at my email, it seems clear that I had to contact Draconis to get my product key, in exchange for a customer receipt for the game on CD. Apparently, this wasn't automatic.)

I have MailDropped you the Mac app. Simply extract and run; there is no further step. You may need to bypass GateKeeper, in the usual fashion.