What came before the iPad baby? Well, with both parents working various IT systems jobs throughout my youth, in my case I was always destined to become a desktop gremlin. Hastening that descent were a number of games, but the accessibility of 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet was the one that probably annoyed my folks the most. First packaged alongside Windows 95, there's no need to dig out an old machine for a nostalgic game of pinball.
Space Cadet Pinball is now available for free on the Google Play Android app store (via PCWorld). It's very much still the game you remember, completely free of modern mobile dreadfulness such as microtransactions or in-app ads. The Android port's developer, Kyle Sylvestre, has added online leaderboards so you can compete on high scores, though otherwise an online connection isn't even necessary to play.
Apparently, Space Cadet Pinball was agreed to only ever be released alongside successor Windows OS products after 95, or as part of an enhancement pack like the aforementioned Microsoft Plus. To get more specific, the original agreement prevents Microsoft from putting Space Cadet Pinball out as a standalone release, or from making the game's source code publicly available—hence k4zmu2a's decompilation and Kyle Sylvestre's very much unofficial Android port.
There are ways to play it on PC today, however. Google the name and you'll find a few. Players have been keen to get back to hitting space balls for an age—here's a PC Gamer story on how to play the game from seven years ago. No idea if that one still works, mind.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
