The History and Problems of Experimental Digital Pinball and Developing a Pinball Video Game Concept Based on Music

Öz

Pinball games may have lost their popularity over time; however, developers revived their features inside other video games or completely renovated them. While arcade pinball machines offer limited gameplay, digital pinball can be much more flexible. Nevertheless, according to the author’s preliminary investigation, academic research is lacking in pinball gaming. This artistic paper attempts to close this gap by shedding light on experimental digital pinball games. Moreover, the author focuses on music visualization features of digital pinball games, and he developed an experimental pinball video game concept based on synaesthesia by answering a simple question, “How does a classical music-based pinball video game would look like?”.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• synaesthesia
• classical music
• experimental video gaming
• music visualization

Öz

Pinball oyunları zamanla popülaritesini kaybetmiş olabilir; ancak geliştiriciler, diğer benzer video oyunlarının içindeki özelliklerini yeniden canlandırdı veya tamamen yeniledi. Atari veya pinball makineleri sınırlı oyun sunarken, dijital pinball çok daha esnek olabilir. Bununla birlikte, yazarın ön araştırmasına göre, pinball oyunlarıyla ilgili akademik araştırmalar eksiktir. Bu sanatsal makale, deneysel dijital pinball oyunlarına ışık tutarak bu boşluğu kapatmaya çalışmaktadır. Ayrıca yazar, dijital pinball oyunlarının müzik görselleştirme özelliklerine odaklanmış ve "Klasik müzik tabanlı bir pinball video oyunu nasıl görünürdü?" şeklindeki basit bir soruyu yanıtlayarak sinesteziye dayalı deneysel bir pinball video oyunu konseptini de makalenin sonunda önermiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• pinball
• sinestezi
• klasik müzik
• deneysel video oyunu
• müzik görselleştirme
• synaesthesia
• classical music
• experimental video gaming
• music visualization

Kaynakça

1. Edler, D. (2020). Where spatial visualization meets landscape research and “Pinballology”: examples of landscape construction in pinball games. KN-Journal of Cartography and Geographic Information, 70(2), 55-69.
2. Galeyev, B. M., & Vanechkina, I. L. (2001). Was Scriabin a synesthete?. Leonardo: Historical Perspective, 34(4), 357-361.
3. IFPI. (2018), Music consumer insight report. Audience Net.
4. Kandinsky, V. (1946) On the spiritual in art. Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
5. Knight Foundation. (2002). Classical music consumer segmentation study: How Americans relate to classical music and their local orchestras. Audience Insight LLC.
6. Mccabe, W. L. (2010) Color and sound: Synaesthesia at the crossroads of music and science (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Florida.
7. Wong, D. Earl, D. Zeyda, F., & Koenig, S. (2008). Programming pinball machines for fun and education. The University of South California. Retrieved from http://idmlab.org/bib/abstracts/papers/tr-pinball.pdf.