Full Tilt! Pinball

The Space Cadet table features the player as a member of a space fleet that completes missions to increase rank.[4] Players can attain nine different ranks (listed from lowest to highest): Cadet, Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain, LT Commander, Commander, Commodore, Admiral, and Fleet Admiral. Players accept a mission by hitting "mission targets" which select which mission they will take, and by going up the "launch ramp". Each mission has a set number of things for players to do, such as hitting the "attack bumpers" (which are a set of four bumpers at the top of the table) eight times (this is the "target practice" mission). Some missions involve a number of steps which must be completed in sequence. Missions end either by being completed, or by being aborted due to running out of "fuel", as indicated by the lights in the passage that passes under the launch ramp. The "fuel" lights go out one by one at a time interval, and can be re-lit by having the ball go over them, or all at once by going up the launch ramp again. Upon completing a mission, some of the blue lights in a circle in the middle of the table turn on. When all of the lights in the blue circle turn on, the player's rank increases, and a light in the orange circle turns on.

Full Tilt! Skullduggery table

The Skullduggery table features a treasure hunt where the player must find pirate Peg Leg's loot.[3] The player can accomplish that two ways: either by piecing together a treasure map or by activating and completing a series of mini-games on the table called modes. Modes are like missions and quests of the other two tables. They are all pirate themed mini-games, such as ship battle, tavern fight, escape Bermuda Triangle, mutiny, and sword fight.

The Dragon's Keep table features a fantasy environment where players must accomplish various quests, leading to the slaying of a dragon.[3] The quests include Dragon Hoard (steal the hoard), Fire Lizard Attack (defeat the fire-lizard), Rescue Maiden (rescue the damsel in distress), Dragon Pass (find the path to dragon's lair), Wizard's Fury, and Slay Dragon. The player can acquire awards such as spells, weapons, and armors. While weapons simply add points to the score, armors and spells temporarily turn on various gates, magnets, and chutes on the table to change the gameplay.

Elements from each of the three tables were elected for representation by Maxis in the illustration for the box art by Marc Ericksen, creating a montage below a hurtling Pinball.

According to Microsoft employee Raymond Chen, 3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet was first removed from later releases of Windows due to a collision detection bug during early development of 64-bit versions of Windows, originally for the Alpha AXP architecture.[9][10] Microsoft was unable to resolve the issue in time for the release of Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for the Itanium architecture in 2002,[11] and it was assumed for some time to be the reason for the game's absence from Windows Vista and subsequent versions.[7]

However, the 2005 release of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition includes an official 64-bit build of Pinball, which was found to have only minor graphical glitches.[12] Following this discovery, a YouTube investigation later cited by Chen in a follow-up post[9] revealed working versions of 64-bit Pinball are also found on the CD-ROM for the 2003 update of Windows XP 64-Bit Edition and even in some early Windows Vista builds (then known as "Longhorn") for both IA-64 and x64.[11]

The final versions of Windows to include the game were the first released builds after the reset of the Longhorn project to start over with a fresh codebase, now for x86 and x64 only.[11] These builds are also the final ones to still feature the other original Windows games from earlier versions, as opposed to the completely redesigned ones by Oberon Games that were publicly introduced in build 5219.[13] This has led to speculation that, like the classic versions of the other games, Pinball was ultimately removed from Windows due to its visual style being considered outdated.[11]

In late 2018, Raymond Chen stated that there were multiple attempts to revive the game as a Microsoft Garage project. They were apparently successful in repackaging the x86 version. However, as Microsoft contacted the legal department to review the original license contract, it was found that newer versions of the game are only permitted to be released pre-packaged with subsequent Windows operating systems and Microsoft Plus! packs. The license also forbade the release of the source code.[1]