Tiki Time (based on Gottlieb’s “Space Walk” table from 1978, originally rendered by “BorgDog”)
RELEASE DATE: January 1st, 2021
EMULATOR: Visual Pinball 10.6 or higher, PinMAME 3.3 or higher, PinUp Player 1.4.6 (Required for full DMD A/V) or higher
ARTIST(S): “rcrown1” with “TikiGoon”, “HiRez00”, “Rascal”, “Loserman76”, “JP Salas”
HARDWARE: Windows PC with an Intel i5 Quad-Core processor with a Nvidia GTX 960 or higher graphics card (Recommended)
SOFTWARE/OS REQUIREMENTS: Windows 10, 64-bit
RATING: B
It’s a new year and we have a new table! This time, from new artist, “rcrown1”. Entitled “Tiki Time”, it’s technically an original table, re-skinned from Gottlieb’s 1979 EM machine, “Space Walk”. The theme for this one is a a tiki bar, so let’s check it out.
DESIGN/ARTWORK: A-
The artwork on this is perfect from the lush aqua-green color of the playfield to the palette of browns from the wood tikis to the bamboo along the tops of the bumpers. The lighting is also well done and perfectly ambient. The lights on the table look real as do the drop targets. The tiki bar art is very 50’s/60’s retro, fitting of the theme. The backglass might need some work. Everything on it, save for the score counters, is blurry and the font work isn’t really “embedded” into the “glass” as it should be. Still, great work here.
MUSIC/AUDIO: B
The music is mostly a playlist of tacky tiki bar jazz tunes which is perfectly welcome for a table such as this. I’m glad that music is here because the basic EM dings, buzzes and thumps would have otherwise made this a simple, boring re-skin with no personality except for the art. As this is an EM duplicate, and it’s a basic, no-frills table, there are no callouts in this game. That’s fine.
DMD/ANIMATIONS: B
It’s your basic score counting system. There’s no PUP Pack to go with this table or any sort of DMD with video animation. My only gripe with the version I played was that, if you go over six figures on your score, you can’t tell. Hopefully, this will be fixed in future updates.
GAMEPLAY/PHYSICS: B
As Tiki Time is a fairly basic table, there isn’t much to do except attempt to run up the score. There are two sets of drop targets on the lower half of the playfield, and two more sets on the upper side. There’s also a kick-out hole on the top third of the playfield which can be hit with the upper flippers and a large bumper which gives you 1000 points. You basically have to hit those top drop targets to activate the bonus scoring on the table and light the extra ball and score it. Nailing the lower ones increases bonuses. Doing all four sets means you get special scoring. The physics are decent, if not just a little bit floaty, but that’s usually what I’ve found on older EM’s. It’s still challenging thanks to a pretty wide open gab between the bottom flippers.
OVERALL
This is a good, simple EM game with universal appeal. Adults will love this game due to the themeing and kids should have a pretty easy time getting into it — just don’t expect a lot of gimmicks or deep gameplay because it isn’t that kind of table.