 | Ever since I was a little boy, Radios and Pinball machines have always fascinated me. There was no TV back then and a 'palm' was the thing at the end of your arm that you held out in hope of getting a nickel. And for that nickel you could enjoy the excitement, bumpers, and flippers of what we now call Pinball. Hexacto's "Bounty Hunter 2099" pinball is reminiscent of those days and features all of the excitement, bumper movements and flipper controls for the Palm in two screens! It's objective is to reach a hideout called Majoris and bring back a wanted criminal. To succeed you must first accomplish 3 tasks on table 1 to reach the hideout on screen or table 2 and then one final task, against more challenging odds of course, to fulfill your 'retrieval contract'. Sadly I must report that our elusive criminal is still at large -in part due to my own lack of mastery to this point. But the game itself suffers from two deficiencies: 1) the flippers are too short to reach the ball, when frequently it just drops between them. And 2) the fixed speed of the ball is much too fast for a handheld as compared to a handheld on a cradle. Hexacto needs to add a range of speeds to its option list. The good news though, is I can always try again—and it won't cost me another nickel to catch her when I do. |