Windows 3D Pinball died because the ball kept falling through the floor
Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has now revealed why the classic pinball game 3D Pinball: Space Cadet disappeared from Windows after Windows XP. The story was first reported by Windows Latest.
According to Chen, problems arose when the Windows code was being adapted from 32-bit to 64-bit. In an early 64-bit version, the game’s collision detection did not work as it should, causing the pinball to fall through the playing field.
The bug is thought to have been caused by a rounding error, but fixing it proved difficult as the game had been developed by an external company and the code was largely undocumented. As there was a lot of other work to be done and the deadline was approaching, the team chose instead to remove the game.
When a team later attempted to revive 3D Pinball: Space Cadet, it turned out that the licensing agreement limited Microsoft’s ability to re-release the game separately (the publisher of 3D Pinball was Maxis, now part of Electronic Arts). Although 3D Pinball: Space Cadet is no longer available for Windows, it can at least be run directly in a web browser.
A few months ago, an independent developer also released the cult game again for Android smartphones. You can read more about it here.
At the time, it was assumed that 3D Pinball was missing from Windows Vista, which succeeded Windows XP, because it was incompatible with the new operating system’s code. That seems to have been only half the story. Now we know more.
