Overview
DarkQuest: A Silverball Adventure is a standout fantasy themed table for Future Pinball, designed by Polygame (aka Steve Paradis) as a tribute to classic RPG games and the Pinball 2000 system.
Pinball 2000 was the last pinball hardware and software platform developed by Williams, and was used in the machines Revenge from Mars (under the brand name Bally) and Star Wars Episode I. These machines featured a computer monitor to display animations, scores, and other information. The player perceives this video to be integrated with the playfield, due to a mirrored playfield glass (utilizing an illusion called "Pepper's ghost") that reflects the monitor hung in the head of the machine.
This allowed the display of virtual game targets in the playfield's upper third that can be "hit" by the machine's physical steel ball. "Impacts" on these targets are detected by physical targets in the middle of the playfield, and by recognizing successful shots up the left and right ramps and orbits/loops.
In DarkQuest, Polygame uses a semi-transparent "hologram" effect to recreate the feeling of a Pinball 2000 machine projecting video onto the glass of a real table. Players must "hit" the 3D hologram fantasy characters with the ball, in a series of pinball boss-fights. Gameplay incorporates RPG elements, as the player can collect special items, level up his abilities, and drain the enemies HP.
In 2011, Polygame released Robots Invasion, another Future Pinball table that uses the same "hologram" effect. A modded version of DarkQuest, with improved lighting and more modern ball physics, was released by GeorgeH in 2019.
