Sega Flipper

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Sega Flipper
System(s): SG-1000
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2 (alternating)
Release Date RRP Code JP 1983 ¥3,8003,800 G-1018 EU 1983 FR 1983 AU 1983 G-1018 NZ 1983 TW 198x

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Sega Flipper (セガフリッパー) is a pinball game released for the SG-1000 in 1983. In New Zealand it is known as Video Flipper.

It was one of the first pinball video games to be released, being released one year earlier than attempts from Jaleco and Nintendo but four years after Atari's Video Pinball. Unlike Video Pinball, however, Sega Flipper makes use of color.

Gameplay

Sega Flipper is a very basic pinball game, with the sole objective being to score as many points as possible.

and control the left and right flippers (and activate the plunger (or "shooter" as the manuals call it)), while and can set the force of the plunger at the beginning of a ball. There are no means of moving the table, although pausing the game causes TILT to flash (even on the title screen). The player is given five balls at the start of the game which are played one at a time (meaning no multiball options exist).

There is only one table in Sega Flipper, however it features a set of mini-flippers in the top left. The table features four bumpers, two spinners, seven drop targets, two kicker holes and three "unstable bumpers" in the centre which can be are activated by using the flippers. Hitting all the drop targets grants the player an extra ball. Passing through the three gates at the top of the playfield increases the score multiplyer.

As is typical for a video game implementation of pinball from this era, the physics are far from accurate. The system is such that the ball can only travel on pre-calculated routes, meaning flipping a ball in a certain position is guaranteed to produce the same angle and velocity every time (in real life, the "spin" of the ball would affect its movements, among other factors). The erratic nature of the physics can be seen when attempting to "trap" a ball with a flipper - in a more realistic simulation, the ball would remain at rest, however in Sega Flipper it jumps around.

Possibly acknowledging the physics concerns, the table is designed in such a way that the ball should not drain unfairly for skilled players. The unstable bumpers can be activated to block each route, although unreliable collision detection makes accessing certain parts of the table very difficult.

Magazine articles

Main article: Sega Flipper/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

SG-1000, JP
Cover
Cart

SG-1000, EU
Cover

SG-1000, FR
Cover

SG-1000, IT

SG-1000, AU
Cover
Cart Manual Inside

SG-1000, NZ
Cover
Cart Manual Inside

SG-1000, TW

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 8efc77bc MD5 3f2acc9de65c8496c3d8470ef12dc210 SHA-1 e0605e23d80b8b975743d3417f548b28810e0ba3	16kB		Cartridge (EU/JP)
?	CRC32 fd76ad99 MD5 49c7c14879a437e60730b62a7550cdf6 SHA-1 d713dcbd79a3db8f1ef2cfb27da31a286fff16d1	40kB		Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 042c36ba MD5 3cfec6aa7bfdf81b40b7ee6d630f5c03 SHA-1 b7eb254a014772a83829e1991dcd32396e8dd9cc	16kB		Cartridge (TW)