Vector Pinball

Vector Pinball is a pinball game by Brian Nenninger (Dozing Cat Software), developed since 2010. In its README: “The graphics are deliberately simple; currently everything is drawn with lines and circles. The focus is on gameplay and accurate physics.” The physics come from the Box2D engine, through the libgdx library’s Java wrapper. The sound effects are by Peter Drescher.

The tables

Version 1.16.0 has nine tables. The game shows them as pictures on a Select Table screen, new in this version; the project’s table files name them Classic, Round and Round, Ringmaster, Compound Interest, Eye of Horus, Orbiters, Ad Astra, Pool Party and Royal Flush. Royal Flush, the poker table added in 1.16.0, has you “collect cards to make a poker hand”, and three of a kind or better starts multiball. The game’s About screen shows the rules of the table you are on.

Pool Party, designed by Jack Morgan, is hard on purpose: he describes it as “a fairly accurate replication of Bally’s Eight Ball Deluxe with some rule changes and added elements”, with higher gravity and stronger flippers than the other tables. “It’s supposed to be difficult!”

Playing

• Touch starts a game, launches the ball and works the flippers; touching the score area pauses. By default the left half of the screen works the left flipper and the right half the right one (Independent flippers); turn it off and any touch moves both.
• Keyboard and controllers work too (see the questions below), and the game appears on Android TV.
• High scores: the top five for each table, kept on the phone. Games with Unlimited balls, a menu option, don’t count.
• It plays in portrait only.

Settings

Sound and background music (both on), haptic feedback (off), independent flippers, zooming in on the ball during play (on), game speed (slow, normal or fast), ball trails and score animations (both on), OpenGL drawing, line width, and a frames-per-second counter.

What it connects to

Nothing. Vector Pinball declares no permissions at all, not even internet access, so it can’t go online; high scores stay on the phone. The About screen shows the developer’s e-mail address and links, which open your mail app or browser if you tap them.

About this file

• This is F-Droid’s build of version 1.16.0, compiled from the source code and signed with F-Droid’s key. The developer publishes the game on Google Play, signed with a different key, so the two can’t update each other without uninstalling first.
• The minimum Android version is higher than the file says. Its manifest declares Android 1.6, but the Box2D physics library inside it is built for Android 4.4 (API level 19) in its 32-bit versions and Android 5.0 in its 64-bit ones, as we read from the libraries themselves; phones with a 64-bit processor run Android 5.0 or later anyway. A user also pointed out in the project’s issues that the libgdx version it uses needs Android 4.4; the developer hasn’t replied. This page therefore lists Android 4.4 as the minimum.
• The 3.2 MB file runs on ARM and x86, 32- and 64-bit. Our scan found no trackers.
• Vector Pinball is licensed under the GPL-3.0; libgdx is used under the Apache License 2.0.

CPU types in this build: arm64-v8a (64-bit ARM, almost every phone since 2017); armeabi-v7a (32-bit ARM, older and budget phones); x86 (32-bit Intel, emulators); x86_64 (64-bit Intel, emulators and Chromebooks).

Versions currently kept in the F-Droid repository. We host and check only the newest one.