3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrill Ride is a Digital Pinball game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. Based on the Real Life Hersheypark Theme Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the game requires the player to perform various ride related-tasks to score points, and ultimately try to stay through the night.
Most of the action takes place with the various Fun Zone puzzles on the primary table, but making key shots will open additional areas and events. You play as a guest visiting the park with one goal in mind: ride every single ride in the park. Go on real-life rides like the Wildcat, the Coal Cracker, and the Wave Swinger, then warp over to the Thrill Zone mini-playfield for additional challenges. Visit the snack shop for bonuses and prizes, clear the rapids, collect Brass Rings and Ride Photos for extra points and end the day watching the Nighttime Fantasy fireworks show and, if you're lucky, you'll get to stay in the park long enough to see the Lights Out.
Unlike earlier games in the series, Thrill Ride edges back to a more conventional pinball feel, de-emphasizing the overall quest in favor of simply getting a high score, making the game more accessible for casual players. The updated graphics engine supported resolutions up to 800 x 600 and High-Color displays, delivering great special effects and realistic graphics.
A version of this game was developed for the Nintendo Game Boy Color, but bears no resemblance to the original aside from the name and general premise. Much like Pokémon Pinball, the cartridge has a rumble pack.
3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrill Ride contains examples of:
- Easter Egg: Purchasing every item from the Snack Bar will activate a secret mode called Hide and Seek. Various Hershey characters will escape from the Snack Bar and hide in various places on the playfield. The player must hit them when they pop out and return them to the Snack Bar for points.
- In Name Only: The Game Boy Color version of the game, which is played from a scrolling overhead perspective and changes many of the rules to accommodate the platform. On its own, however, it's regarded as a rather good game despite the lack of semblance to the original.
- Large-Ham Announcer: Whenever the male announcer says THRILL ZONE!
- No Fair Cheating: Using a cheat code that affects gameplay (skipping to the Wizard Mode, extending the timer on the ball saver, etc.) locks you out of entering your score into the Hall of Fame for that game.
- Skill Shot: Two, one into the snack shop, the other up the corkscrew coaster.
- Shout-Out: The way the Hide and Seek is activated, hitting the ball into a scoop a certain amount of times that gives you various bonuses, in this case, the Gift Shop, is similar to the way you activate Lyman's Lament.
- Spelling Bonus: Spell T-H-R-I-L-L-R-I-D-E to collect enough Thrill Points to start Nighttime Fantasy, which when finished lights up a pinwheel light to go towards Lights Out Mode.
- The Theme Park Version: Literally, entire premise of the game.
- Very Loosely Based On A True Theme Park
- Video Mode: Two rides in the Fun Zone send you to a separate mini table with its own objective.
- The Canyon River Rapids has you sink boulders to clear a path for the rafts. There's no time limit and you can play indefinitely until the ball drains.
- The Lightning Racer Virtual Coaster has you hit bumpers to build your own virtual roller coaster RollerCoaster Tycoon style. You can even "ride" the coaster after time runs out if you hit the ball into the center scoop.
- Wizard Mode
- The sub-Wizard mode is "Nighttime Fantasy", which is activated after spelling THRILLRIDE. This is a single-ball mode where you must shoot the ball through every ramp on the field to start a fireworks display.
- The Wizard Mode is "Lights Out", which is activated after you complete the game's six trials — finish all five Fun Zone and Thrill Zone rides, spell THRILLRIDE, activate both Coal Cracker and Wildcat Multiball, and complete "Nighttime Fantasy". As the park closes down for the night, light bulbs appear on the playfield. You must break all the light bulbs with the ball, turning off the lights around the playfield and closing sections of the park for the night. Successfully doing so starts a multiball variation of "Nighttime Fantasy", where you try to launch as many fireworks displays as you can while multiball is active.
Male Park Announcer: All right, let's pack it in and go home.Guest: But I don't want to go home!Female (or Male) Park Announcer: Well, why didn't you say so?