Windows

Balls of Steel

Trivia

The table "Mutation!" features catchphrases of C. Montgomery Burns from the TV Show "The Simpsons" done by a very similar voice.

The first appearance anywhere of a pinball machine named "Balls of Steel" is in level 1, "Hollywood Holocaust", of Duke Nuken 3D. Since 3D Realms and Pinball Wizards (a group formed solely to publish this non-3D title) are both divisions of Apogee, either this early appearance inspired the actual Balls of Steel product or was a leak / early promotion of their pinball video game that would come out of the pipe nearly two years later.

In any case, the references went both ways, as Balls of Steel includes a Duke Nukem 3D-inspired table, with ramps and bonuses named after Duke enemies (octabrain, pig-cop) and power-ups (jetpack, HoloDuke). Icing the cake is the recording of original Duke-y quips by Jon St. John, the official voice actor for the Duke Nukem character.

Balls of Steel version 1.0 was first released on December 12th 1997.

Pinball Wizards is actually a project group of Apogee. In 1997, Apogee decided not to develop/release games under their own name, but rather specialized divisions of themselves. Most of their new releases have gone under the roof of 3D Realms, but Pinball Wizards was created for Balls of Steel (after all, it's not 3D, and 2D Realms probably seemed silly :). It's possible the Pinball Wizards name will never be used again. If the need arises, Apogee will create other divisions in the future.

A sixth table, Devil's Island, was made but not included with BoS. It was finally released in early 2000 as a seperate product - not an add-on. Also, it was distributed by Expert Software, rather than Apogee/3D Realms or GT Interactive.