Visual Pinball is a freeware and source available video game engine for pinball tables and similar games such as pachinko machines. The software is composed of an editor and the simulator part itself. It runs on Microsoft Windows. The program is also able to operate with Visual PinMAME, an emulator for ROM images from real pinball machines. A huge variety of user-created Visual Pinball tables are available on the internet. Players can choose between faithful recreations of existing pinball machines with or without ROM emulation and original pinball simulations based on licensed themes or completely self-designed tables. Visual Pinball's scripting capabilities can also be used to create pinball-like games (such as pitch-and-bat baseball, pinball bingo, bowling, cue sports, and pachinko). Visual Pinball can be used to play the simulations on a common desktop PC and monitor, but also allows for cabinet support, including different monitors and TVs (to display the playfield and backbox similar to a real pinball machine, including the option to use 3D televisions), giving the illusion of playing real pinball. Newer versions also added touch controls, making it possible to play on tablet computers and smartphones. In February 2010, the source code of Visual Pinball was released under a license that allows free use for non-commercial purposes. Design Every Visual Pinball table includes two main parts: the "physical" playfield design and the script which controls the table gameplay directly, or establishes the wiring of the emulation (through Visual PinMAME) to the simulated table components, such as lamps, switches and the flippers. The editor uses Microsoft VBScript for user programming. The program itself is written in C++ with the Active Template Library for making ActiveX controls. Visual Pinball is based on DirectX and thus can run on Windows 98 (or newer), although its newest incarnations require at least Windows XP due to modern Microsoft compilers abandoning older OS versions. History Visual Pinball was first released to the public on December 19, 2000, by programmer Randy Davis. In 2005, David R. Foley purchased the rights from Davis for modification of the suite for a full-sized pinball cabinet based on the Visual Pinball software. Chicago Gaming purchased rights for licensed tables from Williams Electronics. The Visual PinMAME team and the Visual Pinball development community also joined in the effort to produce improvements to the suite product and a few tables. This project, known as UltraPin, was acquired by Global VR