Epic Pinball is still the best available video pinball game nearly 15 years later, though it has its own flaws
Just because its popularity waned does not make the game less fun, it only forced it into a niche. In 1993 Epic attempted to port Pinball to the PC. At the time, dozens of developers had video game adaptations of Pinball available, but players lamented the poor physics and deck layouts. Epic Pinball was the first video Pinball game to successfully imitate real-world Pinball physics with challenging deck designs and that afforded replayability.
Epic Pinball came as Shareware, where the player could either download for free of purchase for a small fee a portion of the game to try it out before deciding if they wanted to buy the full version. The Shareware version came with Super Android; the full version offered thirteen tables (including Super Android).
The best table of all thirteen was Super Android without question. You were tasked with awakening the Android by striking key combinations of table buttons and ramps. You would activate an arm, a led, increase its I.Q., and a variety of other tasks accomplished with only the pinball itself.
Unfortunately, Ultimate Android was one of the few great tables that brought the player back for more. The tables were all original designs, rather than ports of real machines. Some of the designs were boring, such as the Deep Sea table. Deep Sea had a variety of interesting ramps and buttons to strike, but lacked any goal; you leveled up simply by obtaining a certain number of points. Enigma is gimmicky, a table that takes advantage of its video game nature to make various strike buttons and ramps appear, such as free-floating gems you must hit to score points. While interesting in concept, in practice it became more of an annoyance than a challenge.
Still, many of the tables had that rare mix of table design, theme, and challenge that kept you coming back. The Excalibur themed table had an excellent design, as did Cyborggirl and the 1950's styled "Magic" table. The Magic table allowed you to perform tricks such as pulling a rabbit out of a hat through the course of key button strikes and ramps.
While some tables are better than others, Epic Pinball has enough variety and realistic physics to satiate the Pinball Wizard looking for an hour's distraction without the cost of a full-sized machine.