If you've seen the Slow-Mo Guys pinball episode you will quickly realize that video game physics still aren't really up to the task; they're very good at getting an effect, but still approximate.
Pinball is full of violent, three-dimensional forces: the pop bumpers launch the ball by crushing it from above, the slingshot bumpers deform the rubber rapidly enough to create visible resonance. Nudging and shaking the game creates a vibration across the whole playfield. And so on.
Most video pinballs outside of the dedicated simulators don't even try to get close, and opt for an implementation that treats the flippers as simple point-and-shoot devices that can always return the ball in any direction; the reality is that the available shots are all dependent on how the ball was tumbling, and the precise details of the flipper coil mechanism(games since the solid state era switch from a high-power coil to a lower-power one to prevent overheating when the button is held; this means that the flipper in the low power state bounces back when hit). High spin and low spin balls are categorically different and many games are designed so that you have to set up difficult shots by first creating a high spin scenario. Add in all the vibrations and deformations of a real game - the exact behavior of rolling down a wireform ramp, for example, is easy to dictate and hard to simulate - and you get to the parts that a simulator can't touch.
> games since the solid state era switch from a high-power coil to a lower-power one to prevent overheating when the button is held
Is this really limited to solid state machines? Pre-fliptronics, this happens under the board, with end of stroke switches, no electronics needed, there's no reason it couldn't have happened on an EM, and lots of good reasons to do it...
Pinball is full of violent, three-dimensional forces: the pop bumpers launch the ball by crushing it from above, the slingshot bumpers deform the rubber rapidly enough to create visible resonance. Nudging and shaking the game creates a vibration across the whole playfield. And so on.
Most video pinballs outside of the dedicated simulators don't even try to get close, and opt for an implementation that treats the flippers as simple point-and-shoot devices that can always return the ball in any direction; the reality is that the available shots are all dependent on how the ball was tumbling, and the precise details of the flipper coil mechanism(games since the solid state era switch from a high-power coil to a lower-power one to prevent overheating when the button is held; this means that the flipper in the low power state bounces back when hit). High spin and low spin balls are categorically different and many games are designed so that you have to set up difficult shots by first creating a high spin scenario. Add in all the vibrations and deformations of a real game - the exact behavior of rolling down a wireform ramp, for example, is easy to dictate and hard to simulate - and you get to the parts that a simulator can't touch.