Plummer is flat out wrong that his port enabled our game to ship with Windows -- we built it for Windows (and for Microsoft) from the start. He didn't enter the picture until we were already shipping with the popular Microsoft Plus Pack (which put us on about 25% of all Windows machines). Honestly, I'd never heard of Plummer until a few years ago when a journalist asked about him.
Plummer's only role, near as I can tell, was to get it working on later Windows operating systems that were 32 bit (or certain 32 bit variants), which likely extended the shipping life of the game (so, not Windows 95 or Windows 98, but the others that followed). Microsoft actually had the option in our original deal to ship with the OS when Win 95 launched and chose the Plus Pack instead.
I noted this in another reply, but Mike had written a scripting model that let me adjust the physics and materials for each component separately. That allowed me to iterate rapidly when tuning the feel of the game. A solid physics engine is a pre-requisite, but what you do with it from there is also critical (and the goal was to replicate how real world tables felt, not how they actually behaved).
We played every table we could get our hands on. Also rented tables weekly to be brought into the office once we moved to Austin. I tried to dig as deeply into the history of pinball too, to understand why tables had evolved the way they had.
Mike (Sandige) built a scripting system that allowed me to tweak the physics, materials, etc. of each component. But our constant exposure to real tables helped us form a "feels right" baseline to target. I also applied whatever I'd learned at that point about game design fundamentals (it was early in my career).
After we finished 3D Pinball and started on Full Tilt, I got put in touch with a seasoned designer of real pinball tables who had worked on some hits from the 70s. He took me to task for a bunch of mistakes I made in 3D Pinball, and some of those corrections found their way into the Full Tilt version of Space Cadet (and more so in the other tables in Full Tilt).
Kevin Gliner (designer and producer for 3D Pinball, etc)
Plummer's only role, near as I can tell, was to get it working on later Windows operating systems that were 32 bit (or certain 32 bit variants), which likely extended the shipping life of the game (so, not Windows 95 or Windows 98, but the others that followed). Microsoft actually had the option in our original deal to ship with the OS when Win 95 launched and chose the Plus Pack instead.