Does the shaking even do anything in this game?

I recall shake/tilt was most useful in the sections of the field where rolling over a sensor would toggle a light, and lighting all three toggles yielded a prize. There is one cluster at the top centre, and another in the left purple platform. The ball is moving slowly enough here that a nudge can send to one toggle or the other.

I bought this knowledge with my uni gpa, NO RAGRETS.

Definitely. Looking at the code it weirdly changes ball accel, which is not how nudging works in actual pinball.

https://github.com/alula/SpaceCadetPinball/blob/master/Space...