Looks remarkable from your pics.
Nicely done.
Now that it is in its place...
Does the pinball playfield deployment work the way you wanted it to and does it all play the way you wanted it to?
Thanks bobbyb13!
To answer your questions:
The Upright -> Pinball transform works pretty much exactly the way I've envisioned this entire time, though having gotten through this build, there are definitely a few things I'd improve on knowing what I know now - I'd probably look to refine things a bit further. One example would be to maybe add something like pillow block bearings as part of the rear screen mount, just for a better fit and a bit smoother movement. I'd also still like to keep learning about the electronics side of things, and be able to not feel like a deer in headlights when I have to pull out the soldering iron. I DID manage to successfully cut an old wii sensor bar apart and then mount and re-wire up the resulting parts for my current 'lightguns', so I felt pretty good about that.
if/when the parts are in stock again, I may try to build a couple of the Gun4IR guns. Figuring out how to wire up a couple of USB-controlled relays and attach them so that I can control the screen movement via scripts is still on the list for this at some point as well.
As to whether everything plays the way I'd want it to, it absolutely does. I'm using a combination of Joy2Key, UCR (universal control remapper), and STEAM controller remapping depending on the game, and I've been able to come up with pretty functional (in my opinion) control schemes for everything so far.
I may still buy a couple of U360's and swap them out for the servostiks that are in there at some point, to see if the trade off of having analog-capable joysticks for the couple of games that would greatly benefit from that (geometry wars is a prime example) is worth giving up the 'tactile' feeling of the joystick hitting the microswitches for most games.
But overall, I'm more than satisfied. I still have moments, like when I first wake up in the morning and walk into the front room on the way to the kitchen for coffee, and I see the cabinet, and I think to myself "holy --muffins--, I actually did it." And that's what makes it so worth it.