Arcade Collecting > Miscellaneous Arcade Talk
Build your own Pinball Machine
Apollo:
Fair comment, I was imaging trying to build something like "Adams Family" from scratch. Getting all the parts fabricated etc, lol.
If you are just going for a flat play field with 2 flippers and some channels and bumpers then yeah go for it, it should be cool and not too pricey.
Make sure to keep us updated if you do this, I'd love to see it.
Chris:
I had this dream once; it's what eventially led to me building a MAME cabinet: "Why spend $2000 building a machine that'll play one game when I can build a MAME cab for $500 that will play many games?"
One tricky aspect of pinball is lights; getting the lens inserts into the table wood. I never figured that one out....
Before you even think of starting, get Visual Pinball and use it to mock up your layout from the downloads section at http://www.vpforums.com/ . See http://webpages.charter.net/celamantia/vp for examples I have created with Visual Pinball.
If you insist on going down this road, look at http://www.marcospec.com/ for parts.
You may want to follow the thread at http://www.vpforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30528 .
Another option is to take an existing pinball and re-work it. http://home.insightbb.com/~galactica5/BG_Pinball/bgpinball.htm shows the results of one such project.
To look for pinballs in various states of (dis) repair to use as parts sources, or if you just change your mind and decide to buy a pinball, see http://www.xmission.com/~daina/classified/data/machines_for_sale_recent.html .
--Chris
mp2526:
--- Quote from: Chris on August 19, 2004, 09:04:32 am ---"Why spend $2000 building a machine that'll play one game when I can build a MAME cab for $500 that will play many games?"
--- End quote ---
Because I already have a couple of MAME cabs :)
Chris:
--- Quote from: mp2526 on August 19, 2004, 10:11:28 am ---
--- Quote from: Chris on August 19, 2004, 09:04:32 am ---"Why spend $2000 building a machine that'll play one game when I can build a MAME cab for $500 that will play many games?"
--- End quote ---
Because I already have a couple of MAME cabs :)
--- End quote ---
Well, at the time I went through that thought process I had exactly 0 MAME cabs. I counted them twice to be sure. :)
mp2526:
Just for informational purposes, if someone wanted to build a modern (by modern I mean 1970's and later) pinball they haven't changed much in basic functionality. There are 6 components that make up a pinball.
1. MPU - Brains of the pin, contains the ROM image with all the game logic.
2. Solenoid control board - Controls firing of the 10 or so coils in the playfield (pop bumpers, sling shots, drop targets, etc.)
3. Lamp matrix board - controls the lamps through a matrix configuration to limit the amount of IO lines required by the MPU
4. Power Supply - self explanitory, except you need multiple voltages, typical 12v, 5v for the logic boards and higher votlages (24 +) for the solenoids.
5. Switch Matrix - Again the input switches throughout the playfield that tell the MPU where the ball is, and again this is matrixed to conserve IO lines on the MPU
6. Playfield - this is were I believe the hardest part of building the pin is. At least getting it to work right and honestly getting the game flow to work correctly. You can't just throw stuff out there on the playfield with out some thought as to how fast or slow or technically challenging you want your game play to be.
I actually have most of this built or scavanged from my parts bin, I just need the time to start putting it together and I have yet to decide the best way to set up a temporary playfield to test the physics and game play, that allows me to move things around, yet will stand up to being hit by a 1 1/16" ball bearing.
I definately plan to take lots of pics and will put them up on my site for anyone interested, but I don't know when I'm actually going to be able to start it as I have just received a Gameplan Foxy Lady cocktail that needs some love.
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