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Entirely Mechanical Pinball machine/game

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JonnyBoy:

Sorry for the crosspost. I wasn't sure if the pinball forum would be entirely suited for my question because I am not restoring an actual pin.

I haven't been around in a few years, school has been getting the best of me. My arcade machine helped me get into the Industrial Design program at UC. We've been assigned a new project, in particular a mechanical toy.

I was considering making an entirely mechanical pinball machine. I have access to the following.

Large format plotters
CNC Machines
Lazer Cutters
Powder Printers
An entire shop full of woodworking and metalworking tools.

I've never really been a pinball guy, but I've always wanted to restore one just for the fun of it. But for the time being, this project will keep me busy. The unit would be a tabletop unit, nice and small. I can't use any electronics, that's outside of the scope of this project.

My question to you pinball fans is, what kind of features can be implemented that are strictly mechanical? I was thinking of having a hybrid pinball/labyrinth game with a tilt-able table or something. This is kind of like a brainstorming thread.

Mods, if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it where it belongs.

I appreciate your time guys.

Also, it doesn't have to necessarily be a pin, just a mechanical game of sorts. Pinball is kind of my launching point.

Cakemeister:

Maybe a pachinko machine would be more appropriate to your project.


JonnyBoy:

I was thinking of a pachinko machine. I'm open to any kind of suggestions. I was thinking of a vertically oriented "maze" that you have to move around the ball, using a turn crank.

SavannahLion:


--- Quote from: JonnyBoy on January 14, 2009, 05:57:05 pm ---I was thinking of a pachinko machine. I'm open to any kind of suggestions. I was thinking of a vertically oriented "maze" that you have to move around the ball, using a turn crank.

--- End quote ---

At one of the malls, they have this indoor playground. One of my sons favorite contraptions is this vertically mounted wheel (about 18" in diameter) that has this sort of pseudo-maze (he's 16 months, so the maze is a single wiggly 'Y' shaped path). Inside is a couple of colored marble-like balls. The entire thing is covered by a sheet of plexi and trimmed accordingly. Then the whole thing rotates on an axis. Basically, you spin this big wheel to get the balls to travel the maze.

If you think about it, this can get complex. You can have "dead zones", pits, branching paths. With multiple layers of plexi, you can double or even a triple layer maze. You can attach mechanical "logic" such as one way trap doors where the wheel needs to be in a certain position and the ball on a certain side before the ball can pass.

With a little imagination, you could even make it "coin" operated where the user could drop in a quarter and it's the quarter that needs to travel the maze. There are trapped quarters that can be released for a "prize" and so on.

I don't know. I think it's a cool little toy that can keep a 16 month old occupied for about an thirty minutes so I figure an adult version might accomplish the same.

JonnyBoy:

I think I saw something like that at IKEA once. I think it could be pretty cool, considering I do have access to both lazer cutters for plexi and CNC machines. I could make the toolpaths and have the maze get milled into the wood. I can also make it so that you can switch out various mazes with ease, have an easier one for the kids and a more difficult one for the adults.

Keep the ideas rolling, I like where this is going.

Thanks

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