Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New direction for homebrew pinball

I know my last goal was to go old school and create an all mechanical pinball (might still do that one day), but I need to jump ahead at least a little bit.  So I'm going to move ahead with using the door actuators for powering the flippers, I've got some old used flipper bushings, still have my new yellow flipper bats, I believe I have a couple pawls to connect the bats to the actuators, a spare ball, a full plunger assembly.  In fact other than having an automated ball trowl, and perhaps a few posts to stick onto the playfield, I believe I have all the parts I need to get a semi-working pinball going.

Here's my idea.. Crunching some numbers, I believe I can get a working full-size prototype starter kit (safe kid version running off 12v) for roughly $100 cost, and an "adult" 48V version for about $200.

My idea is "pinball in a box".  Basically in the kit you would get a basic playfield layout (talking flippers, couple side bumpers, an outlane guide, shooter lane), would end up looking something like the default starter playfield in future pinball (but in physical form):
No scoring, no ramps, no layout, just a blank canvas with the very basics to get you started.  I would include a template where you would drill holes for posts, the flippers, the outlanes, and you would simply cut/drill a piece of plywood you pickup at your local hardware store (save the cost of shipping heavy wood if it's something you can buy local, though I might sell pre-made designs at some point).

This could be perfect for the hobbyist that just wants to mess around, but the kid-friendly version would be really neat.  A parent (particularly one that is already in the pinball hobby) could buy this kit, let his kid layout a pinball like he wants, draw stuff on the playfield, then the parent helps clearcoat it.  I can't imagine what better gift you could give a kid than letting him design his own pinball.  Problem that exists right now, nothing like this exists.  The closest you could get to this point is finding an older pinball that has a scorched playfield (but functioning), but even then your looking at between $400-$600 easily.

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