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Real Pinball
A kit based pinball machine for you to build
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<blockquote data-quote="pinballkits" data-source="post: 47763" data-attributes="member: 1923"><p>Hi all,</p><p></p><p>Thanks for the replies. We'll try to answer some additional questions.</p><p></p><p>Prototype</p><p>It's in construction at the moment and we too would hold out on buying one until we saw pictures and a video. No point ordering something you've never seen working.</p><p></p><p>Glass</p><p>Sounds like it's mandatory. We were trying to keep the costs down with the kit. We may have to offer this as an option. Yes, there is the noise and dirt factor that glass can reduce.</p><p></p><p>Size</p><p>The table will be a standard table size based on the Gottlieb 70's/80's EM machines.</p><p></p><p>The Look</p><p>It looks like a real pinball table, it just doesn't have the cabinet. We've done this because we want to keep costs down and because if you're really serious you could use a real cabinet and mount the table into it.</p><p></p><p>Mechanical Assembly</p><p>The nuts, bolts, screws, playfield assembly is done easily with a screwdriver and a spanner. There won't be any drilling. That's all done. Just mount the components.</p><p></p><p>Electrical Assembly</p><p>We're still discussing whether to supply a pre-made wiring harness with screw-in terminals, or a pre-made harness with soldered terminals, or a pre-made harness with connectors. There are some things to consider here. 1) not everyone can solder, 2) screwing wires to terminal blocks is easy but time consuming, 3) using connectors is even easier but without a locking mechanism they could fall out. Our prototype is hand soldered at the moment of course but we want to make this simple for the end user. We're probably going to select option 3. This option also means there can be minimal mistakes when you connect electrical components. There's nothing worse than building something and it doesn't work. Connectors would mostly eliminate this problem. Naturally each kit would be tested before leaving us.</p><p></p><p>Game Play and Computer Software</p><p>This is not based on a PC. This is a stand-alone system. There is nothing to code, we do that for you and the system comes pre-programmed. Plug in the micro-controller and switch it on. We're basing the system on the popular Arduino open-source electronic platform. Why? Well there are a few reasons. Firstly, there's a lot of code available at the moment to speed development. Secondly, a lot of people can program using this micro-controller. Thirdly, we're looking at releasing the source code so you can tinker, modify and share your game/scoring with others. We think this is important. Rather than just building the game and playing it, we think updating it, changing it, or making the game-play better is also half the fun. It's also fun to share with the rest of the pinball community. It also makes the game more accessible to those that never thought of building a pinball machine but have a love of the Arduino. So, the electronics are made in-house based around this system. We do not want to use existing pinball electronics or systems from a third party supplier. We want to keep everything in-house.</p><p></p><p>Power</p><p>A sealed 110-240 volt switch mode power supply is supplied with the kit.</p><p></p><p>Customer designed play-fields</p><p>No, we are not making individual play-fields for customers. Yes, we will accept designs from customers and select a design that we think will be popular. We'll probably open it up for discussion and feedback and only then put it into production. We will design a production version for each game and test before releasing it.</p><p></p><p>Deposit?</p><p>We're not sure what you mean by this. We're not taking deposits at all. When the kit is ready to ship only then will we take orders and payment.</p><p></p><p>An Atari?</p><p>No, we're not making anything like that. We're using mostly real parts (pop bumpers, stand-offs, rubber, flippers). It's also a full size table.</p><p></p><p>Table layouts based on existing machines</p><p>We know that the artwork is copyright and we're investigating whether game-play or play-field layout is also copyright. However, we're in two minds here about existing layouts assuming there are no copyright issues. We could design the kit to be just like a real layout. Let's pick Playboy for example. Everyone knows that machine. 1) Why would we want to make Playboy when the actual machine already exists? People could simply buy a second hand version. 2) If we made Playboy people would compare it to the real one and pick differences between the table layout, the artwork, the materials used. Discussions would descend into the usual level of negative comment. 3) Perhaps people would buy a kit version of Playboy because the real one is too expensive or not available. 4) Why try to make an existing machine when we can make something completely new and perhaps a lot more fun and challenging to play? As you can see there are a number of things to think about. We're concerned that negativity towards a 'clone' of an existing table would hurt what we're trying to achieve here, which is, to make a pinball machine at home accessible, fun to build and great to play.</p><p></p><p>Our prototype play field</p><p>We've incorporated elements from Firepower, Close Encounters and Duotron into the prototype. This is more a proof of concept rather than a final design. No doubt there will be people out there that have their favourite machine, or like elements of that machine. A captive ball, a rotary target, spinners etc. However as we first mentioned we'd like to base our first kit on the classic tables from the 70's and 80's. Given the modern electronics we have now, we can build a machine that has a more complex scoring system, is more interesting to play and has more flashing lights!</p><p></p><p>By the way, we're based in Sydney, Australia and have no connection with any past or present pinball companies. We have done a lot of electronic/interfacing projects before on complex avionics systems and we're pretty excited to bring this one to production. Yes, we like aircraft, but we like pinballs even more!</p><p></p><p>Thanks for all of the comments so far.</p><p></p><p>Regards,</p><p>The Pinball Kits Team</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pinballkits, post: 47763, member: 1923"] Hi all, Thanks for the replies. We'll try to answer some additional questions. Prototype It's in construction at the moment and we too would hold out on buying one until we saw pictures and a video. No point ordering something you've never seen working. Glass Sounds like it's mandatory. We were trying to keep the costs down with the kit. We may have to offer this as an option. Yes, there is the noise and dirt factor that glass can reduce. Size The table will be a standard table size based on the Gottlieb 70's/80's EM machines. The Look It looks like a real pinball table, it just doesn't have the cabinet. We've done this because we want to keep costs down and because if you're really serious you could use a real cabinet and mount the table into it. Mechanical Assembly The nuts, bolts, screws, playfield assembly is done easily with a screwdriver and a spanner. There won't be any drilling. That's all done. Just mount the components. Electrical Assembly We're still discussing whether to supply a pre-made wiring harness with screw-in terminals, or a pre-made harness with soldered terminals, or a pre-made harness with connectors. There are some things to consider here. 1) not everyone can solder, 2) screwing wires to terminal blocks is easy but time consuming, 3) using connectors is even easier but without a locking mechanism they could fall out. Our prototype is hand soldered at the moment of course but we want to make this simple for the end user. We're probably going to select option 3. This option also means there can be minimal mistakes when you connect electrical components. There's nothing worse than building something and it doesn't work. Connectors would mostly eliminate this problem. Naturally each kit would be tested before leaving us. Game Play and Computer Software This is not based on a PC. This is a stand-alone system. There is nothing to code, we do that for you and the system comes pre-programmed. Plug in the micro-controller and switch it on. We're basing the system on the popular Arduino open-source electronic platform. Why? Well there are a few reasons. Firstly, there's a lot of code available at the moment to speed development. Secondly, a lot of people can program using this micro-controller. Thirdly, we're looking at releasing the source code so you can tinker, modify and share your game/scoring with others. We think this is important. Rather than just building the game and playing it, we think updating it, changing it, or making the game-play better is also half the fun. It's also fun to share with the rest of the pinball community. It also makes the game more accessible to those that never thought of building a pinball machine but have a love of the Arduino. So, the electronics are made in-house based around this system. We do not want to use existing pinball electronics or systems from a third party supplier. We want to keep everything in-house. Power A sealed 110-240 volt switch mode power supply is supplied with the kit. Customer designed play-fields No, we are not making individual play-fields for customers. Yes, we will accept designs from customers and select a design that we think will be popular. We'll probably open it up for discussion and feedback and only then put it into production. We will design a production version for each game and test before releasing it. Deposit? We're not sure what you mean by this. We're not taking deposits at all. When the kit is ready to ship only then will we take orders and payment. An Atari? No, we're not making anything like that. We're using mostly real parts (pop bumpers, stand-offs, rubber, flippers). It's also a full size table. Table layouts based on existing machines We know that the artwork is copyright and we're investigating whether game-play or play-field layout is also copyright. However, we're in two minds here about existing layouts assuming there are no copyright issues. We could design the kit to be just like a real layout. Let's pick Playboy for example. Everyone knows that machine. 1) Why would we want to make Playboy when the actual machine already exists? People could simply buy a second hand version. 2) If we made Playboy people would compare it to the real one and pick differences between the table layout, the artwork, the materials used. Discussions would descend into the usual level of negative comment. 3) Perhaps people would buy a kit version of Playboy because the real one is too expensive or not available. 4) Why try to make an existing machine when we can make something completely new and perhaps a lot more fun and challenging to play? As you can see there are a number of things to think about. We're concerned that negativity towards a 'clone' of an existing table would hurt what we're trying to achieve here, which is, to make a pinball machine at home accessible, fun to build and great to play. Our prototype play field We've incorporated elements from Firepower, Close Encounters and Duotron into the prototype. This is more a proof of concept rather than a final design. No doubt there will be people out there that have their favourite machine, or like elements of that machine. A captive ball, a rotary target, spinners etc. However as we first mentioned we'd like to base our first kit on the classic tables from the 70's and 80's. Given the modern electronics we have now, we can build a machine that has a more complex scoring system, is more interesting to play and has more flashing lights! By the way, we're based in Sydney, Australia and have no connection with any past or present pinball companies. We have done a lot of electronic/interfacing projects before on complex avionics systems and we're pretty excited to bring this one to production. Yes, we like aircraft, but we like pinballs even more! Thanks for all of the comments so far. Regards, The Pinball Kits Team [/QUOTE]
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