Stern's Lord of the Rings pinball backglass

I wrote about a virtual pinball machine called the Ultrapin a while ago. Ultrapin was built to look like a normal pinball machine except the playfield has been replaced by a 42" screen which displays virtual bumpers, ramps, and other pinball goodies. It's a neat idea, but by making it look like a regular pinball machine, you can't help but compare it to the Real Thing and therefore find many flaws and reasons why it's not as good.

An Austrian company called TAB is taking another stab at building a better digital pinball machine. This time, they have created a very unique, modern look for the cabinet that says "I'm not your normal pinball machine!" and I think that'll help get people to try it.

The TAB Virtual Pinball Machine features tilt sensors and vibration feedback, to help recreate an exciting pinball experience. It uses a 42" plasma screen to display any one of six included games. Additional games can be downloaded to the game's internal hard drive, and you can link the machine for competitions thanks to built-in networking support.

I can't say that I've ever preferred playing a digital pinball game on the computer over a real pinball game, but something like this looks like it could be a fun addition to a collection of standard pinball machines. The ability to include weird strategy and other games in addition to standard pinball play could make it a great multi-function machine in a gameroom.

Hopefully, I'll run across one of these TAB digital pinball machines at some point and can try it out. Let me know if you've every tried one - I'm curious how well it works!

Wow - I last wrote about this pinball documentary over a year and a half ago! In the time that's passed, the creators of the documentary have finalized on the name "Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball" and have distributed the DVD to a limited set of people to generate reviews and buzz.

The documentary covers the roller-coaster ride that led to the Pinball 2000 platform -- William's last stab at staying alive in the pinball business. Only the higher-ups at Williams will ever know the answer to the mystery of why Williams pulled the plug on the brand new platform even though it launched reasonably well, but I'm sure the several pinball legends who are interviewed on the DVD have their own ideas.

Anyway, the Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball DVD is now available for pre-order for $30 but there are specials if you want to order two or more. If anyone reading this has seen the documentary, either at a pinball show or was lucky enough to actually get a preview copy, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I'm thinking this is a "must have" for a pinball enthusiast, but still would like to hear some opinions on it before I order.

It seems that everything in Las Vegas wants some kind of money put into it, whether it's a slot machine, a valet's hand, or even the mega-buck restaurants that replaced the $2.95 all-you-can-eat buffets.

Well, here's one more thing vying for your coins in Vegas: The Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame. The difference is that these machines pay-out in fun and nostalgia and compared to everything else, are pretty darned cheap to play!

The Pinball Hall of Fame (let's call it the PHoF for now) is the result of a super-collector by the name of Tim Arnold and a local pinball collecting club's efforts to create the largest displayed collection of pinball machines. The machines are maintained in perfect condition by the members of the club, under the umbrella of a non-profit organization. The majority of the machines are 1950-1970s, but machines up to the mid 1990s are included (my favorites!) The older machines are 25 cents to play and the newer machines are 50 cents. It seems that even a non-profit group of collectors can't help but to follow the unfortunate trend of increasing price-per-play of the recent years.

Campy is probably what you'd call the LV PHoF with it's decidedly "cheap" look, ranging from the surplus convention carpet on the floors to the witty hand-made signs. Even the change machines were rescued from a trash can when a casino threw them out. They do this to keep costs low and truly remain a non-profit dedicated to promoting pinball playing to everyone. Oh - and there's even a few classic video games as well, so us members of the Atari generation aren't left-out either!

So, the next time you're in Las Vegas and you want to take a break from the slots, head three miles down Tropicana Blvd. to the Pinball Hall of Fame and bask in the glory that once-was the pinball era.

I think that it would be difficult to play some machines from this vantage point and you'd probably have trouble applying any body english to control the ball, but it definitely gets high marks for being an original idea! I'd imagine that with the correct game (meaning the right setup of ramps, toys, and other typical pinball goodies) it could be pretty fun to play.

There are some videos and stuff that you can check-out at the Furminator site. Just don't ask me what all the crazy punctuation symbols are all over for...

Pat Lawlor Design, of which you might recognize the name from classic machines such as Twilight Zone, took the time to document the design process they used to create the relatively new Monopoly pinball machine. A team of just four guys worked independantly to design the machine starting in 2000.

Some interesting tidbits:

• The first (proto) machine's playfield was completely hand-wired so that they didn't have to make boards.
• The software for the Monopoly machine is over 150,000 lines of 6809 assembly which fits in a 128K EPROM.
• The first dozen production games are assembled extra carefully to ensure the processes are working. These games go to distributors for demos and must be perfect.

Overall, it's really neat to see the overall process of a machine coming together all the way up to manufacturing. Pinball machines are one of the more complex things you can design and build -- and they are largely built by hand because of the levels of customization and the low production numbers.

Great reading and photos - a huge thanks to Pat Lawlor Design for taking the time to share this with us! Be sure to read the whole thing!

I'm sure that this auction will appeal to the Star Wars geeks... er... fanatics more than your average pinball collector, but it'd be a cool thing to have for either.

The auction is for a Data East Star Wars dot matrix machine, with the usual ramps, miniature R2D2 action figures, and mode-starting light-flashing fun that you'd expect from a circa 1992 machine. There were 10,400 of these machines manufactured world-wide, which is not a huge number, and that combined with the Star Wars theme makes them pretty interesting.

However, get the actor who played the original Darth Vader to autograph the machine, and you've got a serious collector's piece. Somehow, the seller got Dave Prowse to commit to signing any message you want on the machine when you win the auction. I guess it's not what you know, but who you know huh?

The machine has been given a complete cleaning and overhaul to replace the broken plastics, refresh the rubbers, and polish everything up nicely, ready for you to add to your collection. Oh, but there's one thing that might be a stumbling block. The machine is for sale on Ebay UK, so unless you're made of money and can pay to ship a 300+ machine (plus crating) or you live in the UK, this will just be the stuff dreams are made of.

Of course, I have to say that Indiana Jones beats a Star Wars pinball any day, but I'm somewhat biased.

Thanks got coolest-gadgets for finding this.

Demoed at the recent Chicago Pinball Expo, the new UltraPin Digital Pinball Machine by BMI Gaming aims to replace the playfield on your pinball machines with a 32 inch flat panel display. Gone will be the famous silver ball, quirky plastic toys, popping solenoids, under-field tunnels, and pop-bumpers -- all replaced with a virtual (some would say, "video game") representation on a monitor.

BMI has designed the machine with sensors which supposedly allow you to bump and finesse the machine just like a real pinball machine (note that I use the word "real" regardless of whether this technology becomes pervasive or not). It comes pre-loaded with emulations of several popular and/or classic machines such as Attack From Mars and Medieval Madness, both great machines IMO.

I'm unsure how I feel about this virtualization of everything. For example, those virtual "roller coaster" simulators some people claiming to be "the future of roller coasters" are complete junk IMO. A virtual pinball machine? That is more questionable. I suppose that if the simulation is done correctly and completely accurately, the gameplay could be OK. Having the ability to play several machines in one cabinet is awesome (much like a MAME cab). But there's just something missing in the lack of physical movement and depth of a real playfield with all of its gizmos and toys.

I'll wait to actually try one, which will be difficult as there are no arcades left in my part of town any longer, but maybe I'll run across an UltraPin on a trip sometime. At first, I didn't like the sound of the Pinball 2000 platform either, but it turned-out OK if a bit short-lived. At $6000, they are a bit more than a traditional pinball machine, but maybe with the lack of maintenance, they'll actually be possible to find in some arcades.

This video shows glimpses of the assembly process of a pinball machine at the Stern Pinball factory. Initially, it starts-out with weird effects that look like something out of a Jefferson Airplane video, but it does get around to showing a bit of the harness and testing process.

If you've got a spare pinball playfield sitting around and need a coffee table, this project is for you. I'll even go out on a limb and state that if you're into pinball, this project is probably for you also!

Using an old-stock stuffed pinball playfield, this clever crafter built a frame which holds the playfield and a piece of glass to create the basic table design. Following that, the table was wired so that the playfield toys and gadgets would light-up, which provides a nice ambient lighting in the room.

This is a project you could even build with a classic playfield as it remains protected under the glass and will experience no wear since the table is not a functional game. It's also a great way to use some of the playfields that nobody seems to want because the games that used them were pretty lame.

I think it would be pretty cool to wire-up a simple microcontroller to blink the lights randomly. I'd put it on a switch so you could select either on, off, or blinking since having your coffee table flashing while watching TV might be rather distracting. It could also be fun to mount the internal playfield at a slight angle and rig it so you can launch a ball (plunger or solenoid) which would just bounce randomly down to the drain.

What a great idea - it's functional, looks really neat (even to non-pinheads), is easy to build, and fairly cheap. Now, I just need a spare playfield that's still wired with its goodies...