# Episode 359: Anthony van Winkle of Paradigm Tilt

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-04-06  
**Duration:** 31m 39s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-359-anthony-van-winkle-of-paradigm-tilt/

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## Analysis

Anthony Van Winkle of Paradigm Tilt discusses his homebrew pinball journey, from creating a Mass Effect 2 custom game on a Game of Thrones machine to developing Swords of Vengeance, a conversion kit upgrade for the rare System 11 game Swords of Fury. He emphasizes the supportive homebrew community, his use of the Mission Pinball Framework, collaboration with artists and composers, and the technical challenges of System 11 conversion work with FAST Pinball's retro platform.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Mass Effect pinball machine was built using Game of Thrones playfield as the base framework, with custom artwork, code, and assets extracted from the video game — _Anthony describes his creative process: 'I had a Game of Thrones machine that I could use for prototyping... I had all of the music, all of the dialogue that was recorded for the game... I could take a screenshot or record some gameplay.'_
- [HIGH] Swords of Vengeance kit installation takes less than 15 minutes and is fully reversible — _Anthony states: 'each swap took less than 15 minutes' after testing the installation himself, and describes the process as straightforward connector swapping with labeled cables._
- [HIGH] The homebrew pinball community is highly collaborative and supportive, with no gatekeeping around shared knowledge — _Anthony: 'There's no protectiveness. There's no concern that somebody is going to steal your idea or steal your game. So if somebody has a question... Everybody who's been there is more than happy to help because it's all about getting more pinball into the world.'_
- [HIGH] Anthony contributed enhancements to Mission Pinball Framework to support functionality his projects needed — _Anthony explains: 'piece by piece I started incrementing the functionality of MPF and adding new features... I became a contributor and I started working with the MPF folks, with Brian and Jan and Quinn'_
- [HIGH] FAST Pinball (local to Seattle area) recruited Anthony to help develop MPF support for their retro platform targeting System 11 games — _Anthony: 'Aaron at Fast Pinball reached out to me saying, hey, we're working on this new system to support older games. Can you help out with the MPF side of things?'_
- [HIGH] Swords of Fury was selected for the Swords of Vengeance kit project because it has minimal existing rules depth but excellent playfield design — _Anthony analyzes: 'What do people not like about it? It takes you five minutes to learn the rules, and then you just do multiball over and over and over again... It's a great play field, it's a great layout, but not a lot of depth.'_
- [HIGH] Swords of Vengeance features original artwork by three different artists and an original soundtrack by composer Amy Waters using analog synth hardware — _Anthony lists collaborators: 'Kassari... the environment artist... Lorena... creatures and all the different monsters and such are by Yen Chu Lau... The composer is Amy Waters, who does primarily synth covers... all these different hardware synthesizers'_
- [HIGH] Anthony hand-cut the playfield for his Mass Effect machine using carbon copy paper tracing and a hand router before later acquiring a CNC machine — _Anthony describes the process: 'Mass Effect was cut by hand. I printed up the layout on paper, and I got some carbon copy paper and traced it onto the wood, got my little hand router, cut it out, three play field iterations'_

### Notable Quotes

> "If nobody else did it, then I guess it's up to me."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, early in conversation
> _Reflects his philosophy of taking initiative to create Mass Effect pinball when he realized no official version existed_

> "There's no protectiveness. There's no concern that somebody is going to steal your idea or steal your game. So if somebody has a question, everybody who's been there is more than happy to help because it's all about getting more pinball into the world."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, discussing homebrew community
> _Captures the collaborative ethos distinguishing the homebrew community from commercial competition_

> "I saw how beautiful it was and how complete and perfectly honed it was. I was like, all right, it is possible. If Mark can build this, I can build Mass Effect."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, discussing Mark's Nightmare Before Christmas
> _Illustrates how homebrew inspiration from other builders motivated him to continue his own ambitious project_

> "The biggest challenge with this one was that it all original... I am not an artist. I am not a composer. I'm not going to attempt to make these illustrations myself."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, discussing Swords of Vengeance challenges
> _Explains the shift in complexity from Mass Effect (licensed assets available) to Swords of Vengeance (original creation requiring collaboration)_

> "Swords of Fury, there is no story... so as I, okay, I can make a story out of that. I can come up with the backstory of what happened in Swords of Fury, take that into the future with Swords of Vengeance."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, explaining Swords of Vengeance concept
> _Shows creative problem-solving: treating the original game's minimal narrative as a blank canvas for expansion_

> "Paradigm Tilt isn't just the name of a company. It's a design philosophy. And I'm constantly considering the design tropes and cliches of pinball and trying to change the paradigm of some of them to make it into more of a modern game."
> — **Anthony Van Winkle**, closing remarks
> _Articulates his overarching design philosophy and approach to modernizing classic games_

> "It's like buying a new car by going to the auto parts store and getting them piece by piece."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, discussing homebrew cost
> _Effective analogy for the cumulative expense of homebrew machine construction_

> "Anybody who completes a homebrew machine should be front of the line for any position in the company."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, discussing homebrew as resume credential
> _Emphasizes the significance of completing a homebrew as a demonstration of commitment and skill_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Anthony Van Winkle | person | Homebrew pinball designer and software developer; founder of Paradigm Tilt; creator of Mass Effect custom pinball and Swords of Vengeance conversion kit; Mission Pinball Framework contributor |
| Paradigm Tilt | company | Anthony Van Winkle's homebrew pinball design venture; produces conversion kits and custom games; philosophy focused on modernizing pinball design tropes |
| Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) | product | Open-source, Python-based software framework for homebrew pinball; Anthony contributed enhancements; mentioned as foundational tool for games like Mass Effect |
| Mass Effect 2 | game | Video game that inspired Anthony's custom pinball machine; assets extracted from game files including music, dialogue, and artwork |
| Mass Effect Pinball | game | Custom homebrew machine by Anthony Van Winkle built on Game of Thrones playfield; features video game assets and full artwork/sound integration |
| Swords of Fury | game | Rare System 11 pinball machine from 1980s; subject of Swords of Vengeance conversion kit upgrade; features Lion Man character and sword/sorcery theme |
| Swords of Vengeance | game | Conversion kit upgrade for Swords of Fury by Paradigm Tilt; modernizes rules while maintaining playfield; features original artwork, animations, and soundtrack |
| FAST Pinball | company | Seattle-area pinball manufacturer/developer; developing retro platform for System 11 games; recruited Anthony for MPF support; connection led to Swords of Vengeance project |
| Game of Thrones Pinball | game | Commercial pinball machine used as playfield template for Anthony's Mass Effect custom build; featured dragon kickback mechanism later modified |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; interviewing Anthony Van Winkle; brings in industry context and comparison references |
| Mark (Nightmare Before Christmas creator) | person | Homebrew pinball builder of A Nightmare Before Christmas; mentor figure who inspired Anthony by demonstrating hand-built quality without CNC equipment; won Twippy Award |
| Aaron (FAST Pinball) | person | Lead contact at FAST Pinball; reached out to Anthony for MPF support on retro platform; delivered Whitewater test machine |
| Kassari | person | Character artist for Swords of Vengeance; creates traditional fantasy and comic book style artwork for protagonists Emmeron and Azrak |
| Lorena | person | Environment artist from Germany working on Swords of Vengeance; video game background; structures files with layers for parallax effects |
| Yen Chu Lau | person | Creature and monster artist from New York; concept artist on Swords of Vengeance; creating orc designs and Balorod Demon |
| Amy Waters | person | Composer for Swords of Vengeance; creates original soundtrack using analog synth hardware; specializes in synth covers and remixes |
| Scott Denisey | person | Designer who included Lion Man reference in TNA pinball as mystery award; demonstrates recognition of Swords of Fury among modern designers |
| Pinball Profile | organization | Long-running interview podcast series hosted by Jeff Teolis; this is Episode 359; focuses on pinball community figures and industry topics |
| Haggis Pinball | company | Pinball modification company mentioned for Fathom 2.0 upgrade work; parallel to Paradigm Tilt's conversion kit approach |
| Martin Robbins | person | Associated with Haggis Pinball; worked on Fathom 2.0 upgrade similar in concept to Swords of Vengeance |
| Pinside | organization | Online pinball community forum; resource for homebrew discussions and knowledge sharing |
| FunWithBonus.com | media | Website where Jeff first saw Swords of Vengeance gameplay video at Expo in October |
| Seattle | location | Anthony's home base; location of FAST Pinball; Northwest pinball community hub |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Homebrew pinball machine design and construction, Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) and open-source pinball software, Conversion kits and upgrade projects for classic pinball machines, System 11 pinball hardware and FAST Pinball retro platform, Video game IP adaptation to pinball mechanics, Homebrew community collaboration, support, and knowledge sharing
- **Secondary:** Playfield design, layout, and mechanical considerations, Original artwork, animation, and soundtrack creation for pinball, Pinball design philosophy and modernization of classic tropes

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.87) — Anthony expresses genuine passion for pinball and the homebrew community; enthusiastic about collaborators and projects; Jeff is supportive and engaged. No criticism or complaints present. Discussion celebrates creative achievement and community values.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Anthony planning ongoing video content series to document Swords of Vengeance gameplay, story, modes, mechanics, and design decisions; including dedicated video on compositional techniques for soundtrack (confidence: high) — Anthony: 'I will continue to make videos to go over the gameplay, the story, the different modes and mechanics... the soundtrack is so intricate and dynamic... It's going to take an entire YouTube video to cover all the different techniques we've implemented'
- **[community_signal]** Homebrew pinball community actively mentors and inspires new builders; experienced creators like Mark share knowledge to reduce barrier to entry (confidence: high) — Anthony credits Mark's transparency about hand-building methods (no CNC required) as critical inspiration that revitalized his Mass Effect project when he felt overwhelmed
- **[design_philosophy]** Paradigm Tilt's stated mission is to challenge and modernize pinball design tropes and clichés while preserving core mechanics (confidence: high) — Anthony: 'I'm constantly considering the design tropes and cliches of pinball and trying to change the paradigm of some of them to make it into more of a modern game'
- **[market_signal]** Conversion kits for rare classic machines represent an emerging category combining restoration economics with modern gameplay; enables bringing underutilized machines back into rotation (confidence: medium) — Anthony hopes Swords of Vengeance 'can come back into regular rotation and be something that people turn on for an engaging play' rather than holding machines 'just for nostalgia'
- **[event_signal]** Swords of Vengeance was showcased at Pinball Expo in October; Anthony plans to bring kit to multiple regional shows (California, Northwest, Expo, possibly New York) for hands-on demonstrations (confidence: high) — Anthony: 'I do not have a date on that, but I will try to get it to as many shows as possible... I do want to get it to a couple of shows in California, all the shows in the Northwest, Expo this year, possibly even New York'
- **[licensing_signal]** Video game IP licensing remains a barrier to commercial pinball adaptations; homebrew creators can work around this through fan creations but cannot commercialize licensed material (confidence: high) — Anthony on Mass Effect: 'Of course I couldn't sell it. There are so many licensing and all the voice actors and all that stuff. It's strictly a homebrew machine.' Discusses surprise that more modern games lack pinball versions, attributing it to licensing barriers
- **[market_signal]** Swords of Fury is extremely rare in the market; Anthony had only seen one in the wild before connecting with FAST Pinball; scarcity made it suitable selection for conversion kit project (confidence: high) — Anthony: 'Swords of Fury is a very uncommon game. I'd only seen it once, and that was at Expo a number of years ago. I have never seen it in the wild. I don't know anybody who owns it prior to talking to the Fast Guys.'
- **[community_signal]** FAST Pinball recruited Anthony Van Winkle, a skilled homebrew developer and MPF contributor, to support their retro platform development for System 11 games (confidence: high) — Aaron at FAST Pinball 'reached out to me saying, hey, we're working on this new system to support older games. Can you help out with the MPF side of things?'
- **[product_strategy]** Swords of Vengeance kit design strategically adds depth to shallow but mechanically sound original game; adds modern rules progression, modes, and storytelling while preserving playfield (confidence: high) — Anthony analyzed Swords of Fury: 'It takes you five minutes to learn the rules, and then you just do multiball over and over' but 'It's a great play field, it's a great layout' — kit adds modes, progression ladders, and story to utilize existing playfield structure
- **[technology_signal]** Mission Pinball Framework is being extended and adapted to support System 11 hardware through the FAST retro platform, enabling modernized rules on classic machines (confidence: high) — Anthony contributed enhancements to MPF; System 11 support required special handling of 'funky stuff' including matrix lights and AC relays; FAST delivered test machines to validate software

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## Transcript

 It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com, past episodes, downloads, and more. Or on Instagram and Twitter at pinballprofile. You can join our Facebook group. Email pinballprofile at gmail.com. And if you would like, we would love your support on Patreon, patreon.com. We're going now to the West Coast, Seattle to be specific, because joining us right now, Anthony Van Winkle of Paradigm Tilt. Hello, Anthony. Hello, Jeff. Pleasure to be here. Thank you for doing this. I saw the video, first of all, on funwithbonus.com, kind of a gameplay video of Swords of Vengeance, the sequel to Swords of Fury. It's been 20 years since we've seen what's happened to Lion Man, And now with your sequel and kit upgrade, we can see this and maybe even bring it into our own homes, too. So we'll get to that in a second. But I want to talk about Paradigm Tilt and what you've been doing because you, a self-proclaimed casual pinball player, but fascinated by the mechanics of pinball, a lot of us are. But we don't go and build or do re-themes. We enjoy what we play, but you've taken it a whole other level. Yes. I have this tendency in my life to get really obsessed with things, and it just so happened a couple of years ago I was getting into pinball as an adult for the first time, and I was really, really digging Game of Thrones and loved the play field, loved the gameplay, loved all the different strategy and decisions you could make. And at the same time, I was super into Mass Effect, the entire Mass Effect trilogy, but Mass Effect 2 most of all. And I thought, you know, Mass Effect 2, the game, the video game, has a lot of choices. It has a lot of missions. It's really a shame that nobody made a pinball game out of this because it fits perfectly. It's like, well, if nobody else did it, then I guess it's up to me. So I did some research, found the mission pinball framework as an open source solution so anybody can start making a pinball game. I had a Game of Thrones machine that I could use for prototyping. I just started piecing it together. One thing led to another, and now there's a Mass Effect pinball machine. my house. And it's gorgeous too. You've taken it to the Northwest show and maybe Portland or somewhere else in that area. I'd love to see what you've done because I've seen the videos on Paradigm Tilt and you can check them out too on YouTube, an easy subscription. You should definitely watch Anthony's videos. And the first time I looked at that, I'm like, oh, this is virtual. There's no way because the GI, the graphics, everything. No, it's a real machine. It's fantastic to look at this thing. And yeah, you can tell it's the framework of Game of Thrones, but the art, the call-outs, the video assets, you've done it all. Well, thank you. And I can't take credit for this, but one of the beauties of using Mass Effect as the theme is that everything is there. I originally play on console, but I bought a PC version of the game and cracked open all the assets. So I had all of the music, all of the dialogue that was recorded for the game. If I needed artwork, I could take a screenshot or record some gameplay. So I had everything at my disposal from the beginning. So I didn't have to hire artists. I didn't have to get voice recordings or write a script or anything. It was all there ready to go. So that allowed me to put together play field artwork and plastics, record myself playing the game to put on the screen and pull in all of the music and dialogue from the original game files. so it really feels like Mass Effect. And that's, you know, of course I couldn't sell it. There are so many licensing and all the voice actors and all that stuff. It's strictly a homebrew machine. But having all of that material available from the source made it very easy to make something that is beautiful and covered in artwork and has full video and sound and all the things that you would hope for in a game. You talked about your love for the video game and especially Mass Effect 2. I've often wondered why there haven't been more pinball machines themed after classic video games. I know we've had some in the past going way back. We had Baby Pac-Man. We had even Defender, if you could get your hands on it. Of course, there was the novelty of Joust. And let's not even talk about Super Mario Brothers. I guess Street Fighter II is another one. I mean, video games have evolved so much. I can see a Call of Duty game. I can see a Halo game. Like you say, Mass Effect. I'm surprised we're not seeing more of this. I am as well. Well, Halo is one I've thought about quite a bit because the design, I mean, what do you do in Halo? You run around and you shoot things. What do you do in pinball? You flip a ball around and you shoot things. Having different modes, having locations, all those assets, I feel like Halo would be a perfect pinball theme. And, yeah, a lot of modern games where you have different quests, you have different modes, you have these mechanics. Because video games like pinball, they primarily focus on game mechanics where you are going somewhere, hitting switches, or launching projectiles, like the pinball pretty much writes itself. So I'm also surprised. I don't know if it's just licensing or the pinball market isn't big enough yet, but hopefully we do see more of these modern titles getting that pinball adaption. Let's talk about something that's a free video game like Fortnite. How is that not a possible pinball theme? These video games outsell certainly pinball machines, and in some cases they make more money than major motion pictures. It's big business. It's a perfect fit for pinball machines, so hopefully we see more of that in the future. I agree. I mean, a lot of homebrew people will certainly take those video games and TV shows and things and make their games out of them. But, yeah, I think it's a matter of licensing. But if you can get the licensing when you're hiring your composer, when you're getting your voice actors, say, this is for the video game and related media, I think there's a huge market there. Well, maybe not a huge market, but a pinball-sized market. I think there's a big market in the pinball world for sure, Anthony. And you mentioned the homebrew community. I have not made a machine myself. I know several people in the homebrew community, and their passion is greater than most in the pinball community. It's just extremely helpful to one another. Everyone wants to see everyone succeed. It's exciting when these years and years of projects become a reality, like Mass Effect and like Swords of Vengeance, which we'll talk about in a second. What does the homebrew community mean to you? It is fantastic. It is a great home. And like you said, it is very supportive, very helpful. Because with pinball, you're talking about a 300-pound machine full of electronics and wiring and artwork. So there's no protectiveness. There's no concern that somebody is going to steal your idea or steal your game. So if somebody has a question, I'm trying to make a mode that lights these shots. I'm trying to advance a progression ladder in this way. Everybody who's been there is more than happy to help because it's all about getting more pinball into the world. So there's the forum on Pinside. There are a number of Slack communities that are great. MPF has a very robust Google forum where people post questions and give feedback on each other's projects. And then there's the shows themselves. I mean, they are geographically centralized. so it's hard to get a huge group of people because we are very spread out. But it's a rich community. People are always sharing updates, giving tips on how to bend metal or how to 3D print objects or just how to write a really cool mode code with cool light shows and stuff. So it is a fantastic community, and nobody could do this alone. I mean, the sheer scale of doing a homebrew machine, because it not just coming up with a game code and writing the modes You have artwork you have assets you have video and animations and sound sure You also have woodworking to cut your play field and build your cabinet You have electronical engineering for setting up your bumpers and your coils and flippers and wiring everything, checking your voltages, making sure you're not overloading anything and it's all safely grounded. So there's so many different aspects to it. And one of the great things about the community is people finding each other. You know, one person has a great idea for a game and wants to write out all the rules and make all the artwork for it, but they don't know how to use a soldering iron. Well, somebody else who's really good with electronics but doesn't have the eye for, you know, steaming a game, they can find each other online and they can work together to build a game. So whatever your interest is or whatever your skill set is, like, there is a place for you in the pinball community and you can help to make games. Don't you love seeing the homebrew community be embraced by the masses, too? I mean, you're not doing it for that reason. You're doing it for the passion of building this and creating something and the support within the homebrew groups. But when, you know, years ago, Keith Elwin builds Archer and all of a sudden it's his resume to get into Stern. Scott Gullix creates Legends of Valhalla and Wrath of Olympians before that. And now he's got a game mass produced by American Pinball. Ryan Ryan McQuaid. The list goes on and on of all these people that have really just done some homebrews and now look at them. Yeah, it is a calling card because of the commitment it takes. This is not an easy hobby or a cheap hobby, and homebrew is just above and beyond. So it takes years to put a game together. It costs more than a pinball machine. The analogy that I enjoy is it's like buying a new car by going to the auto parts store and getting them piece by piece. Because you do. You go to Pinball Life or you go to Marco and you order a couple of flippers and you order a pop bumper and you order some connectors and then you order some wire and you're piece by piece putting together this monstrosity. And then, of course, you realize that your play field, the shot doesn't line up, so you have to cut a new play field and move all the parts. So it is not for the faint of heart. So anybody who does complete a machine, like that is a testament not only to their love of pinball, but their drive and their commitment to finishing something because it is a large piece of work. and anybody who finishes one should be commended just on having the gumption to stick it through because there are good days and there are bad days, and there are times when nothing works and you just want to throw it all away. So, yeah, I say anybody who completes a homebrew machine should be front of the line for any position in the company. I know the first time I got my hands on a homebrew, and more than just once or twice or in a few flips, was Mark in the City who created A Nightmare Before Christmas years ago and won a Twippy Award for it, in fact. and I was just in awe of, first of all, that you built this from scratch, but also forget that. If I'm lining this up and I think you had Sopranos beside it and other games, I'm like, I could play this all day. This is a lot of fun. I mean, you as the creators know that, oh, there's more that has to go in there, but us as the players, we're like, we don't know that. We just know it's fun right now. It's only going to get better? Great. Awesome. Yeah. I have to give a huge shout out to Mark as well because I saw his game, I saw Nightmare Before Christmas at an expo a number of years ago. I was just getting started with Mass Effect, and a number of folks on the forums and on Slack had posted some of their CNC machines and their fancy welding equipment and all this stuff, and I was feeling overwhelmed. I was feeling like, I'm just a guy in an apartment trying to build a pinball game. Maybe I'm in over my head. But I went to expo, I played Nightmare Before Christmas, I talked to Mark, and he explained, like, he built it all by hand. He doesn't have a CNC machine. He doesn't have all this fancy equipment. He just stuck with it and built it by hand. And I saw how beautiful it was and how complete and perfectly honed it was. I was like, all right, it is possible. I can make this work. If Mark can build this, I can build Mass Effect. And that really reinvigorated me and inspired me to keep going and pushing through. And, yeah, Mass Effect was cut by hand. I printed up the layout on paper, and I got some carbon copy paper and traced it onto the wood, got my little hand router, cut it out, three play field iterations, and, you know, it works like a dream. I have a CNC now, so for future projects I'll be using the CNC. But, yeah, Mark really was a good resource. He was very helpful, very supportive, and got me moving forward when I thought that, you know, I didn't have all the fancy pieces necessary. He's like, no, you can do it. It is possible. And, you know, here we are. It's nice to hear that inspiration story. And I'm sure he and others have inspired others to do this. But you talk about Mass Effect and it was a Game of Thrones kind of layout. And you still have to change a lot on that. And it's not, oh, this is cutting corners. This is making it easier. I saw what Jake Danzig did with his Dukes of Hazzard re-theme of Paragon. Yeah, it's the Paragon layout, but it's completely different. the rules just like you've done with Mass Effect 2. And we're going to get into swords because that is really changing it up. But I can't even think how many hours it took you to do that first game, Mass Effect 2. Yeah, I don't want to think about it. Like you said at the beginning, I'm a pretty obsessive guy. And when I'm in it, I'm in it. So I can only imagine it was full time for a long time. Yeah. And Game of Thrones, I mean, that was definitely a mitigating factor for me because, for example, every homebrew person struggles with how am I going to build the structures that I need? Do I need a 3D printer? Do I need a vacuum form? How am I going to get this play field up and running? I go to the pinball store and I buy a set of Game of Thrones ramps and I'm done. So using the Game of Thrones layout as sort of the starting point meant for the ramps, for the diverters, for lining up the shots. I mean, I'm not a pinball architect. I don't know how wide a shot needs to be when it's this far up the play field or what the ideal angles are. So starting with that template of a game that I know shoots well, that I know has a good play field, and making some modifications. You know, I don't really enjoy the dragon kickback on Game of Thrones. It's a tiny little lane that shoots the ball right back at the flippers, and it's sort of a pain. So I turned that into an orbit loop that feeds a ball lock instead of locking balls in the ramp, which improves the speed. You know, we can whip through the orbit real quick and throw it right back at the flippers, which is still fun. But when you're shooting the center ramp and it goes down, you don't have to deal with a bunch of balls stacked up there. So little changes like that give it, you know, a different feel, and they give it a little special something that suits the game. Oh, it's a big difference for sure. I mean, I enjoy it. I think it's very satisfying to hit that shot and have it whip under the ramp and shoot straight back down. But it also means that I didn't have to build it from scratch. I didn't have to design the play field from scratch and go through iteration after iteration saying, oh, this entrance is too wide or, oh, that shot's too hard to hit. Sure, some shots are hard to hit, but if Stern's going to do a production run on this play field, I can be confident that it's going to work for my game. That brings us to Swords of Vengeance, the sequel to Swords of Fury. Lion Man is back, and we saw the video I mentioned I saw it on Fun With Bonus, and we'll link it on Pinball Profile as well. This was at Expo in October, and for some reason, either it was down or I didn't see it, because I flock to the homebrew section whenever I go to a big show like that, because that where maybe future games of tomorrow are and just different ideas and it I not saying this because I talking to you I said it on podcasts before It my favorite part of the show Now people if you have a Swords of Fury you can do this upgrade with Paradigm Tilt and get this kit to upgrade it to Swords of Vengeance. Explain how this all came about. I enjoy the open source community. I enjoy writing code and writing software. So as I was building Mass Effect, it's built on the open source mission pinball framework. and that is using a language that I understand. So when I got into Mass Effect, you know, I started with simple things, but as it got more complicated, I was like, oh, well, MPF doesn't really support this, so I'm going to make a little adjustment so that it can support it. And piece by piece I started incrementing, you know, some of the functionality of MPF and adding new features, adding more variations, because one of the things with a project like this is MPF supports everything that the people who wrote it needed to do. And here I come in and I need to do different things. Fortunately, I have the skills to extend MPF to do that. So I became a contributor and I started working with the MPF folks, with Brian and Jan and Quinn, helping to build out MPF and make it more robust and helping answer people's questions. So when the FAST team was working on their retro platform, that needs MPF support. And so I had met them. They're local to the Seattle area. So Aaron at Fast Pinball reached out to me saying, hey, we're working on this new system to support older games. Can you help out with the MPF side of things? Can you help it out so we have the hardware, but people who are working on the software need to be able to interact with these machines? And they delivered a whitewater to my house, and I started building a game based on the Harley Quinn TV show, which is another thing that I love, just as a way to interact with the retro platform to figure out what MPF needs to know, how it's going to work. And that's sort of the basis for some of the conversion kits like No Good Gophers and some of the other games that are in progress. One of the challenges with the retros is the System 11, because System 11 did a lot of funky stuff. WPC 95 and 98 are fairly modern games. They have DMDs. They have plenty of coils. But the System 11, they had a lot of hacks. They had a lot of sort of sneaky little things they did to deal with not having enough coils or not having enough addresses, you know, matrix lights, AC relays and things like that. So I was like, OK, if we're going to successfully build the retro platform to support System 11, I've got to get a System 11 game in here. And was that the first choice, Swords of Fury? We analyzed a number of different games based on how available they were, how complex they were, what we could do with them. Swords of Fury is a very uncommon game. I'd only seen it once, and that was at Expo a number of years ago. I have never seen it in the wild. I don't know anybody who owns it prior to talking to the Fast Guys. But I remember seeing it at Expo, seeing all those bridges going across, hearing the music, and just falling in love with it. And I thought, well, that's a game that I would really enjoy. And I'm a big fan of the 80s swords and sorcerer movies, like the Sorceress and Deathstalker, those types of very campy 80s movies. And Swords of Fury is exactly that. So I love the artwork. I love the theme. I love the tone. And that play field is so underutilized. I mean, those games, they didn't have a lot of rules. Yeah, so you've got all these bridges. You've got the diverters, the locks, all this fun stuff, but not really any substance to it. I mean, what do people love about Swords of Fury? They love Lion Man, and they love the soundtrack. What do people not like about it? It takes you five minutes to learn the rules, and then you just do multiball over and over and over again. So it's a great play field, it's a great layout, but not a lot of depth. So that seemed like an ideal candidate for me, because working with Game of Thrones and Mass Effect, I can take a play field and come up with new rules, new ways to go through it, turn it into a more complex game. But since this is going to be a kit project, You know, there's not going to be original artwork. You're stuck with what's on the play field. You know, you can do a different back glass and different plastics, but the core story, the core theme of the game needs to carry over. And I thought, well, Swords of Fury, there is no story. There's this artwork that you can infer a story from, but it is a blank canvas as far as who's Lion Man, what's the demon doing there, why are they fighting orcs, and all this stuff. so as I, okay, I can make a story out of that I can come up with the backstory of what happened in Swords of Fury take that into the future with Swords of Vengeance create new characters, create a new conflict and everything in Swords of Vengeance will therefore make sense with the artwork that's already on the playfield but then you have a new game with modern rules multiballs, modes, progression ladders, mini wizards all the kind of things you would expect but it still makes sense, you don't have to strip the playfield to put on a hardtop or something like that. I love this idea. I said it before, and my good buddy Martin Robbins and the team at Haggis Pinball have done an exceptional job doing something similar to this with Fathom 2.0. And you can play the original, you can play the new story. It's upgraded 40 years later. You've kind of done some similar things too without really adjusting the play field, but the rules and the animations. You've made Swords of Vengeance and now Swords of Fury a little more desirable to get. That's one of the downstream effects. We saw the same with Funhaus. When Pedretti announced Rudy's Nightmare, the retail price of a Funhaus went through the roof. So again, Swords of Fury is very rare, so I don't expect to see a huge increase in sales because the people who have them obviously love them. But it does give new life to a machine, so something that somebody might be holding on to just for nostalgia or for the occasional lion man. My hope is that those machines can come back into regular rotation and be something that people turn on for an engaging play for a night time of good pinball instead of just, oh yeah, I loved that or I loved it before and I'm holding on to it. So that is the hope. You know it's a love game when Scott Denisey puts it in TNA as one of the mystery awards. It pops up, if you look carefully, it says lion man and everyone's like, yeah. Rick and Morty as well. Rick and Morty has a call-out for Lion Man, which is just delightful. So where do we get this kit, and how hard is it to install? Your video says 20 minutes. Seriously, 20 minutes? Yeah, the installation is actually a breeze. The retro boards that Fast makes are designed specifically for this. So the process is you unplug all the cables from the MPU board, pull that out, put in the retro board, which is the same shape and has the same connectors in the same places, plug in all those connectors. Because the System 11 games use segment displays, the kit also includes a full speaker panel, just because that's the easiest. So you drop in the new speaker panel, which has the full screen display and the upgraded CPU, plug those in, switch out the Translight. It's a handful of screws. You've got to unplug everything and plug it back in. But it's totally reversible and very easy. I printed up labels to put on all the connectors, so it's very easy to know exactly which one goes where. Pop them in. I mean, I had to run some tests on the original Swords of Fury yesterday. I restored my game to the original Swords of Fury, played it for a little bit, and swapped it all back. And each swap took less than 15 minutes. Let's talk about the new game and the animations. You've created this whole story. What took you the longest? Was it coming up with the idea Was it actually putting it to the animations Was it the code itself Where are some of the struggles when doing this kind of upgrade The biggest challenge for this one was that it all original So like I said, with Mass Effect, everything I could possibly want was already there. So it was entirely on my shoulders to put it into a game. Swords of Vengeance is using original characters, original artwork and music, and everything else. So I am not an artist. I am not a composer. I'm not going to attempt to make these illustrations myself. So I have very talented artists, three different artists working on the project, one doing the primary characters, one doing the environments, and one doing the creatures and monsters and things like that that you encounter. And also a composer based out of Portland who's doing an original soundtrack on analog synth hardware inspired by the original soundtrack. So the biggest challenge at this game compared to other games is coordinating all of those efforts, thinking, okay, I have this mode that I can play it. Like all the rules are there. It does the lights. It tracks the score. I can see what's happening. What artwork do I need? What poses do these characters have to be in? What is the background going to look like? And how am I going to animate the different layers of the background to create a 3D effect? And what's the music going to sound like and how I'm going to incorporate that in? So that is a very different challenge for me, having to pull together all of these different resources and give instructions and plan out, okay, we're going to get these illustrations of the characters on this date. The environment is ready, but I need to get some additional pieces added because I want to move the camera over here. So it doesn't take that long to write a mode in MPF, and I've been doing it for years. So if I have a set of rules, I can get that up and running in an hour or so. As far as building the game, the hardware is already there. So there's no soldering, there's no planning of shots or anything like that. So really the challenge with this endeavor is bringing it all to life with call-outs and artwork and animations and all of those things because they all have to come out of my brain into an email or into a phone call with an artist and then be incorporated into the game engine as opposed to Mass Effect. It's like, oh, I need a dialogue of somebody saying this, so I go to the game like, well, these are my choices, and I pick one, and I'm done. Doing an original theme with all original artwork is a much more daunting task than taking something that already exists and just pulling the pieces you like. Well, shall we give a shout-out to some of these great animators and the composers? Absolutely. The character artist, her name is Kassari. She does traditional sort of fantasy-style artwork and a very comic book style. I love all of the characters she does. She does lots of monsters and big action and things like that. So she's doing Emmeron and Azrak, the protagonists. The environment artist, based out of Germany, is Lorena. And she's worked with video games a lot, so she knows very much how to structure things in such a way as delivering Photoshop files with layers so I can move the foreground around and do parallax effects, and that's a lot of fun. The creatures and all the different monsters and such are by Yen Chu Lau, based out of New York, and she's more of a concept artist and a prototype artist, but I'm working with her to create some orcs right now. We're working on the Balorod Demon, got some fun designs for that. And the composer is Amy Waters, who does primarily synth covers and remixes of classic movie and game soundtracks, But she's a phenomenal artist who mixes everything in analog on all these different hardware synthesizers she has and then stitches it together into loops so I can make endless levels and endless variations. And we're having a lot of fun with the soundtrack. It is Swords of Fury, hands down, but it's got a lot of texture and a lot of uniqueness that I will be covering in a future video because the soundtrack is so intricate and dynamic and layers all these different things based on different factors. It's going to take an entire YouTube video to cover all the different techniques we've implemented. And you can watch those videos again on Paradigm Tilt. What a lineup. Those women you mentioned, incredible talents for sure, and hopefully not the last we see for any of them in the pinball world. You've still got some more things to do. Where can people get this kit? The kit is not available yet. I do not have a date on that, but I will try to get it to as many shows as possible. One of the nice things about doing a kit instead of a homebrew game is that if somebody goes to the show with Swords of Fury, I can bring the kit and we're up and running. So I do want to get it to a couple of shows in California, all the shows in the Northwest, Expo this year, possibly even New York, or a couple of different ways that people can play it. I will continue to make videos to go over the gameplay, the story, the different modes and mechanics, and some of the choices I've made to change the way it's viewed as a game. I mean, Paradigm Tilt isn't just the name of a company. It's a design philosophy. And I'm constantly considering the design tropes and cliches of pinball and trying to change the paradigm of some of them to make it into more of a modern game, to make it more like a video game where you have upgrades, you have persistent saves, you have games that you can resume and focus on playing through the story instead of getting a high score, and different ways of approaching mode selection, boss modes, what is the mode, what is the goal, what strategy can the player invoke to change not just the mechanics or the rules that they're playing against, but to focus on what particular objectives they're trying for in this particular playthrough. Not just the choice of who they're playing as, but what are the rules that can change as you play, or what strategic choices can you make in the game that affect the gameplay and affect your experience. There's a lot to cover, and there's a lot of new things I'm trying with this game. Hopefully people enjoy it. And I think because Swords of Fury is so rare, it's not in the wild a lot. So, of course, this game will support taking quarters and giving out high scores and achievements and things like that. But I really am focusing on the home owner who has this machine, who after a while they will get their high scores and that will be that. But what can we do to provide a recurring experience? What can we do to give them the opportunity, even if they're not an expert player, to get to the end of the game, to see the story, to see all the different modes and experience it as though you would sit down and play through a video game instead of an arcade machine where you put in a quarter, you get three lives, and you start over every single time. Anthony, I'm really excited for what you've done so far, and I know there's more to come. Again, go to Paradigm Tilt to watch the videos and find out about updates, too. I really appreciate you coming on this program to share the news of what you've done. And I have a feeling, some way, somehow, you're going to get your hands on another System 11 game and go, hmm, what can I do with this? But for now, it's Swords of Vengeance, the sequel to Swords of Fury, and maybe you get a chance to play Mass Effect 2. Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you at a show, hopefully soon. Thank you. I appreciate you reaching out and the enthusiasm and interest you've got, and I look forward to getting the game out in people's hands and hopefully meeting you sometime. For sure. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Facebook. We're on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. And if you'd like to show your support, it would mean a lot. Go to patreon.com slash pinballprofile. I'm Jeff Teolis. The Projectionist

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 3ab0376e-4084-47d3-8fde-9201d8421e36*