# Homebrew Showcase: Spaceballs the Pinball Machine by John Marsh

**Source:** Marco Pinball  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-11-07  
**Duration:** 15m 17s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zlked1NTf0

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## Analysis

Marco Pinball showcases Spaceballs, a homebrew pinball machine designed by John Marsh, who passed away earlier in 2025. The game is on a tribute tour after being displayed at Southern Fry Gaming Expo, where Marsh's family attended to celebrate his legacy. The video features gameplay demonstration and discussion of the machine's innovative features, including 3D-printed ramps and a moving Winnebago tractor beam toy.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] John Marsh passed away earlier in 2025 — _Marco Pinball host, opening statement about the machine being a tribute_
- [MEDIUM] Spaceballs was designed approximately 6-7 years ago — _Marco host estimating the design timeline during gameplay_
- [HIGH] John Marsh had wanted to bring Spaceballs to Expo but the timing hadn't worked out — _Marco host explaining motivation for tribute tour_
- [HIGH] The machine uses 3D-printed ramp pieces designed by Marsh — _Marco host during gameplay walkthrough of mechanical features_
- [HIGH] John Marsh was working on another game with someone named Micor in Portland at the time of his passing — _Marco host discussing ongoing projects_
- [HIGH] The game runs on Mission Pinball Framework with a nano platform/FAST hardware — _Marco host technical discussion during gameplay_
- [HIGH] Marsh's wife Carrie and daughter Caitlyn attended Southern Fry Gaming Expo to celebrate his life — _Marco host opening remarks about family attendance_
- [HIGH] Marco met John Marsh through online interactions and Marsh appreciated how he handled online drama — _Marco host personal anecdote about their meeting_

### Notable Quotes

> "This game has been um in the form that it has for a really long time. Like John was like an anchor in the homebrew community. He's sorely missed, but I feel like bring this game out. We're celebrating what he created here."
> — **Marco Pinball host**, ~2:30
> _Core statement about Marsh's role in homebrew community and purpose of tribute tour_

> "I think that given a little time, um that might be kind of a fun homage as well, you know, cuz again, like I mean, knowing John well, he would not want us to not make pinball."
> — **Marco Pinball host**, ~6:50
> _Host expressing intention to continue Marsh's unfinished work in his spirit_

> "I would love to see like a Space Balls like pinball machine actually get made like commercially, you know."
> — **Marco Pinball host**, ~9:30
> _Expression of hope for commercial Space Balls pinball game based on Marsh's homebrew_

> "I spent more time building and making it than actually playing."
> — **Marco Pinball host (about himself)**, ~11:00
> _Reflection on homebrew builder mentality and time investment_

> "John, we love you, man."
> — **Marco Pinball host**, ~end of video
> _Closing tribute to John Marsh_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| John Marsh | person | Homebrew pinball designer who created Spaceballs; passed away in 2025; described as anchor figure in homebrew community |
| Marco Pinball | person/content_creator | Video host showcasing the homebrew machine; knew John Marsh personally |
| Carrie Marsh | person | John Marsh's wife; attended Southern Fry Gaming Expo; trusted the game to be displayed on tribute tour |
| Caitlyn Marsh | person | John Marsh's daughter; attended Southern Fry Gaming Expo |
| Ernie | person | Transported Spaceballs machine to Southern Fry Gaming Expo |
| Micor | person | Homebrew designer in Portland collaborating with John Marsh on an unfinished game |
| Roger Sharp | person | Referenced humorously during gameplay; appears to be an industry figure or show attendee |
| Isaiah | person | Pinball player brought in at end of video to demonstrate advanced gameplay |
| Spaceballs | game | Homebrew pinball machine designed by John Marsh based on Spaceballs film; features 3D-printed ramps and Winnebago tractor beam toy |
| Southern Fry Gaming Expo | event | Gaming exposition where Spaceballs was displayed as tribute; location where Marsh's family spent time together |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major pinball industry show; Spaceballs being brought there as part of tribute tour |
| Mission Pinball Framework | technology | Game engine software powering Spaceballs; hardware-agnostic platform supporting multiple pinball hardware platforms |
| FAST | product | Nano hardware platform running Spaceballs |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Homebrew pinball community, John Marsh legacy and tribute, Spaceballs homebrew machine design and mechanics
- **Secondary:** 3D printing in homebrew pinball, Mission Pinball Framework and hardware abstraction, Commercial pinball licensing opportunities, Homebrew builder motivations and community bonds
- **Mentioned:** Pinball Expo and show culture

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Predominantly celebratory and emotional tone throughout, honoring John Marsh's memory and contributions to homebrew community. Genuine warmth about friendship and shared creative passion. Some melancholy around his passing but framed positively as tribute and legacy continuation.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Homebrew community organizing tribute tour for deceased designer John Marsh, bringing his Spaceballs machine to gaming expos with family participation (confidence: high) — Entire video structure; explicit family involvement; commitment to display at multiple expos
- **[design_innovation]** Spaceballs machine features custom 3D-printed ramp pieces designed to achieve specific ball flow and physics (confidence: high) — Marco host: 'a lot of the ramp pieces are all 3D printed' and discussion of how Marsh designed ramps for specific shot behavior
- **[design_innovation]** Spaceballs features moving Winnebago tractor beam toy that activates during multiball, pulling up from underneath playfield (confidence: high) — Detailed gameplay discussion of tractor beam mechanism and visible activation during multiball sequence
- **[technology_signal]** Spaceballs uses Mission Pinball Framework for game engine with hardware abstraction, allowing support across multiple platforms (FAST, Cobra, others) (confidence: high) — Marco host technical explanation: 'Mission pinball framework was designed to say let the hardware guys compete'
- **[content_signal]** Marco Pinball producing video content showcasing homebrew machines at Pinball Expo, part of broader homebrew coverage trend (confidence: high) — Video format and context within expo coverage; host mentions '90-minute homebrew talk' earlier in day
- **[licensing_signal]** Host expressing interest in seeing commercial Space Balls pinball machine developed, suggesting IP licensing potential (confidence: medium) — Host quote: 'I would love to see like a Space Balls like pinball machine actually get made like commercially'
- **[rumor_hype]** John Marsh was working on another pinball game with designer Micor in Portland at time of passing; status of continuation uncertain (confidence: medium) — Marco host discussing how they're figuring out how to pick up unfinished project and whether it should be continued

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## Transcript

We are all on. Yeah.
All right. So, uh, this one's going to be full of feels. Okay. So, we're looking at Space Balls, the pinball machine right now. This was designed by my dear friend John Marsh, who passed away earlier this year. And, uh, it's on like a like we call it like a tribute tour. Okay. We were uh we were blessed to be able to take it down to the Southern Fraud Gaming Expo where he and his wife Carrie used to spend their like weekend away from the kids at that show. And so when it came down to like, you know, how do we celebrate and commemorate his his his life, it was uh it was very fortunate for us to that Carrie was willing to like let Ernie come and pick the game up and bring it out there. And not only that, but like Carrie and her daughter Caitlyn came out to the show. And so it was just it was so fantastic to be able to be there. They got to hang out with all of John's. super nerdy friends and just kind of share the love, you know, and I think that it was a it's, you know, the passing of anybody in your life is just is rough, but the fact that like we got to have a positive celebrational kind of thing around pinball and just be there was fantastic. And I think that like one of the things that we we reached out to say, you know, can we bring Space Balls to Expo? Because I knew that John had wanted to bring this game to expo and just we hadn't [music] got around to it yet. The timing didn't work out yet. So that's why this game is here. This game has been um in the form that it has for a really long time. Like John was like an Chris Ancarrow in the homebrew community. He's sorely missed, but I feel like bring this game out. We're celebrating what he created here. So Space Balls, the pinball machine. I mean, that's what we're looking at here. So have your first experience with this. Let me dive in.
When was this created?
Oh my god. I need to start doing some research before I do this.
How many years ago?
I think it was like probably like seven seven years. Six, seven years ago. I mean, it's been a while for sure.
All right.
All right.
So, dive in.
Let's play some space balls. You know, I it's it's it's not easy to build these things.
No, it's not. And actually, like John and I met through the process of like, you know, just existing on the internet and me, you know, uh, online drama, all that stuff. and he was originally going to make his own board set and he's like he reached out and said, "Hey, I watched the way you handled some of this online drama and I appreciated the way you did it, dude. I'm in. I want to work with you guys." And I mean, that's that's that community Chris Ancarrow way way way back is like just be around good people, you know, and John was always that in our community. And so, like I said, like being able to bring this game out and see people come out and be like, "Oh my god, you brought it." Um, is fantastic. So, what he did in this game that's super cool is like he's got the whole like um like different uh a lot of the ramp pieces are all 3D printed.
So, being able to to create things that are specifically going to shoot the way that he wants is really what this was all about. So,
it's it's it's great to be able to prototype and
and build.
Yeah.
Oh, look at me being terrible. Um
but I mean like like these different shots in here, you're you know, if I remember right, you're going to be shooting up underneath here. It's going to load balls up in here and eventually you're going to get the tractor beam uh loaded up with the uh Winnebago like moving up underneath the playfield here.
Oh wow.
So it's like using physical pieces to tell the story.
Um is it's super fun. You know,
man, it's so much work that goes into
you know I I think it's like that's one of the things that like John and I always bonded around was like, you know, we love our families, we love our kids and stuff like that, but sometimes we just need something to to work on. We need,
you know, and I think that that's what homebrew pinball is for. so much. It's a little bit of an escape. I think that uh I think our spouses love the fact that we're nerding out on pinball together. So, it's it's never it's never like what's my husband doing off on this trip somewhere. It's like oh, I know exactly what he's doing. He would be doing this
building things.
Building and creating.
I cannot hit that shot. THERE WE GO.
ALMOST.
OH, HE GOES UP.
YEAH. SO, it'll loop up over and then lock them up in there so you get that timing just right.
Where's Roger Sharp when you need him?
I know. He's like, "I've seen way too much homebrew today. I need a break. Show me a commercial game right now."
Look at that. Look at that. Hello, my baby. Hello.
Oh yeah. See in the back? See the character moving back and forth? Yeah. It's actually moving in and out in the background. I don't know if this if the camera even picked that up.
You guys see that?
Oh, man.
So, the end of your game, it's like, you know, wrapped it up there.
You want to give it a shot?
Dude, let's do it. Here, take that.
All right.
Wow. And this is pretty much a finished game.
Yeah. I mean, it is a finished game. You okay,
dude? I'm good, man. This is like This is a tribute to a great friend. Oh,
that's John messing with me right now.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, you love this. Have fun.
And it's such a great theme that it's just so beloved, the theme. Was there any other games that John worked on? So, he was actually working on a game with our friend Micor out in Portland um at the time of his passing and stuff. And so, that's one of the things we're trying to figure out like, you know, how do we pick that up and carry on with it and stuff like that. I mean, obviously like the idea of picking up a game like that is emotional, you know. Um but at the same time, I think that given a little time, um that might be kind of a fun homage as well, you know, cuz again, like I mean, knowing John Well, he would not want us to not make pinball. And if he was a reason that we didn't make pinball, he would feel like crap about that, you know.
And he wouldn't want you to not play his game. That's why he made a game.
Yeah. Oh, I got it up there, but it came back down.
The most pinball.
You got one.
So, I think that it should start.
Almost.
Dude, this is the most pinball I've played since being at the show. It's been like, let's just work on pinball and build pinball and h So good. This is special right here,
you know. And it's funny, too, that people walk up to this game and they're like, "Space Balls? Oh my gosh." And I mean, just just the poetic like, you know, awfulness of it all. Like just after his passing, they decide they're going to make a Space Balls, too. And I I I I like to think that like John got wherever he was going was like, "Hey, I got one request, like make this movie, you know?" So, I would love to see like a Space Balls like pinball machine actually get made like commercially, you know, and um you know, it is it is a fun property. It is something a lot of people love and and it's uh Yeah,
I can't believe I'm looking at a Space Balls pinball machine though right now.
Yeah, it's uh Man, I am not very good at pinball anymore.
If it's not like crimping wire, I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Like that's what we've been doing is like hanging out in here and just like literally like building and making pinball and uh you know I think that's one of the things that's like I spent more time building and making it than actually playing.
All right. But yeah, you get in here, man. Do it.
What's up, Erica?
My two favorite people on the Are you guys recording? Am I bothering you?
We're like We're live on the internet right now. [laughter]
Come and hang out.
Oh my god. Hello. Yeah,
I've been talking pinball on microphones for like the last 3 hours.
No, that's sick.
We did our 90-minute homebrew talk out there and then uh walk in here, they're like, "Hey, we'd love you to jump on and do some of these uh these talks with us." And
I mean, and then we're we're playing my good friend John Marshes like uh
Invaders.
No, this is uh this is Spaceball. Space Barry target. I love very targets.
I love Barry targets. I don't know why. Ever since uh Ripley's Believe It or Not, I love Targets. You know, it's funny is like you think you know everything about a game or uh sorry about like making games and then you go back and you experience like one mechanism that you never experienced before. Any homerew is going to be like, "Oh my god, I want to use that. How would I use that in a game? How would I use it to tell a story or advanced gameplay experience?" Like,
oh my see that one very often. I want this. I want this. I want this to be made again. And
John is
Okay. So, two balls up there right now.
Two balls. That is so clever.
Oh, I can get one more up there.
Dude, you got to do it, man.
All right.
This is so good. And it's always the case where at the at the expos you really can't hear the sounds.
I know. I know. It's one of the things I don't want to just crank the system and find out that like, okay, we blew out a speaker. But like
still, I mean, here we are like playing a game that you're not going to get access to this at your local arcade. This is why we come here is to play these. You know,
I got two.
That's not bad.
Well, so I would have started. I can do it.
So the Yeah. So do it again. Do it again. You're You're a better player than me. So that third ball Whoops. Sorry, Rig. Sorry, internet. Um the third ball gets loaded in there and then the tractor beam starts going up or the tra the Winnebago starts moving up from there. So
it's it's a it's a it's a wide shot, but it's deceptive. Well, say it's deceptive here.
Oh, somebody gave us that. Some Somebody's throwing candy at me now.
Somebody gave us some candy.
Dude, what's going on?
I have no idea.
This is uh I'm getting I'm getting nervous here.
It's like raining Starburst.
It's raining Starburst.
Okay.
Oh my god.
Oh. All right. All right. All right. Let's go. Let's I love that there's a
like an actual DMV. Is this built? What system is this built on?
This is running on fast. This is like our nano platform like a long long time ago.
What's the matter? Colonel Sanders chicken. I love it. Now you guys can drive uh that matrix display.
So basically like the mission pinball framework is what's running uh the game engine. Okay. So the game engine is going to like you know based on how you configure you're configuring like a DMD screen and an LCD screen and um and then you end up pairing it with the hardware platform you're using. So like so the hardware platform is completely abstracted away from the game engine. So if you're running fast or cobra pen or pock or whatever like the the the mission pinball framework was designed to say let the hardware guys compete but if you make a game framework like then it's long term it's support it can be supported by multiple platforms and stuff. So,
okay,
man. I don't know. I I don't have my phone with me, but Carrie, I don't know if you're still watching, but thank you so much for letting us have this game out here and kind of pay this tribute to John like on this this this this tribute tour to Pinball Expo. Uh it means a lot to us that you would trust this game in in our hands and uh it it's it's pretty wonderful. So, thank you.
All right, I got I if I don't do it, I got someone here who will.
You got a better player behind you, man.
Isaiah's here.
There you go. and
you got the ringer. Just come in and like show show us how it's done, you know?
We'll bring in the ringer and then we'll
say thank you to John and his family for letting us
absolutely
play this.
Wow. It's like it's it's it's it's a Okay, we're going to bring in Isaiah.
All right.
All right.
All you got to tell them what to do. I I I barely remember. So, you can shoot underneath this. It loops back up and locks them up behind here. So, I think it takes the three balls in there and then it does the uh the the the Winnebago tractor piece, I believe, or the tractor beam piece.
So, I'm going to be honest, I've never seen Space Balls, so I feel like a a fraud here. [laughter]
You know what I It's like it's one of those like, you know, films that like it's it's a little obscure, but I think that
I just came out of the womb. So,
but [laughter]
man, I had I had black and white TVs in my house.
Like, that's that that's my age. He's going like, "What is a CRT TV if it's not an LCD?" Like,
CRT was my time at least. Okay. CRT. Let me
see if I can get that right. This got a very target.
Yeah, up there on the left side there.
Her right side. Yeah.
I don't think you backhanded that ramp.
You don't think so? Oh, it's a ramp. Yeah, it comes back. There you go. Like a 180 ramp.
Okay.
That's all I had to know. Said it was a ramp.
All right. I need three. I believe so. Yeah. Magic number. There's There's a There's opto set up there to hold three of them. It's the magic number.
Man, this makes me so happy to see this game get played like this. This is so good.
I didn't know if I was going to be all choked up, but I think I'm just like excited and proud to have John as a friend
and to have been a part of like all this shared experience of like building and making games. God damn. This is uh so many feels today. So many feels. Ah. Shoot. Okay, there you go. That's That's one. I had to
Okay. Okay.
I'm a fraud.
Oh, almost up the plunge. It's tricky cuz I really like that.
Yeah, it's pretty tight, too, with how much space you get on there. All right, let's see. Invert.
There it is.
There you go. That's two. One more. Two. One more. Back. Oh. Oh. I expected a dead bounce. Yeah,
but that scoop's kind of far back, so that's my own. Okay.
So, you still got two locked up in there.
Yeah. Yeah.
Let's get one more. I like those uh
supposed to be earlier but in the back
almost up down. All right. All right.
Here we go. Last one.
Is messing with everybody right now.
Exactly. You know, when we we we brought the game down to Southern Fry Game Expo, uh it was like like one wire had got ripped out in the process. You Oh, okay. So,
okay. So, let's see like what Okay, so now you're in the you're in the multiball here and and if you can see on the camera like the Winnebago tractor beam thing is pulling up. I'm already out.
It started. No, we saw it on
Yeah, we saw it. Okay, cool.
Start driving. Huh? Yeah. And it lights up underneath. It's like drawn, you know. That's cool.
Oh, man. That is neat.
That's a neat mechanism.
All right. I think we got the cut off signal anyways. So, dude, thank you for coming and showing us how it's done. Dude, thank you for doing this with me, man. I appreciate this. John, we love you, man.

_(Acquisition: youtube_auto_sub, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 61ea965b-eb78-4e52-a334-8e2709b32af6*