# Building Custom Pinball Machines with Lin Manuelian

**Source:** Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-12-02  
**Duration:** 56m 26s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQbEXx1m0A

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## Analysis

Lin Manuelian, a professional game programmer with 18 years of experience, leads a seminar at Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo on custom pinball machine design. He discusses his evolution from hand-crafted prototypes to CAD-based design workflows, detailed physics principles for ramp design (reflection points, gravity effects, ball path calculations), and practical design decisions across six completed games. The talk covers design methodology, tolerances, ball path verification using VPX and SolidWorks, and lessons learned from building Christmas Countdown in two months.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Lin Manuelian has designed six custom pinball games, which the speaker claims is more than anyone else has made — _Speaker introducing Lin Manuelian: 'Lin Manuelian, you've seen five of his six games...I don't know of anyone who's made more than six.'_
- [HIGH] Lin Manuelian was a professional video game programmer for 18 years before designing pinball machines — _Lin Manuelian: 'I'm a professional game programmer. I've been for like 18 years something or that now. Um but those are video games, not pinball games.'_
- [HIGH] Pintastic is in its 10th iteration and is the only show with 10 cumulative homebrew developer seminars — _Speaker: 'This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively.'_
- [HIGH] Christmas Countdown took approximately two months to design and build — _Lin Manuelian: 'that took me about two two man months to make.'_
- [HIGH] Lin Manuelian evolved from foam core/manual hand-cutting methods to direct Photoshop-to-CAD workflow with CNC cuts — _Lin Manuelian: 'Initially, I would start with foam core or I would start with a piece of wood...Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on.'_
- [HIGH] Optimal ball path entrance widths are 2.25 inches (head-on) to 3.5-4 inches (side angle), narrower than traditional 2-inch designs — _Lin Manuelian: 'I usually start with two and a quarter...when you're on the side, I always kind of start with three and a half inches...I even go four inches...If you're on the side, three and a half inches. If you're straight on, two and a quarter inches.'_
- [HIGH] Minimum safe ball path width (metal to metal or plastic to plastic) is 1.5 inches to avoid pinching — _Lin Manuelian: 'I never go any smaller than about one and a half inches wide from metal to metal...if it's any shorter than that...you're going to have a little bit of soft when installing and you it might just pinch too much.'_
- [HIGH] Ramp reflection points must account for gravity's effect on ball trajectories, not just geometric angles — _Lin Manuelian: 'Let's say you have a straight kind of a straight ramp...it's going to kind of go more like that. And that's why you see these weird little bounces...It's because you're reflecting just slightly wrong. And then gravity's saying, Hold my beer.'_
- [HIGH] Lin Manuelian first learned pinball rules from playing Simpsons Pinball Party while developing the Pinballistic video game — _Lin Manuelian: 'I learned how to play on that and I learned what rules were based on that' (referring to Simpsons Pinball Party)._
- [HIGH] Pinball machine design tolerances for tight ball path transitions must allow for 'human level slop' and typically require V-shaped or snake-mouth entrance designs rather than millimeter-precision tolerances — _Lin Manuelian on tight tolerances: 'You want you want human level slop in there basically...if you expect the exit of something to seamlessly go into something else that's really tight, it ain't going to happen.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I don't know of anyone who's made more than six [custom pinball games]."
> — **Pintastic Expo Speaker (introducing Lin Manuelian)**, opening remarks
> _Establishes Lin Manuelian's productivity record in the homebrew pinball design community_

> "I learned how to play on that [Simpsons Pinball Party] and I learned what rules were based on that."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, background section
> _Explains how a professional video game programmer entered the pinball space through virtual pinball development_

> "Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on. So, if my first cut is wrong, I I make the adjustments in in CAD and I cut another one until it's right."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, design methodology section
> _Describes his evolution to modern CAD-based design workflows that replaced traditional hand-crafting methods_

> "Let's say you hit it kind of more up this way, right? So, it's it's a bit higher. Well, if I hit right here, what's my reflection point? There is no gravity involved except for this steeper the uh the playfield...The reflection point is generally going to be like that."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, ramp physics discussion
> _Demonstrates his detailed geometric approach to calculating ball path behavior using reflection point analysis_

> "The steeper your ramp is, the more it's going to kind of bend back down to your reflection point."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, gravity and ramp design
> _Key insight about how gravity modifies ball path trajectories on angled ramps_

> "You want you want human level slop in there basically."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, tolerance discussion
> _Practical guidance on designing with realistic manufacturing and installation tolerances rather than theoretical precision_

> "If you're if you're doing it more organically with like paper and whatnot, if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, prototype methodology discussion
> _Design philosophy for transitioning from paper prototypes to physical construction_

> "I hate MPF."
> — **Lin Manuelian**, software discussion
> _Personal stance on Mission Pinball Framework software for pinball design_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Lin Manuelian | person | Professional game programmer (18+ years) and custom pinball machine designer with six completed games; speaker at Pintastic Expo seminar on pinball design methodology |
| Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo | event | Annual pinball and gaming expo in Southern New Hampshire (10th iteration), known for homebrew developer seminars and custom game showcase |
| Christmas Countdown | game | Custom pinball game designed by Lin Manuelian, completed in approximately two months, playable at the expo; previously called '12 Days of Christmas' |
| Haunted Cruise | game | Custom pinball game by Lin Manuelian, design started in 2009, still in progress; features inlays for magnets or LEDs |
| Fairyland Tales | game | First custom pinball game designed by Lin Manuelian (15+ years ago), art nouveau fairy/magic theme, not yet completed; Lin Manuelian acknowledges design decisions he would change |
| Battle Stations | game | Game with custom software playable at Pintastic Expo in vendor hall |
| Pinballistic | product | Virtual pinball game released approximately 10-12 years ago (PS3 era), two-player heads-up competitive game where Lin Manuelian was programmer; used Simpsons Pinball Party as learning reference |
| Simpsons Pinball Party | game | Classic pinball game used by Lin Manuelian as reference to learn pinball rules and mechanics for Pinballistic development |
| Pirates of the Caribbean | game | Stern pinball machine referenced for shallow, skinny ramp design example by designer Dennis |
| Frozen | game | Pinball machine referenced for shallow ramp height design that avoids blocking ball while maintaining narrow width |
| Iron Man | game | Film referenced as design inspiration methodology ('onion slicing' technique used in cave scene suit design) |
| Taiko Drum Master | product | Arcade drum game that uses PZO sensors for impact detection, referenced as technical precedent |
| Visual Pinball | software | Pinball simulation software used by Lin Manuelian during Pinballistic development for all design work; Lin Manuelian created converters from VPX to OBJ files and Visual Basic to Lua |
| SolidWorks | software | CAD software used by Lin Manuelian for playfield design, ramp modeling, and ball path verification using sketches and reflection point analysis |
| Photoshop | software | Design software used by Lin Manuelian to create initial playfield sketches at 1:1 scale with pinball standard guides and layers |
| 3D Studio Max | software | 3D software used during Pinballistic development to generate images from OBJ files converted from Visual Pinball |
| Send Cut Send | service | Metal cutting/fabrication service currently used by Lin Manuelian to cut sheet metal ramp components (replacing hand-cutting method) |
| VPX | software | Virtual Pinball simulation software with ramp modeling capabilities; used by Lin Manuelian for quick ball path verification using cone-shaped ramp exits |
| MPF | software | Mission Pinball Framework software; Lin Manuelian stated he dislikes this software for pinball machine programming |
| Gary Stern | person | Referenced in context of Stern pinball machines (Pirates of the Caribbean designer mentioned as 'Dennis') |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Playfield design methodology and CAD workflows, Ramp physics, reflection points, and ball trajectory calculation, Design tolerances and practical manufacturing constraints, Evolution from hand-crafting to CNC-based production, Ball path entrance design and V-shaped entry concepts, Gravity's effects on ball deflection and ramp curvature
- **Secondary:** Custom pinball machine design community and homebrew development, Virtual pinball simulation tools for design verification

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Lin Manuelian presents an enthusiastic, educational tone focused on sharing technical knowledge. He self-critiques past design decisions while showing humor ('Don't Don't hand cut this stuff. I almost lost my finger on stream'). Audience engagement is positive with Q&A participation. Minor frustrations expressed about CAD software UI ('god damn it') and design challenges are framed as learning opportunities rather than complaints.

### Signals

- **[design_philosophy]** Lin Manuelian explains a systematic design approach progressing from Photoshop sketches with ball/feature guides, through CAD modeling with curves/arcs, to CNC cutting with tolerance planning. He emphasizes layered design ('onion slicing') and iterative refinement based on physics simulation rather than trial-and-error prototyping. (confidence: high) — Detailed walkthrough of design files, sketch refinement process, and CAD-to-manufacturing workflow with specific tool usage (SolidWorks, VPX, Send Cut Send).
- **[design_innovation]** Lin Manuelian presents a detailed geometric model for calculating ball trajectory through ramps using reflection point analysis. Key insight: gravity modifies calculated reflection angles, requiring iterative adjustments. He uses VPX 'cone' ramps and SolidWorks sketches to verify ball paths before manufacturing. (confidence: high) — Extensive discussion of reflection points, gravity effects, and practical verification methods using simulation software. Examples include analyzing ball entry angles and exit trajectories.
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Lin Manuelian advocates for 'human-level slop' rather than millimeter-precision tolerances in ball path design. Standard entrance widths: 2.25 inches (head-on), 3.5-4 inches (side angles). Minimum safe path width: 1.5 inches (metal-to-metal) to avoid pinching during installation. (confidence: high) — Specific tolerance guidance: 'You want you want human level slop in there basically.' Discussion of V-shaped/snake-mouth entries to handle gravity-fed ball transitions.
- **[product_strategy]** Christmas Countdown completed in 2 months total; main playfield alone took 2 weeks with most work done in one weekend. This suggests rapid iteration capability using CAD-to-CNC workflow compared to traditional hand-crafting methods. (confidence: high) — Lin Manuelian: 'The vast majority I I got done in one weekend. Then I add the the main playfield. It took maybe a couple weeks...The the mini playfields. It's just the little detail things.'
- **[personnel_signal]** Lin Manuelian represents an emerging hybrid profile: professional software engineer (18+ years video game experience) transitioning to physical pinball design. Started through virtual pinball (Pinballistic on PS3), now producing custom physical machines at prolific rate (6 games in ~15 years). (confidence: high) — Biography provided: video game programmer background, virtual pinball entry point via Simpsons Pinball Party learning, evolved to custom hardware design.
- **[technology_signal]** Design tool stack includes Photoshop (sketching), SolidWorks (CAD/modeling), VPX (ball path verification), Send Cut Send (metal fabrication), CNC cutting. Lin Manuelian explicitly rejects MPF (Mission Pinball Framework) for software development. (confidence: high) — Tool usage detailed throughout seminar. Lin Manuelian: 'I hate MPF' regarding pinball control software.
- **[community_signal]** Pintastic Expo's 10th iteration features first-time cumulative record of 10 homebrew developer seminars across all pinball expos. Shows sustained community interest in custom/independent pinball design as specialty track. (confidence: high) — Speaker introduction: 'This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Lin Manuelian values paper/foam prototyping for concept validation before expensive CNC cutting. Philosophy: 'if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic.' Advocates eliminating unnecessary ramp flaps and coil requirements through better design. (confidence: high) — Discussion of transitional prototyping: 'You can buy aluminum strips and kind of cut them down and tape them in...if you're if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic.'
- **[design_innovation]** Lin Manuelian emphasizes V-shaped or 'snake-mouth' entrance designs for gravity-fed ball transitions rather than tight tolerances. Example: moving targets from back of playfield to front to enable full orbit bidirectionality; resizing entrance mouths based on gravity flow characteristics. (confidence: high) — Detailed CAD walkthrough showing wide entrance cavity design, lower-flat-upper-curved guide sections for angle-dependent capture, and iterative shrinking after first cuts prove feasibility.
- **[product_concern]** Christmas Countdown faced multiple field adjustments: ramp curvature issues requiring mid-ramp clips/rivets, vacuum-forming limits causing chewed inner loops, gate additions to correct gravity-flow problems, and complex folded sheet metal components that may be redesigned as two-part assemblies in future iterations. (confidence: high) — Lin Manuelian walkthrough: 'I snipped a little bit and I kind of bent the ramp and riveted some other little pieces...I had to Mickey Mouse it a little bit to make it work...This thing is a pain in the ass to bend.'
- **[content_signal]** Lin Manuelian conducts interactive seminar with live CAD file demonstrations, Q&A participation, and playable game at venue. Format includes visual design evolution (sketch→CAD→finished machine) and practical tolerance/physics discussions grounded in specific examples. (confidence: high) — Seminar structure: opening overview, detailed design methodology walkthrough with CAD files, live demonstrations, audience Q&A, direction to play finished games at expo.

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## Transcript

We have more games than just what's in the custom game showcase. By the way, there I was noticing people having a good time on Battle Stations over in the vendor hall uh down in the Southern New Hampshire club room. Uh there's a game with some custom software. So, look around all over the show. This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively. And now we're adding a bonus one. Lin Manuelian, you've seen five of his six games. And then yesterday we brought in the sixth one which had a little IP issue.
So all six I don't know of anyone who's made more than six. Okay. But if you want to start now, if you want to start as young as the kid from San Diego so that you can exceed his lifetime productivity eventually, then you should
learn from him what he knows about uh game development. And we are going to be uh doing an improv session, right?
Uh a little bit. So, my original idea was to have my wake them tablet here and actually design a layout with all of you. Um, I didn't have a chance to go home to get it. So, I'm going to kind of shoot from the hip with this and talk about a couple of the other games that I' I do have and show some of the sketches I've done and how it went from sketch and why I design chose some features of the sketch to the CAD drawing and finally to the final uh final thing that you see out there and uh take questions along the way. If you ever have if anyone has questions as we go, just kind of raise your hand and I'll I'll answer them.
We'll have the guy run.
Yeah. Yeah. He he he needs to lose some weight. So just everybody if someone asked a question here, someone over there needs to ask the question then back. All right. Um so yep, my name is John Manuelian. Everybody knows me as Lynn Lenolium or some flavor of that. And uh I've been I'm a professional game programmer. I've been for like 18 years something or other now. Um but those are video games, not pinball games. I do pinball because I enjoy pinball and why not, right? So, uh, a while ago, 10 10 12 years ago, sometime back in the PS3 era, whenever that was, um, what
the the PS3, not the 90s.
What the hell? Um so so sometime back in the PS3 era um I was working at a company and they wanted to make a virtual pinball game and it it ended up releasing as pinballistic. It was a two-player heads up where you can kind of grief each other. Um I didn't know anything about pinball at the time and yet I needed to program pinball. So we had the easiest game possible local um Simpsons pinball party. So, I learned how to play on that and I learned what rules were based on that. Um, and uh we we actually did all our design in Visual Pinball for for all that. And I created a converter to take the visual pinball file, convert it to OBJ files for uh to load into 3D Studio Max to then generate all the images. And then I also created a uh Visual Basic to Lua conversion. So we scripted everything in in visual pinball and then it just converted to Lua and loaded into a C++ engine for PS3. So that was my introduction to pinball and during that I got the crazy idea to build a real thing and it snowballed from from that more or less. Um the very first game I designed you've never seen. It'll be here eventually. It's called Fairyland Tales. It's kind of an art nuvoy fairy and magic thing. um nothing to do with magic barst but um that I'll get done eventually. I've learned a lot and I look at that playfield and I think oh that's neat but why did I do that now? Um that's what what 15 years of doing this will do. Um so there's that and then Haunted Antonio Cruz was officially started in like 2009 and it's still going but uh I've changed my my design philosophies over the years. Initially, I would start with foam core or I would start with a piece of wood and kind of stick things around kind of like the guys were talking about here. Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on. So, if my first cut is wrong, I I make the adjustments in in CAD and I cut another one until it's right. It just makes life a lot easier. So, I'm not trying to measure things and get the measurements right because you know you're whenever you use any kind of measurement tool, you can be off by just a little bit and those little bits count sometimes. But anyways, um a year ago I did a uh a game called uh 12 Days of Christmas, which is now Christmas Countdown, which you can all play. I live streamed all of that. So, I'm going to talk about that a little bit. Uh that took me about two two man months to make. Um, and I generally I start out with a sketch in Photoshop. So, as I said, I I have a whackom tablet I use. So, this is all made one to one. If I were to print it up, it would be the size of a pinball playfield. Um, I have blank pinball uh uh playfield uh starters for in uh CAD that I just print a or I make a PDF of and I bring it into Photoshop just so I can easily start sketching things. Now, you can see at the very top I have a bunch of guides. So, I kind of know what's the size of a ball, what's the size of a jet bumper, like what are some standard ramp and uh entry points for things, right? So, as I go around and draw, I can see, hey, is this the right size? Will this fit? Will this rattle? Will or or such. Now, what I don't have is I actually don't tend to use 2 inch anymore. I usually start with two and a quarter period because when you create a two and a quarter entrance, let's say um let's look at this ramp. It's it's a little bigger than two and a quarter. Um but if you have a two and a quarter entrance, you're going to need to protect that entrance in some way. So you're going to have targets or posts kind of blocking it a little bit. So that two and a quarter will end up becoming 2 in after you put stuff in front of it. So the bigger you design it, the more stuff is end up covering things to protect walls, protect edges, protect bouncing. Um, and it'll also give you some extra space. So for instance, I now if I wanted to in this section here, and you can see the little hand to move around there, right? Yeah. Um, in this section here, I could put a metal a little bumper post or something right in this section. And I can I now have the space to also add a little sheet of a piece of sheet metal to even protect the side of the target because I have that extra slack. I don't have it in the game. I didn't make it. I'm lazy. But I could do it on on all of these sections, especially this this side ramp over here, which you'll see in in the CAD when I show you. I I went through like four or five designs of this. Um after I made this initial design, which does not work, by the way. Um, along this right side, I definitely need a piece of metal to protect against all all the sides of the targets and all the entrances of the ramps and everything. So, make it bigger. That way, you can put stuff next to it in front of it. So, it will work for reels and um the other thing too that I I always plan on, so I say use around two and a quarter to two and a half when you're kind of going straight on. Well, when you're on the side, I always kind of start with three and a half inches when it's on the side because you can't see that very well and it's always going to be a bit of slop, right? You're it's going to be a little bit of guess and take. Sometimes I even go four inches and then as I add things in and once I make the first cut, I can kind of shrink it down because I can see where where the ball is going to kind of go. Uh so if you're on the side, three and a half inches. If you're straight on, two and a quarter inches. And as you add those those trails and your those paths and whatnot, you'll realize how little space you actually have on a piece of wood and you you'll realize how um how high your ramps actually need to be to get up and over the thing to get to go in which uh this this ramp over here on the right right here. Actually, no. This this one right here, this green ramp. Um, when I made the first vacuum form of this, I was expecting, oh, I can kind of flex it down a little bit so I don't have to worry about it. Yeah, that that that didn't work because I wanted a ball to go behind the ramp right here. And the metal guide that's right back here is uh 1 and eigh inch tall just so the ball kind of slides along it, which means this ramp just went like this all the way around instead of this. So, if you look closely on Christmas Countdown, this ramp that I have there, I snipped a little bit and I kind of bent the ramp and riveted some other little pieces of plastic so you couldn't really tell to make it curve up and around. And now it it's smooth and it it seems to fit. Um, uh, likewise, this ramp on the right, I made it way too tight for my what my vacuum forming machine can do. So, this kind of inner section, the the inner kind of loop around is really chewed up because I just had no plastic down there. So, I I kind of put a little piece of metal or something there. I think it it's I I had to Mickey Mouse it a little bit to make it work. I also needed to add a gate on it because this ramp when I made it was completely wrong and the ball just wouldn't go up and around. It it would go around the ramp then all the way back around and it's like the hell are you doing ball? Gravity is this way. But no, the gravity say no. and it it went back. So, there's a lot of those little tweaks you'll find on there. Um, so as also something else I do with ball trails, too. Um, any what any kind of ball trail, whether it's a ramp or it's a guide, uh, some kind of orbit or other loop around. I never go any smaller than about one and a half inches wide from metal to metal or from plastic to plastic because if it's any shorter than that that or any thinner than that then when you put the piece on you're going to have a little bit of soft when installing and you it might just pinch too much or your bend might not be quite right if it's metal and it might pinch too much. So one and a half inches. And also a lot of standard parts uh for ramps assume one and a half inch wide like little gullies that the ball goes down. Um when the when the ball is coming down towards you, you can get as small as one and a quarter, but that's pushing it. You probably need to lower your your sidewalls a little bit when you do that so it doesn't pinch. I I think a good example of that is um the Pirates of the Caribbean um Stern how they how um Dennis I think he made it the the little wavy ramp in the front that's like really really uh shallow but it's also really skinny so it doesn't take up a lot of space. Um also you can look at Frozen. Frozen does something like that too. I have that ramp that goes across. have very shallow heights on that so it doesn't block the ball and but it also gets pretty narrow as it goes across. Um so as I'm as I'm kind of drawing all these things in layers, each one of these colors is a different layer. So I can onion slice it. If you know Iron Man one, that's how I make these games or how I designed these games. Um how we designed that suit in the cave. Um, so I onion slice it and as as I'm building this, I also look at where the flipper is coming from. And if I had Photoshop on this, I'd be able to show you, but um I I basically draw I not a straight line because a lot of people like to do take like a ruler and it's going from this flipper to that shot, right? Where in in actual reality, it's going to go from that flipper to that shot. You you have like a a V type of situation. So you need to take care of the the lowest point of the V. So say the impact point down here as well as the highest point of the V, which is the impact point up here. So what happens in those two situations? Once you once you're past that, then you can do whatever you want as long as the ball ricochets the way you expect. Um, and uh, I'm I've been practicing a lot actually this past year what what the reflection points are because that's been kind of an Achilles heel of mine. And this game was the first one that I think I got everything right or mostly right. If you look at this ramp here, notice the left side kind of is a big kind of pot belly coming out whereas the right side is far more straight. uh is still a little curved to the left, but it's still far more straight. This pot belly is that way specifically because of what I just described from this flipper. It kind of goes diagonal a little bit. So, you got to catch the ball and have it loop around. If you just had it straight, it would go up and bounce off, you want it to bounce up. So whatever the angle of reflection would be if you draw a line a vector from the flipper to the point you know you take the reciprocal of that to go to reflect up. So does it does it reflect across? If it does you're probably going to start going down. If it reflects more up you're probably going to start going up. U probably. Now, let's say you have a straight kind of a straight ramp or a straight something or other and uh you say, "Oh, this this kind of bounces a little bit and zigzags a little bit, but it kind of goes where I want, right?" Um well, add gravity into that. And that zigzag instead of going like that, it's going to kind of go more like that. And that's why you see these weird little bounces and like, "Oh, this looks cool. Why doesn't this work?" Well, it's because you're reflecting just slightly wrong. And then gravity's saying, "Hold my beer." Um So that that's the biggest challenge. That's one of the other biggest challenges of ramps to make them work. Sure, it looks like this is going to work great on paper. It's all smooth, but um then gravity comes into play and kind of changes how your reflection is a little bit. So, your best or what what I've uh determined so far when I design, uh if it's on an angle at any point, instead of that reflection point being equal, like if you have a a mirror, bring it down just a little tickle each time you reflect. And if it still makes it where you want, it's probably going to be okay. And the steeper your ramp is, the more it's going to kind of bend back down to your reflection point. Uh I don't know. Is uh any questions on that? Any curiosities? Yeah.
continuous loop. Are you hitting into a curve? And where would you say is the furthest point? Like when you're rolling down that flipper in order to hit that main loop, you're not designing for the tip of the flipper. you're designing for
that's not the one I want.
What is your main like shot for that loop? Where where does like the flipper
I guess uh origin point from the flipper to getting into that loop and then the final destination point. Where do you ideally want to hit into that loop so it curves into it?
All right. So, this is from my own um guesses and I'm using really advanced microsoft paint for this. So, please bear with us. Um, I want the I I I want the ball to ride directly perpendicular with the entry of my my ramp or my or what whatever it is the guide the loop because if it goes right on this point or right right uh parallel I'm sorry right parallel to the uh your guide what is the reflection point of something parallel there is no reflection point it's infinite it will just go around so the ball will if your uh guide is then really nice and curved, your ball will then through through the curvature and in and all the other you know physics um it it'll loop around, right? However, if your ball now you're never going to perfectly get get it straight on that. So, let's say you hit it kind of more up this way, right? So, it's it's a bit higher. Well, if I hit right here, what's my what's my reflection point? There is no gravity involved except for this steeper the uh the playfield, the 6 and 12 degrees or whatever the hell you're doing. The reflection point is generally going to be like that because if you draw a line right at this point, it'll then reflect up, reflect up and eventually make it kind of around. And this, as you can see, it this is going to rattle a little bit if you get it really high up there. There's no question about that. But the width of the ball will prevent that because a ball is not that small. A ball was more like that that size. So the the entry point of this is always going to be more down here, which will reflect much more up that way and around. And just after a couple hits, once you're going along with your curve, the ball will just roll around it. You don't have to worry about going to like infinite uh uh uh bounces. It'll just kind of curve. But the first couple bounces are always going to be like off that uh reflection point until it gets curved. So again, if if your ball kind of goes in right here, well, what's the reflection point at this point? If you draw a straight line, the reflection point is going to be like that and then it just goes right up and around. So that's how I kind of do it and how I kind of look at it when when drawing it. And um I use Solid Works so I can make a sketch that attaches to a point and attaches to another point and see where that kind of bounces a little bit and see what the reflection points are. Um any other questions on quick and dirty with that VPX by using fake ramps.
So I I'll make a ramp that has an entry width of five and an exit of 80. So it makes a nice cone. And then I estimate where on the flipper I expect if I if I was playing a game for the first time, I would try around here. And I put I anchor my five there. And then I drag my 80 to my shot entrance. And you can see the cone that you're going to have to deal with. And then you can just like mark a bunch of points and on your rail do your reflections. And it's like nice quick dirty easy to find out if you're just going to immediately rattle out or not. Right. But
yeah, with with VPX that using a ramp is a great way to do it. Um, with Solid Works, you can just have a sketch. It has a small um one and a half or or one yeah, one and a quarter inch at the end and two inch at the top and then you just kind of drag the thing around. You can even use um like spheres and sweeps and and tangents and whatnot to if you want to be fancy, but that's work. Um, so so that's kind of how I I do that. Are there any other questions related to to this kind of thing? All right. So, as I'm drawing these sketches, first my first sketches are going to be really quick and dirty, like somewhat straight or somewhat maybe this angle is right, but then I go back and I kind of refine and you can you can see like this curve on the ramp or this this roundness has a lot of sketch lines around it because and the darker your sketch line is, the closer to probably what you want. Kind of like an animation. The darker your line is is what you what your actual thing is going to be. Um, as far as where other things go, I tend to use rubber posts a lot, like the little rubber bumper posts in between things. And once I get my shots right, I turn those rubber bumper posts into spot targets. And now, if I want spot spot target somewhere, I'll just put it where I want it. But if you have a bumper post, you don't necessarily want to just shoot the damn post of a straight up the middle. You want it to do something. Uh, you could use a PZO sensor. I don't know. Who knows what a PZO sensor is? Yeah, you could use one of those to detect an impact. It's going to be very noisy with all the other clicking, clacking that a pinball machine can do, but it is possible. They use those on Tato Drum Master, the the big drum arcade game. So, you you can do it. And there's a couple Williams games in the past, some prototypes that actually use them, too. Um, it would be tricky to get the software right like generally consistently right with that, though. So targets best. Uh what? Okay. So I would take a sketch like this. Um I would bring it onto a piece of wood in Solid Works and it'll eventually turn into um the thing over here which I'll load up. Uh here here I don't want to save. Just load it. It'll turn into this kind of. Um, again, I made this in two months. It's not very clean. Please excuse all all the the muck. But, um, if you if we do a top down of this and we do a uh a sketch, a see-through sketch. No, that's not what I wanted. I want want to zoom in. Yeah. Um, a lot of these lines you see, except for this ramp because it's clear, because of course it is. Can I make that a little bit nicer? Uh, yeah, there we go. Um, you can see a lot of these uh these guys that I have in this sketch here translated directly into this. Generally speaking, it's a lot cleaner because I can I'm now using CAD. I'm now making my curves and arcs legitimate curves and arcs and not um just fuzzy little hair balls around these things, but it's stuck closely the same. I then I then cut this playfield. I I don't I usually don't put the inserts in yet. Um I do have the insert holes here. Let meolate this for a second. There we go. Playfield. Um, ignoring the Can I I think I can hide the insert holes, right? Yeah,
let's hide that. Let's hide that. Really? Really? Can I? Okay, I can't. Never mind. Uh, yeah. So, this is what the playfield is when I'm ready to cut it. Every ramp has a God damn it. I wish I had my mouse. Every ramp has a little footprint on it, so it kind of sinks a little bit low and has a nice curve into it. Um, it also helps me know where the hell to line it up. Um, every every uh rail has a dimple so I know where to mount the thing when I'm ready to go. All the GI holes are cut through. Obviously, I have other random holes like this thing or this thing just for through holes and and wire holes and access holes and things to this. Um, and yes, God, god damn it. I I I zoom one way and it goes the this way. Uh, and yeah, so when when I go to CNC this thing, um, I actually have a couple different passes. I have the regular cut pass, which I use a 2mm half uh half inch bit for. And then I have a secondary tool pass that I use a ball-nose bit, a 1inch ball-nose bit for the uh the plunger wing. So, and if I wanted to be ambitious, I could do the backside, too. I have to do that with haunted Antonio Cruz and I have to do that with magic bars because I have inlays on there for either magnets or LEDs. For this, I don't. So, I just cut the top and say the hell with it. The only thing I'm missing is T-nut holes on the other side and some dimples, but it doesn't really matter, so to speak. Uh, and that's generally it for the playfield. Then you have a play field you can start populating. Now, as far as everything else, it's just a lot of busy work make making the stuff. Um, the ramps start off with a solid. You can then curve it and do whatever you want. Um, I then cut cut all the bucks out. I think I have pictures of this here in somewhere. Uh, sketches, work in prog. Yeah. Yeah, I do have something. No, I don't have something in here. No, I No, I I don't have any pictures of this because why? Oh, wait. Maybe. No. Okay, but I do have pictures of when I hand cut this Don't Don't hand cut this stuff. I almost lost my finger on stream hand cutting this stuff. Yeah. Um Oh, and if you do hand cut it, wear gloves. But I I use send cut send now. But I used to hand cut these things with by tracing stuff out. And yeah, there's my tools, the shears and the little nibblers.
Yep. And then not the Futurama kind of nibbler. And that's kind of what it looks like. Now, okay, this I think is this a send cut send one? No, it's not. But um once I have these flats, I use clamps or I use um fingers or something and I I bend all the little flat pieces and I bend it into shape and it'll eventually fit kind of where I want it to. and ultimately break because this is thin metal. I'm now using actual 16th inch stainless steel, not this Home Depot craft, but it works fine. Uh, you know, that's more or less the sheet metal it just takes some busy work to do. Any questions of of what I'm
Yes.
What is precisely? Well,
I have
Well, what what is your tolerance percent?
I have one where it's if I'm a millimeter one way, if the ball path will cause it to crash on something. If it's a millimeter up the other way, it crashes on something on the other side of the plate.
So, you have a one millimeter tolerance basically.
Yeah.
Um that's too tight.
That's too tight.
Yeah. U you want you want human level slop in there basically. Um you can get down so you can get down to millimeter level preciseness when you're not trying to shoot something. You're not trying to have the ball kind of flop and guide somewhere. But if you expect the exit of something to seamlessly go into something else that's really tight, it ain't going to happen. If you're going to your exit usually needs to be like into a V entrance type of thing so it can kind of eat it like a snake. Um, do I have I do have an example of that, which is probably something you all want to see and are are waiting to see if I close this. Um, because I I did some redesign work on a little known game that I have out here the this this thing. So, if I peel away some of these layers because each one of these is its own assembly. Um, hide hide hide. up here and oh yeah I have to hide this and I should hide hide this. All right. So, this left entrance here, um, if you Yeah, let me zoom in. I I want the exit of this, uh, little spinny ramp to go into the entrance of this. And it works. Sometimes it depends on what people have shook and it depends on what the uh, angle of this ramp is because I can kind of twist it a little bit. Um, if you if you notice though, it's got like a wide open snake mouth. There's not like a really tight tolerance to get in there. Otherwise, it'll never never make it in there. Uh, just just like the ramps and everything that we were talking about making that VT type shape to see where the ball goes. Anytime the ball leaves any space, you need to start making that V. And if it's something that um you powered, you can make that V like more narrow. But if something gravity is going to take, you kind of need to make that V with kind of like a slack jaw coming down because it it will dribble out of whatever you want and not do do what you want. Um, so yeah, that's that's that thing. And uh the original version of this game before my modification didn't have a target right here. This target was way in in the back over here, which I hated because I want full orbits both ways. So I moved the target over here and this path used to be even bigger. It used to be like this this gaping thing just to suck anything down into it, but you didn't really need that ultimately. So, that's why I shrunk it, but I still made it large enough to to try and catch. Um, something else you may notice, the lower part of this guide is straight and flat. That way, any ball kind of coming this way can can ricochet in, but this is slightly curved more curved in. That is specifically for this to catch in an angle and loop around really quickly. And again, it mostly works usually kind of.
Yeah.
I know you're in the the CAD phase uh now from the Frankenstein, you you go right to CAD, but say you were still in that Frankenstein phase. Um going from paper to rail, it feels different. Do you know of any good like other than the hand cutting, you know, sourcing metal or just a a way of making something to see if it'll work quick?
I mean, you you can buy aluminum strips and kind of cut them down and tape them in. I did that sometimes. Um you you can get metal strips, do that. Really, anything I tried always sucked. Um, but another philosophy I I take in mind is if you're if you're doing it more organically with like paper and and whatnot, if you're if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic. So, make it work with paper, then that friction is gone once it's normal. And if your ramps can work without a ramp flap, that's even better. With the ramp flap, forget about just bump the coil down on your flippers because you won't need the higher coil. Uh yeah. All right. So that's kind of design. Now some people some people might want me to go on. Does anyone else have any questions on like some playfield design? I glossing over some of it but which is I wanted to do more design work but I tried to talk a little bit more of some details and things and I can switch over to some software a little bit at some point. Most of you using MPF. This will mean nothing to you because I hate MPF. But um anyone any software engineer or anyone else will recognize the oh this is the class these are the things that I I do. So any any more questions comments? No. All right. So yeah this this is the circus design I did in a month. Um is actually most of this I did in one weekend. So
what Did you have you not played it? What are you doing? Get the out of here. Go and play. Yeah. Yeah. It's over there. You go play.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah. The vast majority I I got done in one weekend. Then I add the the main playfield. It took maybe a couple weeks for me to get because I made all the little changes. The the mini playfields. It's just the little detail things like maybe this this this metal form up here. This metal form up here took a little bit for me to kind of figure out from all the pictures that were there. It and No, I didn't want to do it that. No, show me. I want to hide. I want to isolate. Where's my Where's my Thank you. This thing is a pain in the ass to bend. And it just This thing is a pain in the ass to bend. Um, yeah. And none of the other ones are are this the biggest problem is how it folds into itself.
Um, which uh in in the future I'm when I if I redo the playfield, I'm going to probably make this in two parts, not not a single part. And I'm not going to put this V in. The original one had a V in there. And I'm looking at I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. the the other playfields. Uh let's undo this. Undo uh exit isolate. That's that's what this one down here was again ba based on looking at things. And I do need to not isolate this. Actually, I can isolate the this thing. Can I ring? Um can I isolate? No, but of course I can. Um all right. I No, I No, that was the play field. Can I do the whole No. All right. Anyways, this thing is actually in two parts. It has a standard opto bracket on it and then a a piece of folded metal. This was a lot easier to bend. Rotate. You know, it doesn't have all the folds into itself. And then I just rivet that other brack bracket onto the thing. I just need to make sure these two holes line up properly. Otherwise, the opto isn't going to see each other. So, I'm going to redo the other one like that at some point. Then it'll be a bit nicer. Uh I I think I have an image of what that actually looks like. It It doesn't look nearly as nice as that building over here. Maybe. Yeah. Here we go. Yeah. Look at this. See? So, it's a little curved, but it it it works. Oh,
I I I have um fingers that I can put on a clamp and and so I can I can get some of that, but that's they're not going to fit in in this section. So that was pliers and bending and manhandling and swearing and throwing it and you know what whatever it took to get I tried to put the whole thing on the clamp and just squish it and then it bent all out of form and I'm like and and this is Sen Cut sends uh real stainless steel so it's not easy to bend okay yeah here here's the other one um it's it's just simple couple bends and then this thing I I chose not driven it I chose to screw it so if I need to take something off I more easily hood and it didn't make any difference. I don't have the nice press rivets. I use the pop rivets. So, a screw head and a pop riet head is very similar to each other. Um, this is the lift mechanism, which is also a bent piece of metal. What do I No, that's that. Oh, yeah. Here's the front of that that other one. Um, this is a bent piece of metal. It came all flat. I didn't bend it right so things bind. Oh, well, it kind of works. Uh, but yeah, it it all came flat. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six pens needed to be on there perfectly. This is why I say don't do millimeter precision because you're never going to get it. Uh, any questions on any other questions? Nope. All right. Software. As I say, my software is different. No, don't please. Thank you. So, I use Unity as I kind of mentioned in the past and at the previous homebrew section and uh I've built over the course of these past 10 years a standard engine um that I can just take and plop and I automatically without even trying have a a game that supports four players um three or five balls uh kind of sort of tilts that they're disabled because they break things. Um, score bit and uh, attract mode sequencing and all top 10 lists and all that. It's all just natively built into it, which is one of the reasons I can make a playthrough, then poof, all of a sudden flip it. Oh, that's the other thing I can talk about. Uh, my wiring. Um, before I wire a game, a lot of people just kind of willy-nilly wire things and kind of shoot from the hip when they wire. I always make a wiring list. I always organize what I want to wire, what colors they're going to be, and where they're going to go. Bigger. What? Oh. Oh. Um, make make the screen. Yeah, the screen.
There we go. Um, more
more.
There. Get glasses.
Um, so this is Luau's switch wiring. As you can see, I use every single switch I possibly can for the backbox, which is essentially it's a waste of a 48 switch thing. I I only use 10 switches in the backbox. Um the start button, the tilt, which is wired, but again, disabled for now. I I want people to shake the hell out of that game and just have fun. And um the last bank is all the score reel stuff, the zero and the carries because I have four score reels. That fits really nicely into an an eight bank. Uh yeah, so eight got 10 switches out of uh 32 switches. So I have 22 switches left. I'm glad I I I have that board. Um the the game, however, the main playfield, however, I use everything. Uh I guess no, except for these two because the roto target doesn't have that. Um and if you notice, every one of my rows or or the column bank, I call it a bank. Every one of my banks has a specific wire type. So, I have white for the the the primary plunger and or well, this would have an auto plunger, but it has the uh plunger lane, the flippers, the SL the standard slings and everything. Then yellow for the next bank, blue for the next bank, orange, and then and they're all stripes. So, everything is a standard stripe. Uh, black, brown, red, orange, yellow, gray, blue, violet, and I I move the gray around. So, gray is usually the color that it is of. So the the yellow one instead of it being orange yellow, it's orange white. Um I guess Oh, I didn't have white. Well, white. You can't have white white. So white gray makes sense here, right? Um so this would be yellow white instead of yellow because what is yellow? It's just all yellow. Yeah,
this is not a switch. This is using fast. It's all direct switches. I wish it was a switch matrix. I wouldn't have to have 80 different types of wires if it was a switch matrix. But um say uh blue and orange and and when if you ask me to lift up any of my games, you'll see except for haunted Antonio Cruz and frozen because I Mickey Mouse that a little bit. But from Magic Forest forward, if I lift it up, you'll be able to see every single color. Every single thing has its its own line. Um I also just b from the original switch matrices, usually green was like a return line in a lot of systems or a common line. I still use that for this. So for instance, if you see green blue, you know that's green is part of the blue bank and all the blue switches. So it just makes it really easy. I mean in theory I could say like blue black is the return line or the ground line, but I like to keep the green so I can just very easily find that and and color coordinate. Uh so I I define all of this before I do any wiring. And now that I've done a whole bunch of games, I actually have a standard wiring that I do for all my flippers and all my banks. So I can take Magic Forest and and put it in the um the Christmas countdown cabinet and the flippers will work in the trop because it's that's just the standard bank that I use. And vice with Haunted Antonio Cruz and Frozen, I can do the same thing. I can't do Haunted Antonio Cruz into Magic Forest because that's my custom driver versus fast. I I am planning on converting frozen and and haunted Antonio Cruz to fast though. So, you eventually can swap any of my playfields into any of the other cabinets because it's all the same. Uh you don't need to do this when you're designing your own game, but if you want maintenance ability, this is vital because now I can just give anyone this and say fix the game and they'll be able to figure out what's not working. Seth even went through haunted Antonio Cruz. So, he is now a haunted Antonio Cruz expert. He that he can fix anything in that. All right. So, with with that said, how much time do I have left? Am I being picked out? What's going on?
Half hour.
I have half hour. All right. You guys can get another half hour now as as uh so let's go to what is this? Lu. Let's go to Lu. This is happening. Yeah. Um, in in in my platform also, I I have a debug menu that I can bring up with tab and I can see every switch connected. I can see all of my uh all my LEDs. I I can't lean back. I wanted to all my LEDs, what they're doing, what the latest switches. Yeah. So, here here's my my little debug view that I can kind of bring up. Uh, eventually I'm going to clean this up a little bit more and make it in an operator menu so you can see all this stuff, but for now it's just me. Also, it has a scorbit QR codes, both the connect and the uh register if I want to and a little console and things. For luau, I have another set of four digits. These represent the score wheels. Before I even hooked up the score wheels, I had them working in code here. Then it just poof worked once I connected the switches with real hardware. So, let's let's turn this on. Let's give this a run. So, every one of my games you, some of you may have seen, it has this bootup screen. This connects to my server. Well, this connects to the Unity servers because I use Unity Cloud for everything. This connects to remote configs. This connects to analytics, all kinds of things. All my games use remote analytics, so I can look to see what everybody's playing, what what modes they they played, and all that fun stuff. Um, as I say, if I press tab, you can see on the left here, this is the LED uh texture. So, what MPF does, it it makes like slideshows or something for for their light shows. I just have a a whole bunch of layers in a Unity scene right over here that if if you turn it around, you can see they're all kind of layered on top of each other with what I I want. And based on the Z, things go in front of other things and override what's behind it. And then I save this to a rendered camera um which is attached over here control camera and the texture is here. So this texture right here which is teenytiny because I don't need anything bigger than a 64x 64 pixel texture for the lamps and it's really expensive to sample things back into things. Um, this isn't updating dynamically, but if I click this a bunch of if I move the mouse around, you can kind of see the textures updating. So, every frame it takes a snapshot of this texture. And every frame, I sample my lights that I have positioned explicitly in spots. So, right here, for instance, is are my controlled lamps, which are all black right now. But the controlled lamps also render to their own texture. So, I can do different effects maybe on the control lamps versus the GI or the GI or everything and whatnot. Um, so if I take this control amp and I make it not black. Where's my this? Oh, no. I'm doing it with um vertex colors. I can't do that here. But if I made this not black, then I you'd see like a little white light like over here, like wherever that is. U So, that's how I'm doing my light shows. Every one of my games does this. This also allows me to just spawn what a prefab, which is a a Unity game object that has its own set of code and things. So, if I want a like a big sweeping effect during the game when you hit a target, I spawn a prefab and it just goes whoosh across the entire texture and it just covers whatever I want. Now, also for switches, if if we look at this this uh texture right here, all my switches are attached keyboard keys. And if I Yeah. So, as I'm touching around, you can kind of see some of them are turning green. That's because I'm spoofing key presses. So, if I wanted to play this game right now, I I need the trough filled in. I need to press the start button. Um I need then if I press A, I'm now on the uh the plunger lane. And now, typically you would release the plunger. Um and that's the equivalent of just releasing the plunger. So, now my skill shot is lit. I or which is connected to uh either the skill shot scoop or a couple other targets. So let's say I hit well that so now the skill I missed the skill shot and I got an in lane. So now this light came on. I accidentally hit one of these lights. So if I hit this a few more times, those lights will come on. And I I I program my games like this. Once I know that the mechanics work and the switches work, I just sit at home and I just play play with things and I see how things all work. And then maybe I'll go and I'll push an update every once in a while. And yeah, you can see this this the score rules are going up because I pressed a lot of targets. So in I mimic it in real time as though it's pulsing. Um so whatever the same pulse delay that I would have on that, that's what that's doing the pulse delay of and the the counting up of. And then if I if I drain through the center, well, I get no points and it switches to the next ball. And I can see I'm now in ball two, which is small for you guys, but it's right up here in ball two. Um, and if I'm done, left, left flipper, which is the left arrow key, start button. I hold that for a couple seconds, and the game will end and go back to the track mode with everything. So, uh, I get all the mechanics working, I get all the lights working by just making sure that it's linked properly with the game and with the game code. Then I just write C code like standard C object-oriented code just at home you know sitting in a chair sitting on the toilet whatever and I it it usually works. Yeah.
I don't hate fast. I use fast. What do you
Oh, I just don't like the Python language and I don't like YAML. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm a snob. I'm I'm C++ in assembly. So, you know,
I I I agree.
I agree. start.
Yeah. Yeah. Um All right. I I I think that's going to be about it. That That's a little bit more. Oh, you have a question. Yep.
What was your your work experience like before the the job 10 years ago that you started designing?
Uh game. I'm game programmer. I've been I've been writing video games since the third grade. That's that's what I live, breathe, and eat.
And that like East Coast.
Oh, yeah. Massachusetts. Yeah. Yeah. I started off writing DS games then then went PSP, PS3, and I do mobile now.
what got me into writing pinball code?
Video games. So why pinball then? Why?
Well, what was the changeover?
There there's no difference. Both are uh immediate dynamic game systems. One one just controls something physical, one just controls something digital.
Well, when did you swap over from doing like DS games and those things to making pinball machines?
Oh, when I worked on pinballistic for PS3, I I learned what pinball was. I learned that there's rules in it and I'm like, "Oh, this is pretty cool. I like animatronics. This is animatronics but fun." So, yeah.
All right. Playfield design philosophy evolved over making all these or during making all these games. Um I don't know. I don't like making the same thing twice if I can help it. Uh which is really difficult. Like making a fan layout isn't that bad because it's a fan. If you want to deviate from that and and make interesting shots, it's it takes a lot of rumination sometimes. Like I have another 20 odd sketches kind of like what I showed you on of just other layouts that I'm still thinking about and deciding on. And some of them will probably never come to light and I might take a couple and mash them together because I I like how something works, but I don't like how something else works on it. Um, so I mean I I I don't know. I I most of my design philosophy has come from a little bit of trial and error, but also just really hardcore studying how uh system 11 and WPC era games are composed, the materials that are composed, why they feel solid versus some of the 2000 era games feel a little light. Like even though it's the same, but but why does it just have that feeling? like the aireriness versus the the completeness and um why does it feel like something is um is more of a world under glass than something else? Like I've been that's the kind of thing I I I kind of focus on and try to understand.
Yeah. Yeah.
Is uh is the Unity thing, have you ever thought about putting that on like GitHub? Because I think that would be useful for a lot of people. Um, if you want to make a game with my platform, you're welcome to. Otherwise, trade secret. Uh, the the the fast the DLL for fast is on GitHub for everybody, but just my my whole system is not.
So, Lynn, I think I've asked you this before. Um, do you have preferred hardware use for the for the pop bumpers, for the flipper assemblies, things like you typically use Williams? I know what you use for the
Yeah. So, um I prefer the system 11 flippers that have the um capacitor on it because I only need to use one driver instead of two, which is really nice. Also, um the first time I brought Haunted Antonio Cruz here, I had a hold coil get stuck on and I didn't know it because the flipper wasn't up and I could smell it from the other side of the room. So, after that, I said, "Screw that." At least if the the uh flipper was stuck, like if the um transistor was stuck with one of those system 11 flippers, it'd be up and I'd be able to see that. Oh, why is this up? But the it was literally stuck down and because it was on for a little longer, it just fused down so it just wouldn't go up. And like walking around, you wouldn't know if no one was on it. Um, so that's why I use that. And for the jet bumpers, um, I used to use the the William style, but that's a pain in the ass to line up underneath and everything, especially for development. So final versions of of of layouts, I'll probably switch to that just because it's in wood and it's kind of nice. But for development, I use the uh the Stern Data East full plastic assembly. It's just a two and a half inch hole. You drop it right in and the uh the little spoon is always perfectly lined up mostly. And you don't really need to make many adjustments. Um as far as anything else, I usually lean more towards the Williams thing, unless Williams didn't have it, then I'll go to like the Stern. But I may replace the coil with a a Williams coil, though. Any other questions?
Oh, wait.
Oh, well.
Um, all right. I I got a uh I want I've always want to make a wedge head because wedge heads are kind of neat. And I actually designed another wedge head that I I want to make as well called um the joint. And the whole point of it is trying to roll. And there's going to be two score reels. A score reel for the main score and the score reel for how many times you've rolled it. And the catch line is how many times have you rolled a joint? And I only want to make the game for that joke. And I I I have a I have a layout for it. But um yeah, I've always want to make a a wedge head. They're fun. I I I played in classics leagues and it's, you know, the classic games definitely have different feels than modern games or contemporary games where shoot the shot coming back and all that. Classic games is shoot the shot, uhoh, now what? And it it's fun. It's definitely a more wild ball type of thing. So, I I got a Domino from EMP and I my requirement was design a game only using the parts from Domino and if it wasn't on I I want to put a spinner on it, but Domino didn't have a spinner so I can't use a spinner. Uh and I rejiggered things around, cut a new playfield, and that's a luau. I I got the playfield designed in about a day. I then printed it up uh on paper, showed it to folks at EMP just to get opinions. You can't make these things in a vacuum. It may seem like I make it in a vacuum, but I don't. I ask people constantly about this stuff. Um, and I anyway, so I brought the the print out to EMP, and while I was looking at it, like in real full sheet, I'm like, "Oh, this isn't going to work." Right? It looks great in CAD, but in real life, just looking at it, it it just isn't going to work. So, I I was redrawing and like on on that piece of paper, like all kinds of scribbles like I need to move this here. I need to move that. and you mostly in the upper corner in in some of the guides. And then the next one was just the cut and that the first cut that you see now. So that's that's lu. Oh, also um everybody under the sun makes a kiki game. So I just wanted I wanted to make a kiki thing but it's instead is lu. So it's kind of different.
Any other questions?

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