# How To create a custom message for your game **Source:** American Pinball **Type:** video **Published:** 2023-05-07 **Duration:** 7m 42s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OzH27gdCE --- ## Analysis Dave Brennan from American Pinball provides a technical tutorial on how to create and install custom messages on American Pinball machines. The process involves creating a PNG image (1366x768) using tools like Canva, transferring it to a USB drive formatted as FAT32, and using the machine's service menu to enable and load the custom message during attract mode. This feature allows arcade operators and owners to display personalized logos, names, or branding on their machines. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] American Pinball machines have a custom message feature accessible via the service menu that displays during attract mode screens — _Dave Brennan, American Pinball, demonstrating the feature directly_ - [HIGH] Custom messages require a PNG image file at 1366x768 resolution — _Dave Brennan demonstrating the technical specifications in the tutorial_ - [HIGH] The USB drive must be formatted to FAT32 for the transfer to work — _Dave Brennan specifying the requirement during the tutorial_ - [HIGH] The custom message file is loaded via the same USB extension cord used for code updates — _Dave Brennan identifying the USB port during installation process_ ### Notable Quotes > "This is great for anybody that has a name for their arcade or if it's a you know a brew pub or something like that where you want to put your logo this is a great opportunity to customize your machine" > — **Dave Brennan**, early in video > _Explains the practical use case and target audience for this feature_ > "The game automatically recognized the USB stick and it put the image file onto the computer" > — **Dave Brennan**, mid-tutorial > _Describes the automatic detection mechanism for USB file transfers_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Dave Brennan | person | Product specialist or technical support representative at American Pinball; presenter of tutorial | | American Pinball | company | Pinball machine manufacturer featured in video; the 'Pinball Tech Tips' series is their educational content | | Canva | product | Online design tool recommended by Dave Brennan for creating custom message PNG images | ### Topics - **Primary:** Custom attract-mode messaging and operator branding, Technical specifications and file formats for American Pinball machines, Operator customization and personalization features, USB file transfer and service menu navigation - **Secondary:** Educational content and operator support ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Instructional and helpful tone; Dave Brennan presents feature as valuable customer benefit with clear, encouraging language throughout tutorial ### Signals - **[community_signal]** American Pinball producing technical tutorial content demonstrating commitment to operator education and machine customization support (confidence: high) — Dedicated 'Pinball Tech Tips' video series from manufacturer with step-by-step tutorials for operator/owner features - **[product_strategy]** Custom message feature designed specifically for operator personalization and branding use cases (arcades, brewpubs, bars) (confidence: high) — Feature explicitly targets location operator needs: 'great for anybody that has a name for their arcade or if it's a you know a brew pub' --- ## Transcript Hey there, Dave Jeff Brenner with American Pinball Tech Tips. You may have noticed when you are reading through your manual that there's a section about creating a custom message and really what that is is in attract mode on your game there are several screens that show high scores and things like that but if you want to put in a custom message you can do that and this is great for anybody that has a name for their arcade or if it's a you know a brew pub or something like that where you want to put in your logo this is a great opportunity to customize your machine so in this section you'll see the first step is create a PNG image in this 1366 by 768 with whatever you want on it. Well, I'm going to show you how to do that piece, and then once we're done, I'll put it into the machine, and you can see how it works. So I'll show you the place that I go to is Canva and you can use whatever you want to create the image but I find this the easiest. So I go to create a design and then I select custom size and it is 1366 by 768 create new design Now from here you can upload all kinds of images from your computer So if you have a logo that you want to use for your arcade or your barcade or whatever, This is where you can upload that image and then you can put in different background or something and then change it around and put whatever you want, kind of customize. So this will be a static image but it's a nice little way that you can kind of show off and put like you know welcome to the arcade or something like that Now that I have the image the way that I want it, I can just hit the download button and say download and then that going to show up in your downloads folder Now that the file is downloaded you want to go into your downloads folder click and drag it over to your USB drive that formatted to FAT32 And you want to rename this file to say custom underscore message This is already a PNG file so you just need that and the name. Now you can unplug your USB drive and take it to your game. Now with your game powered on you'll see these are all the attract mode screens and one of them is going to be your custom message. So to turn that on, open your Coin Door, go into the Service Menu, and then go to Settings, and then Standard, and then go down to Custom Message, turn that on, and then hit the green button and back out of the Service Menu. Now with your coin door still open, take the USB stick with your image file on it and plug it into the USB extension cord that's normally used for code updates. The game automatically recognized the USB stick and it put the image file onto the computer. now do exactly what it says remove the USB drive turn off the game turn it back on again Now you can cycle through the screens using your flipper buttons. And this is actually where the custom message should go. So if this is the case and it didn't take, open your coin door back up, plug in the USB stick again with that image file. Okay, now power cycle the game. Remove the USB drive. There we go. Custom message is on the screen. So now you'll see that each time that you have your game in attract mode. Hopefully you found this helpful. Thanks for watching. _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: f1c56317-86a7-4a1c-8db2-846b4377330a*