Homebrew Showcase: Steamboat Willie 2.0 Pinball by Craig Monyhan

Marco Pinball·video·13m 52s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Craig Monahan demonstrates homebrew Steamboat Willie EM-style pinball built under $700 with family collaboration.

Summary

Craig Monahan showcases his homebrew Steamboat Willie 2.0 pinball machine at a public event, discussing design philosophy centered on electromagnetic game mechanics and aesthetic constraints. The game features three main modes with thematic integration to the 1928 cartoon, hand-painted artwork by his mother, moving animations designed by his father, and a monochromatic art style born from technical limitation rather than intentional choice. The machine experienced component failures during heavy show play but received community support with replacement parts.

Key Claims

Craig built the first version of Steamboat Willie pinball for $400 and the current version for under $700, with all parts able to be sourced again at that price point
high confidence · Craig Monahan, directly stated during gameplay demo
The game uses a 1960s Apollo-era backbox light holder as its backglass component, with bulbs placed in original positions
high confidence · Craig Monahan describing backglass design choices
Monochromatic black-and-white art style was chosen due to Craig's lack of color-matching skills in artwork rather than as an intentional design decision
high confidence · Craig Monahan explaining theme selection during gameplay
The game incorporates parts from multiple vintage EM machines including Flight 2000, Apollo, and an unnamed surfer game
high confidence · Craig Monahan during technical discussion
Constraints and limitations are necessary for finishing creative projects; unlimited resources lead to incomplete work
high confidence · Craig Monahan expressing design philosophy
The front wheel was added specifically to allow young children to physically spin a bonus wheel at the machine
high confidence · Craig Monahan explaining design decision for accessibility
A flipper wire broke during the demo due to accumulated stress from hundreds of plays during the show
high confidence · Craig Monahan and Marco noting equipment failure during live play
A coil caught fire during the show, requiring replacement parts to be brought in a suitcase
high confidence · Craig Monahan discussing component failures

Notable Quotes

“I bet you I can do it for under $1,000... this version I actually did for under 700 bucks. And every piece of this I could do again for under 700 bucks.”
Craig Monahan@ 3:44 — Demonstrates accessibility of homebrew pinball building and budget-conscious design approach
“You can't create great art with unlimited resources. It just becomes like arts and crafts, you know?”
Craig Monahan@ 4:41 — Core design philosophy about constraints driving creative decisions
“I didn't know how to do color matching with art... I didn't know how to make my colors look the same. But you're like, I can start with black and white and then somewhere in the middle. Exactly what I did.”
Craig Monahan@ 2:44 — Reveals technical limitation as origin point for monochromatic aesthetic choice
“The biggest design goal of... I wanted to make an electromagnetic game... there's a tactile feel to EM games that's a little bit different.”
Craig Monahan@ 1:23 — Explains primary design intent and thematic alignment with 1928 Steamboat Willie era
“I made my own engine. I made my all the little parts, all the little switches, they came from old other old games... I did everything with this box around it. Like I'm going to design and I'm going to deliberately set limits on what I do.”
Craig Monahan@ 4:24 — Details sourcing strategy and intentional constraint-based design approach
“I've made so many friends, dude. Seriously, like we're friends now. We got to be friends on stage in front of a room full of people.”

Entities

Craig MonahanpersonMarco PinballpersonSteamboat Willie 2.0gameSteamboat WillieproductMickey MouseproductMinnie MouseproductMonahan's fatherpersonMonahan's motherpersonFlight 2000gameRoger Sharpperson

Signals

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design_philosophy: Craig Monahan explicitly frames design decisions around intentional limitations: monochromatic art due to color-matching inexperience, EM mechanics aligned with 1928 era, sparse playfield to accommodate large Mickey artwork, budget cap of $700
high · Multiple direct statements: 'Nearly every aspect of this was based off of a limitation of I didn't know how to do art yet' and 'You can't create great art with unlimited resources'
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design_innovation: Front-mounted bonus wheel designed specifically for child accessibility, allowing young players to physically interact with a game mechanic without needing adult assistance
high · Craig: 'That was the real reason why we put the wheel here was for kids. Little kids would come up to shows, they put their stool up, and they step up the front and just go'
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community_signal: Homebrew community demonstrates organized rapid-response support system: someone flew to event carrying specific replacement coils in carry-on luggage; Emoto provided rare parts immediately upon arrival
high · Craig: 'Someone pack in their carry-on to fly up here with two specific coils that are specific to this game' and 'As soon as I got here, then Emoto came over with a package'
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product_concern: Machine experienced multiple failures during heavy show play: flipper wire broke from vibration/stress, coil caught fire, other machines at show had melting wires from coil stress
high · Craig: 'This coil caught fire today' and discussion of flipper breaking 'because it shook so much' and wires melting at other show games
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Topics

Homebrew pinball design and constructionprimaryElectromagnetic (EM) game mechanics and aestheticsprimaryDesign constraints as creative driversprimaryDisney licensing and character integrationsecondaryBudget-conscious machine building ($700 cost threshold)secondaryCommunity collaboration and support networks in homebrew scenesecondaryComponent sourcing from vintage machinessecondaryFamily collaboration in creative projectsmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.88)— Both Craig and Marco express enthusiasm and appreciation for the machine design, community support, and collaborative spirit. Minor negative elements include equipment failures (broken flipper, caught fire) but these are presented as expected wear from successful public play rather than design flaws. Overall tone is celebratory of the homebrew achievement.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

right. So, we just spent time getting to know each other in front of like a whole room full of people and now we're going to stand here and get to know your game together. So, we're playing this in real time. So, like talk to a little talk to us a little bit about the design goals for this game and what he's experiencing here kind of in real time. So, the biggest design goal of Oh, oh, Hi, this my name is Craig Monahan. Uh, [laughter] my name is Craig Monahan and this is my game Steamboat Willie Pinball. Uh, based off of the beloved uh character from uh somebody who's uh from a company that I won't mention. There you go. Um, and so the major design ideas here is I wanted to make an electromagnetic game. Okay. Okay. And so from a from the internal standpoint, the selenoids fire like their EM games. Okay. Uh as we mentioned uh in the well from as we mentioned in the uh last interview. Yeah. There you go. Um like if you took the cover off here, you'd see the spark spline whenever you hit the flipper button. Really? Um and so I wanted that feel like you could probably feel there's a little bit of a hum. There's a like there's a there's a tactile feel to EM games that's a little bit different. Yeah. So, I wanted to make that uh and it also fits so well with the theme of Steamboat Willie. It's like of the era of the era to every degree. I mean, like we talked about in the interview just before, we won't refer to that ever again cuz nobody else heard that, you know, but even the way you lit the back glass, it's so like sparsely lit as if they were like bulbs and you only get five of them to use, you know. Believe it or not, the back the behind the back glass is a light holder, whatever you call that backbox piece from from a like a 1960s Apollo. Okay. And so I just went with it. Where they had bulbs, I have bulbs. And so I I designed the art around where the bulbs were, which is like I mean truly the way paintball was done back then. It's like here's what you get to work with. and you did have to accommodate with what the physical like resources you had to build a game. And I I love the depth of thinking around that stuff. It's like the traditions and the homage to the era. Like it's it comes out in every part of this game. Yeah. That's been that's been the fun part. Everyone uh though comes to me and says, "Uh, man, doing a black and white game that's that's so in that's so ingenuative." And I'm like, that's thank you. Uh I appreciate that. But the truth is, I didn't know how to do color matching. with art. Okay. So, I didn't know how to make my colors look the same. But you're like, I can start with black and white and then somewhere in the middle. Exactly what I did. And so, that's that's why we chose the theme. That's why we that's why we did uh nearly every aspect of this um was based off of a limitation of I didn't know how to do art yet. Dude, I love the fact I've heard every different approach to get into making pinball and why people chose to do certain things. the fact that like simple color like monochromatic design was was the big impetus for picking this theme. I have not heard that before. Well, [laughter] uh listen, there were a lot of first in this game. Um but that's Homer pinball, you know. Well, uh I've mentioned before, um I didn't know other people were doing this. I I said to a friend of mine, I was like, I'm going to make my own pinball machine. And he said, you're going to spend a fortune. And I said, I bet you I can do it for under $1,000. I didn't know a thing about pinball. Uh my first version of this I actually did for 400 bucks. No kidding. Uh this version I actually did for under 700. And every piece of this I could do again for under 700 bucks. Um but I was just making it on my own. I made my own engine. I made my all the little parts, all the little switches, they came from old other old games. Like if you There's flight 2000 parts in here. Uh there's pieces we mentioned of Apollo. Uh there's one from some like surfer game, EM game. That's where the flippers came from. Okay. And and so I I did everything with this box around it. Like I'm going to design and I'm going to deliberately set limits on what I do. So there are people out there who people who don't set limits end up not finishing it. You can noodle around forever if you don't have a deadline or a budget or some some constraints. Like I'll say all the time, you can't create great art with unlimited resources. It just becomes like arts and crafts, you know? Did we lose the flipper? Yeah. All right. Uh it it's a broken wire. I know exactly where it is. Um so I apologize for that. But would uh would you like to kind of see homebrew guys? Can Can we Are we just going to open it up right here? Just like throw the ball around, too. Well, I'm going to throw the ball around and I mean, I am so uh um I would be embarrassed if you So, so you're looking under my dress. So, [laughter] so you're going to manually take us through the mode progression. Awesome. Just do that. Okay, dude. I think that sounds fine. Uh so, I'm also not in charge here. So, so so here's the deal. Uh skill shot. You shoot the ball uh from the flipper. Uh, it goes it does an orbital right away and if you shoot up the ramp with it, that's your skill shot. Just throwing that out there. There are three modes in the game that you're trying to complete. One, we'll do one now. You light off these and it goes red. Only color is red and green and it's only for this mode. Okay. Um, but it says, "Oh, save Minnie Mouse." Did you know there was a plot to the cartoon Steamboat Willie? Here's the plot. Minnie was late. Okay. Okay. I'm I'm not gonna be sexist with any comments on why she was late. Yeah, don't don't do that. [laughter] But uh she um she was late and Mickey's like, "Oh crap, we need to get Mickey on this boat." And so he's trying to figure that out. So how does he do that? He works with his crane. And so here's the crane moving. And by the way, you can you hit it and it turns on, turns off, which is so fun and frustrating. Like those oldtimey cartoons, that was like 90% of the plot points of those cartoons was Yeah. Oh, I got this going. A crap, it didn't work. And so you get the crane going and then you shoot the crane shot and boom, crane goes off, music is playing, happy. It's super fun. Uh, so it saves Minnie Mouse and then this is the part that everyone loves to see is after every mode you have to get a bonus, right? Sure. Well, what kind of bonus should you like how should you achieve this bonus? Obviously, you should spin for bonus. Okay. Is is the wheel in the camera? Like he's spinning the wheel that's off the front of the Steamboat Willie game right now. Dude, that's awesome. Anyway, um that's actually the real reason why we put the wheel here was for kids. Little kids would come up to shows, they put their stool up, and they step up the front and just go. And I was like, well, we need to make them a bigger wheel. Dude, that is so cool. So, that's one mode. Uh, next mode is if you like all of these, it says, "Hey, Pete lights complete. Pete achievement collected." By the way, right here is where the achievements are listed. Oh, right on. Um, so it does its cut scene spin for bonus. Yay. So, that's another mode. And last mode that you need to get to. All right. So, when you hit the bumper, it builds up steam. [laughter] Uh, so it does that. You have to hit it like 10 or 15 times depending on how I got it set. Uh, and then you shoot the boat shot and it goes into a survival mode called musical mouse where the the lights all dance according to the beat. Okay. Okay. And it's all cute and fun. Yeah. It's all uh double scoring at this time, but it's about a minute long and you have to survive, which on a EM game is brutal. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and so you survive and then you'll get the achievement. Now, since it's the last achievement, you'll actually go into wizard mode instead of spin for bonus. So, the wizard mode, you know, I already started saying wizard mode and I still got like 30 seconds left of this. And so, I'm going to be like the wizard mode. Pause. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait. Because you're not having to keep the ball alive right now. You're just observing, you know. See, it's right. It's it that's the best part of having the glass off. You know, when you started, you were going to do the demo. I didn't even notice the glass was off. You just reach in. I was like, "Wow." All right. So, there. Now, it's going into wizard mode, which I'd still be playing. Yep. And what does it do? It's in color, folks. That I mean, come on. It's the dream. So, music's a little uh more modern. It's It's all just super fun. It's all double scoring from here on out. But those are the three modes. It also has a multiball in it. uh you have to lock it uh doing like some shenanigans, but uh ultimately that's the game. It's not difficult. It's not a it's not like a Jersey Jack game where you have to you know hit this shot then this shot and then twist this and then you have to hit yourself on the leg and you know what I'm talking about. No, but I mean I think it's something that like there's enough here that it doesn't feel like it's sparse. You know, you can work through very methodically through the examples you just showed us and you're making meaningful progress. Well, the other thing was I wanted to make sure that from an art standpoint, I had room to put the giant Mickey on here cuz let's face it, you need Mickey Mouse on your machine. And I get tired of those crowded games where there's no room for anything. And oh, uh, it takes your picture while you're playing. And so, uh, a buddy here that was playing earlier, uh, first of all, he looks excited to be playing my game. I love I love this game. ring endorsement I've had since Roger Sharp told me that that ramp was too narrow. Um anyway, uh that's the rundown. What other questions you got? I don't know, man. I mean, like I think that Did you see the steam up? I know. I was going to say, is the steam on the camera? Yeah, there you go. We're showing that there in the screen. Also, the waves move up. Oh, wa. The waves move. You know, it's funny like you talk about the artwork and the sparseness of it. It's very it lines up with the content that's in the in the films that you're showing in the back. The animations you're showing, they were not like infinite animations, super many deep layers. I mean, it very much looks like of the era that the original Steamboat Willie like animations were created, you know. All right. Did he know he was being recorded or his picture was being taken? I don't know, man. I don't I I I just got here. I absolutely love this. But anyway, um that's the game. Um Well, I think this is awesome, man. Like they said, you know, we're You didn't know all the homebrew people were here when you started this thing? I've made so many friends, dude. Seriously, like we're friends now. We got to be friends on stage in front of a room full of people. You know, just become friends as friends. [laughter] But I do think I mean, great job in this game. I can't wait to see what you do next. I meant to mention my my dad did all of the like I would come up with ideas and he would be like, "Uh, we can't do that." And then like a a few hours later, he'd text me and say, "Okay, I figured out how to do that." So, he created all the things that moved. Um, all of them. All All of them. What a great way to collaborate, you know, work with people you love. Like, it's awesome. It's cool to be with my dad, too. We spent so much time in the garage together. That was really cool. Uh, and then the actual art on the sides. Uh, that is hand painted or stencil painted. Uh, my mom did that. Um, did you put everybody to work, you know? This is awesome. Like what a bonding experience that you have this as a momentto as a family shared experience like in this game and you can play this forever. Uh well it depends if I converted to fast pinball then I could play it forever. Uh but right now I have [laughter] there are times there are times like at home I don't it's getting hundreds of plays during this show. They're just getting beat up like all these games are. I mean, like the flipper went out because it shook so much that we saw games getting played LA last year where it was like they were getting played so much that like the wires were melting off the coils, you know? So, it happens. This coil caught fire today. All right. Like that's Did anybody notice between the smoke the smoke coming out the top? There's smoke coming out here. And such good theme integrations. Yes, I know. I'm brilliant. And and you can smell that wonderful smell to my heart, you know. Uh so we had we had to replace I I brought a suitcase full of replacement parts. I was going to say, did you need parts? Cuz there's some around here. Not for this game. Oh, interesting. In fact, Marcos, which awesome Marcos, just throwing that out there. Um, they actually had someone pack in their carry-on to fly up here with two specific coils that are specific to this game on the way up to the show. Like you're able to call in that dude people taking care of pinball. As soon as I got here, then Emoto uh came over with a package and says, "Here, I think you need these." And I was like, "I do." Dude, that's incredible, man. They're super rare. I I should I should convert all of this stuff to something better, but there's always time. Okay, we're getting the cut off messages here. Like, this is awesome, man. Dude, I'm so glad we get to hang out like Friends for Life and Homebrew Pinball and uh Steamboat Willie. Dude, this is awesome. Come swing by. Yeah, definitely. [laughter]