Homebrew Showcase: BMO! Pinball by Anthony Van Winkle and Jayauna James

Marco Pinball·video·17m 2s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Homebrew designer Anthony Van Winkle presents BMO, an innovative Adventure Time pinball machine with novel scoring and transparency tech.

Summary

Anthony Van Winkle showcases BMO, a homebrew pinball machine based on Adventure Time character BMO, representing his second major design after Mass Effect. The game features innovative design choices including a compact form factor, timer-based scoring mechanics for inclusive gameplay, and experimental transparent screen technology for an underplayfield reveal. Anthony also discusses his work maintaining Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) and developing GDAU, a new media controller now used by commercial manufacturers like Barrels of Fun (Dune) and Winchester Mystery House.

Key Claims

Mass Effect homebrew was Anthony's first game, inspired by Game of Thrones layout, started in 2017 and finished in 2020
high confidence · Anthony Van Winkle directly states this timeline and inspiration source
BMO uses timer-based scoring (Crazy Taxi/Safe Cracker style) instead of traditional exponential scoring to keep competition close between skill levels
high confidence · Anthony Van Winkle and Jayauna James explain the scoring mechanic and its design philosophy
BMO features an underplayfield (Hall of Egress maze) revealed through transparent LCD screen technology with smart glass, currently proof-of-concept stage
high confidence · Anthony describes the transparent screen implementation and acknowledges it hasn't been tested in a cabinet yet
Anthony Van Winkle is the current maintainer of Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) after taking over from Yan, the original maintainer
high confidence · Anthony directly states 'he just sort of transitioned out of pinball. And, uh, you know, I took up the reigns. So, I've been maintaining it for the last couple of years.'
GDAU (new MPF media controller) is being used by commercial manufacturers including Winchester and Dune
high confidence · Anthony mentions Winchester uses it, Marco (host) confirms Dune also uses it
Fast Pinball hired the original creator of MPF to rewrite the Fast platform code to ensure compatibility with MPF
high confidence · Anthony Van Winkle states this occurred 'last year when they had their or maybe two years ago'
BMO uses only proximity switches and no rollovers, maintaining a clean aesthetic with 3D printed parts
high confidence · Anthony describes the switch setup and design philosophy
Akira homebrew uses a two-way mirror that drops down as part of playfield design, contrasting with BMO's transparent screen approach
medium confidence · Anthony mentions Akira's approach while discussing underplayfield design inspirations

Notable Quotes

“Why destroy a perfectly good Game of Thrones when I can build it from scratch, make some modifications to the layout, you know, get rid of some of the shots I didn't like.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ early — Explains the genesis of his homebrew pinball philosophy and why he built Mass Effect from scratch rather than modifying an existing game
“Pinball scoring is exponential. As you get farther in the game, you get bigger and bigger scores. So if somebody's like a little bit better, they're going to end up with a score that's literally 100 times higher than everybody else's score. And that's just really discouraging.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ mid — Core design philosophy driving BMO's inverted scoring model for inclusive gameplay
“The goal of this one was something that I could assemble myself, transport myself in a hatchback, uh, and that would be fun for people even if they're not good at pinball.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ mid — Articulates the design intent for BMO as an accessible, portable alternative to full-size machines
“It's a trap. Because one of the things I learned with this is that the advantage of doing a traditional machine is that problems are solved.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ mid — Cautions that smaller custom layouts create new design challenges that traditional formats avoid
“This is a Mario Party of Pinball.”
Marco Pinball (host) @ mid — Succinct characterization of BMO's party game appeal and accessible design philosophy
“I don't want it to just be a regular underplay. I want it to be a surprise that you get to.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ late — Explains the design philosophy behind the transparent screen reveal mechanic, drawing inspiration from Akira's two-way mirror transition
“It's a symbiotic partnership.”
Anthony Van Winkle @ late — Describes the relationship between Fast Pinball and MPF, highlighting mutual investment in the open-source ecosystem

Entities

Anthony Van WinklepersonJayauna JamespersonMarco PinballpersonBMOgameMass EffectgameFast PinballcompanyMission Pinball Framework (MPF)productGDAUproduct

Signals

?
design_innovation: Anthony Van Winkle is pioneering transparent LCD screen technology (backless LCD with smart glass) to reveal an underplayfield maze in BMO, currently in proof-of-concept stage. This represents novel integration of display technology into pinball mechanics.
high · Anthony describes the transparent screen concept: 'backless LCD screens uh that you have to backlight yourself and then the privacy glass where you run electricity through it, it's opaque, clear it out and it becomes transparent.' Marco confirms he hasn't seen this in commercial machines yet.
?
design_philosophy: BMO inverts traditional exponential pinball scoring to create competitive balance between players of different skill levels, drawing inspiration from Crazy Taxi and Safe Cracker. Points per second are constant, farther modes get less time, reducing score disparity.
high · Anthony explains: 'The farther you get in the game, the harder it is to earn points and the less time you get to earn them. So even if you have a player who's better, their score is not going to be that much bigger.'
?
technology_signal: GDAU (new MPF media controller) is being adopted by commercial pinball manufacturers (Dune, Winchester Mystery House) as primary graphics/display engine, validating open-source tools in commercial production.
high · Marco asks Anthony: 'I know that Winchester uses it and June uses it.' Anthony confirms commercial adoption and explains why GDAU was chosen over Unity/Unreal for accessibility.
?
product_strategy: BMO represents strategic pivot toward compact, transportable homebrew machines that prioritize portability and inclusive party game appeal over traditional tournament-focused design. Complements rather than replaces full-size machines.
high · Anthony states: 'The goal of this one was something that I could assemble myself, transport myself in a hatchback, uh, and that would be fun for people even if they're not good at pinball.'

Transcript

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0:12

Yeah. Um, so Anthony, tell us about So you your first game was what? Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. And you had that here at Mass Effect. And you had that here at the show and you also have it here now. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, first of all, let's talk about Okay. So, first of all, let's talk about that for a second. How was that? That was your first game. That was my first game. Uh, it was That was my first game. Uh, it was originally inspired by Game of Thrones. Uh, so I was going to do a Game of Thrones rethe. So it started with the Game of Thrones layout and the ramps and everything like that. Uh, and then I met the guys at Fast Pinball who talked about their their kit for building from scratch homebrew machines. And I was like, you know, why destroy a perfectly good Game of Thrones when I can build it from scratch, make some modifications to the layout, you know, get rid of some of the shots I didn't like. And uh, you know, it was a multi-year project, but that was, you know, got me into pinball, got me into like the the craft of designing games, designing rules. One of the nice things about doing a pinball off of a video game, one, you have assets, you've got all the voice clips, you've got all the music, you've got all the artwork there, so it's very easy to stitch together a game. And also, the game like video games and pinball games, they both have modes, they both have objectives. And what are you doing in a in a video game? You're either going to a place, you're shooting a thing, or you're hitting a button. So those game sort of mechanics translate into pinball very well. So, I felt like Mass Effect was a great candidate for something where you could feel like you're playing the game in the pinball form. So, you cut your teeth on Mass Effect a So, you cut your teeth on Mass Effect a little bit. You said it was a couple years to do that. Yeah, I started that in about 2017. Uh, Yeah, I started that in about 2017. Uh, and I finished it in 2020. Okay. It was a classic layout. It was a Okay. It was a classic layout. It was a classic pin. Looked like a pinball machine. What What is What is going on here now? So, this was uh based on inspired by So, this was uh based on inspired by Tanner's House of Flesh and Blood. We saw that yesterday, you guys. We saw that yesterday, you guys. Yeah. And so we saw that uh at the show Yeah. And so we saw that uh at the show in Seattle last year and Mass Effect, I love Mass Effect. It's a great machine, but it's very big. It's very heavy. You know, it takes two people to move it. It takes a car to move it. And saw a flesh and blood. And like that's that's small. It's portable. Like you can put the legs on yourself. It can fit in the back of my car. And my girlfriend really wanted a Beimo game. Uh what is Beimo? I'm sorry, chat. I'm what is Beimo? I'm sorry, chat. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Isaiah. So Beimo is a character in the Adventure Time cartoon, not the not the main character, sort of a side character who has, you know, quirky personality, very cute, very funny. Uh, and so rather than doing like a full Adventure Time game, which would have all of the lore and all these characters and all this stuff, Beimo making a game dedicated just to this side character who has quirky little personality. Uh, the game is just fun. It's just comedy. It's silly. It's goofy. And that plays in with a small layout where it's not a traditional game. It's not, you know, three balls going for a high score, getting the wizard mode and the multiball. This is a timed game, uh, rather than a three ball game. The the rules are very much like Crazy Taxi where you have a timer counting down and if you complete modes fast enough, uh, you get bonus time and then you can just keep playing as long as the timer is up and when the time runs out, it's over. Little safe cracker-ish, huh? Little safe cracker-ish, huh? Yeah. And one of the inspirations there Yeah. And one of the inspirations there is, you know, when you're playing with people of different skill levels, like pinball scoring is exponential. As you get farther in the game, you get bigger and bigger scores. So if somebody's like a little bit better, they're going to end up with a score that's literally 100 times higher than everybody else's score. And that's just really discouraging. So the ruling the scoring in this game is the opposite. The farther you get in the game, the harder it is to earn points and the less time you get to earn them. So even if you have a player who's better, their score is not going to be that much bigger. They'll still win, but it's not going to be so defeating for everybody else. So changing the paradigm of like what is the the rule set of a flipping machine. Uh yeah, you can or here this is another lesson I learned is that uh when you're at a show and you have to mess with your game a lot, uh sliding the glass out is really a pain. So just make a lid. Yeah, look at this guy. look at this guy. It's so so easy to to fix things cuz at It's so so easy to to fix things cuz at a show like this with game, you're always having to work on stuff. You're always having to fix stuff. So, you said um you kind of did this So, you said um you kind of did this because it's smaller and like you know you can make a full-size game. Yeah. And that's sort of the the idea of Yeah. And that's sort of the the idea of demonstration before defformation. Like demonstrate you can build a proper machine with all the normal rules and all the normal stuff and then say, "Okay, now that I've done that, what's what's different? What's more fun? And yeah, the goal of this one was something that I could assemble myself, transport myself in a hatchback, uh, and that would be fun for people even if they're not good at pinball cuz they don't have to worry about like draining the ball or, you know, lighting that next mode or something. This game basically almost any shot will advance somehow and you have unlimited balls. Like when the ball drains, you get a new one before you even realize that it's drained. So, it's all about just having fun. You know, the TV's there to show the clips for people who like the show, and it's just a it's just a cute little game. You know what's interesting is that I You know what's interesting is that I it it's not as if it's this is this all all the stuff is the same. All the mechs are the same. The programming is the same. All that stuff is same. It's just a smaller form factor. Why does it feel to me like I could start with something like this and and and even though it's like the and and and even though it's like the flippers are the same, the I got to make a rule set. Whatever. Why does this feel to me more comfortable to start with as a home brewer? Well, that is a trap. Um, one of the Well, that is a trap. Um, one of the trap that is a trap. Uh, because one of the things I learned with this is that the advantage of doing a traditional machine is that problems are solved. like the dimensions and spacing of the flippers, how the trough goes in, like where the bumpers go and where the flippers go. Like this one, uh, you know, the trough is along the side and shooting up, uh, because you need that space. I was like, "Okay, that's great." It was only after I had built all that that I realized that the cabinet rails that support the playfield go along the edges and that's exactly where the trough is. So, I had to resolve like how to mount the playfield in the cabinet because the trough is there and getting the ball down. So there's a lot of like I I and once you said that I realized I I and once you said that I realized yeah there's a lot of geometry there's a lot there's a lot of geometry there's a lot of other challenges to solve but one of the things that makes this different like Mass Effect was all by hand. I didn't have a 3D printer. I didn't have a CNC machine. I didn't it was just you know hand tools uh in my apartment but now I have all those things. So this is very approachable because you can see all of the ramps, all of the ball guides, everything is 3D printed. So, I can put together a layout uh and sort of say, "Oh, this this shot's a little tight or this, you know, ramp needs to curve a little bit more." Pop up a 3D printer and, you know, in 2 hours I've got a new ramp. You know, with Mass Effect, I didn't have to solve any geometry cuz I was using Game of Thrones geometry. So, I think that's one of the the biggest challenges for people who are building games from scratch and building their own playfield is it's so much work to get the playfield populated. And if you do that and then realize that this shot doesn't work, it's so much more work to take it all down and redo it. So something that's small like this, it's a lot easier to iterate on and you have some ideas. Also, you know, you you can only have so many shots, so it's a lot it is a lot more approachable as far as designing the game. Just the uh the technical challenge of getting it all hooked up is a little tougher. So this is fast and mpm. So this is fast and mpm. Yes. Yes. With parts from Marco. With parts from Marco. Yes. Always. Yes. Always. Um, so let's let talk talk Isaiah a little bit through the game. We we're going to start doing a little bit more. We we talked a lot about how to build and all that stuff, but let's have some of the designers talk Isaiah through the game. So here

8:02

All right. So, uh, fortunately the rules are very simple. Uh, there are 10 adventures total and when you start the game, it picks five at random. And when when you're not in a mode, uh five shots will be lit and you hit any of them to start the next mode of that adventure. And the mode can be a single shot, it can be a group of shots, or it can be a sequence of shots. And you know, you complete those to to earn points. Well, I guess the the scoring is automatic. Whenever you're in a mode, the score counts per second. So, you're always going to get points for that. If you complete all the shots ahead of time, you get a little bit of a bonus score. And when you start a mode, it gives you a little bit of a time boost based on how many shots are in the mode and how difficult those shots are. So, it's fair. Um, it's not like, yeah, I was worried that I was going to accidentally make a mode that had too much time or not enough time. So, I decided to make it programmatic where it looks at the shots, it looks at the difficulty of those shots and then calculates how much time you should get. And as you get farther in the game, that amount of time will get less and less. So, you'll be really working on a hair's width of time to get those shots done. And that's really it. There's there's no And that's really it. There's there's no uh additional scoring. The only way to get points is to be in a mode. And it's the same amount of points for everybody. There's no multipliers. There's no bonus. So, it's trying to sort of keep keep the rubber band on the scores close together. So, it is more competitive even if you're not that good at the game. This This feels like the Mario Party of This This feels like the Mario Party of Pinball. Yeah, that that's the idea is it should be a fun party game anybody can pick up. It's not, you know, a huge commitment. You're not going to have somebody rolling for like, you know, 10 minutes or 20 minutes because they're really good. Uh because like I said, the the farther you get in the game, the less time you get for each mode that starts. So, you know, you will eventually become impossible to finish. You know what I'm loving right now? I You know what I'm loving right now? I can see the leaf switches. [laughter] I love that I can see the leaf switches. I love that. I can see. Are you going to keep it bare wood or you going to go into artwork? There there is going to be artwork. Um, There there is going to be artwork. Um, one of the ideas with this is the clean aesthetic. So, with all the 3D printed parts, like you don't have metal, uh, you don't have all that stuff. And then all of the switches are proximity switches. So, there's no rollovers. There's and there's some optos as well. So, trying to keep it nice and clean. And then, you know, putting art on there. The next version will also have an underplay field. Um, so that Wait, under what? Wait, under what? You have a screen there. Yeah. So, the You have a screen there. Yeah. So, the screen is going to turn transparent to reveal uh an underplay field which will be the hall of egress, sort of a maze uh that you that you uh try to navigate through. Okay. This comes up a little bit. How Okay. This comes up a little bit. How are you doing the transparency? Uh this I haven't tried it in a cabinet yet, so it's still uh proof of concept at this point. But with uh you can get backless LCD screens uh that you have to backlight yourself and then the privacy glass where you run electricity through it, it's opaque, clear it out and it becomes transparent. So it's not 100% transparent between the two of those, but my hope is that by making the cabinet light tight and then just illuminating it from below, uh enough will come through. But also the Hall of Egress is supposed to be very dark. It's supposed to be sort of a, you know, Finn actually goes through it blind. So, I think that'll be an appropriate way to sort of have that type of adventure and also, you know, double the available playfield space. Yeah. The reason I asked because I I've Yeah. The reason I asked because I I've heard a few home brewers, including some a project that I'm working on, talk about the usage of that screen. I've never I don't think I've seen it in a commercial pinball machine, but uh so you're pioneers right now. but uh so you're pioneers right now. I I hope it works. Uh, you know, I I' I I hope it works. Uh, you know, I I' I've proofed it out, but I just I haven't tried it in a machine yet, so that'll be next. Um, but one of the other games, Akira, they're using a two-way mirror. Uh, so there's a mirror in the playfield that's just reflecting. Uh, and then it drops down. And like the transition, the effect is so beautiful like to you think you know what the game is and all of a sudden there's this other aspect. So that's that's why I don't want it to just be a regular underplay. I want it to be a surprise uh that you get to. We got a couple more minutes. Can you We got a couple more minutes. Can you just talk a little bit about your creation of the mission pinball framework and your your involvement in that? Uh yes. So I have a little bit of Python Uh yes. So I have a little bit of Python experience. Um and Mission Pinball is an open source project. So when I started working on Mass Effect, you know, I was doing it the classic style cuz you can do it in Python. It's written in Python, but it's designed to use nice easy text files to say like this is a shot. This is, you know, score points when this happens, start this mode when that happens. Uh, but you can use the Python to do a little bit more complex stuff. So, as Mass Effect was getting closer to the end game, I was getting much more sophisticated modes. You know, I was programming this massive, you know, it's called the suicide mission at the end of Mass Effect and it has like so much complexity that I started, you know, writing some custom Python code there and then also seeing things that m that MPF wasn't really set up to do. So, I was like, well, you know, it's an open source project. I know Python. I can I can make some improvements to MPF. I can sort of, you know, take that on. And as time went on, I got more involved with Yan, who was the maintainer at the time, uh, and, you know, helping him out. And, you know, he had a kid. He'd been working on it for a long time. So, eventually, he just sort of transitioned out of pinball. And, uh, you know, I took up the reigns. So, I've been maintaining it for the last couple of years. And I also started, um, the new GDAU media controller for it, which is huge. which is huge. It is huge. I mean, it it's still in the It is huge. I mean, it it's still in the early stages. So, you know, I made some YouTube videos trying to walk people through the process to make it a little more accessible. Um, but it is like it is a gamecher as far as what you can do with the graphics and the displays, you know, getting video, getting integrations. And I mean, the old media controller for MPF was basically, you know, PowerPoint. Uh, very rudimentary like having slides and putting things on them. So, with GDAU, like you can see the screen, you can drag and drop, you can preview it, uh, and run it all. And also, it's just a lot faster. is a lot more optimized because it's a game engine. So, that's been my my big project for the last year or two. And, you know, Beimo is an example of that, like using GDAU as the game engine for pinball. And I believe some of the other commercial manufacturers use GDO as well. I don't know for sure. I'm going to I was going to ask Alex, I'm going to I was going to ask Alex, how does it feel to have your game in have your your code in in other games? Like, I know that Winchester uses it and June uses it. Yeah. Um I I was uh you know keeping Yeah. Um I I was uh you know keeping track of the project but before Dune um when they were doing uh Labyrinth you know there there was some discussion about using GDAU possibly using MPF. Uh but MPF you know for a commercial project you know sometime you you want to have that more efficiency of like a a tight programmed language. Um but uh yeah, I was really excited to see that and it to me that proves out that GDO was a good choice cuz I did a lot of research. You know, I looked at, you know, Game Makers Studio and Unity and all those types of things and other people have done that. Like there are pinball machines that are using Unity or Unreal or things like that. Uh but I felt like the learning curve of those is so steep. Um you know, I didn't want to make that uh sort of an official undertaking. Like if you know how to do Unity, you don't need a a media controller. like you can take care of it yourself. So trying to make it more accessible. Um but the biggest thing with GDAU is just being able to see your screen, put the things on it where you want them and know that's what it's going to look like. So cool. So Anthony works with fast So cool. So Anthony works with fast pinball, right? Or or you help with I I help with them. I mean Aaron lives I I help with them. I mean Aaron lives close to me, so you know I I go down to him when I need parts and he sort of walks me through like this is what this board does. You know, Dave and Eli help me wire it up. And on the flip side, if they're coming up with something new, like we just got this new shaker motor board, you know, we're going to send you a couple so you can, you know, get them integrated into MPF. Uh because they're they're very supportive of MPF. Like they make sure that all of their stuff works with it. And in fact, you know, last year when they had their or maybe two years ago, they completely rebuilt their platform. They hired the original creator of MPF to come in and rewrite all of the fast platform code to make it work. So they they are highly invested in you know making sure that MPF works that all of their stuff works with MPF and you know and if I have any problems with the board or something you know they're they're just a phone call away be like hey I'm trying to get this to work and they're they're super supportive and when other people are looking for features or something you know fast will implement you know a new firmware update to give them this new feature and then I can put it up into MPF. So it's sort of it's it's a symbiotic uh partnership. So Anony's a very smart guy you guys. So Anony's a very smart guy you guys. Um, thank you so much for bringing Beimo over and letting us check that out. And uh, they can watch your YouTube videos on uh, all your projects at Help Fast Pinball. Uh, yeah. And so I have a couple of Uh, yeah. And so I have a couple of videos about my projects, mostly Mass Effect, and then a new video series that's just literally from scratch setting up MPF and GDAU uh, to to make a game and get it flipping and get your your screen showing up and all that stuff. So, you know, hopefully trying to make it a little bit easier for folks. You're doing God's work. Thank you so You're doing God's work. Thank you so much, man. Once again.