Homebrew Showcase: Turbo Time Pinball at Texas Pinball Festival 2026

Marco Pinball·video·15m 37s·analyzed·Apr 6, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Turbo Time homebrew features steering wheel control, Hemi engine, and 90s racing game design.

Summary

Marco Pinball showcases Turbo Time, a custom homebrew racing-themed pinball machine by Nick Moran, at Texas Pinball Festival 2026. The game features a steering wheel controller (from Atari's Road Blasters), a functional V8 Hemi engine sculpt, racing-themed modes (drift, rally, autocross, track), and innovative mechanics like RPM management, modular multiball selection, and NOS boost integration. Nick discusses design inspirations from classic games like Getaway 2, Scared Stiff, and Road Show, emphasizing the homebrew community's supportive culture and encouraging builders to showcase unfinished work.

Key Claims

Nick Moran works for Dodge and incorporated Mopar aesthetic into Turbo Time's design
high confidence · Nick directly states: 'I work for Dodge' and explains the Viper stripe details on the cabinet
Turbo Time is Nick Moran's first pinball game, started 2 years prior to TPF 2026
high confidence · Nick confirms: 'Yes. And what a doozy to like start on' and 'I started on Turbo Time 2 years ago'
The steering wheel is sourced from Atari's Road Blasters arcade cabinet
high confidence · Nick states: 'The steering wheel is actually from Road Blasters, which is an 80s Atari game'
Steve Richie played Turbo Time at Expo a few years ago when it was a whitewood
high confidence · Nick: 'He played it uh at Expo a few years ago when it was just a flipping whitewood'
The game features eight-ball multiball capability and modular ball-lock selection (1-8 balls)
high confidence · Nick: 'The first way is to lock all eight balls... you could roll this with like six pistons down if or five pistons down if you needed to as low as one'
Turbo Time incorporates actual American racetracks converted into pinball shots on a map mode
high confidence · Nick: 'The spots on the map are actual racetracks from around America that I've converted into pinball shots'
Nick personally owns a Dodge Viper and drove Route 66 with his father from LA to Michigan
high confidence · Nick: 'I personally own a Dodge Viper' and 'I grew up in LA and moved to Michigan and my dad and I drove Route 66 the entire way'
The game lacks traditional tilt warnings, instead using RPM loss as a nudge penalty
high confidence · Nick: 'In this game, you don't get a nudge warning or a tilt warning. Uh, you just lose RPM'

Notable Quotes

“When I was designing my pinball engine, I work for Dodge. So, I was like forget Corvette. I got to take that idea but bring it to the next level.”
Nick Moran@ 0:28 — Establishes Nick's Dodge employment and motivation for the engine design as a competitive upgrade to Corvette's engine on another game
“I developed this game kind of after Steve Richie games where it's just fast and furious. Play better.”
Nick Moran@ 6:08 — Reveals design philosophy inspired by Steve Richie's fast-paced rule complexity; indicates the game is intentionally challenging
“There is support here to get me to the finish line... the community is so supportive. You are not alone when it comes to homebrew.”
Nick Moran@ 7:28 — Emphasizes the homebrew community's collaborative culture and mutual support as a key factor in completing his first game
“Get it flipping. Get like uh get your flippers working. Mount stuff to the playfield. See what works and see what doesn't and bring it to a show.”
Nick Moran@ 6:58 — Directly addresses aspiring homebrew builders, advocating for early community feedback and iterative development over perfectionism
“When you play Turbo Time, you are driving Turbo Time. You are driving the car. And I wanted to integrate that feeling as much as possible.”
Nick Moran@ 11:42 — Articulates the core design philosophy: immersive player agency where the steering wheel and car mechanics blur the line between pinball and driving simulation
“I like to joke around that like I'm not good at pinball. I'm only good at the game that I own. Like this is the only game I'm actually good at.”

Entities

Nick MoranpersonMarcopersonManupersonSteve RichiepersonErniepersonTurbo TimegameRoad BlastersgameGetaway 2gameScared Stiffgame

Signals

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design_innovation: Turbo Time implements steering wheel control (from Atari Road Blasters) as primary playfield interaction alongside traditional flippers, with dual-input capability for shots and modes; represents significant mechanical and software innovation in homebrew space
high · Nick: 'the steering wheel is just off the bottom, Manu is turning it left and right in order to fire the left and right flippers. There are some specific game things that you can only do through the steering wheel'
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design_philosophy: Designer intentionally blurs pinball and racing simulation through steering wheel, car state management (RPM, tire wear, fuel, PSI), track-based mode progression, and NOS mechanic that mirrors racing game logic over pinball conventions
high · Nick: 'When you play Turbo Time, you are driving Turbo Time. You are driving the car. And I wanted to integrate that feeling as much as possible'
?
design_philosophy: Game incorporates five major motorsport categories (drift, track, rally, autocross, cruising) with combo-based mode unlocking reminiscent of Steve Richie's complexity and Scared Stiff mechanics; intentionally fast and punishing ruleset
high · Nick: 'I've tried to represent every major motorsport in my game... There's there's drift mode, there's track mode, there's rally, there's autocross... I developed this game kind of after Steve Richie games where it's just fast and furious'
?
design_innovation: Turbo Time allows players to choose how many locked balls to deploy in multiball (1-8), similar to Venom; adds strategic depth and replayability by letting players decide risk/reward of ball management
high · Nick: 'you could roll this with like six pistons down if or five pistons down if you needed to as low as one... however many balls you've locked up to that point, it's however many that you will get'

Topics

Steering wheel control integration in pinballprimaryHomebrew pinball community culture and supportprimaryRacing game theming and mechanics in pinballprimaryCustom engine/mechanical sculpt designprimaryRPM and ball-lock multiball mechanicsprimaryFirst-time homebrew builder journeysecondaryPinball design inspiration and historical referencessecondaryPlayer communication and rules clarity challengessecondary

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

What's going on everybody? We are back for another homebrew. I am hanging out with Nick. The first thing that is immediately striking me is that we have a giant engine on here like Corvette. We got to talk about that. What an amazing sculpt. So, I'm glad that you brought that up right away because when I was designing my pinball engine, I work for Dodge. So, I was like forget Corvette. I got to take that idea but bring it to the next level. So Corvette just shakes the ball and I was like it's got to be a ball lock. I love this. So is this an inline 8 or a V8? It's a V8. All right. That thing got a Hemi in it. So do you feel like having a Hemi in your pinball machine makes it perform better? Absolutely. It's 170 cc's, 10.7 cubic inches of displacement. I did the math. Amazing. So, obviously the first thing I can notice from your game is that you can play it with a steering wheel controller. Yeah. So, you mentioned that this game was Road Blasters. That steering wheel is actually from Road Blasters, which is an 80s Atari game, which was one of my favorite games as a kid. The game is Turbo Time, but Oh, God. Sorry, I missed it because the tag up there. It only says it right there. So, it's hiding on the side of the backbox. Got to advertise better. Yeah. No, no, that's all good. That's my bad. So, I mean, how has the feedback been playing with something that's not standard? I mean, the only other game I can really think of off hand is Demolition Man that has kind of like Yeah, a lot of people really like it. I think some people are a little hesitant to nudge the machine on the steering wheel, but you absolutely can. Very cool. Uh, I made sure of that. That's one of the reasons I picked an arcade-specific steering wheel as my steering wheel for the game. I wanted to make sure it was durable and would last. Sure. And if you can't tell from the stream, because the steering wheel is just off the bottom, Manu is turning it left and right in order to fire the left and right flippers. There are some specific game things that you can only do through the steering wheel as well. Can you what are some of those? So, I have a rally mode where when you steer the steering wheel, it lights each major shot. And as you light the shots and make them, uh, you level out and you progress through rally mode. Uh there are secondary buttons on the cabinet that function for most of the stuff that the steering wheel also does. Uh once you get your driver's license, you can open diverters in the orbit that go to your pit stop, which is your track select mode, and your other uh diverter in the left orbit, which is uh your mystery award. So you light oil and then uh you get to go collect a mystery award. Very cool. So if I don't have a driver's license or am I too young, am I allowed to play this game? Yeah, you can. You earn it on the way. Amazing. Well, so we can kind of see we backed the camera out now, so you can actually see the interaction between it. And this is really one of the things I love about the homebrew area is that the innovation of not being afraid to do something that's like completely experimental like this. Other than loving the Atari game, like at what point during the development were you like, "Wow, this is going to work." So, I kind of developed this entire idea as like a huge brain blast, it just like invaded my thoughts when I was coming up with the idea of the homebrew. I wanted it to be a 90s racing game. Right off the bat, I wanted to have a steering wheel that had the integrated controls. Um, there's kind of little homages to lots of stuff in here, though, because you've got like the RPM from Getaway 2. You kind of got like a Road Show kind of map going on with the United States. So, I wanted to take a lot of like stuff from a bunch of like really fun uh racing games, but I wanted to also integrate the shots on the playfield into like a track mode. That's the main mode of the game where if you make a left ramp shot, that's the left turn on a track. And the spots on the map are actual racetracks from around America that I've converted into pinball shots. That's amazing. I've noticed you got something else here. We were just talking about it the other day about interaction with glass in order to like give player feedback in a certain way. I've noticed you've got the leaping bumpers uh standups and the cones on them hit the glass. Yep. So, you brought that up exactly. Uh, Alivra is one of my favorite games. So, the modes in this game are very reminiscent to how you would unlock them through Alivra as well. Um, with like combo ramp shots. Which Alivra? Scared Stiff. Yeah. So, that's where I got that mechanic with the pop targets from Alivra. I just did traffic codes because uh in autocross uh they have cones in a parking lot where you like have to drive through the track. So, I've tried to represent every major motorsport in my game. There's there's drift mode, there's track mode, there's rally, there's autocross with the cone mania mode, and then there's just cruising. Just cruising. I love it. So, I've noticed on the back glass uh or I'm sorry, the LCD, we've got tires, gas, all sorts of things that are on your car. Can you talk a little bit about how the interaction between like the car and the actual gameplay works? Yeah. So, uh if you look at the tires, they're currently green. Uh if uh the left return kicker is green and as your tires wear out, it'll go to yellow then to red. And by left return kicker, you're talking about the Banzai Run mechanic that's hiding in there. The left outer. Oh, I'm sorry. It looks like the slingshot has one too, though. The Banzai Run mechanic is there. Uh but uh it's it's there just mainly for fun as a call. It says drive fast, turn left when you hit the kicker there. Can I ask a question? Do I get a bonus? Is it like uh Demolition Man where I get less points from the flippers than I do from the wheel? Technically, yes. But uh uh if you hit that left shot, you'll get your driver's license. So then you can light shots and then you can make extra points that way. Oh, okay. So once you hit that uh that left ramp shot, you'll you can backhand it as well. Uh you'll get your driver's license, so then the steering wheel will be fully integrated. Oh. And then you can go to your track select modes and other things in the game. It's kind of like Godzilla. Hit the ramps to like kaiju battle. Yeah. So, Manu, can you can you get us some blocks? Can we see how the engine works? Yeah. So, uh the Manu, can you play better? Uh it's it's hard. I developed this game kind of after Steve Richie games where it's just fast and furious. Play better. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Uh I like to joke around that like I'm not good at pinball. I'm only good at the game that I own. Like this is the only game I'm actually good at. So, I've seen Steve Richie here. Has he played it? He's played it. I kind of like fanboy like super hard when he's around to scare him away. I got to work on that. But uh he played it uh at Expo a few years ago when it was just a flipping whitewood. I don't know if he's played it today or at TPF this year. I really hope that he will. So we we were talking about how not to be afraid to bring your game even when it doesn't have art and early iteration of it to any kind of like exploration. What would you say to somebody who is uh in the process of thinking about starting a homebrew? Honestly, like get it flipping. Get like uh get your flippers working. Mount stuff to the playfield. See what works and see what doesn't and bring it to a show. Like you'll find stuff that you never realized. You know, you don't know what you don't know until other people, other walks of life. Play your game and you can get criticism of course, but also helpful advice. Sure. And uh I think that like homebrew has gotten so far now that it's almost like intimidating to bring an unfinished game, but bring it. We'll help you out. We'll get you flipping in. We'll wire your game here if we need to. Like there the community is so supportive. You are not alone when it comes to homebrew. Like everybody wants all the homebrews to be better because it makes the homebrew area more of an experience for people to come to and it helps more people see the games. So this is kind of an anniversary for Turbo Time. Two years ago, I met Ernie and Marco and all the homebrew people and I was like I felt to myself like I can do this. There is support here to get me to the finish line. And so I started on Turbo Time 2 years ago and I feel like now this is pretty much the finished product for this game and I'm happy to bring it here and uh and share it with everyone. Sure. Is this your first game? Yes. And what a doozy to like start on. Oh, I'm serious. It's like I've seen a lot of home brewers come in with their first iterations of games and and this has got so much going on to it and I think Manu really nailed it by saying this is so much fun and I I really think that's when you know you've nailed something special. Yeah, thank you. It's uh it's pretty fast. Uh I I like it. Like the faster the game the better for for me personally. Uh um I'm so glad I'm not flipping cuz I know Manu would make be making fun of me for playing. More be uh you will lose RPM. So, uh, in this game, you don't get a nudge warning or a tilt warning. Uh, you just lose RPM. And you gain RPM by making flow shots, and, uh, if you choose, uh, automatic or manual transmission, it'll automatically shift for you in automatic. And if you go to zero RPM, you won't stall your engine. In manual mode, you get skill shots. You get shifting, but you can also stall your engine. And you have to shift the uh plunger. So if you shift there, you gain playfield multiplier in the form of PSI. That's that's really cool. Flow shots. So I love that you've taken like traditional mechanics like So when you when you when you play Oh, you stalled your engine. So you can shift and press the start button to re to restart your engine. So it's kind of a risk reward like you can you can nudge all you want, but then there's also the risk there. So this one thing I love about homebrew is all of these kind of like crazy modifications to rules. On the downside, how do you communicate this stuff to the player so they know how to do this? Right? Flashing red lights and there there is like a how to play thing in the in the attract carousel. So the rules are there. Normally the rules cards would be here in the apron, but I've taken that space for my uh my gauges. Uh so yeah, it's honestly like I kind of feel a little bad for the normal player, but I know all the rules. I try to express that better. That's something I definitely need to work on. But also, you're making this game for you, but also Exactly. It it also it seems like it's just absolute fun just coming up and flipping and not knowing anything about the rules. And really, like I think every pinball machine needs to be that as well. It's kind of like a fool around and find out. Like there there's a bunch of modes where you just have to kind of make the shots. Like drift mode is alternating left and right ramp shots. And you can make that, but you don't know it's there until uh you hit like two or three in a row and then the lights come on and say, "Hey, keep keep going." Manu, what's your what's your favorite shot on this so far? So, uh, well, that upper ramp, I made it once. It felt so good. So, it's it's from the up, uh, upper right flipper, right? This flipper to that ramp up there to the the engine, I guess. Yeah, sure. It feels really good when you hit it, but I I only hit it once. So, can you can you please can you start the engine, the multiball for us now? Oh, we asked like twice now. So, so there's two ways to start the pin and multiball. The first way is to lock all eight balls. That's a lot of balls. The second way is a modular concept. Like say when you're playing Venom and you lock a ball and you don't want to start multiball, so you hit the start button and and you choose to like keep the ball locked there to try to like build up. So you you could roll this with like six pistons down if or five pistons down if you needed to as low as one. So once you lock a ball, you if you gain RPM, uh if you go over RPM, the call outs will say shift gears. And uh I've actually used the the call outs from Getaway 2. Yeah. So, Getaway. Little shameless there, but uh if you go over RPM, it'll spit the balls out and then you go into a multiball. So, however many balls you've locked up to that point, it's however many that you will get and be able to play with. And then at the same time, you're dealing with managing their RPM, increasing the playfield multiplier, potentially playing it with the steering wheel wild. When you play Turbo Time, you are driving Turbo Time. You are driving the car. And I wanted to integrate that feeling as much as possible. This is a 90s racing game as a homebrew pinball. So, does flipping the flippers versus turning the wheel like give you any advantage in terms of scoring? Uh, so when you light your shots uh with uh the steering wheel, it does give you uh uh point advantages. Like say in drift mode, you'll get double scoring if you steer into the shots and make them. Uh but in rally mode, uh I I need to integrate the steering wheel more. I actually thought like if you steer left and steer right, it'll activate the flippers, but I thought like people would just kind of go a little crazy in that way. So, I I want to integrate it for later renditions, but not now. But I I want to integrate uh when you when you light the shot and you hit the shot that's lit, it does give you more points. Interesting. Can I communicate that I'm emotionally in a lot of pain because this coffee is a lot hotter than I thought, but I'm trying to be cool about it. Um this is really fantastic. You know, I mentioned about the art on Monsters, Inc. At what point did you actually go for artwork and can you talk a little bit about the process of how you did that? So, uh I I love me a classic like American road trip, cross-country driving. I've driven almost every state of the United States. Uh and I I just love the open road and I wanted to express that with uh like the diner Route 66. Route 66 is an actual mechanic. Uh it's also personal to me because uh I grew up in LA and moved to Michigan and my dad and I drove Route 66 the entire way when I moved there. Uh but uh so I I love cars. I work for Dodge. That's why there's a lot of Mopar on the playfield. Uh I personally own a Dodge Viper. Wow. Do you remember the TV show? Yeah. So, the stripes on the side of the cabinet are the first generation Dodge Viper and the last generation Dodge Viper with the blue and white stripes and the red and white stripes. And the stripe uh sizing is actually how they paint them on the Viper hoods. That's very cool. Um our last question. Does your game have a wizard mode? Yes. So, if you uh finish a track, you get international. You can go to the Nürburgring or a bar. Uh there's a track in Australia that you can also visit and then it goes into your wizard mode where you shoot every shot and uh um everything's like a lot of points, but there's also uh like a secret mini wizard mode where there's a NOS button on the steering wheel. And uh if you hit the gas lanes, you qualify your NOS. And uh my pot bumper is supposed to be your gas station. And I have Octane targets lit up on the side of the pinion over there. And if you uh if you hit all those, you build your uh NOS tank in uh the car traffic. And when you max it out and you hit the NOS button, you get max PSI and everything just kind of goes crazy and you have a um unlimited ball save cuz when you hit NOS in a racing game, if you're hitting the the borders of the game, you don't care. You got NOS, man. You're going to go you got to go fast, you know. Uh that's funny. I think uh Manu got really close to filling up both his NOS tanks. I don't think he realized that. So, you can actually uh if you keep hitting the gas when you're in NOS, you can stay in NOS mode into perpetuity. If you keep filling up your NOS as you go, I feel like no engine would like that. Yeah, we'll see. The machine's good for it, though. That's amazing. Well, Nick, I really appreciate it. Uh I'm going to give you the stage here. If there's anything you want to say, just say your name and your game and uh yeah, you're going to have this at other expos coming up. Yeah. Uh it plays great now. Uh, come and play it, please. It's a little fast and furious, but I I hope that everyone enjoys it. And uh, Turbo Time, let's go. Uh, what's your full name? Nick Moran. All right, everybody. Come and check out Turbo Time uh, if you're here at TPF. If you're not, check it out at Expo or some other upcoming events.