Homebrew Showcase: Tony Hawk Pro Skater Pinball by Nick Neitzel

Marco Pinball·video·9m 57s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Nick Neitzel's Tony Hawk homebrew pushes pinball design innovation with verticality and skateboarding mechanics.

Summary

Marco Pinball interviews Nick Neitzel about his homebrew Tony Hawk Pro Skater pinball machine, a showcase game featuring innovative playfield design including a full outlane ramp section, precision flippers with active cooling, and thematic integration tied to skateboarding lore and specific skater career achievements. Neitzel discusses his design philosophy of subverting traditional pinball conventions, using Tinkercad for 3D modeling despite no formal CAD training, and creating mechanics like the 'ollie shot' that reflect skateboarding culture. He hints at working on an original, unlicensed theme for a future game and has been hired by The Electric Playground after impressing with this homebrew.

Key Claims

The outlane ramp is the first of its scale in a pinball machine—normally the outlane is just a drain, but Nick designed it as a playable area
high confidence · Nick Neitzel describing his design philosophy: 'something at this scale had never been done'
Nick used Tinkercad rather than Fusion 360 to complete the 3D modeling within one year due to time constraints
high confidence · Nick Neitzel explaining his CAD tool choice: 'I didn't have the time to learn Fusion 360 and build this game'
The game features precision flippers with active cooling (aluminum heatsinks and fans) driven at high coil power to achieve high ball speed
high confidence · Nick Neitzel describing technical specifications: 'I had to figure out an active cooling solution...aluminum heat sinks on my coils underneath with fans pulling the heat away'
Each playable skater character has a bonus tied to their real skateboarding career achievements (e.g., Jamie Thomas gets a drop-in ramp bonus for his 'leap of faith' trick)
high confidence · Nick Neitzel explaining thematic depth: 'every single skater that you pick, their bonus in the game is tied to like what they did in their career'
Nick is working on a next homebrew game with an original, unlicensed theme that is 'near and dear to my heart'
high confidence · Nick Neitzel: 'I am working on the next thing...it's unlicensed. It's a original theme'
The Electric Playground hired Nick Neitzel after he impressed them at Pinball Expo
high confidence · Nick Neitzel: 'I work at The Electric Playground now. They pick me up after expos'
Nick iterated on the wire form loop for a month to get it working, and has continued refining it since last year's Pinball Expo
high confidence · Nick Neitzel: 'the loop, the metal wire form loop itself took me a month uh just to get it working once and then I've been iterating on it since Pinball Expo of last year'
The playfield geometry intentionally has low polygon counts that fit the PS1 aesthetic of the first Tony Hawk game

Notable Quotes

“The entire design process was me trying to figure out how to subvert pinball rules. And I'm not talking about like rule sets, but like do things that aren't normally done in a pinball machine.”
Nick Neitzel@ 0:57 — Encapsulates Neitzel's core design philosophy of innovation through constraint-breaking rather than traditional game design.
“I built all the 3D modeling I did in Tinkercad...I know Fusion 360 more now, but like at the time I needed to get this done in a year and I didn't have the time to learn Fusion 360 and build this game.”
Nick Neitzel@ 3:59 — Demonstrates pragmatic approach to tool selection and time management in homebrew development.
“An ollie is basically is how you jump with the skateboard...defying gravity to me, that's crazy, right? So like the it's like the basis of every skateboarding trick, right?”
Nick Neitzel@ 7:39 — Shows how thematic depth extends to explaining skateboarding mechanics that inform game design.
“There's people who are skateboarding nerds will see certain things and be like, 'Dude, oh my gosh, I can't believe that that's in here.'”
Nick Neitzel@ 8:29 — Illustrates successful thematic integration that resonates with IP-specific enthusiasts.
“As you can see designing uh homebrew instead of a roller coaster. And uh I work at The Electric Playground now.”
Nick Neitzel@ 6:02 — Reveals unexpected career pivot from childhood roller coaster design aspirations and new employment opportunity.

Entities

Nick NeitzelpersonMarco Pinballcontent_creatorThe Electric PlaygroundcompanyTony Hawk Pro SkatergamePinball ExpoeventTinkercadproductFusion 360productGold WinggameJamie Thomasperson

Signals

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design_innovation: Full-scale outlane ramp functioning as playable area rather than drain—first of its kind at this scale; represents significant mechanical innovation in homebrew design.
high · Nick states 'something at this scale had never been done' and describes converting normally unused outlane space into active playfield with drop-in features and jumps.
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design_philosophy: Skater-specific bonus mechanics tied to real career achievements (Jamie Thomas leap of faith, Tony Hawk ollie technique); demonstrates research-driven thematic integration beyond surface IP aesthetics.
high · Nick explains 'every single skater that you pick, their bonus in the game is tied to like what they did in their career' and describes skateboarding nerds recognizing hidden references.
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technology_signal: Precision flippers with active cooling system (aluminum heatsinks + fans) driving coils at high power to achieve fast ball speed required for verticality-heavy playfield.
high · Nick details 'I had to figure out an active cooling solution...aluminum heat sinks on my coils underneath with fans pulling the heat away' to manage precision flipper load.
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design_innovation: Designer used Tinkercad (free, beginner-friendly CAD) instead of industry-standard Fusion 360 due to one-year production timeline; low-poly geometry intentionally embraces PS1 aesthetic, turning constraint into design feature.
high · Nick explains 'I didn't have the time to learn Fusion 360' and describes low polygon counts as fitting 'the whole PS1 vibe' rather than technical limitation.
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Topics

Homebrew pinball design innovationprimaryPlayfield mechanics and subversion of pinball conventionsprimaryThematic integration and IP licensing in homebrew gamesprimaryCAD modeling and prototyping tools for pinball designprimaryFlipper precision and coil power managementsecondaryPlayfield verticality and depth as design constraintsecondaryCommunity recognition and venue employment opportunitiessecondarySkateboarding culture and lore integration into game designsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Marco and Nick are enthusiastic about the project. Marco repeatedly praises the innovation and depth. Nick is reflective but confident, acknowledging room for improvement while focusing on player feedback and future work. No criticism or negative sentiment expressed. Strong collaborative energy throughout.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

Oh, let's get ready to skate. Yeah. Okay. This is what every It's like It's like there are a lot of great homebrews here, but nobody gets more Let's go than Nick right here. [laughter] on this amazing game. Tony Hawk game. Nick, thanks for joining us. You're welcome. Thank you for having me on. All right, so you've heard this a million times, but in your head when what happened? How did you go, you know what? Let's go. Okay, so I tried to obviously capture the essence of the the Tony Hawk Pro Skater game, but really I also tried to capture the essence of skateboarding itself. The entire design process was me trying to figure out how to subvert pinball rules. And I'm not talking about like rule sets, but like do things that aren't normally done in a pinball machine. Uh like perfect example is the the outlane ramp. I was thinking like how do I add playfield to a section of the machine that is normally unused? Normally you drain and that's it, right? But I figured out how to make it, you know, uh more of a playable area uh for the machine. Um there hasn't been, you know, there's been a a few little small loops like Gold Wing's a good example like in the top left, but like something at this scale had never been done. So I was like, how do I make that work? So with skateboarding, you know, if you think about like a handrail when you walk down the steps, that's to keep your balance. With skateboarding, they're using it as an obstacle as as So I wanted to figure out how to do that in pinball. Like uh jumping the ball off the back of the scoop on that drop in ramp on the left. Like that's something that had never been done before. And I was like, "Hey, normally you're shooting the ball in it, but what if you jump the ball off the back of it?" So that was kind of the just a bunch of bad ideas that that I worked on until they were good. [laughter] How like were your iterations in the tens, the hundreds, the thousands? You know, I uh the loop, the metal wire form loop itself took me a month uh just to get it working once and then I've been iterating on it since expo of last year. I mean, it just it was it I reworked it a little bit and he's figuring the the center button out there. Uh to make it a little bit easier to hit it. Uh you know, I added some precision flippers. I figured out that to drive the coils as hard as I need to to make this game tick. Uh I had to figure out an active cooling solution. So, there's actually aluminum heat sinks on my coils underneath with fans pulling the heat away from the coils like because they're I'm driving them hard. And they're precision, too. So they're already kind of Yeah, they already will speed the ball up a little bit, but you can see like the the ball really really flies off of those flippers. So you're looking for speed. Speed. Yeah. I mean, cuz there's so much there's so much verticality in the game. Uh there's so much uh you know, kinetic energy in there. Uh what's a really fun one is he just unlocked the secret tape. So if he shoots the center ramp, he can uh Yep. So that yellow flipper up there opens up and that's how you get the secret tape. Another thing too is you can see that diverter in the top left that will do that whole drop in sequence. And once that happens, if you just hold your left flipper, that it it takes care of the rest for you. So, what did you uh did you do any modeling? Like, have you done any modeling? No. Did you do any 3D modeling? [laughter] What What was it What was it that you used to kind of conceptualize this? No. I've I've told people like people are like, "Wow, you know, you must have been you you know, you know how to do all this stuff or whatever to make this thing happen." I built the all the 3D modeling I did in Tinkercad, which is like which is which is awesome. They teach kids how to do CAD and that and like I know Fusion 360 more now, but like at the time I needed to get this done in a year and I didn't have the time to learn Fusion 360 and build this game. So I was like I know how Tinkercad works. I'm going to stretch this program as far as I can take it. And it, you know, the that's why the geometry on the ramps like has doesn't have enough polygons on it, you know, like it's not as smooth as I wish it would be, but it kind of fits in with the whole PS1 vibe. If I could like make it of a, you know, a lie about why it looks like that, you know. No, I like the PS1 story. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's it's it's all about just getting it done, right? Use what you can to get it done. And, you know, whether you use Fusion 360 or Tinkercad, you got it done. Yeah, thank you. I mean, uh, working with what you got like, uh, the playfield looks like concrete because it was easier to make it look like the first level of the first game than it was to be like, okay, how do I translate that into a playfield full of art? And it's like, well, if I did that, it wouldn't look like the game. Like, the goal was to make it look like Warehouse from the first game. So that's why, you know, if you look at like some of the accents on the playfield where it looks like there's grime and everything, that's underneath the clear coat. Like I made it look dirty, you know, as art instead of like, you know, resorting to putting a bunch of graffiti or, you know, some other ideas that I had. See, that's amazing that you said that because until you pointed it out, I didn't know what. So So you have like a the feel for skateboarding is in here. It's not overt. It's not in your face, but it just feels like skateboarding. And part of that is the art design. Are you Are you Are you like an art designer in any way or you just went with it? I I've been building stuff since I was a little kid. I mean, I my dream growing up was to be a roller coaster designer. So, I spent like I don't know how many hours in Roller Coaster Tycoon and No Limits, which is like a roller coaster designing CAD program. Okay, great. So, like my first CAD experience was with No Limits and like learning like how nodes work and like all that. And so, uh I ended up uh as you can see designing uh homebrew instead of a roller coaster. And uh I work at Electric Playground now. They pick me up after expos. Do you really? Yeah. Oh, there we go. [laughter] Yeah. I'm so this guys. I mean, of course. Of course, cuz Nick's amazing. So, um, do you have any other like plans or anything for this one? Are you moving on to another game? So, like as an like any kind of artist, if you know I if I'm going to call myself that, you're you're going to be your worst critic, right? So, there's things I see on here that's like, I wish I would have done this differently. But then when I see people play it and they go, I love this. I love this. And I don't hear any of those criticisms that I hear in my own head. It like gives me the the motivation to go, okay, you I you can work on your next thing. And I am working on the next thing. So, uh, when it comes out, it's it's unlicensed. It's a it's an original theme. It's a it's a theme that's near and dear to my heart. Uh, and it uh Oh, yeah. Just shake it and that'll come out. It's been It's been played hard today. What's your What's your What's your There you go. Are we still under the playfield? What's your favorite shot in the game? My favorite shot in the game is the is the ollie shot. So if the left and then makes that center ramp, he'll hit the ollie shot. And for people who don't know what an ollie is like me, so an ollie is basically is how you jump with the skateboard, right? Yeah. So if defying gravity to me, that's crazy, right? So like the it's like the basis of every skateboarding trick, right? Like Tony Hawk like was called a cheater when he figured out how to do it on a vert ramp when he when he was like skating uh uh tournaments as a kid. Yeah. Cuz the old guys couldn't do it and he could. So they were like, "Oh, that's cheating." Cuz that's how he got like air out of the out of the the bowls. Yeah. Oh, so this is Oh, dude. The lore of Tony Hawk. This is amazing. There there's there's a lot of lore in here. like the every single skater that you pick, their bonus in the game is tied to like what they did in their career. So like Jamie Thomas, you get a bonus for doing the drop in ramp because he's famous for doing the leap of faith, which is this like huge uh stair set that he ollied down and like there there's little like people who are skateboarding nerds will see certain things and be like, "Dude, oh my gosh, I can't believe that that's in here." Yeah. Yeah. Well, Nick, thank you so much for showing us once again. And if you've never seen this game, uh it's you, like I was saying to you before, it's kind of a shame for us to stream it from top down because there's so much verticality in the game. There's so much depth. Um it's more depth than most games even attempt to do. Um your your playfield in the back is so low so you could clear that glass. [laughter] It's low in the front too. So, actually like the um metal, you know, supports that normally support the playfield from the bottom are supporting it from the top just so I could have just that little bit of extra room to get the front down so I could have the back even further down. Yeah. You're trying to use every element of the table and I I now I'm noticing I appreciate there's no apron because because you got you got you're playing here. It's it's supposed to look like a warehouse. It's supposed to look like industrial and like the like like that level in the game. So I I could have added like some more stuff here, but I once I got this set up, I was like, "Oh man, it looks very it it works." So the thing that doesn't work is sometimes the ball hops over it. But hey, it's homebrew. Like you know, there's balls get stuck on production games, so it it doesn't really faze me too much. So Nick, thank you so much for showing us Tony Hawk game. Yes. Let's go.