Homebrew Showcase: Legend of Zelda Pinball by Mike W

Marco Pinball·video·17m 23s·analyzed·Nov 7, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Marco Pinball features Mike W's Legend of Zelda homebrew, discussing design philosophy and video game IP adaptation.

Summary

Marco Pinball showcases Mike W's homebrew Legend of Zelda pinball machine, a custom build using a Flash Gordon playfield with rules based on the original NES game. Mike discusses his development process using the Mission Pinball Framework, his approach to integrating video game mechanics into pinball, and his future plans including artwork and an original layout game. He also mentions a Contra-themed homebrew in development.

Key Claims

This is Mike W's second homebrew game; his first was a Firepower remaster called 'Rootech New Generation' made about 10-11 years ago
high confidence · Mike W stated directly during interview
Legend of Zelda homebrew has been in development for 5-6 years and is approximately 30% complete with three dungeons finished
high confidence · Mike W stated directly
The playfield is an actual Flash Gordon machine that Mike resurrected—he purchased Flash Gordon parts (wires, mechs, drop targets) for $20 at the Ohio Pinball Show and obtained a spare Flash Gordon playfield from a community member via Pinside
high confidence · Mike W provided detailed backstory of machine acquisition
Mike uses Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) and FAST nano controller for the Zelda game; his first game used MPF as well
high confidence · Mike W confirmed during technical discussion
Mike created all artwork, rules programming, and assets himself without collaborating or paying artists
high confidence · Mike W stated 'I did everything myself' and discussed not wanting to pay for assistance
Player feedback has been positive at Ohio shows and Pinball Expo 2025; some players prefer simpler rule sets without deep jackpot building mechanics
high confidence · Marco Pinball host and Mike W discussion of show reactions
Mike has a Contra-themed homebrew game in development that he considers one of his remaining homebrew projects
high confidence · Mike W mentioned bringing Contra themed game to the interview
Video game licenses offer advantages over movie licenses because sound effects and artwork can be sourced from the internet more easily than with film properties
medium confidence · Mike W's opinion on licensing strategy for homebrew games

Notable Quotes

“I just said, 'Oh, I think I can make a pinball machine.' And I just started making it.”
Mike W@ 2:15 — Illustrates grassroots homebrew philosophy—low barrier to entry, learning by doing
“You literally resurrected a dead like a dead and gone game and actually made a new game...You're a hero, man.”
Marco Pinball host@ 4:30 — Emphasizes value of homebrew builders salvaging and repurposing vintage machines
“There's sound effects on the internet you can just download. There's art you can clip that and make art. But with movies, there's you have assets, too. You can just like clip the movies and put that on the screen.”
Mike W@ 6:47 — Articulates practical licensing advantage of video game IP for homebrew developers
“I think it's more street cred if you do everything yourself...I didn't pay anybody and this is my game that I made by myself.”
Mike W@ 10:10 — Reflects homebrew creator mentality: prioritizing autonomy and full creative ownership over collaboration
“I tried to make it play exactly like the game but just with some pinball rules added.”
Mike W@ 5:25 — Core design philosophy: faithfulness to source material while integrating pinball mechanics
“It's one of the first [open world games]. Yeah, it's one that put them on the map. I mean, it really really changed the landscape for video games.”
Marco Pinball host@ 5:53 — Contextualizes why Legend of Zelda remains culturally resonant for homebrew adaptation

Entities

Mike WpersonMarco PinballorganizationLegend of Zelda (homebrew)gameContra (homebrew)gameFlash Gordon (original machine)gameMission Pinball Framework (MPF)productFAST nanoproductRootech New GenerationgameOhio Pinball Showevent

Signals

?
design_innovation: Mike W adapted original NES Legend of Zelda game mechanics (dungeons, enemy types, item collection, progression systems) into pinball rules using drop targets, scoops, and spinners as mechanical equivalents
high · Detailed gameplay walkthrough showing dungeon selection, enemy hits, heart/ruby/bomb drops, key/compass collection, playfield multiplier mechanics based on enemy kills
?
design_innovation: Mike W discusses strategic advantages of using video game IP over film IP for homebrew: easier asset sourcing (downloadable sound effects, artwork from internet), vs. movies which have same asset availability but different licensing context
high · Direct quote: 'There's sound effects on the internet you can just download. There's art you can clip that and make art. But with movies, there's you have assets, too.'
?
restoration_signal: Mike W purchased broken Flash Gordon machine parts for $20 at Ohio Pinball Show, obtained spare playfield from Pinside community member, completely rewired and modified with new drop targets and scoop to create Legend of Zelda game
high · Detailed backstory: 'I saw a box full of wires and mechs...the playfield was trash or something...I made a post on Pinside asking if somebody had a flash playfield laying around. And somebody answered my post and said, Yeah, I got one.'
?
technology_signal: Mike W uses Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) for all homebrew games with FAST nano hardware controller; notes MPF was the platform choice for both Rootech (11 years ago) and current Legend of Zelda (5-6 year development)
high · Stated: 'Everything uh I do is the mission pinball framework' and 'This one's running the fast nano because I've been working on it maybe five or six years'

Topics

Homebrew pinball machine design and developmentprimaryMission Pinball Framework and software-based pinball developmentprimaryVideo game IP adaptation to pinball mechanicsprimaryVintage machine salvage and repurposingprimarySolo creator philosophy and avoiding external collaborationsecondaryPlayer reaction and feedback on homebrew gamessecondaryLicensing strategy for video game vs. film properties in homebrewsecondaryCommercial pinball industry vs. homebrew hobby distinctionmentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.88)— Marco Pinball host and audience are enthusiastic and supportive of Mike W's work; hero language used; appreciation for accessibility of homebrew movement; Mike W exhibits passion and pride in his project; some self-deprecating humor but overall confidence in the work. No critical or negative feedback expressed.

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

I'm crossing the camera, which is terrible, but this is Mike Whiz. How Mike, how you doing? Great. All right. What do you have here? What is your homebrew called? And uh this is The Legend of Zelda, and it's based on the NES game. Okay. I'm not familiar with the Legend Legend of Who? Zelda. It's like Link and Zelda and Ganon, but uh it's a rethe. Uh the playfield layout is a Flash Gordon. I removed the one of the popupers. You can see that on the the left there. And added a drop target. And then there's a scoop behind there. It's way faster. Yes. Way faster. Um added a ball save. So if the ball's going down the middle, press the launch ball button and that will pop up. So he right now he went to the dungeon. John Youssi that there? So what he has to do, this is dungeon number one, the eagle. So what he has to do, I just basically took the rules for the NES game and applied them to pinball. So if he hits those three drop targets on the So if you would have hit your button, it would have it popped up. So you can either continue in the dungeon or go back to the overworld. So he's going to continue in the dungeon. So now you have your skill shot and you can select your skill shot at the top there. And if you hit that one, you get points, but if you hit any other skill shot, you still collect it. So there's the shield uh red potion. So you just collected the red potion. So now you have uh two outlane ball saves. So Mike, let's talk a little bit about your development of this game. So this is under what is it? How what number game is this? This is your first game. This is my second game. I games that I've made. Okay. What was the first game? Uh it was a fire firepower rethe and I called it rootech uh new generation. I did that one about maybe 10 or 11 years ago. Yeah. So that precedes all this fast pinball assembling. H how'd you get that one built? Pardon me. I just went for it. I mean I just said, "Oh, I think I can make a pinball machine." And I just started making it. You write the code yourself and it's MPF mission pinball framework. Okay. Yep. Everything uh I do is the mission pinball pinball framework. Yeah. And this this this also is a MPF and uh fast. This one's running the fast nano because I've been working on it maybe five or six years and they didn't have the dinner on at that time and there was only like the P rock and the the fast systems at that point. Yeah. So, so do you find it uh did you find it beneficial to use a playfield and concentrate on the rules or did you really love the the fast uh sorry the Flash Gordon? Uh I really like the Flash Gordon layout and uh so John Youssi there's no art on it yet. So I'm more been concentrating on uh the rules. The rules. Yeah. You So you it sounds like you have a pretty deep rule set right now. I have three levels uh complete and uh hopefully someday I'll have all three nine dungeons done, but we'll see. So, this this is based on the playfield though or is it an actual um Flash Gordon playfield? Yeah, it is an actual PL, but it was I did not somebody So, the backstory is there used to be a um pinball show in Ohio called the Ohio Pinball Show. And one day I was there, I was looking through a bunch of junk. I saw a box full of wires and mechs and on the box it said Flash Gordon, but there's no playfield. So someone maybe the play ple was trash or something and the guy was just selling all the parts, you know, the the drop targets, all the wiring and stuff. Uh so I it was like 20 bucks. He said, "Make me a deal." I said, "20 bucks." And he said, "Okay." I took it. And then I made a post on Pinsside asking if somebody had a flash playfield laying around. And somebody answered my post and said, "Yeah, I got one. Give me your uh address." He just sent me the playfield. And so I replaced all the inserts and rewired everything and this is it. Dude, that is that that's the first time I heard that story. That's amazing cuz that would have also gave you out lane boss saves if you don't have any potion. So you literally resurrected a dead like a dead and gone game and actually made a new game that Yeah. You're a hero, man. You're a hero. Not like I there was a flashorn machine that I Yes. Yes. I had to build it. I feel like more people should try this. Yes. I mean, try this, but to try seeing what they can make out of what they got. So, what are your plans for this going moving forward? Are you uh doing artwork and stuff or what stage is like what percentage of done is this? Uh, so I got three dungeons done. So, I'd say it's about like 30% done. Uh, yeah, my next goal is to get um hard on it. And I think it's going to be just like an 8bit overworld map kind of uh feel to it and then I get a backlash. I could I could see this this is such a good start. I could see this being a completely full like Zelda experience. I tried to make it play exactly like the game but just with some pinball roles added. So you're clearly you've clearly played the NES and and and and you know all about the first one. Why did you put why did you pick the first one? It's one of the greatest games of all time. Yeah. I was about 14 or 15 at the time when it came out. So, like right in that sweet spot and it blew my mind. First open world Well, it wasn't the very first open world game, but it's one of the first. Yeah, it's one that put them on the map. I mean, it really really changed changed the landscape for video games. Um, how do you how do you feel about um using video game using a video game license to create your rule set as opposed to like say a movie or something like that? Uh, it needed to be done. Because is there there was a few pinball machines that are based on video games, but nothing really recently. There's not a lot of crossover and I think there's a lot of potential. Why is that? It seems like you it you can make the game based on a video game so much easier than a movie. Well, the thing about Zelda or any video game, a lot of that stuff is already on. There's sound effects on the internet you can just download. Uh there's art you can clip that and make art. And but with movies, there's you have assets, too. You can just like clip the movies and and put that on the screen. So, what are some of your mechanics that you really like in this in this uh in this game? Like, what are some of the things I like? You're like, "Let's go." You could teach Isaiah. Well, I do like people like drop targets. So, there's a lot of drop targets in that game. So, that's nice. Uh I mean like something in the rule set like Okay. Talk talk us through what the play So, you are Link in this, right? Mhm. Yep. So basically you really you can grab the mic if you want. Basically what you want to do is hit any flashing target any flashing lights that are blinking and once you kill an enemy you'll see your green top uh top lights light up. So right now you killed one enemy. Once you kill 10 enemies you'll get 2x playfield. And then you kill another uh 10 enemies you'll have 3x playfield. And those lights will light down here at the bottom. There's four lights there. So it get 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x. And once you kill an enemy, just like in the game, you'll the enemy will either drop a heart or I'm sorry. Yeah, drop a heart uh one ruby or five rubies rubies or sometimes bombs. And right now on the left spinner, you just collected a heart. Once you get 10 hearts, you'll get an extra uh ball. So, the more enemies you kill, it's it's better uh better for you in the long run points wise. If you just want to speedrun and go right through the dungeons, you can do that, too. You don't have to like roam around and hit targets and hit lights and everything like that. Uh I don't think you're in the D. You're still in the overworld right now. Okay. Yeah, I had the uh so once you go into dungeons, the GI will turn the color of the dungeon in the game. Uh it's kind of there's it's very bright here, but you'll be able to see it. So, you're still in your skill shot mode. So, you hit the drop target. That was a random skill skill shot and it gave you the bombs. So, now he's going into the dungeon. Okay, so all the assets on the So, you had to do all that yourself. I did everything myself. How do you go about collecting those screens and adding them to the game? What's your like process? So, I just downloaded a a map for the dungeon. You can went on the internet, download the map for the dungeon, and then you kind of make it scroll in MPF. So, you can make it move. Yes. Okay. It's like a animation widget. That must be a lot of work. Yes. It's I've been working on this for like 5 years and I've only got three levels done. So, yes, it was a lot of work, but I've been doing other games and things. So, another game. So, at what point um do you move to artwork and stuff like that? At what point would you feel comfortable moving now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'm ready for artwork because I know all the rules already except I just don't have them programmed, but I have it in my brain and what to do. Are you thinking of collaborating with some artists or are you going to handle it yourself? Uh I'm going to do this one all myself. Cuz I'm assuming you did your last one all yourself. Yes. Yep. Uh I think it's I don't want to brag, but it's more street cred if you do everything yourself. Okay. But then you can say, you know, I did it all myself. I didn't pay anybody and this is my game that I made by myself. You know that there there people who are We've been talking about homebrews and building it. People who refuse to kind of do a homebrew because they can't do everything. That's true. If you can't do everything Yes. And people want to help you out or you have the money to pay somebody to do it, go for it. But then but you're saying what Mike Whiz is saying was like guys just jump in the pool. Like if you if you Oh, I could never use Photoshop. Yeah. So you didn't have any more shields left. So you get one shield every ball and if you hit the skill shot for the shield, you get two more. So you uh it ran out. How's your show going? Like how how is how are people reacting to this when they play it? Uh I've been taking it to a few shows in Ohio and I took it to here and people re really dig it. Uh, I mean, I think they they they like the theme a lot. Um, and the simplicity of it also a lot of feedback on that. Some people don't really want deep rule sets and this one's just about hitting things. There's no building up your um jackpot uh you know. Is there anything that surprised you about a a player reaction or something that you didn't expect when you when you showed it in the overworld when you get the uh she uh sword? They're like, "Oh, cool." I don't know. Did you get the So you you haven't got the the sword in this game? Yeah. Having the ball fall, right? The saucer there. Yep. Having got the sword of the game. Yeah. cuz that in the game that's pretty much the very first thing you collect. So when people see that they're like, "Oh, I remember doing that." You know, my older brother played it. Yeah. Yeah. Cousins. Are there any other Nintendo properties that you would consider like old school NES stuff you would consider trying? Well, my other game I have two games here. My other game is a Contra themed. Oh, get out. No, they said you didn't have enough time to stream it. No. Yeah, but I got enough time to come over and play it. Bro, I'll show you it. I'll show you it. I like I I really like the music in Contra, so that's why I did that one. Can you go uh Can you put the the the Konami code in it? Uh you want to cheat? Yeah. I want 30 balls. Wow. That's [laughter] There's only three levels in there, so I think you can complete it with maybe five balls. You're a good player. You should you should just put it in and just have something come up on the screen and go, "No, we don't play that, bro." All right. All right. We don't have BA, though. So, all right. [laughter] Yeah. No, no, I have a button on the door. I can do Yeah. Yeah. Like I We definitely got to check that out. I can make it something work for you. Okay. Okay. Right. Um, so is it, you know, he you got the raft? So, you have to get the raft to get to level four. Uh, but level four is not programmed yet. But how's he doing though? How's Isaiah doing? Um, pretty good so far. Not bad. He's figuring out. Um, so the bomb is lit at the uh uh pop bumper there. Lower pop bumper. It's like pulsing. This is I I can't I can't wait to see like artwork and stuff go this. It's going to be so so cool. So So what you got to do now? You need to get the key. So what you need to do, you don't have any keys in your inventory. So you got to hit those three uh blinking drop targets in the top so you can backhand it up there. Now hit it. This the old school Flash Gordon style right there. You killed him with the bomb. So you have the key. Now you got to hit that door at the top that's blinking yellow. Got it. Look at Look at Look at this kid. So now what he has to do is complete all the um the three lights, kill the three enemies in the on the right hand side to get to the next part of the dungeon. This is really cool because it's kind of you kind of got to think too. Kind of got to strategize. Bring it down. I want to see him do it. You have six shields. So if John Youssi the ball going towards the out lane or down the middle, press the button. He's hoarding shields. Yep. [laughter] So these take two hits to uh kill these enemies. So you hit each target twice and uh two drop targets. He has to collected the compass and the map and the map is flapping flashing right now. So every time he kills an enemy and it drop a heart, it'll double the hearts. So it's a 2x heart drop. Do you feel like CERN's Dungeons and Dragons ripped you off? No, it's a good game. I like it. I think it's pretty cool. Um, he's got one more enemy to go. He can do it. Nice. Now you got to hit the the scoop to go to the next part of the dungeon. Oh no. Are you going to continue and and get into it? Well, I think we're I think I think we're going to wrap up a little bit, but Mike, what else are you going to be working on? And uh uh just in general, how you feel about the show? And so I think I have one more um home one more homerew in me and it's going to be a an original layout. I want to try that. Are you at all interested in actually working in the pinball uh um industry? Cuz I've never asked that to any of the home brewers. Or is it just a passion project that you would love to keep as just a hobby and chill? Um both. Yeah. If someone offered me a job, I would do it, but I would continue to do this also. It's not like a necessity, but but it's the passion and it's the it's I mean, look, you're bringing freaking people in and having fun with your game. That's that's the drive. I would also like to take this to video game conventions. If there's any conventions in Ohio or that want me to go there with this game, I think people would really like it to see that. They would eat that up. A buddy of mine has a Dungeons and Dragons and he put it in a uh a a shop that's all D and D with the where they play D and D and stuff like he says he makes a killing. If we can find any kind of Nintendo fanboy place, put this sucker in there. Once the art done once I get the art done. All right, Mike, thank you so much for bringing Zel the the Legend of Zelda. Let me not mess the title up cuz this guy got mad at me cuz I didn't know what Beimo was. But I think I know what Legend of Zelda [laughter] is. Thank you so much for bringing your amazing homebrew over. This is uh Pinball Expo 2025. We'll be right back with some more great tables. Thank you.