EPC2025 - Wolfgang Grauvogl - Pinball News

Pinball News (EPC 2025 Seminars)·video·36m 58s·analyzed·Jun 1, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Grauvogl's six-year Rocky Horror Picture Show homebrew pinball project showcases MPF/P-ROC build complexity and licensing challenges.

Summary

Wolfgang Grauvogl presents a six-year homebrew Rocky Horror Picture Show pinball machine project built on a modified Black Rose playfield. He details the technical journey from initial restoration attempts, through licensing negotiations with Disney, software development using Mission Pinball Framework, and final gameplay implementation. The machine is complete and playable but remains a private project due to licensing restrictions, though Grauvogl invites manufacturer contact through Stefan Riedler for potential commercial development.

Key Claims

Wolfgang Grauvogl started building a homebrew pinball machine in 2017, inspired by Dutch Pinball's 2014 Bride of Pinbot 2.0 conversion concept using P-ROC system.
high confidence · Direct statement: 'In 2017, I had the chance of buying two pinball machines from a local collector... I wanted to build a Bride of Pinball 2.0, because back then, it was like November 2014, when a rather unknown company named Dutch Pinball, they presented something incredible.'
Rocky Horror Picture Show licensing was declined for commercial kit production; Disney ownership (post-20th Century Fox acquisition) made individual licensing prohibitively expensive.
high confidence · Direct statement: 'commercial kit is a no-go. Not for a single person, not for anyone... 20th Century Fox was bought by the Disney Company during that time... For a private person, I would have to sign something with blood to a smart-looking guy, or to go to the bank, drop my pants and say, I have nothing, I want everything. It's just not possible.'
The Rocky Horror Picture Show machine uses P-ROC boards originally, with Mission Pinball Framework integration developed later; programming took significant additional effort and outside help from collaborator Alex.
high confidence · Direct statement: 'I bought two of those original P-Rock boards... So I started working on the Rocky Horror Picture Show... I found someone who was crazy enough to help me with my project and help me with the programming. And thanks a lot, Alex.'
Spooky Pinball currently uses mechanical switches in their ball trough/drawer, which Grauvogl found problematic compared to optical switches he implemented.
medium confidence · Direct statement: 'I was shocked yesterday when I saw Spooky Pinball. They still use mechanical switches in the bolt drawer. I tried that. No, no, just no way.'
Wolfgang consulted directly with Richard O'Brien (Rocky Horror Picture Show composer), who declined involvement due to Disney licensing ownership of the rights.
high confidence · Direct statement: 'I contacted him directly. I got a reply even from him... His just reply was, ask Disney. I sold everything. I'm no longer in charge.'
The machine uses AI-generated callouts for voices Tim Curry never actually recorded (e.g., 'jackpot') to fill gameplay gaps not covered by original movie audio.

Notable Quotes

“I was the hunchbacked Igor bringing the dead body it was just like this I knew what I wanted but I couldn't tell this machine and it was really blood, sweat and tears, countless hours of work, countless hours of dedication, bringing life to this machine.”
Wolfgang Grauvogl@ 22:38 — Grauvogl's emotional reflection on the difficulty of programming and bringing the machine to life, highlighting the gap between vision and technical execution.
“PowerPoint is like a loaded gun. You can do a lot of harm with only one slide.”
Wolfgang Grauvogl (quoting Tom)@ 1:32 — Self-deprecating humor about presentation setup; establishes casual tone for the seminar.
“For a private person, I would have to sign something with blood to a smart-looking guy, or to go to the bank, drop my pants and say, I have nothing, I want everything. It's just not possible.”
Wolfgang Grauvogl@ 13:39 — Vivid description of Disney's prohibitive licensing demands and the impossibility of individual commercial licensing.
“I was shocked yesterday when I saw Spooky Pinball. They still use mechanical switches in the bolt drawer. I tried that. No, no, just no way.”
Wolfgang Grauvogl@ 23:51 — Direct criticism of Spooky Pinball's ball trough design choice, suggesting optical switches are superior.
“For me, it's just have fun. Play it. Tell me what you like. Tell me, and even more important, tell me what you don't like so I can try to figure out is this feasible?”
Wolfgang Grauvogl@ 30:10 — Grauvogl's design philosophy prioritizing community feedback and iterative improvement.

Entities

Wolfgang GrauvoglpersonStefan RiedlerpersonAaron DavispersonBrian MaddenpersonAlexpersonFranz SchmidtpersonRichard O'BrienpersonTim CurrypersonMeatloafperson

Signals

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business_signal: Individual commercial licensing for major IP (Rocky Horror Picture Show/Disney) remains practically impossible for single persons or small manufacturers; licensing agency requires complete finished product, financial projections, and Disney approval, all with prohibitive terms.
high · Grauvogl's detailed licensing negotiation experience: contacted 20th Century Fox → referred to European licensing agency → required complete presentation/financial data → Disney acquisition made terms unfeasible → declined for commercial kit.
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community_signal: Fast Pinball founders (Aaron Davis, Brian Madden) actively encourage homebrew developers through expo presence and hands-on demonstrations, signaling commitment to community adoption and platform accessibility.
high · Grauvogl recalls 2022 Chicago Pinball Expo: 'They were really, really encouraging... They really pushed me' after demonstrating MPF functionality. Grauvogl credits their encouragement with motivating his continued programming efforts.
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event_signal: EPC 2025 hosting technical seminars on homebrew pinball development demonstrates conference commitment to grassroots community content and knowledge-sharing beyond manufacturer announcements.
high · Grauvogl presents six-hour (three-hour mentioned as target, appeared longer) detailed technical seminar on homebrew build process, chosen by Stefan Riedler as representative content for conference.
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design_philosophy: Grauvogl's approach prioritizes preserving original playfield geometry and reusing existing parts (Black Rose playfield layout, cannon, stand-up targets) while completely replacing theme, artwork, and code—minimizing custom drilling/modifications.
high · Grauvogl explicitly states: 'I wanted to use as much as possible from the original Black Rose... I did not want to start drilling or gluing inserts.' Example: replaced center ramp with plastic tube to hide modification; enlarged stand-up target hole instead of relocating.

Topics

Homebrew pinball design and constructionprimaryIP licensing challenges for pinball machinesprimaryMission Pinball Framework and P-ROC programmingprimaryBlack Rose playfield modification and rethemeingprimaryProfessional artwork and audio integration for custom machinessecondaryBall trough design and optical switch implementationsecondaryCommercial manufacturer comparisons (Spooky Pinball observation)secondaryDisney IP licensing restrictions and costssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Grauvogl displays genuine enthusiasm and pride in his completed machine despite significant frustrations with licensing, programming complexity, and time investment. His tone is self-deprecating and humorous about challenges, appreciative of collaborators, and optimistic about community engagement. The licensing section includes justified frustration but maintains respect for the complexity involved. Overall sentiment leans positive—accomplishment and fun despite obstacles.

Transcript

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Well then, hello and welcome to my short seminar about my little homebrew project. I was volunteered to do this by Stefan Riedler, so in the following three hours I will give you a short survey about what I did the past six years. So for those of you who want to play more pinball, in a nutshell, six years ago I started to build a pinball of my own. Now it's finished. You can play it. Have fun. For those of you who want to go a bit further detail, I'll try to give you a short survey about what's happened in the past six years. So for PowerPointing, what we have first, some general overview, then working on the theme, technical challenges and the next steps. As I said, it's still not finished until today. So, come on in, come on in. It's almost finished, it's almost finished. Come on in. I had to finish my game. It's okay, it's okay. We're here for pinball. You lied to me. This is like slide one. Yes and no. Maybe it's different in Australia. PowerPoint is like a loaded gun. You can do a lot of harm with only one slide. Very true. So, like Tom before, this is not a warning. In 2017, I had the chance of buying two pinball machines from a local collector. One of them I wanted to buy. This was a Bride of Pinbot. And the other one was like this. I hope everyone can see it. It was a neat pile of garbage, rusty. Red family has just been exposed. Lovely smell, but it was cheap. So for me it was like, well, okay, cold winter is coming. I have enough space. Let's take it home with me. So normally the nightmare of every pinballer, but a dream for everyone who does restorations. Oh, this bit of rust can't be too bad. Licker paint, licker paint. We all know that. But my general intention was like, I wanted to build a Bride of Pinball 2.0, because back then, it was like November 2014, when a rather unknown company named Dutch Pinball, they presented something incredible. You just take an old pinball machine, hook up a new PCB and a computer, and you have a completely new game. So I thought, hey, it's that easy. I can do that myself. So roughly one and a half year later, I was finished with my Brother Pimbot 2.0. Great game, still in my collection, would never sell it. I love this game. But it opened my eyes for the P-Rock system. Can't be dangerous. It's that easy. So, normally when you do a homebrew, it's just some easy steps like find an old rack pin. Okay, check on that. Add one. Make a complete overall. Okay, I can do this. Easy. Woodworks, bit of mechanics, cleaning, adjusting. Can't be too bad. Find a theme. Well, let's see what it will turn out. Create a bit new artwork. I can do Photoshop, so why not give it a try? Find a new set of rules. Sounds. I thought when I got the theme, it's easy, easy. And all I had to do is buy a P-Rock and a computer. Back then, P-Rock was the only system available, so there was no other option. The fast guys were not in the market so far back then, so I bought two of those original P-Rock boards. And then I come to the later steps, like installing MPF, Mission Pinball Framework. Tom already talked about it. And then it's just a jump to the left, a step to the right. No, it is not. Because I had one big problem back then. I bought the Black Rose just like this. I had no idea how the Black Rose played. Was it a good pin? Was it a bad pin? I did not know anything about this machine. So, because I was not willing to kill a pretty good machine for a rethink. So, what can I do? The only possible explanation or solution to this is buy a second one. So back at home then, I had at the moment two machines. I bought this one in Munich from a public laundromat directly out of the shop. So I had one smelling like fabric softener and a pile of garbage. So for me now, there was a choice. I knew how the Black Rose played. Will I restore the old one, or will I make a re-thing? OK. My decision ran into re-thinging, because the play field was really in bad shape. And retouch and replace my play field, well, if I spend that much money, I could even do a re-thing. It's almost the same. So, I had this play field, took a look at the play field and was like, what can I do with it? Because if you have no idea what to do, you start thinking, what do I like? Which themes would be great for a pinball machine, but based on the original play field? I wanted not to start drilling or gluing inserts or stuff. I wanted to use as much as possible from the original Black Rose. So there was this big Think Ship. Think Ship, eight letters. So my first theme that came to my mind was Pulp Fiction back then. Luckily, I didn't do that. We all know. You can play it outside. It's a great game, but it does not fit. Then I'm a huge Monty Python fan. And I'm still waiting for some bigger company to build a Monty Python pin. But Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Monty... Sorry, John. I love you. You spelled my name wrong on the autograph, but it's okay. It does not work. Music pin. There are so many music pins outside. But my kind of music does not fit into eight letters. Rammstein. No, it does not work. So when I was thinking about this, I listened to my music collection, and suddenly there was a time warp. It was a time warp. Time warp. Wait a second. Eight letters. Great. deep. So I checked, no one has ever done a Rocky Horror Picture Show pinball before. Let's try this. It's great music, great theme, everyone loves it. So let's try on that one. Okay. But then I had this... It was not really a problem, it was just a situation. Now I had two pinball machines standing next to each other. I did not know why but I bought two P-Rock boards. Could I build a commercial kit? I was so crazy back then and thought is this possible So I started trying to find out who is the license owner for the Rocky Horror Picture Show It gets worse. It really does. So, back then in 1975, 20th Century Fox, they produced the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The movie, not the musical. The movie based on the musical. so it was clear maybe they have the rights for this. So I contacted 20th Century Fox and they said, no, no, no, no. Not us, you have to contact someone else who is in charge of doing all those licensing stuff. So Google is your friend. I found the Agency for Europe who was in charge of dealing with all those legal stuff, copyright licensing. And they said, it's no problem. Just send us what you got. Well, I got nothing. So what did I do? They said, we need a complete list of everything you want to have in this machine. But it's a pinball machine anyway. So make us a complete presentation, what you're expecting, some financial stuff, and then we will forward all this information to the people in charge. A little spoiler, commercial kit is a no-go. Not for a single person, not for anyone. But if I wanted to ask for this permission, I had to present a more or less a finished machine at this point. I was so, so naive to think it's easy. So I started working on the Rocky Horror Picture Show, tried to find an artist because of course I can do Photoshop. Photoshop is not a problem for me. I can arrange pictures from the movie. I can, the internet is full with pictures of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. So I take This one, that one, like the James Bond 60s edition. Take this poster, that poster. So, find someone for the artwork. Pinball Dreams helped me a lot. Henrik Maurer gave me contact to someone in the business who does really great professional hand-drawn artwork. Again, still, I'm going to build up a company. I will do this in a professional way. So I found, now for the English viewers, Franz Schmidt. The builder Schmidt, the picture blacksmith, a great artist. I like him. He's a great guy, and he does an amazing job. So it took like roughly half a year to finish the raw layout of the play field. Still in legal talks, is this possible? Yes. No. Still working, cleaning the machine, still building up the rest. So I had to create a mock-up as soon as possible. And just for your information, this is part of the slide I sent to the licensing company. I thought, like, this is a pinball machine? This is the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Should be easy. You know what I want to do. Well. Again, spoiler alert. 20th Century Fox was bought by the Disney Company during that time. And if you ever imagined of dealing with such a huge company as the Disney Corporation. Everyone knows Disney, everyone loves Disney. We have a lot of pinball machines out there based on Disney themes and licenses. But if you ever wondered why there will be no Pirates of the Caribbean anymore, or why some people are not on the back glass of one pinball machine, it's all about licensing and money. And for a private person, I would have to sign something with blood to a smart-looking guy, or to go to the bank, drop my pants and say, I have nothing, I want everything. It's just not possible. Especially the situation, Richard of Rhein, the composer, I contacted him directly. I got a reply even from him. He's now 83, 84 years old, I guess. And his just reply was, ask Disney. I sold everything. I'm no longer in charge. You can ask me anything you want, but not about this one. Okay. So Meatloaf, unfortunately, he's no longer amongst us. Great artist. So who is in charge for Meatloaf, for the music? for his appearance in the movie. Tim Curry, great, great actor. I love him. Most of his films are great. But his health status is not as good as it used to be. I'm sorry, ever since he suffered from a stroke, I have no idea who's now dealing with all his issues. Don't know. Never found out. Never will. So in a nutshell, this is going to be a private project only. How much time in total until this point? One and a half, two years maybe. But still working on... And other pinball machines, of course, because there is time, still space. I can do several other pins in the meantime. No problem. So, just to give you a short impression, working on the theme, step by step, the original black rose, and what turned out to become the final play field you can see outside. I found someone who could do the printing on wood, clear coating, everything. I figured out what to write on these inserts. I created, In the meantime, I created a route sheet for my pin. And really, I watched the movie, I have no idea how many times. I almost know it by heart now. So I would like, if I may, to take you on a special journey for this one. No. It's just like, this is the end result after two, two and a half years. And, of course, over those past six years, there were a lot of fallbacks. This doesn't work. This was impossible. I even had a friend coming around on a regular basis. Can we do this shot? Is this possible? What happens if we do this? So, a lot of paperwork, private paperwork, setting up those rules. what is okay, what I don't like, what I like, are there any must-haves in the pin, and some things that I wanted to throw out because those center ramp from the black rose does not fit, does not fit. The cannon, no, I cannot replace the cannon with anything that is suitable to this theme. So, and of course, mission pinball framework. I have no idea whoever of you had experiences trying to program his own pin. Nope. Come back to that later. Yeah. Most people do. I heard of American housewives. They said it's easy doing in four months at home. So I had no idea what those housewives are up to when they're not doing their housework. So I got the flippers flipping. I got some of the coils firing. It was great. It was okay. But still no gameplay where I said, I want this music. I want this call out. I want, no. It just didn't happen. And back then, even I had some other issues to deal with. So the project got stuck for a couple of weeks and even months so but let carry on step by step so I cut away the the center ram how to replace it so I tried to use as many pinball parts that were already available so for example this I got from of ramp for testing. This is a Y ramp for a road kick because once the watch shoots out the ball, I need the ball someplace to go to. Left ramp, right ramp, out lane, I don't know. And then I wanted to create an easier way to start those missions. So the original Black Rose has a stand-up target I never managed to hit. right above the right out lane. And never, so I made the hole a little bit bigger for the bigger stand-up target. Now it's easy to hit. Even for me, it's easy to hit. No matter how you adjust your flipper fingers, it's easy to hit. And finally, I came up with the solution to hide the center ram and use a plastic tube. You cannot see when you play. maybe you can see it. Before I went to here to Wacklerbrock my girlfriend at home said has this tube always been there? No, only for the past four years. So in the meantime it was getting some programs to edit the video. Getting some programs to edit the sounds. Collecting all possible sounds from the internet. And I even used some AI tooling for callouts. It does work because if you try to use only callouts from the movie, there's always some background noise, there's always some background sound, and Tim Curry never says jackpot or something like this. I don't know. And of course some additional sound effects because I tried to, I really tried to take as much sound effects possible from the movie but at the end, no it's not rewarding, really no. So again, lamps, switches, sounds and callouts was now good. Was the rule sheet feasible? Yes, more or less. MPF and multimorphic. Multimorphic for this year. MPF, later. Programming, later. So, in 2023, I even went, 22, oh, sorry, 2022, I went to Chicago Pinball Expo with a friend and there I met those two guys from Fast Pinball. Brian Madden, Aaron Davis. Hi there, thank you. They were really, really encouraging. Like, you can do this, it is easy. But when you listen to Brian doing this with his laptop next to a pinball machine, now it's easy. Look here, now this light is on. I've never seen a light turn on like this. It's just like that. And they really pushed me. I really tried again to deal with this programming stuff. It was hard. Luckily, and many, many attempts later, I found someone who was crazy enough to help me with my project and help me with the programming. And thanks a lot, Alex. so for every one of you who thinks oh I'm the big Dr. Frankenstein I can bring this machine to life no, after years I realized I was the hunchbacked Igor bringing the dead body it was just like this I knew what I wanted but I couldn't tell this machine and it was really blood, sweat and tears, countless hours of work, countless hours of dedication, bringing life to this machine. And with all his additional help, really again, thank you, thank you very much. Without him, I wouldn't be here today or just show a wooden box. One of those must-haves for me was the ball trough, because all I wanted right from the start was an auto plunger and more than three balls in the game. And again, thanks for the help, it is possible with MPF to add additional switches, especially optos to an old WPC machine who does not have optos in the first place. I was shocked yesterday when I saw Spooky Pinball. They still use mechanical switches in the bolt drawer. I tried that. No, no, just no way. And hopefully no one will get to see this because whenever the play field is closed the machine is running so under the play field now I did a additional cut out to fit a standard belly Williams or even Stern used ultra and a standard auto shooter it works works fine of course it gets jammed a lot but this is just because I wanted a mechanical and our software solution at this point. I'm sorry. And of course, like again, some lights I don't want at this place, I want them here, I want them there. Rewiring was easy for me because just soldering those wires and leading them to a different location, easy. So, again, things I did not want was like difficulty settings, extended attract modes. It's always fun for me. The past two days when people went up to the machine, they still think, oh, it's just a black rose looking different. No, it is not. It's completely programmed, done, from scratch. So some things are still not in the game. Like extended attract mode, the whole diagnose system. There is a diagnose system, but it's run by MPF and not like when you open the coin door switches. It's easy. Lamp test, coil test, no. Not so far. A top I was not sure about building a topper or not. What do you do for a rock or a picture show? I had in mind a Dr. Scott in a wheelchair running around. Legs up always like this. Like the Pulp Fiction topper now, like, no. And believe me, there are so many things you have to keep in mind when doing this. So it would even be too much to list them all here. If you have questions further, just comment on it. And of course, those plastics, I tried to find out some pictures for this presentation. The plastics I ordered online, printed on acrylic plastic, and they were cut out by hand. because I did not, I wanted to make sure they fit and you can still see it, but if I hadn't told you now, no one would realize it. So again, gameplay, skill shots, ball saves. The Black Rose is really a tough game. It is, especially the outlakes. So I wanted to have additional ball saves. I wanted to have a kind of different flow to it. And once you change the rules of the game, many people have told me that it's a completely different game. It feels much smoother when you know, I don't have to shoot like this. And through the total package makes it easier to experience a really different kind of gameplay for this. So the rule sheet is still ongoing From my point of view we almost finished and most people who played the machine outside said this machine is perfect where can I buy it No you cannot I will repeat you cannot buy it go to Disney ask Disney This is a private project only, so far. But if there are any Pimble manufacturers watching this stream, please contact Stefan Riedler, he will contact me, and we will find a way. So, as I said, status so far right now, software coding 0.05, I'm not sure. It feels like a finished game, but I know there are still some add-ons I want on this game. There is still no rewarding scoring in this machine. was asked how much points you want for this shot? Make it 10. How much points you wanted for this shot? 50. No, it's really at the moment, it's more than you can earn on a Jersey Jack and much, much, much less than on a Stern machine. So if there is someone outside there managing to do a million points on this, he will get this one for free. It's not possible. Don't touch the code. And, oh, I brought something else. This is a bit off topic. Before the printing, I found this one in my attic. I tried to make an overlay to make sure that my layout and everything fitted to the wooden play field. You can take a look at this. This is really plastic foil, printed and laminated. It's easy and easy to use. And this is more or less a hardtop you can buy at some online stores. So if, oh, sorry. Yes, and as I said, service menu still ongoing. Additional gameplay and a lot of sounds still in my mind. We will see maybe EPC 2030. I don't know. So for me, like Gary Stern said, play more pinball. For me, it's just have fun. Play it. Tell me what you like. Tell me, and even more important, tell me what you don't like so I can try to figure out is this feasible? Can I adjust this? Yes or no? We will see. And that's all from my side. Thank you for listening. Enjoy it. Have a great time. Thanks for that. Of course, those who have not yet seen the gameplay. Are there anyone who have not yet seen the gameplay? Okay, okay. Hang on a second. This is still possible. This is... I filmed this one day before the PC, only with the camera, and the sound directly hooked to the camera. So you won't hear pinball noises. But this is how the machine would sound like if it wasn't for this giant stadium outside. Don't move. I have your bowls. Okay. In it. Get it. Woo! A little addition to your addiction. Skill shot. Okay. Shift it. Edit. Woo! Get it! Get it! It takes balls of steel to play me. We're going to shake it till the lock has gone. Well, wild and entertaining We'll be with the dancing You might go insane And your blood will sing We're gonna sing until the life has gone, gone, gone The love of the day. Freaky writer, it's all over. Your mission is a failure. You're not about to escape. I'm your new commander. You now are my prisoner We return to Transylvania Prepare the Transylvania One moment, let the fitness stop working after the music and you get the ball right back. Woo! Woo! experiences for yourself outside have fun and stay tunggey wow