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Tanner Walters - Pinball Expo 2023 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2023)·video·30m 34s·analyzed·Oct 20, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Teacher develops EM pinball mods and student DIY pinball kits for K-5 STEM education.

Summary

Tanner Walters, an elementary school teacher, shares his journey from restoring electromechanical pinball machines to creating aftermarket mods and educational kits. He describes developing high-score display systems, attract mods, and grounding kits for vintage machines, then expanding into student-built cardboard pinball machine projects that teach engineering and design principles to 600+ K-5 students through hands-on arcade and STEM activities.

Key Claims

  • Tanner has fixed or repaired approximately 75+ pinball machines as of last year's Expo

    medium confidence · Speaker states 'last year at the Expo, I had fixed maybe 75 machines or something' and notes the number keeps growing

  • His high-score display mod (v1.0) only fit Williams machines due to apron cutout specifications, limiting market to Williams/Zacharieh owners

    high confidence · Direct explanation: 'Williams has a three-inch by one-inch opening... It only fit in Williams machines and Zachariah because of the cut apron. You could take a Gottlieb and cut it... Doesn't fit in a Gottlieb'

  • EM machines experience EMI (electromechanical interference) issues that can freeze microprocessors; curled wires increase EMI pickup

    high confidence · Detailed technical explanation: 'if you curl the wire like that, it has more EMI pickup, which affects the microprocessor, and every once in a while, the microprocessor will freeze up'

  • Early Bally solid-state machines saved high scores but not initials or top-5 scores, only first place

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'early ballys and whatnot have, they save the high score, but they don't save your initials or they don't save the top five. It only saves the top, like, first place player'

  • Gottlieb System 1 machines lacked attract mode features compared to Bally competitors

    high confidence · Speaker notes: 'Gottlieb didn't. Their System 1s didn't have an attract mod. And then these other competitors like Bally really had some cool effects they could do'

Notable Quotes

  • “The biggest thing in pinball is bragging rights. You gotta be able to have the high leaderboards... I could write it up on a chalkboard and I could say, that's me. I have that score, uh, try to beat it. It just didn't feel the same as like going to the arcade and seeing that's my initials right there in the machine and you can't take it off.”

    Tanner Walters@ 2:08 — Core motivation for developing high-score display mod; explains what drove his product innovation

  • “I didn't want to do something crazy that would turn an EM into something that it's not. So this type of effect theoretically could have been done with the technology that they had at that time.”

    Tanner Walters@ 12:12 — Design philosophy: respecting era-appropriate aesthetics and capabilities when modifying vintage machines

  • “Students and kids naturally want to create stuff out of stuff. So that's what I love.”

    Tanner Walters@ 27:20 — Core educational philosophy underlying student pinball project integration

  • “From kindergarten when they walk in they have no idea what to do they don't even know whether there are buttons... but by the time they're fifth graders, they're professional pinball players in their mind, and they actually make their own games.”

    Tanner Walters@ 1:14 — Documents progression of student engagement and skill development across elementary grades

Entities

Tanner WalterspersonTriple ActiongameHigh HandgameDoodlebuggameHotshotgameWilliamscompanyBallycompanyGottliebcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Tanner's mods received positive community customization feedback; users adapted templates to fit machine themes

    high · Documentation of user modifications: 'They started to adjust the cards. They can actually customize these. So on my website, I gave them a template. And you could see that this guy made his shooter game... some more people here that are adding to their machines.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tanner prioritizes non-invasive, reversible modifications that respect original machine aesthetics and era-appropriate technology limits

    high · 'I didn't want to do something crazy that would turn an EM into something that it's not... It's very non-intrusive. It's very small, so it's not taking away from the beauty of the machine.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Multi-year STEM integration strategy using pinball machines to teach simple machines, design thinking, and entrepreneurial skills across K-5 grades

    high · Comprehensive documentation: 'I have 600 students... from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade... by the time they're fifth graders, they're professional pinball players in their mind, and they actually make their own games' and 'pinball machine has a lot of these [simple machines]. So with my fifth graders, how could I turn pinball into a project where they're learning?'

  • $

    market_signal: Tanner's EM scorekeeper mods sold out; producer considering discontinuing due to time investment, but customer demand convincing him to continue

    medium · 'I made another batch... I had sold out, and I thought, I'm going to not do these, but some people have convinced me that they want to have some, so I think I might have this be my last batch because they take a lot of time to make.'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.092

0:00
. Kind of my journey into pinball and then some of the things that I've gotten into and then how I got my students involved. So that's me. And this is me with my first pinball machine. It was about three years ago. It's Triple Action, the EM pinball machine. And I got it for I think around 300 bucks not working. And spent a week getting it working and felt pretty good. So that led into me getting into mods and kits and restoration things that I thought were really helpful. And I didn't see anybody really promoting these different ways to make your EMs a lot better, or nobody has invented some of these products yet. And I thought, hey, I could probably do that. And then that led me into trying to figure out ways to get my students involved and I got permission to put a pinball machine in my classroom and that allowed students to figure out that what it's called they they thought it was ping pong and something else so they are I teach all my students I have 600 students they range from kindergarten all the way to fifth grade and from kindergarten when they walk in they have no idea what to do they don't even know whether there are buttons and they just nothing but by the time they're fifth graders, they're professional pinball players in their mind, and they actually make their own games, and so you'll see that in just a little bit here. So back to the journey, how it all began. So this is triple action, the exact one, and got it working within, I think, about a week, maybe two, and then this is the second one I got for 550 bucks high hand, but something was missing with these machines. Um, I, I, first of all, I could only afford an electromechanical machine. So these were my budget projects and I loved them, but the biggest thing in pinball is bragging rights. You gotta be able to have the high leader boards and, and whatever. And, um, I, I could write it up on a chalkboard and I could say, that's me. I have that score, uh, try to beat it. It just didn't feel the same as like going to the arcade and seeing that's my initials right there in the machine and you can't take it off. You can't erase it. Um, so I needed something like that to fulfill my, my need of, Oh, this is, this is an actual pinball machine. I, I felt like it was missing something. Um, so that's what got me, oops, that's what got me into, Oh, so, uh, it got me into repair. Uh, I love the, the feeling of fixing these machines. This is, um, kind of all the machines that I, uh, have fixed or repaired or, um, done something to, And since then, it used to be, I think last year at the Expo, I had fixed maybe 75 machines or something. But it just keeps going because when I'm not teaching, I'm fixing pinball machines or making something with them. So this is the mod that I made that I had to have. This is the first prototype. It was for triple action. It saves your high scores, your initials, and it fit perfectly in the apron. Williams has a three-inch by one-inch opening. So I wasn't cutting into anything. I wasn't damaging the pinball machine in any sort of way at all.
Caines Arcadeevent/project
Arduinoproduct
Makey Makeyproduct
PinSound boardproduct
Pinball Expo 2023event
?

product_strategy: Tanner's v1.0 high-score display mod differentiated by machine-specific compatibility (Williams-only), then v2.0 redesigned for universal EM compatibility, addressing market segmentation issue

high · Direct explanation of design iteration: 'It only fit in Williams machines... So I only had an audience of Williams owners. And so that's what got me into making a different product, which is compatible with any pinball machine.'

  • ?

    product_concern: 3D-printed flipper prototypes for student machines underperformed; wooden sticks with rubber bands proved more effective

    medium · 'I tested 3d printing some different things to make the flippers feel more realistic and not a lot of luck with these. They kind of just didn't work that well. So then we switched over to just wooden sticks, and they worked better.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: EMI issues in EM machines caused by curled wiring and poor grounding; Tanner developed grounding kits as solution product

    high · 'if you curl the wire like that, it has more EMI pickup, which affects the microprocessor, and every once in a while, the microprocessor will freeze up' and 'I was shocked... by my high hand... a loose wire, but if it were grounded properly, I wouldn't have gotten a shock'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Integration of Arduino-based programmable lighting systems for EM attract mods, expanding capabilities beyond original mechanical design era

    high · Technical implementation: 'simply connecting to your game over light, which powers the Arduino, changes the AC to DC so the Arduino can be powered, and then to a relay... there's I think it's 16 different options'

    • 3:26
    So I thought I could make these. And if I can install them easily and then make instructions for people, it should be able to be sold for anybody to install. But it only fit in Williams machines and Zachariah because of the cut apron. You could take a Gottlieb and cut it. Is it cutting out? Sorry, it feels like it's cutting out or something. Okay, perfect.
    3:52
    It doesn't fit in a Gottlieb, so you'd have to cut the apron and do damage to the machine. Cutting the metal would be a nightmare. So I only had an audience of Williams owners.
    4:04
    And so that's what got me into making a different product, which is compatible with any pinball machine. So I'm going to show you this video that my daughter and I made a couple years ago. This was just my trailer for the item here.
    4:45
    How am I going to remember your high score? Hmm... Oh! I know what I can do! I can scratch your score into the side of the cabinet! Oh! I made it! I'm done, Charlie! What does it do? It takes time, so it can move. How long does it take to remove this? Ten years! Ten years? You're only four! Yeah... Can it win? Can you show me? It's full of ice. I'm Tilda Avery, and I'm five inches like Peter Pyre. I'm a kid. And I like this three-wood chip.
    5:26
    Look at him. Done. Now what? Christmas goes by. And when you get the best, there's a way I can go. That's the first commercial thing that I tried to make here. And so the next model, the 2.0, you'll see in a second. So it really is pretty simple. And screwing the apron, putting in the display, feeding the wires down, and then connecting to the switches. And you're actually piggybacking off of them. I guess you're adding an additional switch and then an insulator in between them so you're not having them contact your other switches. And then plugging it in. So that's the whole kit right there. I modified the wire so that it's not curled. I found out that if you curl the wire like that, it has more EMI pickup, which affects the microprocessor, and every once in a while, the microprocessor will freeze up, so you have to turn off the machine, turn it back on, and then it's good to go again. So EMs, who knew that they have lots of EMI, electromechanical interference? So grounding a machine also helps prevent that, which led me to make the grounding kits too, which we'll talk about. So this is the new 2.0 version. It works in any EM, and it's very non-intrusive. It's very small, so it's not taking away from the beauty of the machine.
    7:20
    That's kind of what I envisioned and wanted for my own machine. I have easy disconnect. Somebody said, hey, what if I want to disconnect the play field, take the whole play field out? Can you have an easy disconnect? So I added that in as an option and then people started making their own or installing them and saying that they love them And they started to adjust the cards They can actually customize these. So on my website, I gave them a template. And you could see that this guy made his shooter game. He kept the theme and was able to make his own very easily from our website, which is cool to see. and some more people here that are adding to their machines.
    8:08
    And then somebody had added this to a solid state machine because early ballys and whatnot have, they save the high score, but they don't save your initials or they don't save the top five. It only saves the top, like, first place player. So this one right here, they installed and actually cut the display and put it right there for a game that saved high scores but didn't save the initials. So that's kind of cool. So this is them customizing them so that it fits the theme a little better.
    8:42
    And there's a really easy video that shows how to install it. I won't play the whole thing, but it kind of shows you the beginning steps of it. Make sure to turn off the machine, especially when you're tapping into the transformer. So this is what powers the microprocessor and it turns, by tapping into the transformer it allows it to turn on and off with the machine. So that way it's not held on or left on overnight. So somebody had given me feedback of using these T-taps, so it just makes it really easy and painless without soldering. So I added that to the kit.
    9:28
    I'll fast forward a little bit here. So it's very easy to follow along. So there's that. I'm going to go to the next thing here.
    9:38
    So the EM scorekeepers are here. I made another batch. I had sold out, and I thought, I'm going to not do these, but some people have convinced me that they want to have some, so I think I might have this be my last patch because they take a lot of time to make.
    9:53
    But they're here for the expo. So then another friend had given me the idea of having an attract mod because Gottlieb didn't. Their System 1s didn't have an attract mod.
    10:08
    And then these other competitors like Bally really had some cool effects they could do. But EMs, when you're not playing them, they're lit up. They don't do anything, and when you put them next to a solid-state machine, it looks kind of blah, boring.
    10:23
    And I think they look beautiful, but they're not grabbing your attention to play like it is for a solid-state machine. So I want to do something that was easy and easy to install and also within the capabilities of the time period, something that's just a natural relay that controls the play field. So let's see if I can play this video here. so it's going to be a bit of me talking, so I'm going to mute it, so that way we can kind of talk through it, so it is showing you an example right now, this is set to random, so right now it's doing a flash pattern, which is like an increasingly more and more flashiness, and then it pauses for, I think I have a set time of maybe 15 seconds or 30 seconds, so you can set it to many different settings, different patterns, different times that you want, or different, like if you want a time-lite for five seconds or 30 seconds, 50 seconds, you can set all that. Or you can have it simply do random. I think that's what I have it set right now. So let's go to the back of the machine. So if you go to the back, it's simply connecting to your game over light, which powers the Arduino, changes the AC to DC so the Arduino can be powered, and then to a relay. And the program on the Arduino, whatever pin that you connect to, tells it what program to run. So these are all the programs that I have for it. there's I think it's 16 different options so if you put it in like you see here d11 I forget in the video which one I put it to but looks like I'm about to do d9 here which is one two three and one two three flash pattern and if you fast forward I think it'll show you what it looks like so it's just a simple flash flash flash flash flash flash so it's it's very I didn't want to do something crazy that would turn an EM into something that it's not.
    12:17
    So this type of effect theoretically could have been done with the technology that they had at that time.
    12:24
    So that's the EM attract mod, the instructions and things. I made another batch here for Expo. And then, so that led to other things. Like the insert leveling mylar. when I'd play my games the ball would get stuck and I'd get frustrated and I'd have to nudge and tilt the machine to get the ball to actually roll back to the flippers looked at different solutions some of them looked pretty complex this is one that I tried and I thought this is amazing when they are applied they look invisible like you couldn't, if I place them on an insert you wouldn't be able to tell which ones have them and which ones don't which is the idea. Like, you don't want to be able to see these stickers on there. They're removable, and they do the job. And you don't have to heat up the insert, pop it out, risk cracking them, doing damage to the play field. I've done that before, and it's a lot of time, and it's a lot of nervousness. But this was an easy fix. So I shipped those all over the world, and they're just $5.95. And that's been really popular. That's been a great addition. And, um, resettable fuses have been around. Uh, I didn't invent them. I, I simply have just taken the idea and I thought this is amazing and I didn't see very many people have them for sale. So I've, I've added those to the shop. Grounding kits. Um, I was shocked, uh, a couple of times by my high hand and, um, figured out that it was, um, a loose wire, but if it were grounded properly, I wouldn't have gotten, gotten a shock. So I've made these kits where people can simply buy them and watch a video and show them exactly how to connect them to their EM. So that way, everything that is exposed to potentially the inside and the outside of the machine saves you from any sort of dangerous shocks.
    14:15
    Some other things here that I've added as well to my website, but let's get into my kids, my students. So like I said, I have 600 students. This is the first video of them reacting to, this was a doodlebug I got for $300. It was completely rusted. Backglass was flaking completely so I just scraped all of it but the logo doodlebug because it looked kind of gross and I didn't think my students would want to play a really dirty, gross, falling apart game. So you'll see that in the video here. So this is their reaction.
    15:01
    Come on you gotta beat him in. Come on come on Lauren. Are the numbers? The numbers! Don't spam. No no no Hit hit hit Hit hit hit Hit hit hit hit Ahhhh Oh my gosh Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes So I knew I had something special here I knew I could turn this into like a teaching lesson To be honest, I brought it into my classroom because I wanted a pinball machine in my classroom. First of all, I wanted to be able to play it when I was in prep time, I had some time. But I did want to expose them to it as well. I was hoping they would get excited. I wanted to put it maybe in the staff lounge so we could have some competitions in the staff lounge.
    15:48
    But it turned into like a, wow, they love this more than I thought. So I initially just had to do a station for choice time where they got to play it. And I thought, I want to cut a hole in this, and I want to be able to have them see everything inside and how it works. So I was going to do that. But then I thought, I saw somebody online make an acrylic cabinet. And I was like, you know, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this for a long time. I might as well make an acrylic cabinet. So with my own money, I sought out a plastic company, and they cut to the specs that I wanted and made some mistakes in my measurements. But I fixed it, and it's downstairs for you to play and see.
    16:31
    There it is in my classroom. So last year I had Hotshot in there. It had a pretty rough play field. Got it for very cheap, but fixed it up. They loved it. And this year I changed it out to a new game, which you'll see downstairs if you stop on by. So this is the reaction of them coming into the acrylic cabinet.
    16:52
    The classroom here. And then today we will have the students see it and get their reaction. Hopefully they are excited. A lot of work put into this. So inside the classroom there is a little surprise. Let's see what you think when you walk in. Go ahead and walk in. What is it? I already know what it is. I know what it is. What? I know Laker. No! It's all mine! Mr. Walter! Yeah, Mr. Walter! Look over here! I got a toy machine! It's the coolest thing ever! I'm shy! What is this?
    18:29
    It's a pinball. Pinball. yeah they they love that um they've asked me a bunch to play it and i haven't had a choice day yet so they're just itching to play it so um i have students um do the canes arcade challenge so they i don't know if you guys know what that is but it's a student or a kid that builds arcade machines out of cardboard um if if you haven't seen it you should look up canes arcade it's really cool. Um, but that got me to thinking about, uh, with my fifth graders, how could I turn pinball into a project where they're learning? One of their standards is simple machines. I'm talking about pulleys and ax, axels, wheel and axle and incline plane. And, um, and pinball machine has a lot of these. So, um, I tested 3d printing some different things to make the flippers feel more realistic and not a lot of luck with these. They kind of just, uh, they didn't work that well. So then we switched over to just wooden sticks, and they worked better. Students loved having just these rubber bands that we tied to the sides of them. So they were kind of testing out the prototypes of a machine kit type of thing. So they got to color them with acrylics. They got to pick their theme. They got to pick where they wanted everything. So we went through the design process with them, and you can see a couple different designs here.
    20:23
    They start out with a box that's plain, and we 3D printed some openings here, but we later changed the design. But we prepare for an arcade day, so the students actually invite the whole school, 600 students, to come and play their games that they've been working on. You can see that they're very finished, and they're very proud of these things. They add their iPads, and they make music, So that way their theme music matches the theme of their game. So if it's a spooky game, in music class I collaborate with the music teacher, and the music teacher helps them make spooky stuff or techno and whatever it is that they want to make. We've had them make images to put on the back of their pinball machine that stands up so they can have a little back glass that's showing from their iPad. So there's lots of modifications that teachers can do or parents can do. but it's a two month process so the students are really invested and they're just using makerspace supplies to build these things so these are some arcade games that fourth graders are making back to pinball really impressed by the students and what they make so this is our stem day I'll really quickly show you this and then I'll show you what it led to
    21:44
    We'll be right back. We be right back We'll be right back. So students will ask me every single year, like, hey, is this the year that we get to do that? The arcade day, did we get to do that? So fourth grade and fifth grade puts that all together.
    24:11
    And so that kind of led to me thinking about, like, how can I make these available for everybody or other schools and things like that? So I made it. So what students do is they have everything they need in these kits, and this is the actual kit like right here. So it's all packaged real nicely, and you can just flip it open. It's got these clips that keep the walls and everything really tight together.
    24:37
    Use makerspace supplies from your house, so basically any recycled materials, like cereal boxes or toilet paper rolls, paper, toothpicks. It has a kit inside full of different things like that, like toothpicks and straws to help you make spinners and QR code to watch the videos on how to make some of the stuff. And there's a template in there. So teachers or parents could get one of these things and keep their kids busy for a really long time and allow them to develop their entrepreneurial skills, their innovative skills to make something that they want. Yeah. Yeah, it looks like from what the different ones at the demo day there, that you probably want to guide them like in the choice of a ball in particular. If they pick a ball that's too heavy, then it won't play very well. So this is your current thinking of give them something like a known quantity so they're more likely to be successful? Yeah, these are the kits that have been tested for, I've been doing this for three years now, the pinball making. So there's everything the kit like. It comes with three half-inch actual pinballs or like the same material that a pinball is made out of. So it's flowing nicely and it's got a good ratio of the box and the flipper gap is good. So like we've had lots of years of fiddling with these different supplies. It comes with stickers and arrows so students can come up with rules. Obviously, it's not programmable. We've tried that using Makey Makey, which is like a circuit interface, allow them to connect things, but the ball would hit those targets so quickly that they wouldn't register.
    26:24
    So I've thought about could I do the same thing that Bally machines do where you add a capacitor and it would allow it to have a better detection of that hit. So I haven't dived into that yet, but maybe that's this year's trial. So you make your own back glass. It has a cardstock template. You can cut out and make ramps because my students would have trouble with making the ramps or making the spinners. So it comes with a cardstock where you can just cut it out, and it's made. But that's not what I'm encouraging here. I'm encouraging students to make their own. Like try to make the stuff in the template to get the, oh, this is how this works. This feels really nice. I wonder if I can make this and improve it. So that's all part of the design process and really having students look through their recycling bin and going, oh, like my daughter. I'm always throwing away something, and she's like, hey, can I have that? That's a little container, and she wants to make something out of it. Students and kids naturally want to create stuff out of stuff. So that's what I love, and that's pretty much it. This is the kit really quickly. So how to put it together
    27:47
    So in this video I put the flaps on the inside and then I didn't realize later on I changed that So you'll see the flaps are actually there we go on the outside. That's the way that they should be a little editing thing but the flaps staying outside makes it so the pinball on the inside is a lot more just square. Yes, you don't want ball hang-ups.
    28:09
    And I teach that to my students. You want there to be good flow. You don't want to just hit the back of the machine and have it go right back at you. We talk about how you can have rails that guide the ball to new places.
    28:22
    But they love just doing that all day. They can just keep them going. So this is the template, so you can cut it out and have something to at least guide the students or the kids to making targets, rails, spinners that actually work. It comes with toothpicks and straws to put through the spinner. That's me making a rail right there. The spinner poking a hole, pushing the straw, and then adding the toothpick to the playfield. and they work surprisingly really well.
    29:05
    So we talk with the students about ball hang-ups with ramps, how to have them at an angle so that they don't get caught.
    29:14
    This is my daughter making both my daughters. That's Nora, she's six. and then Hannah you'll see she's three and a half or four in that video so these are with guidance obviously there's Hannah they get to put stickers and decorate them and all that stuff but these are my students artwork from my classroom I thought these were really well done every year I feel like they just get better and better and better
    29:49
    So that is, I believe, it. So that's kind of my journey and things that I've made. And I encourage you to get your kids involved and try some of these things. And if not, just take a box and put a toilet paper roll behind it like I did here and just let them go to town and get a marble.
    30:14
    It's a lot of fun. And I think it gives them so many skills that are lacking today with iPads and things like that. So, cool. Thank you.