I Made My Own Jurassic Park Pinball Machine!

Cooltoy·video·8m 30s·analyzed·Jul 1, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Custom Jurassic Park pinball built from Stern playfield + Barrels of Fun cabinet hybrid.

Summary

Cooltoy documents the custom build of a fully functional Jurassic Park pinball machine by combining a Stern Spike 2 playfield with a Barrels of Fun cabinet (Labyrinth head + Dune lower body). The project involved custom wiring, sourcing used parts, fabricating connectors, and integrating the HAL stadium lighting system. The machine features custom artwork by Johnny Crap and Jaroslav Kosmina, with ongoing cosmetic work including powder coating and Cliffy flap upgrades.

Key Claims

Jurassic Park (Premium) playfield originally came as a bonus with a Godzilla (Pro) machine purchase that enabled hot-swapping between two games
high confidence · Cooltoy, opening of video
Barrels of Fun uses Bally-Williams style cabinets with 28-inch legs, while Stern uses 30-inch legs, requiring custom modifications
high confidence · Cooltoy, cabinet discussion segment
The cabinet features Barrels of Fun's HAL integrated stadium lighting system that is fully functional and can change colors
high confidence · Cooltoy, lighting system section
Cliffy 3M ramps flaps eliminated reject issues on the Raptor tower and helipad shots compared to screw-based alternatives
high confidence · Cooltoy, final modifications section
Stern released a limited 30th anniversary Jurassic Park edition that community members were upset about
medium confidence · Cooltoy, artwork discussion

Notable Quotes

“I essentially Frankensteined a fully functional machine to go with that Jurassic Park (Premium)”
Cooltoy@ 0:10 — Core thesis of the video - describes the hybrid custom build approach
“It works exactly as it should. It's a fully functional game. It just looks a little bit different.”
Cooltoy@ 1:11 — Affirms functional completion despite cosmetic work remaining
“This is essentially the ultimate Johnny Crap machine”
Cooltoy@ 3:02 — Highlights that all custom artwork sourced from single artist Johnny Krap
“Barrels of Fun uses like the Williams stuff. Even though this is a Stern machine so I have to buy a Stern plunger”
Cooltoy @ cabinet compatibility discussion — Illustrates incompatibilities between manufacturer standards
“I got rid of one of those and put you know Mr DNA over there retooled it a little bit and resized it to fit a larger dimensioned back glass”
Cooltoy@ 6:16 — Shows custom artwork modifications for cabinet fit

Entities

Cooltoyperson Barrels of FuncompanyStern PinballcompanyJohnny CrappersonJaroslav KosminapersonGodzillagame Jurassic Park Premiumproduct Jurassic Park 30th Anniversaryproduct

Signals

?
design_innovation: Custom integration of Stern Spike 2 playfield with Barrels of Fun cabinet combining mechanical and electrical standards from different manufacturers
high · Cooltoy had to custom-wire CPU connections, fabricate harnesses, install spacers for cross-brace compatibility, and source parts with different form factors (leg heights, plunger positions)
?
product_concern: Significant compatibility issues between Barrels of Fun's Bally-Williams design standards (28-inch legs, different plunger heights) and Stern's design (30-inch legs, higher plunger position)
high · Cooltoy needed custom spacers, modifications to cabinet plunger area, and sourced replacement parts from different manufacturer specs
?
technology_signal: Used market availability of Spike 2 components including LCD screens sourced from eBay at low cost ($30 used) enabling custom builds
high · Cooltoy sourced LCD screen from eBay, upgraded power supply sourced separately, required custom fabrication of connectors and harnesses
~
sentiment_shift: Community negative reaction to Stern's Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary limited edition release strategy and artwork redundancy
medium · Cooltoy references Stern 'made everybody mad by releasing where they did a limited limited edition' and personally removed duplicate 30th anniversary logos
?
collector_signal: High value placed on one-of-a-kind custom artwork and cabinet combinations as collector priority over mass-produced variants
high · Cooltoy explicitly chose custom Johnny Krap artwork specifically because 'everybody's got that. Nobody's got this' rather than using standard Stern artwork

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.025

0:00

So a little while back I made a video on this Godzilla Pro machine that I picked up where it was a little bit of a bonus. It included a Jurassic Park Premium play field and I was hot swapping them and basically having two games for the price of one. Well, I couldn't leave well enough alone so I essentially Frankensteined a fully functional machine to go with that Jurassic Park Premium. And I thought it would be kind of a fun little video to show you this machine in its ugliest raw form currently before I start really polishing it off and making it look like a truly dedicated Jurassic Park pinball machine. As you can see, I still got some work to do in the back box. I need to put the back vent grills on there. There's a lot of excess holes from the stuff that Barrels of Fun would use that is not applicable on here. But you know a couple of the things I had to pick up because I couldn't do on my own obviously was the Spike 2 CPU. I've got an upgraded power supply in here. This one's super beefy because I'm running some modifications and And didn't want to be power hungry. Had to wire everything electrically myself for power and everything because didn't have anything to go off of. Had to make several of the connectors and harnesses and wire connections for the CPU to go to the play field and everything. But I mean, it works exactly as it should. It's a fully functional game. It just looks a little bit different. Little things here and there, like this is a Stern cross brace bar Is it um it's a little bit shorter on the side than Barrels of Fun uses so I had to put some spacers there but for the most part everything else is going to be your standard kind of Parts and pieces you're used to seeing on a spike machine This is the same LCD that you'd find in a spike to machine found on ebay Gently used for thirty dollars that was a steel Speakers upgraded in the Stern le style Kenwood five and a quarter speakers there had to cut out Check out the little die speaker covers that are standard on labyrinth where labyrinth literally has the cool labyrinth thing Obviously that doesn mesh well with Jurassic Park so I had to take the Dremel cut those out real quick and then you know open that space up Custom little mounting brackets here that hold the LCD in place but other than that you know it pretty straightforward back here The cabinet itself, this was courtesy of Barrels of Fun. Picked this up from them. It is a combo. It's basically a labyrinth head that has a dune lower body. Plus, thank you to a myoffice.com publisher! Dune lower cabinet artwork by Johnny Krap, Jurassic Park premium play field artwork by Johnny Krap, and upper back box head labyrinth artwork also by Johnny Krap. So I thought that was kind of funny. This is essentially the ultimate Johnny Krap machine. Machine came with the labyrinth hinges, still had the side rails here from Dune, which is There's a beautiful gold flake, you know, black sand looking powder coat. Obviously going to have to get rid of all this. Like I said, I'm going to have to repowder coat this, armor, all that. These legs, I had spare. These were left over from when I was working on Adam's Family machine because basically Barrels of Fun uses kind of the Bally Williams style cabinets. So we got like the 28 inch legs versus Stern where they use, I think it's like 30, 30 and www I gotta buy all new parts because Barrels of Fun uses like the Bally Williams stuff Even though this is a Stern machine so I have to buy a Stern plunger and it not exactly the same height because Stern puts theirs higher up than Barrels of Fun So I have to cut in the cabinet and probably not going to do that Had a leftover Spike 2 lockdown bar because I always have to keep spares because I get my stuff powder coated One cool feature about this cabinet though since I been The lower body came, it was Dune, it has the HAL lighting system, basically the integrated stadium lighting that Barrels of Fun had. So I got that all wired up and I've got it fully functional with the game. I can change the colors, all sorts of different configurations, but in generality I just have it right now basically illuminating the play field with some bright whites and some subtle greens that way. I've got stadium lighting, I can raise and lower the play field, don't have to worry about taking them on and off because they're built into the cabinet. So that was an awesome plus. I did have to buy a Coindor. This one didn't come with one, which is fine. So brand new Stern Coindor on there. Fits like a glove. All right. And 24 hours after you saw it at its worst, we're actually almost done making this thing look like a legitimate Jurassic Park machine. Put brand new artwork on it, top to bottom. Jaroslav Kosmina, who is the official Jurassic Park artist in a lot of things, did a lot I'm going to be talking about the I've got his 30th anniversary artwork for the special edition 30th anniversary you know screw job that Stern made everybody mad by releasing where they did a limited limited edition I love the artwork on it just one thing I didn't like it had two 30th anniversary logos on it so I got rid of one of those and put you know Mr DNA over there retooled it a little bit and resized it to fit a larger dimensioned back glass and everything But overall I mean this thing is looking closer to complete Still got to powder coat all the armor. I've got this bronze here, bronze here, black, black, silver. So it's still ugly in that aspect, but as soon as my powder coat guy frees up, I'll get that done. I'm thinking illusion green for my color choice on the armor and the powder coating for the speaker panel and everything. But right now, I mean this looks much more like a Jurassic Park machine and less of a Frankenstein. Also put in the cliffy ramp flaps, got rid of the screws. I was getting tons of rejects out of my Raptor tower as well as my helipad shot. Got rid of those