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Ramps: Road Trip Pinball, First Look!

Cary Hardy·video·21m 1s·analyzed·Feb 7, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Ramps Road Trip pinball revealed: innovative wide-body with stepper diverters, proximity sensors, custom music radio, shipping post-Texas show.

Summary

Cary Hardy presents an exclusive first look at Ramps' Road Trip pinball machine, a wide-body game featuring innovative mechanics like proximity sensors, rotating stepper motor diverters, cow drop targets, and a game engine-based display system. The machine is a pre-production preview still undergoing testing and code development (v0.3), with plans to begin sales after the next Texas show without requiring deposits. Ramps emphasizes manufacturing quality, in-house production capabilities, and planned monthly code updates for 18+ months post-release.

Key Claims

  • Road Trip uses proximity sensors for ball detection with no visible wires on playfield; claims to be one of the only manufacturers doing this at scale

    high confidence · Direct claim by builder/designer showing playfield internals and explaining sensor placement; cites Elf machine with 4,000 plays as proof of reliability

  • The rotating stepper motor diverter (turn left/turn right mechanism) is being compared favorably to Godzilla tower as the most complex dynamic routing element in recent machines

    medium confidence · Speaker states this is comparable to Godzilla tower for multi-path ball routing complexity; acknowledges coding challenges with multi-ball tracking still in progress

  • Ramps manufactures approximately 90% of all components in-house, including playfields, cabinets, and machinery; only outsources sheet metal and powder coating

    high confidence · Direct statement: 'we manufacture about 90% of all this... we do our own cabinets have all the machinery'

  • Road Trip will ship within couple weeks of order, no pre-deposits; builds made after sales confirmation

    high confidence · Builder states: 'we're going to build them and then sell them and ship them within a couple weeks we're not going to take deposits'

  • Game features 15 licensed songs with custom radio station system allowing users to load custom music via USB flash drive; planned monthly code updates for 18+ months

    high confidence · Detailed explanation of radio feature, licensing approach to avoid brand confusion, and technical implementation via folders on USB

  • Production version runs on Windows 7 PC (hundreds of dollars), not the $90 test box shown; display uses game engine graphics, not video

    high confidence · Direct comparison: 'the production one runs right horizon 7 computer. It's not a $90 box. It's like hundreds of dollars... they're not videos. It's actually games.'

  • Game is currently at code v0.3; stepper motor diverter will be inactive during multi-ball due to incomplete ball tracking; planning to complete this feature

    high confidence · Builder states code status and explains multi-ball limitation: 'I'm not tracking 100 of where all the balls are and I don't want it to turn it in the wrong spot'

Notable Quotes

  • “So we brought it. You're going to learn a lot this weekend, like what needs to be done or what needs to be tweaked. That's exactly what it is.”

    Ramps designer/builder@ 8:29 — Explains philosophy of bringing unfinished code (v0.3) to public event for real-world testing feedback rather than waiting for completion

  • “As a coder myself and I see a non theme I wonder like could I put some audio files on there, tinker with it? ...You can take a flash drive, put up the eight folders in it, name the folders, drop your music in it... Your radio stations are the name of your folders.”

    Cary Hardy (host) and Ramps builder@ 16:49 — Demonstrates modular music system allowing user customization; positions game as community-friendly toward tinkering vs locked-down IP

  • “So Elf has them in it. Elf has 4,000 plays on it and 4,000 plays later I've broken a rubber off of one of the flippers on this machine.”

    Ramps builder@ 3:13 — Provides durability evidence for proximity sensor technology reliability across high-play-count machine

  • “when you go on Amazon, yeah, but if you buy them in bulk, no. I've never seen something like that... you go on Amazon and these springs are $10, but they're $0.85 at the end.”

    Ramps builder@ 4:18 — Explains cost-effectiveness of industrial sensors/components when purchased at manufacturing scale vs consumer retail

  • “I think definitely due to historical data, that would be the best route to go. Especially the last one.”

    Cary Hardy@ 18:20 — Acknowledges recent pinball industry deposit/pre-order failures and validates Ramps' no-deposit strategy as response to market trust issues

Entities

RampscompanyRoad TripgameCary HardypersonElfgameGodzillagameFASTproductJoeperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Ramps pursuing build-to-order, no pre-deposit model in direct response to industry failures; self-funded to eliminate customer financing dependency

    high · Builder: 'We are self-funded... because of the past of different companies... we're not going to let people wait six months'; Cary acknowledges 'historical data' validating this approach

  • ?

    community_signal: Machine designed to allow user customization of music library via USB; focus on community-friendly tinkering rather than locked IP; asking users for design feedback at public show

    high · USB radio station system explained; builder explicitly invites modification: 'you can do that... take a flash drive, put up the eight folders... drop your music in it'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Machine designed with clean playfield aesthetics (minimal visible wiring/switches despite complexity); emphasis on 90s-inspired layout bringing back throwback design era appeal

    high · Builder: 'we try to make it as clean as we can... There's no wires, you don't see switches'; Cary: 'brings it back to the 90s, which a lot of people really are starving for these days'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: 15 licensed songs included; builder aware of licensing constraints (brand confusion issues preventing use of certain iconic road trip songs like 'Born to Be Wild' or 'Holiday Road')

    high · Builder explains licensing approach: 'they're fully licensed... we won't put it on there because then you have what's called brand confusion and then the lawyers don't like it'

  • $

    market_signal: Ramps positioning as alternative to traditional pre-order deposit model; emphasizes manufacturing speed (2-week shipping) and vertical integration (90% in-house production)

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.063

0:00
Oh No, don't worry about it, I'm fine I've set it up front so that what yo I'm not okay with it sitting up there, but it's up there
0:24
So Bob from now ramp ramps we used to be I speak till Bob yeah But we won't go there. All right. So let's see what this thing looks like underneath the hood right here. You're the first one that's seen underneath it. We just got here. This is what I'm all about. I want to see how things are built.
0:56
I actually, we actually have. Do you have like a. Yes, we actually have one, but I never trust them. Okay. It doesn't slide all the time. I've had it slide once. So this is actually the Mantis one in here, and we've been testing different ones. So you've got your own coil wraps, I see. Yeah.
1:15
So out of curiosity, Bally Williams parts? Yeah, so a lot of the parts, you know, flipper and stuff like that, are off your shelf Bally Williams, which are true parts, they work. So when you open it, a lot of the parts that look like they're metal, silver, whatever you want to call it, a lot of those are Williams. There's powder coated stuff under there or stainless steel. Those parts are ones that we made.
1:46

  • Ramps is self-funded and does not require pre-deposits to reduce customer stress, citing negative historical examples

    high confidence · Builder explicitly: 'We are self-funded, and so we don't need to do it... because of the past of different companies'

  • “we're going to build them and then sell them and ship them within a couple weeks we're not going to take deposits, we're not going to let people wait six months”

    Ramps builder@ 17:46 — Direct refutation of typical pinball pre-order model; suggests response to industry delays and customer dissatisfaction

  • “So right now during the multi ball it inactive... I'm not tracking 100 of where all the balls are and I don want it to turn it in the wrong spot”

    Ramps builder@ 10:23 — Candid acknowledgment of incomplete feature at launch; diverter will be static during multi-ball until ball-tracking code finishes

  • “we are a full manufacturer. we manufacture about 90% of all this our play fields we basically do everything except for the sheet metal powder coating”

    Ramps builder@ 18:54 — Claims vertical integration and quality control; differentiates from manufacturers relying on overseas outsourcing

    • Jason
    person
    Marshallperson
    Mantisproduct
    Windows 7product
    PinSoundproduct
    Texasevent
    Cadillac Ranchlocation

    high · Multiple statements about building after sale confirmation, shipping within weeks, owning machinery for cabinets/playfields, outsourcing only sheet metal/powder coating

  • ?

    community_signal: Builder bringing pre-release machine (v0.3 code) to show for public testing feedback; transparent about incomplete features and work-in-progress nature; partner Joe handles playfield/side art alongside builder's daughter

    high · Builder: 'Normally would not bring this to a show but we're 45 minutes from here and Marshall's a good friend... You're going to learn a lot this weekend'

  • ?

    announcement: Road Trip officially revealed as pre-production machine; sales signup planned at Texas show; production to begin post-show with shipping within couple weeks of order

    high · Builder states: 'when we go to the next show, Texas we will be more prepared... plan on selling them in the month after... ship them within a couple weeks'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multi-ball diverter incomplete; ball tracking insufficient for dynamic routing during multi-ball; feature will remain static until coding solved

    high · Builder explains: 'during the multi ball it inactive... I'm not tracking 100 of where all the balls are... that's one of the things for today'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Planned 18+ months of monthly code updates post-release; multi-ball diverter feature still incomplete in v0.3; radio customization via USB expansion planned

    high · Builder states: 'Plan on doing it for at least 18 months', describes incomplete ball tracking limiting multi-ball diverter, explains USB music folder system

  • ?

    technology_signal: Road Trip uses game engine-based display system rather than video playback; proximity sensors for ball detection; stepper motor diverters for dynamic routing; claimed industry-leading implementation at scale

    high · Builder demonstrates playfield internals, explains sensor placement, discusses game engine graphics architecture ('not videos... games'), shows stepper motor diverter operation

    • It's got a few things under there. Goodness gracious. Wow, it's got a few. I have a pin sound speaker in there. So this machine right here is a, we call it a preview. It's not a prototype, but, well.
    2:02
    So this one, we're still beating the hell out of it. And we've got a lot of plays on this. We brought it to see if we can break it. It's got all the fast systems on it, a lot of ports that we do.
    2:16
    The interesting thing is, so the cow drops, which everybody likes. So here's your standard drop target. here's the cow drop targets they're a lot bigger so those are what I pop it to put it down you'll see the cows up there all right the drop talk is those are like clear acrylic plastic yeah yeah those are cruel and then you put lights under and so there's some lights yeah there's lights underneath it we're still working on those yeah sure yeah I was like I think what so describe what we got going on here these are unfamiliar to people are here so proximity sensors there's no wires on this play field Also, when you look at it, you're going to notice there's not wires and lights and shit all over it. We try to make it as clean as we can. So the proximity sensors obviously are sensing the ball.
    3:03
    As I know of, we're really the only ones that have done this. I think there's some machines in the past that have done a couple. And then the biggest question people ask me is, well, are they reliable? So Elf has them in it. Elf has 4,000 plays on it. and 4,000 plays later I've broken a rubber off of one of the flippers on this machine. And that's got a lot of in it. It has a lot of stuff in it. It actually has a lot of 3D printed stuff in it and stuff like that.
    3:32
    I didn't touch this for two years. It came back from Chicago two years ago, and we lost the playfield last night. Oh, damn.
    3:41
    Well, we've got going on back here. So back here you've got another computer, I guess power supply. One thing I noticed was all these bumpers here for the car. That's for the car. The car, look at the car. Yeah, the car is on three coils right there. Those three coils hook to the car.
    3:57
    And then you've got a magnet right there. Here's your turntable, which has the pop bumpers and the turntable.
    4:07
    It's got a couple mechanical toys in there. Are these cost-effective, though? Oh, yeah. Okay, I mean, it's one of those things where it looks like it would be more expensive hardware than just having a switch. So if you go on Amazon, yeah, but if you buy them in bulk, no.
    4:23
    I've never seen something like that. It's like one of those things, sorry, it's like one of those things, you go on Amazon and these springs are $10, but they're $0.85 at the end. Yeah. I've never seen a machine that has that. Your pop-up bumpers spin on it? They spin, yeah. So that whole thing rotates? Are you able to rotate it from here by chance out of curiosity? I don't know what I don't know what the list. I don't know if you see much, but I can rotate it from the top Yeah, I can Yeah And it rotates and it stops so it's on a
    4:52
    The wives are over here laughing at us. We're just like nerding out all right So it uses a reduction stepper motor for that
    5:10
    with the back coolant it awesome So obviously you can see it a throwback to the 90 I love 90 machines So here your guy What the? So that guy comes back around here, hits this, comes back down. You got the speed bump right there. So you got to remember when you're playing, if the ball's coming down here, hold the right flipper, that's going to pop up for about a second when you shoot the ramp. If you don't hold the flipper, that won't pop up. So the cow's going down. So there's your cows. And then the one with the little guy in his ass right there. Right?
    5:45
    So, yep, obviously he's on a... It can pull all different ways, however I want to do it. There's some lights and stuff in it. Still got a lot more we're going to do to some of these things. That guy spins, the raccoon spins. When you come by, he'll go up and down. Kind of novelty stuff right now. So we got that So we got like Golden Gate Bridge right here Yeah, Golden Gate Bridge So like I was saying, if you look at it There's no wires, you don't see switches and stuff on it Oh, so this is your multi-ball ball lock here with three sensors That's multi-ball And how many balls total are we talking? So there's a three ball multi-ball lock But you also have your vertical up kicker Which is this guy right here Oh, wow Which he'll pop up and then it'll drop a ball and then it'll go back down. You got your rollover when it's activated to catch the magnet, drop it on your small flipper up here.
    6:46
    There are a, you have two different skill shots on start. So on the plunger, when you plunge, you're going to cut, the ball is going to come over and just about every time it's going to, it's going to hit right on that flipper. and one of these guys is lit up and you try to hit the one that's lit up. You don't hit the one that's lit up, not as many points. Your second plunger challenge is bring it up right about right here. You let it roll back down. One of the cows is going to flip up. You get one chance to hit the cow. Ooh, that'll probably be the one I go for, actually. So you just make sure you bring it up. It's got to go right to the entrance, and then it comes back down because you've got your proximity sensor right about right here. Is this a wide body? Yes, this is a wide body. I like wide bodies. Elf's a wide body. Yeah, it breathes like it has a mouth. So the fun thing about, you know, people are like, well, wide bodies are clunky.
    7:44
    I don't think they're clunky. But you know what? You turn the coils up and they're not clunky. You can break stuff on it. But like I was saying, Elf, it's really dialed up. And we've never broken anything in it. You know, once again, knock on wood.
    7:57
    Can I ask to get that top right target? Do you need to like bounce it off in here or can you shoot it from here? Oh, so you can shoot so you can you can get those from either flipper this ramp you can get from either flipper Okay, and so the way so the way this guy does works too and Like I've seen is we don't have all the code in right now. We're like point three
    8:20
    Normally would not bring this to a show but we're 45 minutes from here and Marshall's a good friend of mine Yeah, like let's bring it. Let's break it
    8:29
    So we brought it. You're going to learn a lot this weekend, like what needs to be done or what needs to be tweaked. That's exactly what it is. So this is your on-ramp, your off-ramp. So you've got the turn left, turn right. So when you hit that one, it's going to turn left. And when you turn this one, it's going to go back there, hit it again. It's going to come back over here. How quick is it? Is it like a lock in place or is it just turn? It's about that fast. About that fast. Okay.
    8:55
    It takes about a quarter, half a second. I can make it go faster, but it doesn't need to be. Yeah, the acceleration of those stepper motors, it can maybe skip. So we have it at a good speed we think is good. So as it's turning, this little drop will pop up so you can't shoot it. Okay. Obviously, you don't want to shoot it right there. Yeah, in between. Yeah, ball gets stuck right here or something. Yeah, okay. And we know where the ball is. I see the opto is right here. the top and the bottom so we know where there is so for some reason it gets past it into a certain area we can take care of it that looks pretty freaking wicked man we'll find out this weekend if somebody can uh stick i think before before this the ultimate like you know diverter was probably the godzilla tower so i think this is like right up there with like you know the different like pathways that you're going to be getting in like a just a from that i mean so the interesting thing is I actually have to go play Godzilla today. I got a buddy that has one and I don't even remember it.
    10:01
    But yeah, this is like before this, when it comes to like a multiple pass and something moving to change the direction of the balls, that's what I thought of. So that's probably the biggest one other than the Godzilla tower. And how's the coding for that? Did you have some things you didn't expect? I imagine during multi-ball, you need to keep it in a certain position? Oh yeah so that an interesting thing So right now during the multi ball it inactive And we working on that So if you a multi ball it not going to turn because I can right now I not tracking 100 of where all the balls are and I don want it to turn it in the wrong spot Right. That's a good question. So that's one of the things for today right so on multi ball it'll stick in the one spot. This is a fun little guy right here so when it comes down it hits this guy and it'll come down here every time. I see it's metal, does it make a nice sound when it hits it?
    10:54
    You know the fun thing is I've been playing it with the glass off of it. And so I'm going to really find out because we rarely have the glass on it. For obvious reasons, you know, we're testing it, working on it. So all these will light up. These are all LEDs in here.
    11:14
    They're definitely spaced. They're supposed to kind of look like, you know, going down the road and things go like that, you know. This shot stands out to me right here. You're going to hit this flipper. It's an opto one, so it flips like crazy, right? And then sometimes if you get enough force, it's going all the way around. So it'll go through there. And you got this guy. Now the interesting thing, this is here and it hits it. This actually won't interfere. It'll still come across. This is a fun little guy. It'll usually save your ball more than throw it in there, which is fun. So one of the main things, the rules of it is being that it's a road trip, you want to collect miles. So you're going to go from city to city and I know Foo Fighters and you know stuff like that But we actually worked on this way before a lot of other machines So you have dual spinners right here and your spinners are going to give you your miles and you have to so the spinners are Really important in this game between the cities or your next exit You'd have to collect that amount of many miles and when you get to that amount of that amount of miles
    12:14
    You're going to have this guy pop up here and you can select your next city Also, in between the main cities, you have stops. Like, you know, if you want to go see Cadillac Ranch or something. One of my favorites, I don't know if you've ever seen it. Cadillac Ranch is cool. So, in between, so when you get to those miles, you'll have to hit turn left, turn right. You'll have to get off, you get off like an off ramp. Now, if you hit the spinner and go too many miles past it, you missed your exit and it goes back. Definitely a very interesting layout man. I like them. They got the drop targets right here. Is there a target behind here? So so so this is your cow tip in mode So when you when you knock all three you hit the cow you're gonna get one Okay, you can knock them again hit second time again second do it the third time You're gonna get multi ball and during multi ball. Those guys are popping up and down like this. Mm-hmm So you're trying to hit a mother going up and down sweet. I was curious. How does the headlock? I looked at the back Oh, there's a couple bolts in there. I just flipped it up. Oh, okay.
    13:20
    I haven't put it in there yet. It's looking good, man. I can show you inside the cabinet in the back.
    13:27
    Exclusive. Nobody else has seen it. Yeah. Hopefully Jason doesn't get mad at me. Sorry, Jason. My plan is that this will first go out to my patrons, and then once the show goes live, I'll share it with everybody.
    13:40
    Not much back here. We're using the fastboard system, which a lot of people are using right now. mm-hmm
    13:50
    I'll actually use this. Sorry. Oh, yeah, I'll use the p3 boards and we decided to try and cast on this guy So you go right there. You got your computer. It's actually running on a this is actually the five But the production one runs right horizon 7 computer. It's not a $90 box. It's like hundreds of dollars Yeah, because we're running The graphics that are going to be on here, they're not videos. It's actually games. So we're using a game engine in it. So when we're finally done with all the coding, interacting with everything is actually going to change the physical moving and stuff like that on the video screen. It's like playing a video game, obviously. So we got that.
    14:33
    Your typical amp and then, yeah, fast board. And not much in there. and then we have left it all open in the top.
    14:42
    This, our Translight right now, we'd have a normal Translight, but the production one will be a print, direct print. Okay. And then we have where these are going to actually kind of move around, so the sky will look like it's changing blue and stuff like that. So this is just a Translight. Oh, it's the SD card there. That's a new one for me. Does that contain the game files? That is actually code that I was putting on it last night. And you know what's funny? I was looking for this. He's like, where is it at? Like, I left it in there. Is Wi-Fi capable as well? Yeah. So it's Wi-Fi. So when we're fully coded for it, it'll be up to the user how they want to do it. It can automatically go and pull down with it. Or you can set it where it's manual, like a typical system like that.
    15:30
    We plan on having monthly updates. I know everybody's like, oh, code updates. I mean, those are bug fixes. But no, we're going to add and add and add to it. Plan on doing it for at least 18 months Monthly updates for that So as a coder myself and I see a non theme I wonder like could I put some audio files on there, tinker with it? So,
    15:56
    interesting you bring that up. There's a radio aspect on here. So that's what it's going to bring up. So, for today, we have about 15 songs. They sound just like, they're normal songs from upcoming artists that are licensed. They're fully licensed. They come with the machine. We actually have more. They're really cool. A lot of them are road theme. You know, I don't want to say, you know, like Born to be Wild would be the coolest song to put on here, right?
    16:22
    Or Holiday Road. That was the one I was about to say. I was like, come on, you're going to have Holiday Road on there. You can put Holiday Road on it. We won't put it on there because then you have what's called brand confusion and then the lawyers don't like it. But you can let us do that. But you can do that. So what happens is this is your radio, and it's not doing it today, but in production, you can pick what radio station you want. They're going to be pre-done. But if you want your own music, take a flash drive, put up the eight folders in it, name the folders, drop your music in it. You're going to open this, plug the flash drive in. You're going to turn it back on. It's going to read everything. Your radio stations are the name of your folders. And before you play, you can change it, and you can play the music. You can hold the flippers in between balls. you can change your song, boom, and you can just change your songs and play whatever music you want on it. So we'll see how long that is before somebody steals that idea. So I saw that there's no deposits right now. So if someone wanted to get this game, what do they need to do? So what we're doing is right now on our website,
    17:31
    we have a contact us, just drop us something on there. when we go to the next show, Texas we will be more prepared for that because we plan on selling them in the month after and we will have more of a sign up or something like that what we plan on doing is we're going to build them and then sell them and ship them within a couple weeks we're not going to take deposits, we're not going to let people wait six months come out and play it, if you like it, great if you don't like it, go buy a comic book so So, and obviously, you know, a couple of reasons why we don't do deposits. One, obviously because of the past of different companies. And we are self-funded, and so we don't need to do it. So, and we just think it's the, it just takes the stress out of it. Yeah. I think definitely due to historical data, that would be the best route to go. Especially the last one.
    18:28
    But yeah, dude, looks really good. It is a very interesting different layout. And like I said, it brings it back to the 90s, which a lot of people really are starving for these days. So this is actually one of my early play fields. The ones in production, the colors are tweaked a little bit more and stuff like that. We have this one in here because we want to put more plays on it and see how it holds up. You know, scratches and stuff like that. We are a full manufacturer. we manufacture about 90% of all this our play fields we basically do everything except for the sheet metal powder coating everything in here you see we do we have we do our own cabinets have all the machinery doing all that so the quality of everything is here the quality that will be on a production game yeah I should be better than this okay I didn't know about like the They'll actually get better than that. Okay.
    19:30
    Trying to get close up on this one so everybody can see what they're looking at here. So this moves? Yes. Like when you hit the targets, does this cause it to... Each target, we'll do a different corner of it. Right. Trying to think if I missed anything else on it. So you've got a kickback. This is your reverse over here. So once per ball, if you get that guy, it'll turn the kickback back on. So we put a kickback in there. which I did you know many things we could things that are missing stuff like that except for flippers alright let me get the other side of the cabinet man I don't want to take up too much more of your time I know you're getting things ready for the show here but yeah I'll definitely come by when the show starts when you got it all powered on to see how it shoots but so far all the artwork play field side box done by my daughter and Joe which is my partner he'll be here later and so if anybody has any questions about artwork Yeah, of course the biggest question today is, oh that looks like it's AI. Now, the hockey artist, he's here. Got some tape still on this side right here in case you didn't know, but I just wanted to... Yeah, this actually isn't the correct size. See how it's narrow in there? Snug. Yeah, snug. Nope, we know that. All right. That's why this machine's not for sale. Alright guys, well there you go. So what's the website ramps.com or ramps pinball ramps pinball calm