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Gameplay on "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" Custom Built Pinball Machine!

Pinball Shenanigans·video·32m 54s·analyzed·Jun 6, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

Custom Simpsons pinball machine wins Ontario Pin Fest homebrew award

Summary

Mike Dimas from Pinball Shenanigans plays and documents Marco's custom-built "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" homebrew pinball machine, a Simpsons-themed game built over 2.5 years using MPF and Fast Pinball. The machine won Best Homebrew Pin at Ontario Pin Fest 2026 and features complex rule set with modes, multiball, combos, and a wizard mode. The video showcases gameplay mechanics, custom code features, and reveals some bugs during extended play.

Key Claims

  • Marco spent two and a half years building this custom pinball machine

    high confidence · Marco directly stated 'it took two and a half years' and 'Two and a half years ago I did it'

  • The machine was built using MPF and Fast Pinball

    high confidence · Marco: 'Thanks to MPF and Fast Pinball, I made it possible'

  • The machine won Best Homebrew Pin of 2026 at Ontario Pin Fest

    high confidence · Congratulations announcement: 'Congrats on the best homebrew pin of 2026 here at Ontario Pin Fest'

  • The game includes custom flipper code ('diamond flipper code') created by Marco

    high confidence · Marco: 'Marco has a little flipper code that he included into the game. We're going to start with that'

  • The machine has a ball save feature called 'Dutch safe' or 'Dutch ball save'

    medium confidence · Marco mentions wanting 'Dutch to do a call-out because his ball save is really good' and later references 'Dutch safe' during gameplay

Notable Quotes

  • “Two and a half years, first of all. I've been into pinball my whole life. And this is like basically a life goal of mine is to build a machine.”

    Marco@ 1:09 — Establishes the personal motivation and time investment behind the homebrew build

  • “Thanks to MPF and Fast Pinball, I made it possible.”

    Marco@ 1:19 — Credits the tools and frameworks that enabled the homebrew build

  • “Congrats on the best homebrew pin of 2026 here at Ontario Pin Fest.”

    Event organizer/host@ 1:40 — Official recognition and award for the machine

  • “We've confused the players, and I have to look into what's going on there... I've found a bug for you.”

    Mike Dimas@ 21:15 — Identifies and documents a bug that occurs when glass is off during gameplay

  • “Wizard mode should be lit now.”

    Marco@ 25:51 — References the highest mode in the game's progression system

Entities

Mike DimaspersonMarcopersonDutchpersonWho Shot Mr. Burns?gameOntario Pin FesteventMPFproductFast PinballproductPinball Shenanigansorganization

Signals

  • ?

    design_innovation: Marco implemented custom flipper code features ('diamond flipper code') and integrated Dutch's ball save design into his homebrew build

    high · Marco mentioned including 'flipper code' and the 'Dutch ball save' which is praised for its quality

  • ?

    community_signal: The homebrew community is recognizing and awarding custom machines through structured competitions like Ontario Pin Fest, validating homebrew development as a serious endeavor

    high · 'Best Homebrew Pin of 2026' award at Ontario Pin Fest demonstrates organized recognition structure

  • ?

    technology_signal: MPF (Mission Pinball Framework) and Fast Pinball continue to enable hobbyists to build complex, feature-rich homebrew machines with sophisticated code

    high · Marco credited both tools as essential to making the 2.5-year build possible

  • ?

    product_concern: The machine has a bug that occurs when glass is removed and players manipulate the playfield manually, indicating potential edge cases in code logic

    high · Mike identified: 'We've confused the players... I've found a bug for you' during glass-off gameplay

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: The game features multi-part mode structure requiring players to complete sequential tasks (4-part modes with clues) to reach wizard mode

    high · Discussion of mode completion, clue collection, and progression to wizard mode throughout gameplay

  • ?

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.099

0:00
I'm Mike Dimas and this is Pinball Shenanigans. One giant left for mankind. And ask Marco a little bit about this masterpiece monstrosity here. What have you created? What have you done? Well, it took two and a half years, first of all. I've been into pinball my whole life. And this is like basically a life goal of mine is to build a machine. And you did it. Yeah, I did it. Two and a half years ago I did it. Thanks to MPF and Fast Pinball, I made it possible. Two and a half years is actually kind of impressive, man. A lot of trial and error, though. Yeah, well, I'm excited to give it a try here. So we'll set up the tripod and Marco's going to coach me through it. Let's do it. And if I suck, then we're probably just going to cheat our way to the wizard mode. We got the glass off. Yeah, we got the glass off. Oh! Congratulations. Congrats on the best homebrew pin of 2026 here at Ontario Pin Fest. Thanks, guys. I want to get Dutch to do a call-out because his ball save is really good. Oh, the Dutch ball save or whatever it's called? So we're going to get a Dutch call-out. Dutch, did you do that? We're going to be in the pinball machine too. We're live. Okay, so, um, should we do the diamond flipper code? Let's do, Marco has a little flipper code that he included into the game. We're going to start with that. Okay. Double flipper, then 10 on the right, 10 on the left. Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
2:23
I probably just broke that too. Bally, Gottlieb, Sega discussing Flight 2000, Gamatron, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Twilight Zone. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time. Discover that as we play it. Yeah, you know what I'd love for you to shoot? Shoot up the middle? This building tower will rotate. Oh, yes. Go up the middle. Okay, here we go. All right, we're live.
4:09

design_philosophy: Marco integrated theme-appropriate cutscenes and scripted sequences from The Simpsons (e.g., Kodos escape sequence, Moe's tavern) to deepen thematic immersion

medium · 'I like my cut scene. It's very well integrated with all the cut scenes' and multiple themed mode references

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game rewards players with extra balls for hitting 5 combos in total, incentivizing consecutive shot chains

    medium · 'Get five combos in total. Get an extra ball' mentioned during gameplay instruction

    • You can long plunge when it's here for a skill shot or short plunge when it's here for a skill shot. All right, let's try short plunge.
    4:17
    All right, we're going to try and spell some duck letters here. Oh, I went to Moe's prematurely. Analog Crousation
    4:57
    Okay, I see how that works now. Okay, so now, middle? Middle, yeah, we're going to throw it in the tower.
    5:18
    I need more top letters as well, okay. Tower time. Oh, it turns. Meet the cooling tower. Thanks for watching. I am doing a whole lot of nothing right now. There we go. One more dump letter.
    6:09
    That shot there. Rejected. There we go. Smelt up. Now I've got to hit the beer can. Right up the middle there with the red flashing light. You got it. Mose is open now. All right. Time to go to Mose.
    6:27
    Ambit Commentary Neil Milliken had done all of this for Sami's show. So you're building your toxic waste.
    7:30
    That ramp's going to be cut. Yes! Okay. Nice. That's a huge multiplier when you get to meltdown. Okay. Coming back. Here we go.
    7:42
    Go middle again, Mike. Middle again? Yeah. Yep. Okay. Then the middle again. Okay. For another block. Yep. Hit the nuclear planter plant!
    7:55
    Yes. Same thing. Start. Hit start. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, get back, get back. Here we go.
    8:05
    Okay ramp again Tower and ramp Whoa He's good. Playing kickbox. Sweet. Okay. So now tower? Dutch safe? Yes, thank you Dutch.
    8:29
    The ball three! Dutch, F you Dutch. You screwed me. I done broke it again. The first time I've ever seen a Flight 2000 in action.
    9:36
    The first time I saw a Flight 2000 in the game, I was like, what the hell is this? The first jockbot is that target. The first one. Left orbit. Left orbit. Okay, left orbit time.
    11:16
    Well, that might be it. That might be it. Yep, okay, so there's your ball back score now, right? Here's the good thing though. You just achieved a major mode. You need a clue. Oh, okay. So to get the clue, you can get this loop or the swear jar. Or I think you can do an operator setting. The
    12:00
    The To kill a zombie, it's the blue targets. The first zombie is these guys, D&U. Whenever you're ready, hit both whippers. You're going to have a ball save, which runs out, which is the timer. To kill a zombie, you add your ball save. Okay, all right. Here we go. Hit the blue targets.
    12:49
    That's one. Here we go. Boom. Either target? Yeah, blue. Blue tab. Or orbit. You got him.
    13:00
    The first time I saw a No one's ever done that. Oh, boy! Okay, you got a ball, Steve. You got a ball, Steve. Oh, okay. I had to dig deep into the trough for that one.
    13:27
    Get that orbit, Mike. Here we go. Oh. That right over there. Son of a... There. All right. We're going to need all operator assists. There we go. Oh, yeah. Oh, Flanders and Subway. That zombie already killed you. Flanders. Subway. What's this Subway? Under the ramp. Oh, okay.
    13:47
    The first time I saw a Flight 2000, I thought it was a good idea. This is the Kodos round Basically you have to escape him before he kills you Alright gotta escape Kodos I can remember if you can skip this cutscene
    16:35
    It's done now. Okay, get ready. Here we go. You have until Kodos comes across the screen. We're gonna need right ramp, Kodos ramp, Stutz save!
    16:47
    Oh! Oh, that was close. I'm going to pull this for a second. So you finished, you complete a tree of support, four-part mode. Now, your clues are lit. I'll show you a clue. Alright. Here's your clue. Part of the skateboard.
    17:25
    Okay, here's the clue. Vagafine glass. So this is the trivia there. Okay. Now there's another clue, right? I'm going to try to do it for you. Yeah. You have two modes complete, right? So you got two clues. Okay.
    17:43
    Grabbing another clue here. Bally's Get some combos. Oh, okay. Get some combos, get an extra ball. Get five combos in total. Get an extra ball. Oh, I already know about that.
    18:35
    There we go. I'm playing like a champ. I can't get out of there. There we go, extra ball. Get the extra ball, get the extra ball. No, no, no.
    18:45
    All right, now I got a safety net. Okay, so now I got to go to Moe's. Here we go, go to most. Here we go. Most.
    19:02
    I braided it in. They're planning most or beer bearing. Do beer bearing. Let's start. Here we go. I like my cut scene.
    19:12
    It's very well integrated with all the cut scenes. So hitting, it'll tell you. Script Puppets Bally, Gadget and Persia hope to see the Star Wars relics aroundсти through wine at the modern Discovery Center.
    20:10
    This off-surface-анием television show will feature Grace Franklin, Thank you for watching. And that's this one here. You can go in here if you want.
    20:53
    Nice shot. That felt good. I'm going to give you a bonus first. What? No. I broke it again. Oh, shit. That's all your fault. I blame you. Because we're doing a bunch of shit with our hands, we could be doing stuff that can't be done when the glass is on. Right. We've confused the players, and I have to look into what's going on there. Hey, well, I've found a bug for you. I'll try and get there with my badge. Yeah, okay, we'll reconvene at about the same part in the game. Alright, we're going to cheat our way back to wizard mode. I'm going into the code, and I'm going to tell the game that we've already achieved four modes by pushing four right there. See, that's how you get to wizard mode. This won't cause any issues. No, not at all. Okay, we're back. Alright, let's start. We're going to do planing modes this time. One night, one of these feet from the other country, the toast flies from the latest race game. And this one actually, you can't skip it. I can program it, but you can't skip it. And then after this mode, he mixes the planning mode strength. So you might get these bottles. Two left orbits, two right orbits. Here we go. Four bottles. Balls coming out.
    22:14
    하уз All right, let's get back over to the left flipper here. Do a little post-pack. There we go. Okay, hit the subway.
    23:06
    All right. Go around. Boom! Thanks for watching. Thank you for watching, see you next week! The Flaming Mall. That's right, The Flaming Mall. My name is Mall when I invented it. That's right, it's called The Flaming Mall. What? Why don't you ask us about The Flaming Mall?
    24:26
    You just launched yourself a customer! When you waiting for millions to watch you down you waiting for more You ask me to get a job you call me when it time Yeah yeah yeah Thank you The
    25:51
    wizard mode should be lit now. Oh yeah? Okay. Wizard mode time. The game is being played on the Sennheiser Trying to solve this mystery once and for all. Who shot Mr. Burns?
    27:05
    I think we're good. What's that? I said I think we're good. Okay. Let's see what happens. Marco thinks we're good. We'll see. I think we're good. I don't know what's gonna happen if you go in here. Try to avoid this. Okay. Avoid that. I'll put my fingers in. Yeah. Do we need a... Yeah, a dutch blocker. I know what we can do.
    27:24
    A little cloth or something. I can't shoot the middle. That's sad. I'll confuse it more. We appreciate Marco catering to all of our freaking nonsense here.
    27:39
    All right, that's the Dutch post. The I can't really see the flippers. Thank you. I'm out.
    29:50
    Sorry. Just save. Hey. Ha ha. I don't mean to do that, John, but my screen's stuck on mode. Oh, I know.
    30:10
    Oh, here we go. The game is being played on the Xbox One and Xbox One Plus. Oh, did he say that line? That's right, let me say that. I don't think his arm is going to see it.
    30:50
    Yes. Please. Release this guy. Release him. Yeah, pretty good. Down. One more. Down. Oh yeah? Okay, here we go.
    31:01
    I can go under the ramp too, right? Yeah, that works too. Okay. The ball stays still going though. Okay, release him. I'm doing it. I could never get... Boom! The
    31:41
    The game is over. Thank you for watching.