Building Custom Pinball Machines with Lin Manuelian

Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo·video·56m 26s·analyzed·Dec 2, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Lin Manuelian teaches custom pinball design methodology, ramp physics, and CAD workflows at Pintastic Expo.

Summary

Lin Manuelian, a professional game programmer with 18 years of experience, leads a seminar at Pintastic Pinball & Game Room Expo on custom pinball machine design. He discusses his evolution from hand-crafted prototypes to CAD-based design workflows, detailed physics principles for ramp design (reflection points, gravity effects, ball path calculations), and practical design decisions across six completed games. The talk covers design methodology, tolerances, ball path verification using VPX and SolidWorks, and lessons learned from building Christmas Countdown in two months.

Key Claims

Lin Manuelian has designed six custom pinball games, which the speaker claims is more than anyone else has made
high confidence · Speaker introducing Lin Manuelian: 'Lin Manuelian, you've seen five of his six games...I don't know of anyone who's made more than six.'
Lin Manuelian was a professional video game programmer for 18 years before designing pinball machines
high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'I'm a professional game programmer. I've been for like 18 years something or that now. Um but those are video games, not pinball games.'
Pintastic is in its 10th iteration and is the only show with 10 cumulative homebrew developer seminars
high confidence · Speaker: 'This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively.'
Christmas Countdown took approximately two months to design and build
high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'that took me about two two man months to make.'
Lin Manuelian evolved from foam core/manual hand-cutting methods to direct Photoshop-to-CAD workflow with CNC cuts
high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'Initially, I would start with foam core or I would start with a piece of wood...Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on.'
Optimal ball path entrance widths are 2.25 inches (head-on) to 3.5-4 inches (side angle), narrower than traditional 2-inch designs
high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'I usually start with two and a quarter...when you're on the side, I always kind of start with three and a half inches...I even go four inches...If you're on the side, three and a half inches. If you're straight on, two and a quarter inches.'
Minimum safe ball path width (metal to metal or plastic to plastic) is 1.5 inches to avoid pinching
high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'I never go any smaller than about one and a half inches wide from metal to metal...if it's any shorter than that...you're going to have a little bit of soft when installing and you it might just pinch too much.'

Notable Quotes

“I don't know of anyone who's made more than six [custom pinball games].”
Pintastic Expo Speaker (introducing Lin Manuelian)@ 1:00 — Establishes Lin Manuelian's productivity record in the homebrew pinball design community
“I learned how to play on that [Simpsons Pinball Party] and I learned what rules were based on that.”
Lin Manuelian@ 3:16 — Explains how a professional video game programmer entered the pinball space through virtual pinball development
“Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on. So, if my first cut is wrong, I I make the adjustments in in CAD and I cut another one until it's right.”
Lin Manuelian@ 4:50 — Describes his evolution to modern CAD-based design workflows that replaced traditional hand-crafting methods
“Let's say you hit it kind of more up this way, right? So, it's it's a bit higher. Well, if I hit right here, what's my reflection point? There is no gravity involved except for this steeper the uh the playfield...The reflection point is generally going to be like that.”
Lin Manuelian@ 16:58 — Demonstrates his detailed geometric approach to calculating ball path behavior using reflection point analysis
“The steeper your ramp is, the more it's going to kind of bend back down to your reflection point.”
Lin Manuelian@ 15:02 — Key insight about how gravity modifies ball path trajectories on angled ramps
“You want you want human level slop in there basically.”
Lin Manuelian — Practical guidance on designing with realistic manufacturing and installation tolerances rather than theoretical precision

Entities

Lin ManuelianpersonPintastic Pinball & Game Room ExpoeventChristmas CountdowngameHaunted CruisegameFairyland TalesgameBattle StationsgamePinballisticproductSimpsons Pinball Partygame Pirates of the Caribbeangame

Signals

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design_philosophy: Lin Manuelian explains a systematic design approach progressing from Photoshop sketches with ball/feature guides, through CAD modeling with curves/arcs, to CNC cutting with tolerance planning. He emphasizes layered design ('onion slicing') and iterative refinement based on physics simulation rather than trial-and-error prototyping.
high · Detailed walkthrough of design files, sketch refinement process, and CAD-to-manufacturing workflow with specific tool usage (SolidWorks, VPX, Send Cut Send).
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design_innovation: Lin Manuelian presents a detailed geometric model for calculating ball trajectory through ramps using reflection point analysis. Key insight: gravity modifies calculated reflection angles, requiring iterative adjustments. He uses VPX 'cone' ramps and SolidWorks sketches to verify ball paths before manufacturing.
high · Extensive discussion of reflection points, gravity effects, and practical verification methods using simulation software. Examples include analyzing ball entry angles and exit trajectories.
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manufacturing_signal: Lin Manuelian advocates for 'human-level slop' rather than millimeter-precision tolerances in ball path design. Standard entrance widths: 2.25 inches (head-on), 3.5-4 inches (side angles). Minimum safe path width: 1.5 inches (metal-to-metal) to avoid pinching during installation.
high · Specific tolerance guidance: 'You want you want human level slop in there basically.' Discussion of V-shaped/snake-mouth entries to handle gravity-fed ball transitions.
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product_strategy: Christmas Countdown completed in 2 months total; main playfield alone took 2 weeks with most work done in one weekend. This suggests rapid iteration capability using CAD-to-CNC workflow compared to traditional hand-crafting methods.
high · Lin Manuelian: 'The vast majority I I got done in one weekend. Then I add the the main playfield. It took maybe a couple weeks...The the mini playfields. It's just the little detail things.'

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:09

We have more games than just what's in the custom game showcase. By the way, there I was noticing people having a good time on Battle Stations over in the vendor hall uh down in the Southern New Hampshire club room. Uh there's a game with some custom software. So, look around all over the show. This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively. And now we're adding a bonus one. Lin Manuelian, you've seen five of his six games. And then yesterday we brought in the sixth one which had a little IP issue. So all six So all six I don't know of anyone who's made more than six. Okay. But if you want to start now, if you want to start as young as the kid from San Diego so that you can exceed his lifetime productivity eventually, then you should learn from him what he knows about uh learn from him what he knows about uh game development. And we are going to be uh doing an improv session, right? Uh a little bit. So, my original idea Uh a little bit. So, my original idea was to have my wake them tablet here and actually design a layout with all of you. Um, I didn't have a chance to go home to get it. So, I'm going to kind of shoot from the hip with this and talk about a couple of the other games that I' I do have and show some of the sketches I've done and how it went from sketch and why I design chose some features of the sketch to the CAD drawing and finally to the final uh final thing that you see out there and uh take questions along the way. If you ever have if anyone has questions as we go, just kind of raise your hand and I'll I'll answer them. We'll have the guy run. We'll have the guy run. Yeah. Yeah. He he he needs to lose some Yeah. Yeah. He he he needs to lose some weight. So just everybody if someone asked a question here, someone over there needs to ask the question then back. All right. Um so yep, my name is John Manuelian. Everybody knows me as Lynn Lenolium or some flavor of that. And uh I've been I'm a professional game programmer. I've been for like 18 years something or other now. Um but those are video games, not pinball games. I do pinball because I enjoy pinball and why not, right? So, uh, a while ago, 10 10 12 years ago, sometime back in the PS3 era, whenever that was, um, what the the PS3, not the 90s. the the PS3, not the 90s. What the hell? Um so What the hell? Um so so sometime back in the PS3 era um I was working at a company and they wanted to make a virtual pinball game and it it ended up releasing as pinballistic. It was a two-player heads up where you can kind of grief each other. Um I didn't know anything about pinball at the time and yet I needed to program pinball. So we had the easiest game possible local um Simpsons pinball party. So, I learned how to play on that and I learned what rules were based on that. Um, and uh we we actually did all our design in Visual Pinball for for all that. And I created a converter to take the visual pinball file, convert it to OBJ files for uh to load into 3D Studio Max to then generate all the images. And then I also created a uh Visual Basic to Lua conversion. So we scripted everything in in visual pinball and then it just converted to Lua and loaded into a C++ engine for PS3. So that was my introduction to pinball and during that I got the crazy idea to build a real thing and it snowballed from from that more or less. Um the very first game I designed you've never seen. It'll be here eventually. It's called Fairyland Tales. It's kind of an art nuvoy fairy and magic thing. um nothing to do with magic barst but um that I'll get done eventually. I've learned a lot and I look at that playfield and I think oh that's neat but why did I do that now? Um that's what what 15 years of doing this will do. Um so there's that and then Haunted Cruise was officially started in like 2009 and it's still going but uh I've changed my my design philosophies over the years. Initially, I would start with foam core or I would start with a piece of wood and kind of stick things around kind of like the guys were talking about here. Now, um I go straight from a Photoshop sketch in into CAD and then I do a I only do CNC cuts from now on. So, if my first cut is wrong, I I make the adjustments in in CAD and I cut another one until it's right. It just makes life a lot easier. So, I'm not trying to measure things and get the measurements right because you know you're whenever you use any kind of measurement tool, you can be off by just a little bit and those little bits count sometimes. But anyways, um a year ago I did a uh a game called uh 12 Days of Christmas, which is now Christmas Countdown, which you can all play. I live streamed all of that. So, I'm going to talk about that a little bit. Uh that took me about two two man months to make. Um, and I generally I start out with a sketch in Photoshop. So, as I said, I I have a whackom tablet I use. So, this is all made one to one. If I were to print it up, it would be the size of a pinball playfield. Um, I have blank pinball uh uh playfield uh starters for in uh CAD that I just print a or I make a PDF of and I bring it into Photoshop just so I can easily start sketching things. Now, you can see at the very top I have a bunch of guides. So, I kind of know what's the size of a ball, what's the size of a jet bumper, like what are some standard ramp and uh entry points for things, right? So, as I go around and draw, I can see, hey, is this the right size? Will this fit? Will this rattle? Will or or such. Now, what I don't have is I actually don't tend to use 2 inch anymore. I usually start with two and a quarter period because when you create a two and a quarter entrance, let's say um let's look at this ramp. It's it's a little bigger than two and a quarter. Um but if you have a two and a quarter entrance, you're going to need to protect that entrance in some way. So you're going to have targets or posts kind of blocking it a little bit. So that two and a quarter will end up becoming 2 in after you put stuff in front of it. So the bigger you design it, the more stuff is end up covering things to protect walls, protect edges, protect bouncing. Um, and it'll also give you some extra space. So for instance, I now if I wanted to in this section here, and you can see the little hand to move around there, right? Yeah. Um, in this section here, I could put a metal a little bumper post or something right in this section. And I can I now have the space to also add a little sheet of a piece of sheet metal to even protect the side of the target because I have that extra slack. I don't have it in the game. I didn't make it. I'm lazy. But I could do it on on all of these sections, especially this this side ramp over here, which you'll see in in the CAD when I show you. I I went through like four or five designs of this. Um after I made this initial design, which does not work, by the way. Um, along this right side, I definitely need a piece of metal to protect against all all the sides of the targets and all the entrances of the ramps and everything. So, make it bigger. That way, you can put stuff next to it in front of it. So, it will work for reels and um the other thing too that I I always plan on, so I say use around two and a quarter to two and a half when you're kind of going straight on. Well, when you're on the side, I always kind of start with three and a half inches when it's on the side because you can't see that very well and it's always going to be a bit of slop, right? You're it's going to be a little bit of guess and take. Sometimes I even go four inches and then as I add things in and once I make the first cut, I can kind of shrink it down because I can see where where the ball is going to kind of go. Uh so if you're on the side, three and a half inches. If you're straight on, two and a quarter inches. And as you add those those trails and your those paths and whatnot, you'll realize how little space you actually have on a piece of wood and you you'll realize how um how high your ramps actually need to be to get up and over the thing to get to go in which uh this this ramp over here on the right right here. Actually, no. This this one right here, this green ramp. Um, when I made the first vacuum form of this, I was expecting, oh, I can kind of flex it down a little bit so I don't have to worry about it. Yeah, that that that didn't work because I wanted a ball to go behind the ramp right here. And the metal guide that's right back here is uh 1 and eigh inch tall just so the ball kind of slides along it, which means this ramp just went like this all the way around instead of this. So, if you look closely on Christmas Countdown, this ramp that I have there, I snipped a little bit and I kind of bent the ramp and riveted some other little pieces of plastic so you couldn't really tell to make it curve up and around. And now it it's smooth and it it seems to fit. Um, uh, likewise, this ramp on the right, I made it way too tight for my what my vacuum forming machine can do. So, this kind of inner section, the the inner kind of loop around is really chewed up because I just had no plastic down there. So, I I kind of put a little piece of metal or something there. I think it it's I I had to Mickey Mouse it a little bit to make it work. I also needed to add a gate on it because this ramp when I made it was completely wrong and the ball just wouldn't go up and around. It it would go around the ramp then all the way back around and it's like the hell are you doing ball? Gravity is this way. But no, the gravity say no. and it it went back. So, there's a lot of those little tweaks you'll find on there. Um, so as also something else I do with ball trails, too. Um, any what any kind of ball trail, whether it's a ramp or it's a guide, uh, some kind of orbit or other loop around. I never go any smaller than about one and a half inches wide from metal to metal or from plastic to plastic because if it's any shorter than that that or any thinner than that then when you put the piece on you're going to have a little bit of soft when installing and you it might just pinch too much or your bend might not be quite right if it's metal and it might pinch too much. So one and a half inches. And also a lot of standard parts uh for ramps assume one and a half inch wide like little gullies that the ball goes down. Um when the when the ball is coming down towards you, you can get as small as one and a quarter, but that's pushing it. You probably need to lower your your sidewalls a little bit when you do that so it doesn't pinch. I I think a good example of that is um the Pirates of the Caribbean um Stern how they how um Dennis I think he made it the the little wavy ramp in the front that's like really really uh shallow but it's also really skinny so it doesn't take up a lot of space. Um also you can look at Frozen. Frozen does something like that too. I have that ramp that goes across. have very shallow heights on that so it doesn't block the ball and but it also gets pretty narrow as it goes across. Um so as I'm as I'm kind of drawing all these things in layers, each one of these colors is a different layer. So I can onion slice it. If you know Iron Man one, that's how I make these games or how I designed these games. Um how we designed that suit in the cave. Um, so I onion slice it and as as I'm building this, I also look at where the flipper is coming from. And if I had Photoshop on this, I'd be able to show you, but um I I basically draw I not a straight line because a lot of people like to do take like a ruler and it's going from this flipper to that shot, right? Where in in actual reality, it's going to go from that flipper to that shot. You you have like a a V type of situation. So you need to take care of the the lowest point of the V. So say the impact point down here as well as the highest point of the V, which is the impact point up here. So what happens in those two situations? Once you once you're past that, then you can do whatever you want as long as the ball ricochets the way you expect. Um, and uh, I'm I've been practicing a lot actually this past year what what the reflection points are because that's been kind of an Achilles heel of mine. And this game was the first one that I think I got everything right or mostly right. If you look at this ramp here, notice the left side kind of is a big kind of pot belly coming out whereas the right side is far more straight. uh is still a little curved to the left, but it's still far more straight. This pot belly is that way specifically because of what I just described from this flipper. It kind of goes diagonal a little bit. So, you got to catch the ball and have it loop around. If you just had it straight, it would go up and bounce off, you want it to bounce up. So whatever the angle of reflection would be if you draw a line a vector from the flipper to the point you know you take the reciprocal of that to go to reflect up. So does it does it reflect across? If it does you're probably going to start going down. If it reflects more up you're probably going to start going up. U probably. Now, let's say you have a straight kind of a straight ramp or a straight something or other and uh you say, "Oh, this this kind of bounces a little bit and zigzags a little bit, but it kind of goes where I want, right?" Um well, add gravity into that. And that zigzag instead of going like that, it's going to kind of go more like that. And that's why you see these weird little bounces and like, "Oh, this looks cool. Why doesn't this work?" Well, it's because you're reflecting just slightly wrong. And then gravity's saying, "Hold my beer." Um So that that's the biggest challenge. That's one of the other biggest challenges of ramps to make them work. Sure, it looks like this is going to work great on paper. It's all smooth, but um then gravity comes into play and kind of changes how your reflection is a little bit. So, your best or what what I've uh determined so far when I design, uh if it's on an angle at any point, instead of that reflection point being equal, like if you have a a mirror, bring it down just a little tickle each time you reflect. And if it still makes it where you want, it's probably going to be okay. And the steeper your ramp is, the more it's going to kind of bend back down to your reflection point. Uh I don't know. Is uh any questions on that? Any curiosities? Yeah.

Ramp reflection points must account for gravity's effect on ball trajectories, not just geometric angles

high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'Let's say you have a straight kind of a straight ramp...it's going to kind of go more like that. And that's why you see these weird little bounces...It's because you're reflecting just slightly wrong. And then gravity's saying, Hold my beer.'

Lin Manuelian first learned pinball rules from playing Simpsons Pinball Party while developing the Pinballistic video game

high confidence · Lin Manuelian: 'I learned how to play on that and I learned what rules were based on that' (referring to Simpsons Pinball Party).

Pinball machine design tolerances for tight ball path transitions must allow for 'human level slop' and typically require V-shaped or snake-mouth entrance designs rather than millimeter-precision tolerances

high confidence · Lin Manuelian on tight tolerances: 'You want you want human level slop in there basically...if you expect the exit of something to seamlessly go into something else that's really tight, it ain't going to happen.'

“If you're if you're doing it more organically with like paper and whatnot, if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic.”

Lin Manuelian@ 30:41 — Design philosophy for transitioning from paper prototypes to physical construction

“I hate MPF.”

Lin Manuelian@ 26:27 — Personal stance on Mission Pinball Framework software for pinball design

Taiko Drum Masterproduct

Visual Pinballsoftware

3D Studio Maxsoftware

Send Cut Sendservice

personnel_signal: Lin Manuelian represents an emerging hybrid profile: professional software engineer (18+ years video game experience) transitioning to physical pinball design. Started through virtual pinball (Pinballistic on PS3), now producing custom physical machines at prolific rate (6 games in ~15 years).

high · Biography provided: video game programmer background, virtual pinball entry point via Simpsons Pinball Party learning, evolved to custom hardware design.

technology_signal: Design tool stack includes Photoshop (sketching), SolidWorks (CAD/modeling), VPX (ball path verification), Send Cut Send (metal fabrication), CNC cutting. Lin Manuelian explicitly rejects MPF (Mission Pinball Framework) for software development.

high · Tool usage detailed throughout seminar. Lin Manuelian: 'I hate MPF' regarding pinball control software.

community_signal: Pintastic Expo's 10th iteration features first-time cumulative record of 10 homebrew developer seminars across all pinball expos. Shows sustained community interest in custom/independent pinball design as specialty track.

high · Speaker introduction: 'This is our 10th show. And for the 10th time, we have something in our seminar program for homebrew developers. No other show has had 10 ever cumulatively.'

design_philosophy: Lin Manuelian values paper/foam prototyping for concept validation before expensive CNC cutting. Philosophy: 'if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic.' Advocates eliminating unnecessary ramp flaps and coil requirements through better design.

high · Discussion of transitional prototyping: 'You can buy aluminum strips and kind of cut them down and tape them in...if you're if your stuff works in paper, it'll work really well in in metal and plastic.'

design_innovation: Lin Manuelian emphasizes V-shaped or 'snake-mouth' entrance designs for gravity-fed ball transitions rather than tight tolerances. Example: moving targets from back of playfield to front to enable full orbit bidirectionality; resizing entrance mouths based on gravity flow characteristics.

high · Detailed CAD walkthrough showing wide entrance cavity design, lower-flat-upper-curved guide sections for angle-dependent capture, and iterative shrinking after first cuts prove feasibility.

product_concern: Christmas Countdown faced multiple field adjustments: ramp curvature issues requiring mid-ramp clips/rivets, vacuum-forming limits causing chewed inner loops, gate additions to correct gravity-flow problems, and complex folded sheet metal components that may be redesigned as two-part assemblies in future iterations.

high · Lin Manuelian walkthrough: 'I snipped a little bit and I kind of bent the ramp and riveted some other little pieces...I had to Mickey Mouse it a little bit to make it work...This thing is a pain in the ass to bend.'

content_signal: Lin Manuelian conducts interactive seminar with live CAD file demonstrations, Q&A participation, and playable game at venue. Format includes visual design evolution (sketch→CAD→finished machine) and practical tolerance/physics discussions grounded in specific examples.

high · Seminar structure: opening overview, detailed design methodology walkthrough with CAD files, live demonstrations, audience Q&A, direction to play finished games at expo.