Box-in: Homebrew on a Budget - Pinball Expo 2025 - Pinball News

Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2025)·video·26m 3s·analyzed·Oct 17, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

DIY homebrew pinball builder presents $699 Steamboat Willie machine using Arduino, Node.js, and constraint-based design philosophy.

Summary

Craig Monahan, a homebrew pinball builder from Louisville, Kentucky, presents 'Box-In: Homebrew on a Budget' at Pinball Expo 2025, detailing how he built a fully functional pinball machine (Steamboat Willie) for $699 total cost ($400 for the first prototype). He emphasizes the philosophy of 'boxing yourself in' with self-imposed design constraints, stealing proven shot geometry from existing machines, using inexpensive open-source hardware (Arduino Mega at $18), and focusing on passion-driven projects for personal enjoyment rather than industry innovation. His approach prioritizes ingenuity within limitations over cutting-edge innovation, accessibility for younger players, and simplicity of design.

Key Claims

Built a fully functional homebrew pinball machine for $699 total cost; first prototype under $400
high confidence · Craig Monahan explicitly states 'that machine right there did for $6.99, okay? That's the whole package' and 'The very first build of this, the first one that I took to shows, the very first build, under $400, okay?'
Steamboat Willie is an EM game hybrid: solenoids fire as EM solenoids on AC power (top layer) with digital undercurrent (video, sound) via shielding to prevent electromagnetic interference
high confidence · Monahan states: 'I wanted to make a game that looks, feels, and operates like an EM game. That is correct. Steamboat Willie is an EM game on the top. All the solenoids fire as EM solenoids. It runs on AC power on the top. And then the undercurrent of it is digital.'
Control board uses Arduino Mega ($18), Node.js, Johnny5, and IOHook libraries running off 5-volt power signals to relays
high confidence · Monahan details: 'the board the Arduino board that that is the output Arduino mega $18... the back end of Steamboat Willie runs off of a Node.js, Johnny5, and IOHook'
Video is managed through one file broken into timestamp segments using JavaScript timer code that jumps to specific seconds based on button inputs
high confidence · 'video is managed through one video file Broken up into timestamp segments. Okay, so from a JavaScript standpoint if this gets too nerdy for you, I'm sorry But from a JavaScript standpoint There's a video timer code and it says change video to 15'
Chose grayscale aesthetic as a design constraint to avoid complex color matching requirements, not as an intentional artistic choice
high confidence · Monahan explains: 'I wasn't good enough at art and Photoshop enough to do color matching appropriately. And so I thought, how do I avoid doing color match? I use a grayscale. You don't have to match color if there's no color.'
Steamboat Willie code and implementation is publicly available for others to use, modify, and improve
high confidence · Monahan states: 'everyone can have access to my code I'm putting it out there for anyone to take you can use it change it fix it fix it please'

Notable Quotes

“Homebrew is about passion. It's about something that is important to you. And if it's not important to you, guess what? You're not going to finish it.”
Craig Monahan@ 4:45 — Core philosophy: emphasizes emotional investment and personal motivation as the critical success factor for homebrew projects, not technical or financial resources
“Everything is limitless guess what You get paralyzed by choices. And so what I did is I created a parameter around things of this is what I'm going to do, and this is how and this is why I'm going to do it.”
Craig Monahan@ 6:45 — Articulates the 'boxing yourself in' philosophy: self-imposed constraints as a creative and practical tool to overcome decision paralysis and drive innovation within boundaries
“Don't innovate. Not whenever you're homebrewing. Save that for your sterns. Save that for your Jersey Jacks and your spookies and whoever. Let them innovate and let them drive. You're making something for you.”
Craig Monahan@ 11:30 — Philosophy on innovation vs. ingenuity: argues homebrew builders should focus on ingenuity (solving problems creatively within constraints) rather than pursuing breakthrough innovation, which is the domain of commercial manufacturers
“Go steal the geometry. Okay like straight up If there a shot from another machine that you like go make that shot Go take your measuring tape. Go measure that shot out.”
Craig Monahan @ ~20:00 — Practical design advice: advocates for reverse-engineering proven shot geometry from existing machines rather than inventing novel shot designs, which he identifies as a common failure point in homebrew
“My machine is not designed to be the best operating pinball machine here. It is supposed, it is designed to be the pinball machine that your wife or girlfriend takes a picture of and then sends it to their friends.”
Craig Monahan — Design priority statement: highlights that the goal is visual/aesthetic appeal and shareability over operational reliability—acknowledges homebrew machines will have issues but prioritizes charm and photo-worthiness

Entities

Craig MonahanpersonRob Burkeperson Walter DaypersonSteamboat WilliegameChampions of AradathgamePunch-Outgame

Signals

?
community_signal: Virtual Pinball community creating downloadable simulations of homebrew machines, extending their reach and legitimacy beyond physical exhibitions
medium · Craig notes that Virtual Pinball community created Steamboat Willie simulation: 'somebody took pictures of my Steamboat Willie machine and put it out on virtual pen and created a virtual version of my pinball machine. It wasn't as much of an honor as getting cards from Walter Day, but it was a huge honor'
~
sentiment_shift: Strong confirmation that homebrew community is active and collaborative; multiple builders present at Expo; shared challenges around shot design and operational issues; enthusiasm for knowledge-sharing and code reuse
high · Craig asks 'Is anyone here a homebrewer?' and gets visible hands; references 'homebrew section' with spectators; mentions common complaints from other homebrew builders; commits to sharing code publicly; audience asks technical questions about libraries and implementation
?
design_philosophy: Game rule design should be kid-friendly and intuitive rather than complex; commercial games (especially Jersey Jack) criticized for overcomplicated rule sets that limit accessibility; homebrew opportunity to design for casual/young players
high · Craig states: 'I wanted to make a game that is a kid's game first. Okay, make something that's fun... if you didn't know if you look around here you're all my age or older okay like we are we need to figure out a way to get young people into this hobby if this hobby is going to continue right'
?
design_philosophy: Emphasis on aesthetic simplicity and 'spread' (white space) in playfield design to allow theme expression and visual clarity; reaction against cluttered, overdesigned playfields
high · Craig notes: 'Spread is better for art presentation. This is a mistake that happens a lot with any pinball machine, not just homebrew, is you end up with no room to actually express what your theme is... if you look at Steamboat Willie, the reason why, again, the things that people like about it is because it's so simple and charming.'

Topics

Homebrew pinball machine design and constructionprimaryBudget-conscious hardware and software solutions for pinballprimaryDesign philosophy: constraints and creative problem-solvingprimaryOpen-source hardware and software implementation (Arduino, Node.js, HTML/JavaScript)primaryGameplay design principles: kid-friendly rules, shot geometry reuse, theme integrationprimaryCommercial vs. hobbyist pinball developmentsecondaryPinball community and homebrew culturesecondaryDisney IP and public domain licensing considerationssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Craig Monahan's presentation is enthusiastic and celebratory of homebrew culture, emphasizing fun, accessibility, and personal accomplishment. He encourages others to participate and shares knowledge freely. Humor and self-deprecation (wife as 'Steamboat Willie Widow,' being 'simple') add warmth. No significant negativity directed at other builders or manufacturers; instead, positions commercial manufacturers as partners in an ecosystem where homebrew fills a different niche. Audience engagement appears positive with laughter and questions.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.078

Hello. Hey. I don't know. Hold on. Rob. There you go. Being a Walt Disney fan like some of us are, when I heard and saw this guy's game, I had never seen in person. But I reached out to him, and he said, who is this? I don't know you, man. So I said, I'm the guy from Pinball Expo. He says, I'd like to have you come to the show. Well, I don't know. Well, we kept talking and talking and texting and talking. And then they got the magic text, I think I can make it. So I'm pleased, very pleased to have this young man here. And hopefully you'll enjoy your times here at Pinball Expo. Listen, I got a trading card from Walter Day. I am good. I am serious. I am good. I am a fanboy if you've ever seen one. Hey, guys, thank you all for showing up. I hope this is interesting to you guys. It's going to be a little bit different than what a normal presentation is because like the gentleman who was just here that gave an awesome talk about their stuff, Theirs is awesome. And if you've ever looked at their stuff, it's awesome. But the name of my presentation is called Box Den, and it's about homebrew on a budget. I have done homebrew now for about eight years, and I did not know that there was a community out there. I didn't know anyone else was doing this. I was doing it all by myself, trying to figure out how to make my own pinball machine because I thought it would be fun. And it was fun. But there's always a but. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever experienced in my life. And so just a little bit of background about me. My name is Craig Monahan. I'm from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm also the managing director of AI and engineering for a large company that I'm not going to name drop. But I've been in computer nerd stuff for a long time, but this is something unlike homebrew is its own animal. Is anyone here a homebrewer? Oh, so we got the homebrew people here. Cool. Thank you for showing up. Quick show of hands. P-Rock. Fast. Something other than that. Okay, cool. Well, this is going to be an interesting thing for you. So Boxed In. By the way, this is a subset of a series that I actually teach at Computer Nerd Seminars. And I'm sorry if it offends you if I refer to them as computer nerds. That's what we are. But it's called Boxed In. But here's the punchline. The machine that's going to be out on the floor as soon as it's set up. By the way, I drove in this morning. So I just got here. It's wrapped up in Super Mario sheets right now. But it'll be out there. but that machine right there did for $6.99, okay? That's the whole package. That is every single piece of it, $6.99. The very first build of this, the first one that I took to shows, the very first build, under $400, okay? So how do you do that? First, you put on your magnifying glass spectacles, and you take a look at this wonderful spreadsheet that shows the parts that are in. And that's a smart way to do it right there. But you zoom in here and you can see every single part that group of parts that's out there. And let me see if I can. I can't read it from here. So if you want to take a look, I'll have this list up later so you can all take a look. But step one of how to build said pinball machine. Okay. First start. And then you already had a decision point when you start. Is your objective to use your pinball machine as a resume for one of these pinball companies to hire you? If yes, pay zero attention to what I'm about to say. Okay. Because it doesn't matter. Everything that I'm going to speak about does not pertain to you trying to do something really innovative. And what I'm wanting you to see is homebrew is about passion. It's about something that is important to you. And if it's not important to you, guess what? You're not going to finish it. And if you're on the homebrew websites or the homebrew forum stuff, John Youssi it all the time where someone's like, I'm going to start making a pinball machine. And they start going through it. and then you never hear from them again. They get about a third of the way through, realize, oh, crap, this is hard, and then they stop. So also step one, why are you doing this? Number one, what are you trying to prove? Number two, what are you trying to run from? And three, have you considered literally doing anything else with your time? This is hard. It's going to take up all of your time. My wife referred to herself as the Steamboat Willie Widow there for a while. That was during the first build. But anyway, step two, box yourself in. And this is kind of the meat of what I want to kind of philosophically convey here. You need to box yourself in. Create a set of principles for the build, okay? And we're going to dive into it. But second, design limitations that define how far is too far. And third, challenge yourself to foster ingenuity instead of innovation. Okay? And, yeah, let's go to the next slide and break that down. So the first one, create a set of principles for the build. In Steamboat Willie's case, I created kind of parameters in a box for me to be inside. And I only wanted to do things from inside that box. and what I mean by that is if you have yet has anyone ever said you need to think outside the box We heard that expression many many times Guess what It the most crippling thing you could ever do because whenever you trying to think outside the box and you think with the concept and the mentality that everything is limitless guess what You get paralyzed by choices. And so what I did is I created a parameter around things of this is what I'm going to do, and this is how and this is why I'm going to do it. So for Steamboat Willie, I wanted to make a game that looks, feels, and operates like an EM game. That is correct. Steamboat Willie is an EM game on the top. All the solenoids fire as EM solenoids. It runs on AC power on the top. And then the undercurrent of it is digital. so it has video, sound, and all that stuff. And someone's going to ask the question at some point, yes, there is a shield in between to make sure that you don't have electromagnetic pulses shorting out the computer with every solenoid hit. We solved that problem. That's why it's version 2. Second thing, design a game that a kid could understand the rule sets. Now, I have in my collection a Godzilla. I've got a Stranger Things. I've got a Toy Story. And especially on the Jersey Jack games, some of the most complicated rule sets I've ever seen in my life. It takes so much to figure out what you're going to do for each mode, right? Am I alone here and thinking this? Okay, cool. So I wanted to make a game that is a kid's game first. Okay, make something that's fun. if you didn't know if you look around here you're all my age or older okay like we are we need to figure out a way to get young people into this hobby if this hobby is going to continue right so I've made a game that puts fun and kid-like charm and mystery into it okay and we'll see how we do that at some point come by the game we'll you'll see what I'm talking about and lastly I only use one bumper. Now, in this particular thing, I only had one bumper to use. I built, if you saw my list of supplies, I bought an old pinball machine, and then I scrapped it for parts, and only one of those bumpers worked. So guess what? I'm designing a one-bumper pinball machine, okay? And then the last thing is impress my wife, which is the hardest thing to do. I don't know if anyone else has that problem, but anyway. Next. Say that again. You tried impressing my wife and it just didn't work for you? I can understand that. I appreciate the try. So another part of boxing yourself in, design limitations that define how far is too far. I wanted and I started with the idea that I was going to build a machine for less than $1,000. It actually was a dare in a sense. A buddy of mine, I was like, I'm going to design my own machine. He's like, you're going to spend a fortune. And I was like, I bet you I can do it for under $1,000. And I did it for $400 on that first build. So next, make it grayscale. That seems like I am making a choice whenever I chose grayscale. Truthfully, I wasn't good enough at art and Photoshop enough to do color matching appropriately. And so I thought, how do I avoid doing color match? I use a grayscale. You don't have to match color if there's no color. So that was a limitation, the box, and I stayed within it. And now everyone comes up to me saying that I was so smart coming up with a grayscale game. Come on, I did it because I had to. It's the box. And last, reuse parts that I already have. If you've been collecting pinball machines for any amount of time, I'm sure you have that bin full of every part imaginable. So I was like, what do I do with these? Am I going to just wait till my Flight 2000 machine breaks down and then finally you have a use for this part? No. So there's Flight 2000 pinball machine parts on Steamboat Willie right now. Why not? All right. Last, challenge yourself to foster ingenuity instead of innovation. All right. This is a huge one. We always think that we're going to be innovative. We're always thinking that we're going to create something that no one else has ever created before. But when you try to do that, you end up not actually succeeding at that. Either someone else has already done it or you're going to fail. and I'm sure that there are geniuses out there that are way smarter than me and I'm glad to meet those people but don't innovate. Not whenever you're homebrewing. Save that for your sterns. Save that for your Jersey Jacks and your spookies and whoever. Let them innovate and let them drive. You're making something for you. You're making something that you can really sink your teeth into and show your friends. That's what your objective should be. So step three, design. This is kind of the power supply layout. I have the top layer, bottom layer, four high voltage solenoids. They're variable. I'm using that variable AC power supply. I also have a 12-volt DC that handles some smaller solenoids to, you know, diverters and stuff like that. I have some toys using 5-volt and 12-volt servos. Lighting inserts. inserts are 5 volt rope lighting which is what I use for general illumination is 12 volt and then there's also a color rope light in there for wizard mode if you can colorize steamboat willy that's if you can plate all the modes that's what happens is it turns into color I challenge anyone to try to do it this weekend so and then GI normal GI for plastics is 5 volt all right play out a Play field layout. Try not to innovate shots. Go for tried and true. Okay, so if you've been to the homebrew section, I haven't played anyone else's homebrew ever, but the complaint that I hear from other folks that are trying to make homebrew is they can never get the shots to be fun shots And it because they trying to make their geometry themselves I say steal the geometry Okay like straight up If there a shot from another machine that you like go make that shot Go take your measuring tape. Go measure that shot out. Go bend that wire to be like their wire. That's how you're going to make a good shot. Spread is better for art presentation. This is a mistake that happens a lot with any pinball machine, not just homebrew, is you end up with no room to actually express what your theme is. Have you seen that before where it's so cluttered, every little part of it? Anyway, if you look at Steamboat Willie, the reason why, again, the things that people like about it is because it's so simple and charming. Thank you. I think they're talking about me because I'm simple. but having that space there gives you everything that you need in order to make your expression known does that make sense cool um segment areas uh for switching light assignments um every part of steamboat willie is in quadrants so you have quadrant one two three and four as a way of making sure that your lights and switches are all in the same thing so you can use separate boards, make everything modular. It saves you a lot of heartache whenever things break, which since I said things break, I just want to be clear. Steamboat Willie is going to work most of the time here, but I assure you without a single doubt, there are going to be problems. In the homebrew section, I'm hoping that all you other homebrewers, do you all have problems in the middle of shows? Okay. Thank God. I didn't want to be the only one, but my machine is not designed to be the best operating pinball machine here. It is supposed, it is designed to be the pinball machine that your wife or girlfriend takes a picture of and then sends it to their friends. That's what it's designed to be. So last, create logical, create logical low. Okay, I can't read my own writing. Oh, I think that's what I meant. So make sure that you balance out your left and right shots. There's nothing worse than a pinball machine that's all right-handed. We've all played that. So iterate. I'm going to skip over this for time. I'm going to get to the boring part because I think this is the most interesting part is the boring part. The back end of Steamboat Willie runs off of a Node.js, Johnny5, and IOHook. Okay. Has anyone ever heard those terms before? This is the way that you operate a pinball machine for pennies. okay the board the Arduino board that that is the output Arduino mega $18 okay by the way everyone can have access to my code I'm putting it out there for anyone to take you can use it change it fix it fix it please but the whole thing is it's running off J and node node.js and so at the beginning of each game It's a command prompt that pops up on the screen, and you can see the log switch by switch. Everything is attached to it, and that's how it operates. And it runs a 5-volt power signal that you can run to a relay to push it up to higher voltage. Simple. In fact, I think that's the way early solid states were kind of working, just minus the whole computer part. the front end is HTML and JavaScript it's a web page okay so this is it's running it right now it actually runs online you can go to www and I could post it somewhere and it would run it as if it were a normal web page it runs everything that you think it run well I can't push the button while it's in that mode. But that's where your music comes from. That's where your sound comes from. That's where your video comes from. How? Think of it as the whole pinball machine is a keyboard. And so when you push the A button on the keyboard, it would be the same as if you push the A button on a website into a field and it says, A was pushed. Now I'm going to run this. Okay. and because of that HTML 5 has video now video on the other hand and Yeah, video is managed through one video file Broken up into timestamp segments. Okay, so from a JavaScript standpoint if this gets too nerdy for you, I'm sorry But from a JavaScript standpoint There's a video timer code and it says change video to 15 And so it goes to second 15 and starts the video then whenever you hit the J button which say that's a spinner then it will go okay now change video to 28 oh and by the way if you go from 14 and of course the time keeps going out 14 15 16 I'm getting close to 28 oh I put a stopper at 27 and then say repeat and then you organize the video in a way that loops Cheap's, it's a webpage. It's not as difficult or as fancy as you'd think it need to be. And so that's how you make it cheap. Cheap's good. So yeah, music is kind of the same thing. I use different files. Songs are on a single file to where it fires one song. One song can play at a time. Sound runs constantly. So you could just hit, you know, if you hit the spinner, it's going to go every time. And so there's no overlap. There's also a universal timer. That's how you control the speed of lights. Ha, ooh, that's cool, the speed of light. I control it. But that's how you're controlling the speed of light. So you can do flashes. You can do, okay, this flashes 12 times. And 12 times on a flash, 12 seconds, Ed Boon. It's a universal timer. That's it. I put all my code, by the way, after I finished it and got it all. I was like, what does ChatGPT have to say about it? And of course it truncated my 10,000 lines of code per file all the way down to like 15 lines of code I swear So it not the most efficient code but it all works Real quick Champions of Aradath That is one of my other homebrews It runs off that same universal timer and oscillates depending on what time of day you actually play the game changes the modes of the game Because it's a universal timer on a computer, so why not? So if it's 6 o'clock in the evening, you're going to be in nighttime mode when you start because it's evening. And the orcs are a little harder to fight. and then you have to oscillate the day and night from there. If you start in the morning, it's going to be daytime and then you oscillate the other way. Just little things that you do for fun. Choosing a theme. I make this the last step because people are like, man, you chose Steamboat Willie. Why did you choose Steamboat Willie? Honestly, I built the game first and then thought, let's do Steamboat Willie. My wife likes Disney. She's a huge fan. We go to Disney. there was one year, oh God, it was, we went four weeks out of the year. It was awful. I love Disney, but four weeks of it's a lot. But she loves Disney. And so I was like, ooh, I'm going to make Lonesome Ghost. Okay. Has anyone seen Lonesome Ghost, Disney? It's my favorite Disney cartoon, but it's also in color. And that was outside of my box and I couldn't do it. So it ended up being Steamboat Willie. From there, all the theme integration happens and i do retro so i always do them retro as a way of so uh with that i want to say uh punch out i chose the theme punch out because i had created a mechanism where the whole play field goes up and down and side to side while you fight uh and i was like oh what can i fight i know and then that's how i chose punch out is because it's the best fighting game ever made or rhythm game depending on how you look at it but since the play field moves up and down it makes a perfect fighting scenario. I did not bring that one. All right, how about picture time? Here's Steamboat Willie. This is all 1.0, the original. It does not have an upper play field. 2.0 does. It does have a steam working out of the tower, out of the smokestacks, but the new designed ones are really cool. And we actually flirted with the idea of actually making the steam go up and the towers themselves move. It would have been cute, but we had a time crunch. We had to get here because I told Rob I was going to be here. So that's Steamboat Willie. That is Luke Skywalker impersonator playing Steamboat Willie at an arcade expo in Louisville. This is really cool. This is somebody took pictures of my Steamboat Willie machine and put it out on virtual pen. and created a virtual version of my pinball machine. It wasn't as much of an honor as getting cards from Walter Day, but it was a huge honor to have my stuff on virtual pin. So you can actually download that now. There's a whole bunch of downloads for it. Go knock yourself out. This is Champions of Aradath. It's actually the best game, in my opinion. It's the funnest game. Multiple tiers, lots of cool things. The whole play field is designed with Dungeons and Dragons figurines because it was all based on my family's Dungeons and Dragons campaign. And so it's my original art, my original story, my original everything. So that's that one. This is me standing in front of Punch-Out. Punch-Out is a cabaret-style game. But, yeah, that's Punch-Out. And this is some other dude standing in front of Punch-Out. this happened at a show blew my mind that someone came dressed and so he had to take a picture this is just a little toy that i made uh for punch out it's just it's a nintendo cartridge it's a real nintendo cartridge that i changed the font for it's cool anyway that is the extent of the presentation do we have any questions or have i i haven't gone over yet so uh do we have any questions? What? The game? Oh, I can talk about that. So some of you all, only about a thousand people have asked me online, is this for sale now that Steamboat Willie is in public domain? No. For two reasons. One, I'm not getting rid of that. Do you know how much time I put into that thing? We just talked about this is all personal. Second thing is even though there are three components and I challenge anyone to go find what those three components are in the game that are still covered by Disney's copyright. So go find those elements and tell me what you think they are. The other thing is Steamboat Willie is still considered what's called a trademark. I've talked to lawyers about this. We've gone through it in detail, but it's considered a trademark. So even Imagine if I would have to maintain exactly only the work itself in order for you to be able to legitimately sell it without some form of consideration or license. That said, if there was a company here that wanted to make a game that people really adore this game, because it's super cute. And so imagine if someone made a super cute game. It would be in every Chuck E. Cheese. I'm just saying. What other questions have we got? And thanks for that one, Rob. That was a t-ball question for me. Quick question about JavaScript. That's my core language, so I'm glad that it's possible to use JavaScript. Yes. Did you use any main libraries to help with that? I.O. Hook is the library that is used to attach the command backend to the HTML frontend. Gotcha. I.O. Hook? I.O. Hook. Awesome. And then the other one is called Robot.js and what Robot.js says and Johnny5. And those are both robotic languages that make servos and stuff move. Awesome. Thank you. Out of time? One more? Is there anybody else have a question? Okay, then. Well, thank you guys for letting me be out here.