Homebrew Pinball Machine Tour at Pinball Expo 2025 With Imoto From Marco

Indie Arcade Wave·video·20m 54s·analyzed·Oct 22, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Marco Pinball showcases 40 homebrew games at Expo 2025, celebrating indie makers and emerging designer talent.

Summary

A comprehensive tour of Marco Pinball's Homebrew Village at Pinball Expo 2025, showcasing 40 custom-built and rethemed pinball machines created by independent makers and hobbyists. The segment highlights the growing homebrew pinball community, featuring award-winning games like Big Trouble in Little China, innovative mechanics, and emerging designers who are using homebrew as a pathway into the professional pinball industry. The event demonstrates strong collaboration between parts suppliers (Marco, Fast Pinball, Trident Pinball) and makers, positioning homebrew as a creative and competitive space that rivals manufacturer announcements.

Key Claims

Marco has 40 homebrew games at Pinball Expo 2025, the largest presentation of maker-created games the show has featured
high confidence · Imoto (Marco representative) speaking at Pinball Expo 2025
Ernie Silverberg's Mothership is the world's largest pinball machine and is in process for Guinness Book of World Records recognition
medium confidence · Imoto describing Mothership at the homebrew showcase
Jack Danger built a homebrew pinball machine that served as his resume to get hired at Stern Pinball; he designed Foo Fighters and X-Men
high confidence · Imoto discussing Jack Danger's career path at Pinball Expo
Keith Elwin designed an Archer pinball homebrew machine around 2016-17 that impressed Stern, leading to his hire and eventual modification into Iron Maiden
high confidence · Imoto describing Keith Elwin's industry entry through homebrew
Ryan Mcuade's Sonic the Hedgehog pinball homebrew game led to him being hired as a designer at American Pinball
high confidence · Imoto discussing homebrew-to-industry career progression
Kyle Smith's Big Trouble in Little China homebrew game is one of the longest-drawing games at the show, comparable to manufacturer announcements
high confidence · Imoto observing crowd size and popularity at Pinball Expo 2025
A homebrew Harry Potter game by Kyle Reed was created around the same time as Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter release, creating competitive tension in the community
medium confidence · Imoto discussing the timing and reception of competing Harry Potter homebrew and commercial versions
Marco Pinball created monthly rotating homebrew loot crates containing ramps, ball guides, and hardware at approximately $200 each, offering $1000+ in value if purchased individually
high confidence · Imoto describing Marco's product offering to support homebrew makers

Notable Quotes

“These people find the game like or whatever that registers to them and like, hey, I I want to make my own game. You know, none of these manufacturers are going to make it, so why not make it on my own?”
Imoto @ ~13:30 — Explains core motivations for homebrew creators—passion projects for unlicensed or niche themes
“I come from the indie film making scene. So to me it's like the manufacturers are like Hollywood studios and then here you have like the indie films the indie film pinball and stuff.”
Imoto @ ~24:45 — Frames homebrew pinball as direct analog to indie film movement, positioning as legitimate creative alternative to corporate manufacturing
“Something like this where it'll take uh one of these manufacturers three 400 people to build a game. This is a single person team or maybe a small group of folks collaborating together to make it happen.”
Imoto @ ~18:00 — Contrasts scale and efficiency of homebrew creation against corporate manufacturing
“He's not selling his game. He's just making it for himself. So, he doesn't have to really worry about any sort of like license infringing or anything like that because they're not made to be sold.”
Imoto @ ~22:30 — Explains legal framework homebrew creators use to avoid IP enforcement while creating unlicensed games
“So, it's like our sprint for the for the weekend. And you can see we have like the pinisseries and stuff set up where people are um testing out their wiring u making sure all the hardware works before they go and drop it into their cabinets.”
Imoto @ ~16:45 — Describes collaborative maker culture at Expo, with fast-turnaround builds and community support
“The next Keith Elwin could be here right now and we don't even know it yet.”
Host (Indie Arcade Wave) @ ~35:00 — Underscores Expo homebrew showcase as talent pipeline for discovering future industry designers
“We're going to find our next amazing designers... This is inspiration to me. This is the future.”

Entities

Marco PinballcompanyImotopersonErnie SilverbergpersonKyle SmithpersonJack Dangerperson Keith ElwinpersonRyan McuadepersonKyle ReedpersonJeffrey and Lisa Sue

Signals

?
event_signal: Pinball Expo 2025 featured 40 homebrew games in Marco's Homebrew Village, described as 'by far our largest presentation of maker-created games,' indicating significant growth in homebrew showcase at major industry event
high · Imoto: 'we have 40 uh homebrew games here this year... this is by far our largest presentation of maker created games'
?
personnel_signal: Multiple homebrew creators (Jack Danger, Keith Elwin, Ryan Mcuade) documented as hired by major manufacturers (Stern, American Pinball) based on homebrew work, establishing credible industry talent pathway
high · Jack Danger hired at Stern; Keith Elwin's Archer homebrew led to Iron Maiden hire; Ryan Mcuade hired at American Pinball from Sonic homebrew
?
community_signal: Formal ecosystem developing with parts suppliers (Marco, Fast Pinball, Trident Pinball), artist services (Graphic Dimensions, Electric Playground), and structured support (homebrew loot crates, maker workshops at Expo) enabling homebrew creation at scale
high · Imoto describing partnerships: 'with us all coming together, we're really helping people take their game to the next level'
?
design_innovation: Homebrew creators experimenting with novel mechanics not seen in commercial games, including magnet rail systems (Ernie Silverberg's Monsters Inc.), head-to-head interactive gameplay (Monster League Hockey, Battle Stations), and AI-assisted rule design
high · Imoto: 'this mech is uh unique, never been done before' and 'there's lots of innovation happening around in this homebrew space'
?
licensing_signal: Homebrew creators using non-commercial status as legal shield to produce games with unlicensed major IP (Harry Potter, Pokemon, Cuphead, Sonic, Ghost in the Shell, Zelda) without apparent enforcement action from IP holders

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:03

How's it going, guys? We're here at Pinball Expo 2025 with a moto. She came here with Marcos and they are doing something just insane with home brewing this year. Coming from the indie arcade space. I need to see the homebrew stuff. I want to talk to all these guys and I want Emoto to take us around on a tour, show us some of the games that really stand out and talk about what Marcos is doing for home brewing. Awesome. Hello everybody. Welcome to Awesome. Hello everybody. Welcome to Marco's Homebrew Village. Uh we're at the Pin DevCon Homebrew and Custom Games area here at Pinball Expo 2025. And this is by far our largest presentation of maker created games. So we have games built from scratch and then also like rethemed pinball machines and stuff like that too. We also have some rethemed uh arcade games as well or some console games that are put into arcade cabinets sort of. So, there's always that arcade, video land, and pinball crossover that we always love to celebrate. Um, but so we have 40 uh homebrew games here this year. So, starting with this giant world's largest pinball machine, which is Mothership. Uh, this is Ernie Silverberg brought this game and I think it's going to get a Guinness Book of World Records sometime soon. And if we go through the stroll, I'm gonna take you around the other side so you can get the full experience of the show.

1:30

And uh you can see we have graphic dimensions right here. They uh do the playfields, um side art, back glass, anything you need to make your custom game a reality. The legendary Mike Pesak right here. He's one of the original founders of Pinball Expo. Thank you, Mike. And then the just the list goes on. You look at these games, you think they're actually made by current manufacturers, but they're all made by small teams or individuals. For example, Hellraiser. This is a rethe game. So, he took an older game, uh, changed it to the theme that he loves, decked it out with art, new code, new mechs, stuff like that. Really bringing, you know, their passions to life. So, we have the greatest showman right here, which is another awesome rethe. I think this one was a whirlwind, but this is an awardwinning game. They travel to several different shows all across the country, Texas Pinball Festival, stuff like that, winning awards for their custom game. It's truly a beautiful piece of art. And the creators right there, Jeffrey and Lisa Sue, wave to the camera, y'all. Thanks for bringing your game. So, people come from all over the country and world to bring their games here. We have some awesome art. Very cool. And you see this big crowd we're going to go through. This is a line to play one of the biggest custom games we have here. This is a homebrew game uh called uh Big Trouble in Little China. You guys probably remember that old movie. So, we have the glass off here. And this is the designer and creator, Kyle Smith. Also an awardwinning homebrew uh builder. This is his second game. He did Friday the 13th. Brought that one out last year. Now, this year he's showing off Big Trouble and Little China. And literally, he's had one of the longest lines here next to some of the manufacturers who are announcing their brand new games. You know, people are still coming over here to see Kyle's, you know, oneman band. Amazing masterpiece. And look, now you can see how how it's the bread is made. All these wiring. Kyle soldered every single thing in here. He pinned every single cable in here. Hundreds and hundreds of connectors. So much engineering on the mechanical and software side goes to making these games and a lot of times they collaborate with artists and stuff too. So Electric Playground is a huge supporter of the homebrew and custom game movement. They uh specialize in making toppers, really cool toppers, but they also help foster that kind of maker community. So we love uh teaming up with them at shows as well too to present some cool stuff. So, when we come through the main entrance into the Marco Village, you got my fire lights,

4:45

it's just sensory overload in the best way possible. And a lot of these people are working on their games, getting feedback from crowds and stuff. Uh Tony Hawk pinball was made last year, also another award-winning game, so he brought it out. Nick Neil and it just keeps going on. Basically, these people find the game like or whatever that registers to them and like, hey, I I want to make my own game. You know, none of these manufacturers are going to make it, so why not make it on my own? It's takering like the tinkering level to the whole next level. So, it's like Ghost in the Shell, Zelda, a Contra, which is a rethe special force game, Enigma, which is a brand new theme. We got like weird cool things like this, like the House of Flesh and Blood by Tanner. Patch Luau. Uh, Lua is this really cool. It looks like an old school uh electromechanical game and it basically is, but it it was virtually made this year. John Manolin is a mad scientist and this might be like his seventh or eighth uh pinball machine that he's made. So, it's really wild. And then Elf is another great one by Bob Ny. One of the um the coolest things at maybe I won't say that but uh one of the really cool presentations is the first showcasing of monster league hockey. So if you kind of try to get a shot of it, this is a head-to-head game where you battle a person across from each other. And there were games like this in the past like Alvin G's soccer and joust which were really cool. And this makes pinball even more interactive. You're staring at your opponent. You're having a great time. All weekend long we've had people like shouting and screaming and they have a tournament going on too where people win trophies. So it's really rad. Um and it keeps on going. So part of it is we build this maker space. We team up with Fast Pinball and Trident Pinball. So, as as Marco Specialties, Marco Pinball, we sell pinball parts. So, with our pinball parts makers, we'll take our pinball parts, join it up with fast pinball hardware. This is going to allow you to program your game through a mission pinball framework. And then the the whitewoods and stuff you get from Ernie from Trident Pinball. He'll cut your playfield to what you want it to look like. make sure it gets all the inserts and stuff in it. And so with us all coming together, we're really helping people take their game to the next level. This game we're looking at is actually Jack Danger's very first pinball machine he built. Jack Danger is a designer with Stern Pinball. He designed Foo Fighters and X-Men. And this was basically his resume into getting into the industry, which is super rad. So same thing happened with Elwin. Yeah, same thing happened with Elwin. Yeah, same thing happened with Keith Elwin the goat, one of the most legendary pinball designers of our modern era and he designed um an archer pinball machine like back in 201617. Stern liked him and the game so much that they brought him on board and then that got modified a bit and became uh I believe Iron Maiden. Yeah. So, it's super rad. So, this is this game has been showcased uh this weekend. Jack got his job at Stern so fast that he never finished it. So, he brought it here and everyone's been helping out, tinkering it, adding in the wiring and stuff. And the goal is to get it flipping by the end of the weekend. It's kind of like our sprint for the for the weekend. And you can see we have like the pinisseries and stuff set up where people are um testing out their wiring u making sure all the hardware works before they go and drop it into their cabinets. So, Fast Pinball 2, they have such a great community supporting supporting makers. So, if you're interested in making a pinball machine, hook up with Fast and they'll help guide you through the way. So, back here you can see Monsters Inc. is another one of Ernie Silverberg's games. Uh Ernie's with Marco and Trident, and this may be his sixth or seventh pinball machine. And I don't know if we'll see it here, but you should definitely get it. This mech is uh unique, never been done before. And it's a magnet rail, so the ball will actually travel um being connected to the top of this rail through a magnet and follow through. So there's lots of innovation happening around in this homebrew space, too, that you know, we're trying to create the new designers of the next era of pinball. And I think you're going to find that these are the guys and gals that are going to help lead us into the future of pinball. Uh next to it, there's a big crowd, so you can't see it, but that's Harry Kyle Kyle Reed's Harry Potter. That's a really cool game. It came out honestly around the same time as Jersey Jack's Harry Potter. So there is this kind of big um I don't know how to say it but without how do I phrase this that doesn't make Jersey Jack uh look bad but there was a sense of competition when this game came out and Jersey Jack spinball came out because it was like oh maybe the mechs here could have been in that game or whatever. So that kind of weird com competition sort of thing but He's not selling his game. He's just making it for himself. So, he doesn't have to really worry about any sort of like license infringing or anything like that because they're not made to be sold. They're just passion projects. Um, so that's how we kind of skirt around that. But we are live streaming all weekend. So, if you head to our YouTube page, Marco Pinball, you can see all of the live streams. who are interviewing all the home brewers, uh, playing their games with them. And shout out to Manu Smith from Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 and Isaiah on Twitch for holding down the fort. They're working with Coleman doing this stream. And Coleman brought this awesome uh, small pinball machine that is made completely out of 3D printed parts. Just super rad. Completely out of 3D Just super rad. Completely out of 3D printed parts, right? Yeah, mostly. Yeah, Yeah, mostly. Yeah, we got some stock pinball parts in there we got some stock pinball parts in there as well, but only the best people, best looking but only the best people, best looking people can play it. He is quite fancy.

13:14

So, lots of cool games and a lot of times it's people just want to see their favorite theme made and they want to test and challenge themselves to see if they can do it too. You know, something like this where it'll take uh one of these manufacturers three 400 people to build a game. This is a single person team or maybe a small group of folks collaborating together to make it happen. Uh, I like to really I come from the indie film making scene. So to me it's like the manufacturers are like Hollywood studios and then here you have like the indie films the indie film pinball and stuff you know. I love I love this little corner over I love I love this little corner over here of like Cuphead, Sonic and Pokemon because all of these are apparently licenses that these big companies have. Right. Right. So like having these licenses and So like having these licenses and showing that these people can produce cabinets that are this good. Pokemon is incredible. Cuphead plays incredibly fluid and Sonic is just a blast to play. These aren't major manufacturers. These These aren't major manufacturers. These are one person. It's so impressive. Yeah, Yeah, it's super wild. And we have like a pin it's super wild. And we have like a pin glow here. If you don't want to go for a full making your own pinball machine, you can take your old game that's not working and make the playfield into some wall art. So, any way to keep the preservation of pinball. Don't throw out your old pinball parts. turn it into art later, you know. Um, so Battle Stations is another head-to-head game, which is super rad. These head-to-head games really are so much fun. Like, I love the aspect that you can just be right across your opponent, you know? It's kind of like a air hockey sort of thing. People just really love it. They've been really fun to explore. They've been really fun to explore. Yeah, the multiplayer games. Uh, yeah, the um Black Knight. This is Uh, yeah, the um Black Knight. This is an interesting one. This one came from Argentina. It's the original Black Knight, but he changed the rules. He changed uh he added a TV and he used AI to help him create all of this. So, it's kind of like our our AI built machine. And then the designer Rolando created his entire own software system on a small Raspberry Pi to run that machine. That's a Raspberry Pi. That's a That's a Raspberry Pi. That's a Raspberry Pi that's running that. Yeah. Pretty rad, right? So, you know, the limit is your mind. You know what you can do. Talk about minimal software. That's Talk about minimal software. That's crazy to be running out of Raspberry Pi. Yeah. And it's been running all weekend Yeah. And it's been running all weekend smoothly, too. You know, hundreds and hundreds of plays. Uh over here, you see Dumpster Island. So, what Christopher does is he finds old cabinets that are thrown away. He saves them out of the trash and he uh puts games in them. So, this is like, you know, one of those um old Space City type cabs that he turned into a portal game. Uh there's Parappa the Rapper where you have like the big PlayStation buttons right there on the cabinet. That one's one of my favorites. So, it's pretty rad. This is one of my favorite games at the show. This is Coming to America. This is uh Ricardo's game. And the cool thing about this for us is last year he came and saw our homebrew space. He bought one of our homebrew loot crates and was like, "Cool, I'm inspired. I'm going to make a game." And then this year he brought his game out in one year. in one year. In one year. And so we spent the In one year. And so we spent the weekend, they were over there in the maker space wiring all up. And then yesterday afternoon there was this big celebration parade where they all came out to put the playfield in, get it turned on and shoot the ball for the first time. So that was like a really fun experience to see it come all the way from just one little box to an awesome flipping pinball machine. So you can see here Mark working on his Spider-Man game. always help with the community to help get stuff wired up and get it flipping flipping today. flipping today. Yeah, they're going to have it flipping Yeah, they're going to have it flipping today. So, just being in this kind of creative space just helps take your game and like you're you're maybe stuck creatively or stuck on like a mechanical or software issue like bring your game to the show and work with the other makers and they're going to help you, you know, and uh that's kind of the beauty of this collaborative space that we're seeing. And then last but not least is our Marco pinball area. Like I said, we sell pinball parts. So we sell pinball parts for all eras of pinball machines from the 1950s to modern games. So the electromechanical, solid state, and