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 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. 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,
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 Ryan 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 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 printed parts, right?
Yeah, mostly. Yeah,
we got some stock pinball parts in there as well,
but only the best people, best looking people can play it.
He is quite fancy.
Uh, Pinball Galaxy is a pretty interesting uh video pinball crossover. You put on an Oculus head unit and then inside you see like a real life pinball machine. So, you stand at this cabinet. It feels like you're playing actual pinball, but you're immersed into the virtual world, which is pretty rad, right? Uh, Space Falls is another great game. Adventure Time, another one of Ernie's games. Like, the list goes on. Like I said, we have 40 games here and they're all unique. They all have special things going on. Another really tiny pin Beimo, an adventure type themed game on Turbo Time. You're actually using the uh handle to flip and to steer. When you steer left and right, it changes which lanes you're supposed to hit. So, it's super interactive. Uh Sonic Sonic the Hedgehog spinball was another This was Ryan Mcuade's game and this got him a job at American Pinball and he started working as a designer for them too. So, I don't want to say it's necessarily the goal of these creators to make a resume to get into the industry, but it is a good propelling force. Like, if you do want to get in industry, what's the best way to show that you have what it takes? Build a game, right? 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 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 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 are one person. It's so impressive.
Yeah,
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. Yeah, the multiplayer games.
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 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 crazy to be running out of Raspberry Pi.
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. 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.
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 yeah, that's what we do. But we really love the maker space. So, we've been creating these homebrew loot crates over here, which is kind of a a random of ball guides and ramps and uh metal and plastic hardware that will help get your game started sort of thing. So, people will take these crates, get the ramps, bend them that they want, chop them off or whatever to to start building. And um every month these change. So it's like different stuff in the loot crate. And that's been a fun new product that we've been able to help offer to the community where one of these is like 200 bucks. If you bought all the stuff individually, you're looking like over a thousand. You know, pinball is not cheap, but we're trying to do what we can to help support the community in ways like that. Um so yeah, with so in this space, we had two different award shows. Last night was the industry awards. So, we had a bunch of old Williams, sorry. We had a bunch of legendary Williams designers uh come out and give awards to each of these homebrew folks uh custom game makers, which was a super honor to them because these are the people that paved the way for pinball. And tonight, we have our people's choice award. So, if you see the QR codes everywhere, everyone's voting on their favorite game. So, we're gonna celebrate, give out some awards tonight, and then kind of strike this merch area, turn it into a DJ station and blast music and party the last few hours away. And that's what we do. Just having fun with pinball. That's what it's all about.
That's awesome. Yeah. I I really appreciate you showing us around and letting us know about all this stuff at Moto. I love this space. This is like this is inspiration to me. This is the future. You're so right. We're going to find our next amazing designers. The next Keith Elwin could be here right now and we don't even know it yet.
Now, if there's any game here that you guys really liked specifically and you want me to dive deeper, let me know in the comments. We will get them on the show, dive into how they made it and everything. Thank you, Emoto again. And thank you, Marcos, for making this possible.
Keep Pimbo alive, y'all. [Music] Heat. Heat.