I couldn't get to sleep a few nights ago and swimming around my head was the idea that pinball should stop being made for public spaces and instead aimed as a luxury toy for home use.

I was thinking that if someone would create a modern electronic solid state pinball table but scaled down to about a 900x500mm playfield with smaller balls and ramps it could be played on home tables then stored on it's side in a cupboard or on top of a wardrobe when not being used.

Costs could be cut by not having extavagent playfield toys but keeping all the classic ramps, locks, drops, bumpers. I'm thinking that a detatchable LCD or OLED based back board could be used rather than a DMD and feature a deep ruleset for prolonged use and exploration rather than instant satisfaction. The table could be network connected for leaderboards, updated firmware and other online features.

I'm thinking a cost of £1000 to £2000 (or whatever that is in dollars) would be something that people would be willing to play for an experience as good as the best late 90s tables but smaller in scale and easier to transport and store. The light and sound could be even more impressive now than ever with even better and cheaper lights, speakers, displays. With the right design team, these could be just as audially and visually exciting as the best of the past pinballs.

I suppose I'm putting this idea out there to see what the major stumbling blocks are. I've read that Jersey Jack will be using existing Williams pinball parts which have been refined over the years and if you created a pinball table at a different scale like I am proposing I guess you would need to design and create every part from scratch which would be a big investment.

Apart from whether there is sufficient market demand for this to be a worthwhile business venture I think that is the only problem I can see.

I'd be interested to hear all your fine reasons why this is an impossible pipe dream even if I had the capital to start a home pinball company.

How DARE you! I gave up crack WEEKS ago!

Can you tell me more about these 70s home pinball tables though and why they sucked exactly because that would be very interesting to me.

In reply, you can't get pinball at home which is my main point. You can't get pinball anywhere these days unless you are lucky enough to know someone with one or be close to a pub with one. Arcades have died and I don't think they're coming back so unless new pinball makes the transition to home units it will die completely. If most existing tables are in private hands now doesn't that tell you something about where the demand is?

My idea btw is to make home tables that DON'T suck and have all the bells and whistles you speak of. Just in a more manageable format.

I'd love to do some experiments to see if you can keep the same feel of larger tables on a smaller scale. Again, I think just because some smaller tables in the past were rubbish doesn't necessarily mean that it is unworkable. Perhaps playing with the density of the ball and the strength of the bumpers, different rubbers and slope would find something pleasingly similar to the great tables of the past.

Cost isn't my main issue here, it's size and weight. Not too many people where I livehave the room to have a full size table in their home. Something the size of a TV or suitcase that is designed to be packed away when not in use - perhaps in a custom case. It could have optional legs if you wanted to have it out permanently.

Maybe many of you have realtively big houses with room for a pinball table or two. I'm living in the UK in a small South London flat and I'm currently looking to buy my first table but I'll have to keep it at my Aunt's house at the other end of the country where I'll visit it once or twice a year or so. This is why this idea has been floating around my mind. I'm not saying it's viable but I'd like to hear good reasons why it isn't - for someone willing to invest.

Ignoring whether it's a good idea or not, I want to know (theoretically) how you could go about constructing a mini pinball? Would you have to redesign all the playfield components from scratch and would this make the whole idea financially ridiculous?

Well I am disappointed. I thought there would be more enthusiasm from other people that don't have the space for a full size pinball. I really can't see why this couldn't be done properly just because of bad examples in the past. I'm sure that experimenting with ball size and density would be easy enough - the key being scaling EVERY part of the table.

Me too. I just don't think the size is vital. Maybe we should reconsider what the 'arcade experience' is? I've never f'rinstance wanted a stand up arcade cabinet because I just don't see the point when I can recreate that perfectly using a monitor and proper arcade controller.

That exactly what I would want to do with my miniature pinball! "I can't believe we thought pinball tables had to be the size of a horse and weigh the same as a grand piano!"

And let's not compare arcade cabinets to pinball because even though I'm not saying that stand up cabinets have no place, the difference between playing an emulation of a coin op at home and playing an emulation of a pinball table is massive.

That's what I want to bring to more people - the experience of playing pinball with real objects, the joy of watching genuine physics in play, the mechanical sensory experience. I'm not saying that home units should replace full size units but there is a gap in the market for people who can pay for and would like a pinball table but cannot sacrifice the permanant room that one takes up or literally can't fit one up their tiny stairway, like me.

It's ridiculous though I think, to say that any change to the full size table setup is sacrilege. All you need to do is distill the essence of what makes pinball work. That is what I would demand in a set top pinball table. The same satisfactory sensation and feeling of control. Is everyone imagining a smaller home version would be light and plasticky with a cheap and nasty edge to it because I'm certainly not?

Anyway, I'm really keen to hear about the logistics of constructing a scaled down pinball table though assuming that the ball would be a different size to most existing tables all the mechanisms would need to be different wouldn't they?

Check out this video

That looks like about the playfield size I was imagining and that ball moves around at a decent pace, improved perhaps by being a little denser and bigger maybe. Now, imagine that table was designed by one of the best and tricked out with all the lights, booming sound effects and mechanical response magic of your average late 90's pinball table and distilled into just the playfield and a display. I would love that. Wouldn't anyone else?

Have you ever been to the UK? There is no room in my flat unless I throw away all my furniture. I've considered building a shed in the tiny back garden but then I'd need to hire a crane to lift the pinball table over the house. The STTNG pinball I'm considering buying for my Aunt's house won't even fit through my doorways.

The Zizzle is a big step in the right direction towards what I am imagining. I'm thinking it would be need to be the same quality as the best full size pinball tables though and with a much more intricate gameplay and scoreboard graphics. The physics on that look pretty cool for the playfield size.