This things gonna cost a ton to assemble. If it gets to a point where you can get a parts list together I'd be happy to donate if I had something that could be useful. others may feel the same.. Be cool knowing it's going to a project of this caliber! Maybe you could attach a clothes dryer with a brick in it for a shaker?

Banger I ripped off one of yer lines from Trilogy's TB thread.
You guys amaze me.

Have you considered putting legs under the center section? I would think that would make supporting and assembly for travel much easier. If you built a 'stool' under the center section you could have an anchor that you could then attach the cabinets to, then the playfields. Maybe that's already solved, but that seems the easiest way I can imagine keeping them in line and connected. I can't see how wood joints would hold that weight suspended without support.

Although i was thinking of a 4 legged stool, one at each meeting corner, if you want to keep it minimal and keep that 'floating' look, maybe a single leg up the center that meets a large base ala pub tables.

Looking forward to seeing more as this develops. I had envisioned a 2 player head to head game like this I called 'hot potato' both players played, and the intent was to get balls onto the other game and have them drop, you could control pass back and forth by blocking and unblocking ramps with combo shots from the opposite side.

Can't wait to see this playing!

unfortunately had a drive fail on me recently. Managed to recover many of the files, but the most critical one (the playfield 3d file) got corrupted in the process making every dependent assembly component fail as well. Been slowly recreated everything and slowly getting back to the point I was at before. Going to focus on finishing the playfield layout and work on the cabinet structure secondary. Backing up files to multiple drives, including the cloud moving forward.

lionman_redone_(resized).jpg

lionman_bototm_2.17.16_(resized).jpg

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I love this.

If this gets made, I gladly volunteer to stand sporadically in each section between the pins and yell custom Lionman callouts in the players' faces. The world's first 4D pin... TOP THAT STERN!

lionman_2.18.16_(resized).jpg

Can those drops actually be that close together?

Ahhh, right. Carry on.

Decided to fix the cabinet assemblies so I could get things lined up at the top. The center bowl is split into 4 pieces and can get glued together. Hopefully when I get my 3d printer back I can do some test prints in PLA. They will have built in posts to mount to the playfield. Ideally I'd like to get some PET material so it can be printed semi-clear.

lionman_2.19_(resized).jpg

LIONMAN!!!

I know where you can get new ball trough's at!!

pinball_comparison_(resized).jpg
more updates tonight, getting close to the point where I may need some clarification since the pre-whitewood was meant to play as single player

So I think the transition between playfields is the smallest issue, it's the lane transition

Even if you could get the metal angle right, I think over time the ball will break through the gap. It's probably better to 3d print a block for the curve (mounted on only one playfield)

transition1_(resized).jpg
transition2_(resized).jpg

The bowl diameter increased, the ramp up the bowl has a bend at the end, added some walls, spinner, fixed the right Stern ramp.
lionman_2.21.16_(resized).jpg

I'm making the assumption this is the intended layout:

lionman_layout_(resized).jpg

Curios how you plan on managing where balls should be at the start of a game. One side could end up with all the balls. Unless it's designed to kick a ball into the next players, then round robin it ill everyone have the same amount to start with.

Ball trough should have 5 switches, only holds 4 balls. Anytime a trough has too many balls (including at the end of the game), it fires another ball into the shooter lane, and auto-fires the ball to the playfield to the right. Eventually each playfield should have the correct number of balls (4).

so been thinking about this cabinet assembly since the inception. I pondered 2x4's across from cabinets, maybe 80/20 aluminum channel. I'm realizing that even if you could tie all 4 cabinets together, lifting them all at the same time would suck lifting all that weight at the same time (which is why even on a standard cabinet you put on the 2 front legs, then tilt up the back and put on the back legs). As someone suggested, a center leg would help and I agree. I think the best structural way to do this is to create a bent steel bracket (which is right up Jay's alley of metalworking) at the end of each cabinet. This ties into the side of the cabinet via carriage bolts, which alleviates any force on the weak bottom panel. A single cabinet can be tied to the center leg as a starting point, and the other 3 would follow in the same way.
single_cabinet_(resized).jpg
4-cabinets_tied_together_(resized).jpg

LIONMAN under glass, this could get trickier

lionman_under_Glass_(resized).jpg

I would recommend squaring off the back of each cabinet and just have the center be a pedestal. That way you can just attach a flat board on the back of each cabinet and move the four pieces around like regular pinball machine for transit. So four pieces and a pedestal as the hub.

Oops, just noticed the ramps overhang. The center one could be divided with half being attached to the bowl, or make the bowl bigger to shoot into it. The right ramp would have to be shortened up/adjusted closer.

I had thought of that idea in the other lionman thread. Basically creating a center pyramid with flush edges, then each cabinet gets a nice clean and simple flat transition to the center. I'm just imagining what a stackup nightmare this could turn into trying to get 4 playfield edges all lined up nicely. It also means the center bowl could be permanantly mounted instead of getting installed everytime the cabinets are put together. It also eliminates needing a special piece of glass that has a 45 degree chamfer at the end (and trying to get everything flush on miter cuts).

Also thinking about storage. As it stands, each cabinet has a corner piece of glass and playfield poking out. If it were flat, you could at least have some sort of panel that could close off the inside and keep dust off the playfield when not in use, and allow the cabinet to be stacked vertically.

Just looking at prices from onedayglass, as it is each piece of tempered glass would cost $50.
Making it rectangular cuts (21" x 37") it brings that down to $35 each (yes there's still a center glass, but it won't cost $60)
If the playfield were extended 6", each cabinet could use standard glass and bring the cost down to $20 each, but I don't know if we want the footprint to get any bigger than it is.

Jay, opinions?

I keep thinking that having an overhead display (like usa football) except with 4 LCDs all showing the same image but with blinders to hide the opposing players power-ups would be cool. If you ran the 4 legs all the way to the ground you could independently level the games. there will need to be a spring steel flap between the upper playfield pie pieces to allow for slop and leveling.

-c

If you guys want me to score some epic music in FM synthesis like SoF for this when the time comes, I will gladly do it. Baroque FM synthesizer scoring sounds fun. I've got my Yamaha TX81Z ready to go.

On the ramp that delivers the ball to the bowl, I would suggest removing the end of the ramp. If it's there, the ball will hit it, drop down, and just roll down the slope of the bowl. If the end is removed, it will go straight and be guided by the wall and then to the rolling around the bowl thing.

Perhaps using a ramp exit similar to mousin' around would work, it deflects the ball down but still carries the momentum of the ball pretty well.

Could try a Zaccaria-style mini-wireform

zacc_(resized).png

I am not worthy...

Jaz

The lead-in before the hole should allow the ball to start falling downward (I need to add a wall above to make sure the ball doesn't leave the ramp). I want to keep a wall at the end to maintain strength so it's not flopping.

Trying to make sure the entry ramp doesn't potentially block the ball coming around a 2nd time

I think there will be too much momentum for that to be effective

virtual lionman!

virtual_lionman1_(resized).jpg

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Yep!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zupjlr8ibpd87rt/lionman_1.0.fpt?dl=0

No code, only single playfield, but it proves out the layout with a basic flipping game.

Can you see the light ?!?!

Could you not have the glass where the 4 triangles meet separate from the main playfield glass and having them set together permanently in a pyramid? So what I am imagining is 4 playfield glasses and a glass pyramid.

Still have it rigged up to the Earthshaker flippers?

or just have it a square flat piece of glass that could be lifted off separately. that would be way simpler, cleaper and look better.

or, have the top marquis ala a 4 dimentional usa football and have vertical glass on all 4 sides. you can have absurd things in the box like blinders, elevators that pick up the ball, etc.

setting up the game would be first leveling the center section like a mini claw game and then keying in the 4 playfield sections that would hang off the center section. the boards can be all kept in the bottom of the claw game sized section.

anyone need any more bad ideas? It's all shots on goal

-c

Good in concept, that would be a nightmare to fabricate

There is room (in the current cabinet design) for that, and might make it clearer to view the bowl:
lionman_flat_center_(resized).jpg

lionman_2.25_(resized).jpg

I'd say you have a winner there.

in

Put a "lionman" claw machine on the top/center. If 1 of the players activates it by doing xyz, then they use the flippers to control the claw x & y position & timer countdown forces claw to go down and try grab blabla...

how will it look having a 4 sided upper marquis instead of the dmd on the side of the neighboring cab?