The lighted drop targets also working as inserts look amazing. Great job
(Topic ID: 246337)
Gloucester Township, NJ
Quoted from mbaumle:Metroid!! One of the most underrated of the Nintendo franchises. Love all the games, except maybe Other M. I’m really looking forward to Prime 4.
Me too! This game is 95% based on Super Metroid. It'll have bits from the other games. Except for Other M.
Time for another post about bending! This time it's the guide rails.
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Print out another full size image and glue it to plywood.
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I forgot to take pictures of this part. Basically I used the fake playfield to drill holes where my brackets and spade bolts were going. Then I bent the aluminum using the printout as my guide. Attached the rails to the brackets and bolts using rivets. Lift them off the fake playfield and they dropped perfectly into the real playfield!
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Bender approves!
This solved the problem of getting a large slingshot in a tight space. It's going to be a bit of a pain when it comes time to change this rubber. We'll see. I'm thinking of upgrading to Titan bands.
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I think that's street level complete. Time to build up. First I'll point out all the changes from the prototype...
The center purple targets were moved back a couple inches. This will make the back ramp easier to hit and hopefully allow the upper flipper to send the ball left on a late hit.
The drop targets were moved to the left. This closed up the right orbit some. It should hopefully give me enough room to use different cabinet mounting hardware. It could make the right orbit impossible to hit.
The upper left side targets were increased to 3 and angled better. I'm hoping that moving the center targets helps with using the side bank as a skillshot, catches ricochets off the center targets, and hopefully late shots off the upper flipper.
The mini loop shape was improved. The prototype version liked to fling the ball down the outlane or down the center.
Pop bumpers are arranged better
Scoop angle improved
Guide rail angles improved with adjustable mount points for tweaks
Side ramp entrance is now much bigger and in a better spot
And probably more. At this point I really want to play.
Did I say up? I meant down. Started to panic about what to do about them. They were designed as sheet metal parts in CAD. I 3D printed them. They were predictably flimsy. A solution was needed to reinforce them.
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I had some spring steel to make ramp flaps. So I cut out a piece in the shape of the bottom of each and epoxied them on. Then they were much stronger. Obviously this is not a long term solution but I'm curious as to how long they will last.
So anyway, with subways out of the way it's time to go up! Got some help from Linolium when vacuum forming the ramps. He had a new CNC machine that we used to cut out sheets of 1/8" PETG.
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And he had a vacuum table to put the molds on. It's powered by a shop vac.
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The plastic is screwed into this wooden frame
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No pictures from the next part. It required too much attention. First you put the frame with plastic into the oven on wooden blocks. Wait until it reaches the right level of droopiness. Pull out the sheet and place over the vacuum table. After pushing down on the mold about halfway, you or a friend switches on the vacuum. In theory you get a nice copy of your mold.
In practice you will probably screw up at least once. This one didn't pull down enough. The plastic needed to be droopier.
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And if you're lucky you'll get something that is almost, kind of, good enough.
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These ramps are lumpy but I can work with them.
To fix some of the lumpiness I put the formed plastic back onto the mold. I would then hit it with a heat gun until it started to melt. Then I pushed it into place and held it until the plastic reformed. Repeat until it's good enough.
Then spend some time with a Dremel cutting it from the excess plastic...
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Test fitting...
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Stole a ramp flap from JP Lost World and installed one overhead path. I used a 3D printed part to divert the ball into the inlane. I would like properly bent rail ends in the final version. Rounded with a second level to stop and drop the ball.
I also stole a bracket from JPLW to support the ramp.
The ramp got a cap to prevent air balls flying out the back. This was a problem even when testing with hand rolls.
When I returned I got back to work. Cut out the other ramp and installed it. Attached the rail clips under the upper playfield. Then I could test fit the upper cross rail. This one needs to be trimmed a bit before it can be attached to the 3D printed in-lane diverter.
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The old playfield is looking empty. The only thing left is the opto emitter boards and then the harness can be moved.
Still had to design an up kicker rail. So I spent an afternoon coming up with this design. The outside edge is plastic but there is a metal strip in the middle that the ball actually travels on. The two sides are supposed to screw together holding this metal in place. The model didn't give enough clearance to do this so I had to spend a bunch of time sanding and filing to get something that sort of worked.
At least it looks cool, theme appropriate, and I felt it could last for a while. This will be replaced eventually.
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Managed to get the other rail in too. Added gates to the ramps. Almost done!
Move the opto boards over and remove the wiring harness. This playfield is officially retired.
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The wiring harness fit without any modifications! Actually, I made a couple of extension cables instead of rewiring those switches.
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Add a lighting harness to the playfield that can be plugged into the backbox. It's the dark green wire bundle. Check my to-do list.....
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That does it! Into the cabinet she goes. Hmmm, strange that those random insert lights are on. Wonder what's up with that....
My house is an NEPL league site so I had our players test it out. They identified a couple of problems.
The ball hangs up on the scoop. This wouldn't be a problem if the spinner wasn't right there. It's preventing it from rolling off.
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And this obvious problem. I'll have to do something about both of these.
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I also noticed that my ramp flap was too sharp and was digging into the playfield. I'll put down some mylar.
Quoted from zacaj:Dang, that flap is steep! almost like the flap needs a flap
When I redo the ramp I want to use different flap material. This does not bend. I think that's part of the air ball and difficulty problems with that ramp. Although the ramp is makeable. Best setup that I've found is to backhand the captive ball which ricochets the ball to the perfect spot on the upper flipper. It works so well that I made it a combo that awards extra points.
One more wiring harness to build. This one goes from the playfield to the FadeCandy LED controller I'm using for the insert lights. (https://www.adafruit.com/product/1689) Then to the Up board via USB.
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Assembled and ready to install
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A 3D printed FadeCandy case that screws into the backbox
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The it was time for a test using the FadeCandy test utility. All the GI lights up but not the inserts. First thought is I must have a bad connection somewhere. I designed the light channel connectors to be interchangeable. So swap a couple around and it's still just the GI lights. Hook them up to the tester and THEY DON'T WORK!
I'm finally asking around for things that I could have messed up. Someone mentions incorrect voltage and I didn't believe I had anything but 5v and 48v on the playfield. And it definitely wasn't 48v. Check some more...
I PLUGGED THE 5 VOLT LIGHT BOARDS INTO THE 12 VOLT OPTO POWER!!!!!!! I am an idiot. The light boards are all toast (Fortunately the GI had a different chip that can handle both voltages)
OK, let's look at the calendar. I can do this. Pintastic is in.... THREE WEEKS
I have some spare light boards so I can start replacing some of them immediately. I put in a rush order for more with Aaron fastpinball but I have to wait a couple of days for those.
The bottom string is the easiest to replace. All the boards are accessible without mechs in the way. Unfortunately the plugs on the new light boards are at a different angle than the old light boards. This required some changes to the wiring harness when the plugs could no longer reach.
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Next up is the middle section. This is also pretty easy to reach everything. I had a spare board for the center insert so that was good to go. I got to check out the terrible solder job on the original. It also didn't require any changes to the harness so this went quick too.
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A couple of days later my boards arrive. The remaining boards to replace are in the back. The Sega cabinet hinge system makes it difficult to work on anything back there so I need to take the playfield out again. It is really heavy at this point. I hate doing that.
On closer inspection, I find a crack in the side ramp. It turns out that putting a flipper next to a plastic part causes stress on that part... who could have predicted that?! I'm going to steal this ramp protector from JP Lost World and retrofit it onto my ramp.
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This should be better. Also added a cap to prevent air balls.
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Now onto the back lights! I tested the pop bumper lights and they still work! Lucky, they are a pain to swap.
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All the lights replaced
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And everything reassembled
Blowing your lights sucks 
On my first homebrew every light was an individual led directly soldered together (no connectors). Some were even under drop target mechs, etc. I shorted my 25V to the 3V led bus twice during construction 
Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:It is really heavy at this point. I hate doing that.
Did you ever weigh it? I imagine some homebrews probably out-do commercial games in terms of playfield weight...
Quoted from zacaj:Blowing your lights sucks On my first homebrew every light was an individual led directly soldered together (no connectors). Some were even under drop target mechs, etc. I shorted my 25V to the 3V led bus twice during construction
This was why I ignored everyone's advice about soldering the lights instead of using connectors. One day one or more will need to be replaced. It's so much harder to desolder/solder new ones on than to unplug and remove a screw.
Quoted from zacaj:Did you ever weigh it? I imagine some homebrews probably out-do commercial games in terms of playfield weight...
No. I assume it's a bit heavier than a Stern, lighter than a JJP. The game as a whole felt that way when moving it.
Here's a flyover video of the lights. At this point the rotating rainbow lights had not been smoothed out. It had very sharp color changes.
Also the lights were mapped incorrectly. Both Mission Pinball and the FadeCandy server were doing separate color space mapping. I eventually found a way to configure them so it produced the correct colors.
The game needs audio. Fortunately I've teamed up with Stemage (http://www.stemagemusic.com/), AKA Metroid Metal (http://www.metroidmetal.com/), AKA Grant Henry to use his excellent renditions of the Metroid soundtrack.
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And his wife, Claire Henry, is providing the voice of Samus! It sounds amazing!
Created a cool fire effect for Norfair. It was really easy to do using Mission Pinball's light show creator.
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It looks cool from underneath...
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And even better animated! At the very end is a glimpse of the purple spotlight effect at the end of the attract mode loop.
There were some problems found in playtesting that needed to solved. So first let's add a roof to the scoop...
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And a barrier behind the bridge near the upper flipper
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Testing good! And at this point it becomes a glass-on game! I also added a foam core back to the playfield. I can't attach a real one to the playfield because I can't pivot the playfield in the cabinet if I do. A problem for another day.
I had asked Joel de Guzman (https://www.instagram.com/buzzersandbells/?hl=en) if he wanted to work on playfield/plastics art but hadn't really pushed to get anything done before Pintastic. He insisted that I have *something* and suggested slingshot plastic art. This is the week before Pintastic.
Joel did all of the work on these. First he sent me a sketch
Perfect! So he started inking
The art direction I was thinking about was the Super Metroid box art and manual. If anything isn't covered by that, think Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s. He nailed it!
He used water slide decals. One layer translucent and another solid white one behind it. This was the first test decal.
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And the first actual plastic!
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And they look incredible on the machine! We got them on with 2 days to spare!
With Grant, Claire, and Joel it feels more like I'm working on a team!
I've got a little more time to write some code. I make sure there are some basic rules. When you hit things it should blink, make noise, and score points. If this isn't fun without rules then it will never be.
Joel gets his credit slide and some lighting to highlight the art.
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It looks cool with other colors too
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)Quoted from DaveH:Hey Mark, thanks for documenting this. I realize this was all on twitch, but it is awesome to read it like this.
Unfortunately I didn't save any of the Twitch stuff (on purpose, there was alcohol. Did you see the beer stain?) and this is probably more interesting...
It arrived safely and I got it set up
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There was almost always someone checking it out. Often a line to play.
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I took remarkably few pictures of the event that I had been working so hard to get ready for
Some things came up during play testing.
It's possible for the ball to become wedged between the pop and the rail guarding the pop bumper subway entrance. The pop then gets locked on and holds the ball. Fortunately the system should put the coil in low power hold mode after a few milliseconds so it shouldn't burn up. In the next version of the playfield I will extend the rail. In this version I'll add a post. Also need to figure out how to set a max hold time.
The ball can get trapped behind Samus. Not surprised. I'll add something to keep it from being able to rest there.
Nobody realized that you could pick your mode on each ball. A lot of Crateria got played. I may need to add some animated flashing arrows to indicate it's a menu.
It's too dark. This is a combination of poor lighting code. Lack of central playfield illumination. I have max brightness set to 70% on the FadeCandy in addition to rarely using any lighting in Mission Pinball higher than 50%. So effectively 35% brightness most of the time. Also the final guide rails will have gaps to let the light through better.
Players who only view pinball from the competitive standpoint didn't like it because there were no rules. That's just a matter of time.
3D printed parts seem to come unscrewed quickly. That just might have been me trying not to over tighten.
I need to fix the air ball problem off the center purple targets. Someone suggested extending the plastic out a bit.
The side ramp needs a better cap near the top. Too many shots fly out the back.
Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:3D printed parts seem to come unscrewed quickly. That just might have been me trying not to over tighten.
Are you screwing directing into the plastic, or using heat set inserts?
Quoted from Aurich:Are you screwing directing into the plastic, or using heat set inserts?
It's bolts with holes in the plastic that have enough clearance for the bolt to feed through. It works like a spacer. It's being held down by the screw head and washer. The two parts that had issues were the VUK rail and the inlane returns.
Forgot to mention the homebrew panel! On Friday afternoon myself and Linolium presented our work.
Rolling in Metroid.
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It was too big to fit through doors and too annoying to lower the head but we managed. A more reasonable sized backbox is in my future...
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Talking about stuff...
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And showing off the beer stain
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Quoted from TheArrrrrcade:It's bolts with holes in the plastic that have enough clearance for the bolt to feed through. It works like a spacer. It's being held down by the screw head and washer. The two parts that had issues were the VUK rail and the inlane returns.
Gotcha. Heat set inserts probably not helpful for those use cases, but just as an FYI I've been using them lately on a 3D printed project and really pleased with how strong they are. You can definitely torque down a connection tight with them.
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