While I was away serving hard time, I can't say I haven't enjoyed the cast of characters we have here in this pinball soap opera. Let's see, we have "the operator" , "Mr. BMW", "The Bus Driver", "The Wife" , "The Bartender", "The Coach", John and the best arrival, "Avi" The metal shredding apprentice. We make several scene changes between the "Shop", the "bars", the "apartment" and Sobey's.

Trailer Park Boys do not hold a candle to this cast of misfits and it's live stages.

Psycho Circus Pinball or Not!

Do you seriously think there’s even one person on the face of this earth who thinks any of the shit in this thread is “normal”?

Who would be interested in throwing 20 bucks each into a pool for when we have a flipping white wood working?

I'm tempted but the parameters would have to set as to what constitutes a flipping whitewood. We're just talking the piece of wrong-=sized wood on the sawhorses right? Do all the mechs have to be functioning, switches switching? Just the flippers going? How long does it have to run for, 2 flips? If a board goes up in smoke after 30 seconds, or some wires melt.. does it still count?

Well, there is at least 1 person.

I am in for $20, but not iuntil we decide what a working whitewood is. I know for certain my definition of a working whitewood would be vastly different from GWJ's definition.

Its gotta be simply flippers that can knock the ball around in john's mind

No thanks. I want to see a fully wired and working playfield

I do too because i still don't understand how most of the shots are going to work on the GWJ version and I want to see it in action!

So I would submit this thread has gone EXACTLY according to plan. Can anyone (except maybe John) seriously say they believed we would be at a different point here than where we find ourselves at right now ? 3 months of solid daily entertainment. Imagine he had executed at some hereto-forth unseen level and we had a CNC cut screened playfield, screened cabinet, and rudimentary software running on mounted boards. Would it have been half as fun ? It would not. John you do you, we are all just here to follow along. It’s the journey not the destination. Thanks for being open to letting us all take part. And thanks for ICE for funding this odyssey.

I am 100% confused on how anything is supposed to work on this upper portion of the playfield. The geometry makes no sense to me. Unless, there is more build that is suppose to happen up here. John, can you fill us in on this? More to come? As is?

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Avi, I listened with a totally open mind. I hear some slop and some rough cords. At the same time, your downward progressions were fantatsic. A lot of guys just can't figure those out. For just learning that, it was a great job.

I'm in with a reverse price is right strategy of +1 day to the latest guess (even if it's the death of our sun).

Ordinarily, I would say that it would need to be wired up correctly and in a cabinet but I do not feel like making a bet for 18 months in the future. I think we need more than just saw horses. Thoughts?

I am in as well - but as others have stated we have to set parameters on what a flipping white wood is. I would lean to say the pf must be fully functioning and not just flippers batting a ball around with other guilerails or components missing.

All the drops, pop bumpers, scoops, slings and the bash toy all have to operate for it to be a functioning white wood. Ok with it on the horses.

So. I'm going to build a pinball machine. or at least a whitewood anyways. Gonna do Jon Norris's original intended design since nobody else seems to want to... Probably just use an old bally system (John said he had a few) to work on.. Wouldn't want to buy a brand new pinball system and not have anyone able to help with it. then i'd be stuck.

Yeah i recorded that like 5 minutes after i woke up. i didn't even bother to redo it.... Perhaps i'll do another one tomorrow. Maybe someone will want to invest in my musical career LOL.

You can build it Avi!

But don’t listen to John talking about reusing an old Bally system. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s not outside the realm of possibilities, but why make the work a lot harder to save relatively little money? P3, Fast, CobraPin are all great off the shelf solutions. Do CobraPin if it’s a cost issue.

Well here's the thing. i would've considered buying a pinball system. but the operator refused to sell my arcade cabinet today. Buddy comes in to buy one of his but doesn't like how ti isn't a fullsized cabinet and it doesn't ahve a coindoor. So the buddy walks over to mine and says he wants to buy it. And the operator tells him it's not for sale. and the buddy buys his instead. only to call back awhile later and say the monitor in that cabinet isn't working properly. I was some pissed but i just didn't say nothing. I feel like an asshole even contemplating asking for donations which is why i'm okay with reusing a stupid bally board.. but god knows i'm not a millionaire. i have like. 60 bucks left to my name.

Message me the shop’s mailing address and you might get a surprise after New Years

No no it's okay. I don't want your money Trey. i'll be honest i don't know the shop's address either. i would feel like complete shit to get any type of anything from anyone and just have it not work out or just be riddled with issue after issue.

I’m not giving you money, I’m giving you an opportunity. Just the CobraPin to get you started. But if it makes you feel uncomfortable, I won’t bring it up again. You can work on cutting and populating the white wood first.

Take it one step at a time, like a carpenter who builds stairs.

Well i'll send you a message in a minute here and we can talk about that. I'm not uncomfortable persay with that. like geez come over to my house i could care less but. I guess i just still have a bit of hesitation towards taking peoples money. because i don't want anyone to feel ripped off. I hate having strings attached to work i try to do. y'know?

The strings are looser than the local nickel slots.

Just have fun with it. It’s ok if you screw up. But with some hard work, planning, and attention to detail, you won’t screw up.

Imagine a Motorhead themed Jon Norris originally designed pinball built by Avi & flipping by Texas! The breadcrumbs were there the whole time!

This makes no sense! If i shared.. wouldn't i technically only have half as much fun?!

Anyone done this theme yet? Soooo many good callout opportunities.

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Avi, you will find that most people in this hobby are probably doing pretty well financially. If someone were to offer you some assistance, while I understand your hesitation, take it and dont look back. That person/s wont expect anything and like the rest of us, are excited with what you can do! Lets see the build!

I told Avi the way to go is the Jon Norris original layout for people here. His family member might be able to bend the rails correctly. I could not find a local contractor to step up. Like I have always said Avi will get some space in my area if he wants to build the 3 spinners as Jon Norris planned.

Avi, do me a favor. No beer counts and no silly deadlines.

I don't drink and since i'm new to this type of stuff i assume everyone is fine with the prospect that i take my time and there be no deadline at all. But with that said. there is alot of things i need to figure out like artwork.. I have a theme already in mind partially but i don't know any artists.. Treybo said to focus on getting the whitewood ready before he buys the boards so i guess i'm focusing on everything i cna get done at once.

Any idea's fellas? I'll sincerely consider anyone's suggestions about which way i should approach it.

Get a sheet of plywood, print out the design, glue it down, then use a router, sander, and power drill till it’s pretty.

yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh i knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. i just wanted to be prepared xd you're probably right.

Now this I can get into. With Avi's work ethic and openness to advice, 10x better chance a game actually gets made.

AviRoo the amount of entertainment you and John provide us in this thread is the kind of thing people would usually have to pay money for, if people wanna send you parts to work with and you don't like donations you could perhaps think about it as compensation for the work you've put in providing them fun and entertainment here.

I definitely feel like the joy I've gotten from this thread is a service worth paying for, and sending parts is a way to do it that contributes to creating more entertainment value.

Start your own thread when you do.

Aaron
FAST Pinball

Yeah.. this. Although I’m not thrilled with having the 2 whitewoods going at once in the same tiny shop unless john drops all the ridiculous deadlines once and for all and it’s just a fun couple builds and excessive beers and expired meats with some occasional spacey guitar riffs thrown in. No tpf brothers driveway whitewood on sawhorses, please.

Avi you’ve got backers here to try your hands at this, no strings attached. My 2 cents is to start with a blank piece of (correct sized) wood and use cardboard and foam core to work out the layout. You can get the lower 3rd hooked up early and use it to test geometry. The alternative route if you’re good with computers would be to go visual pinball mock-up and turn it into reality. Whatever seems to fit better. Both have worked well for homebrewers

Well. Perhaps it’s a bad idea but I was just planning to go straight into it and if I fuck up then I’ll blame it on the Lebanese People, you guys have already tested the design on virtual pinball before so I know nothing needs to be changed. As for making a new thread. I could. But I also don’t want to take away from this thread. I don’t even really consider this thread to be a specific pinball build thread. More of a hodgepodge of different things thrown together.

oh. Also I did this while I was at the pinball tournament last week. I still don’t know what it means lol it was on ‘who dunnit’
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If you or John make it to TPF, I have lots of parts I can give you towards a build. Just let me know.

Merry christmas greatwichjohn AviRoo and the rest of you! (I even rhymed there.. Heyhey!)

If your plan is to make the three spinners game then I would just go straight to the whitewood. Get it flipping and playing and test it. Theme can wait since you will have to mold your rules around the whitewood and mechs dictated by the three spinners layout.

If you want to think theme, maybe look at things that have the number three as a main portion? The Three Amigos comes to mind.

Maybe you could do a theme around spinning? A car theme titled Spin Out could work. Whatever the theme is you’ll have to work those spinners in there somehow.

I’m just throwing ideas out there.

Don’t worry about theme or artwork or rules right now. All of those things will just distract you. Just focus on getting a flipping white wood.

Aha! So the real reason for your "modifications" to the design (i.e. skipping the small loop near the right orbit, etc.) is that you couldn't find someone to bend the rails properly? That makes far more sense than continuing to act like you really believed that leaving the whole top of the playfield empty would make for fun gameplay.

A music theme, guitars, metal, thrash. The stuff YOU like. It's your game.

Find a great artist to theme it to this thread.