Well,

After a long time thinking about it I have decided to get started on my homebrew. I got into pinball about a year ago after a VERY long hiatus and have loved playing it, albeit not the best player yet. I have found numerous places to play near me in the Charlotte, NC area, with several places having a dozen or more games all within about 30 minutes from me. Plus, it also seems that a new location is going to open up sometime during summer this year south of uptown Charlotte called Pins Mechanical company. They have a couple around Columbus and Cincinatti but have not been there. Anyway, on with my thread.

I chose the Harry Potter theme since I am in no way intending to market this and this will be a one-off. Decided to go with a widebody pin to give me plenty of room for stuff. No planning on any ramps but giving myself plenty of shot lanes across the playfield. Currently getting the shot layout in Autocad so I can get started on a white wood and get flipping to start testing the shots.

A couple things I am looking at perhaps revising. one is the launch lane. Right now it comes out right at the left upper flipper. I might change that area up a bit but removing the drop targets along the right, although going from launch to flipper might make for a crazy skill shot. Pretty stanard left to right orbit, plus a couple lanes to VUKs to habitrails. The plan for the scoops at the top is to use them to underside pathways to the scoop at the left, and perhaps one at the right if I remove the drop bank. Upper right area will be a small model of the Hogwarts Castle, with the forbidden forest in the top left, and Hagrid's Hut at the lower left over the scoop. Artwork to be decided but I do want a light layout to represent the Deathly Hallows as shown, but I haven't finished up this area.

Boardset will be the P3-ROC and MPF for programming. I plan on starting to buy parts sometime in June as I flesh out the overall concept. Still working on ideas for modes and such, but I am sure of several I want to entertain: Sorcerer's Stone, Battle for Hogwarts, Goblet of Fire, Hunting Horcruxes, and probably about 3 more. I plan on at least 2 multi-ball modes: Quidditch and Deatheaters, with the possibility of 2 more.

Give it a gander and comment as you see fit. Since this is my first design I am always after constructive feedback, both on good ideas and bad implementation. It's a learning process for sure. being a CAD guy by trade has helped immensely for graphical layout for sure. I love the games so I hope I can do this justice.

John
Tega Cay, SC

HARRY POTTER - REV 1 (resized).png

That's what I thought too. Given so many quests he had in the books they translate well to modes.

John

Tom,

I have been taking your comments to heart and am working on a revised layout. Having really just started playing pinball I think it's mostly about learning what works well and what does'n given my experience is limited to a few machines. I am attaching a new playfield WIP to discuss.

There are going to be at the top an outer orbit, 2 scoops, a loop shot, a VUK under the "castle" and a couple pop bumpers under it as well. Lower playfield has 2 scoops that are exit only. The intent is that a shot to one of the upper scoops (which feed via subway a small trough and diverter to each lower scoop), will result in a ball launch from a lower scoop almost immediately. Each lower scoop will have a under playfield capacity of 2-balls which will be maintained by the diverter and switch states. These will have a one way gate to keep flipper shots from entering. This is meant to surprise players during a specific mode and act as a key entry/exit point in another mode. The VUK will exit from the "castle" and follow a habitrail to the right flipper. Still working out the upper playfield locations for each. I'll post another version tomorrow once I've worked on it a bit more tomorrow morning.

John

HARRY POTTER REV 2 (resized).png

Well I've had a chance to rework the upper and lower playfield a bit to give a bit better flow. I think I'm pretty close to what I'm after on this so I am probably going to flesh out toy locations a bit more and call this one done so I can start working on modes and objectives. I'd like opinions on the overall look. Remember those 2 lower scoops are exit only. Upper playfield should be fairly quick with a single VUK, and subway below to feed lower scoops from upper. Probably going to add about 3-4 more standup targets in various places. Going to add some more inserts near the flippers for things like playfield multiplier and just lightshow type stuff. The central area (representing the Deathly Hallows) is where modes are indicated, so 10 in all, with the 3 outs points representing Harry Potter, Ron Weasly and Hermione Grainger, which will each be tied somehow to a mode, or part of a mode.

Give me your thoughts on the overall concept and once I am satisfied I will start with determining my modes and multiballs.. This stuff sure is enjoyable.

John

HARRY POTTER REV 3 (resized).png