I called JJP directly to get them.

Live streams: https://www.twitch.tv/ryan_mcsquid
TLDR: I'm building a Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball machine. Why on earth did SEGA not make one? Follow my build here!
If you are new to the project I highly recommend checking out the Pinball Expo 2020 showcase and rules tutorial videos for an excellent primer on where the project is more recently:

Video playlist of all development videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS1SajQHlXu4JjuCuWDFJREvn_rszxiX-

FAQs------------------------------------------------

Q- Is the artwork final? Will you be doing a full art package?
A- No! The artwork is concept art designed in the same style as original Sonic concept art. Artwork is being done in "scenes" that will be tie together with a background when they are completed. This is in line with many 90s games. Each scene is a placeholder that will eventually be replaced with full color HD art depicting the same subject/idea. Some of the concept art is colored where color is informationally important.

Q- Why not use colored balls? A blue ball would be awesome!
A- Yes it would be awesome! Unfortunately there is no good source of durable and functional colored pinballs. The colored pinballs that are available are not durable enough to be used in normal gameplay. Reports vary, but generally they are only expected to last 100 games. For comparison, during the on-location play testing Sonic received 92 games in a single day. These colored balls are also too expensive to be considered as a disposable option. There are some options and science experiments I will be attempting but I am not holding my breathe.

Q- Will sonic be at X Show/Convention?
A- While I hope to be able to attend as many shows as possible, a number of limiting factors are currently in place. Covid, limited vacation time, and my current vehicle being too small to transport a pin are all making touring all over the country difficult. Currently Sonic is planned to be attending both Chicago Pinball Expo in October, and Pintastic in November. I will update this if new shows are added.

Q- Can I buy one? Where do I pre-order?
A- Love your enthusiasm <3 but I will not be making any additional units beyond my own personal machine unless the game is produced by an established pinball manufacturer and properly licensed by SEGA. I am open and eager to make this happen, so if you have pinball industry contacts make sure you put in a good word for me

Q- Is this the final playfield?
A- No this is not the final playfield. While version 2 addresses many of the issues with the original prototype, has many improvements, tweaks, and additions that make it a much better game, It will still not be perfect. More tweaks and adjustments will be required. The art package will be finished as well. If you see a full art package its probably the final playfield

Q- How far along/close to done are you?
A- I am currently finishing up building version 2 of the game. As mentioned before this will not be the final version, but represents a significant step forward in the process. The game is fully playable (when assembled) and all main features are complete. The code base is nearly basic feature complete, but more modes and extras are planned. Id call the code 0.8 if I had to give it a number referencing proximity to 1.0. The project is VERY mature for its age however.
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Hi Everyone,
Since finishing up my dream restoration (Twilight Zone which I documented here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twilight-zone-restoration-2) I've decided to move on to another dream project which will be my most ambitious to date: design and build my own pinball machine.
I have been lamenting for years that SEGA never made a Sonic the Hedgehog pinball machine. Despite having pinball as a recurring theme in the main games, making a pinball video game, a coin roller, a basketball game, SEGA itself manufacturing pinball machines, placing him in the DMD shows of several SEGA pins as well as their manuals, despite SEGA allegedly doing what nintendon't and the fact that his 90s rival Mario starred in TWO pins... no Sonic. I have been a huge fan of Sonic since I was a kid. I was forged in the console wars of the 90s, and I LOVED to go FAST.
While learning to restore pins, and during my multiple projects over the last few years, the idea of making my own game was always in the back of my mind, and the theme seemed obvious. I told anyone that would listen that I would do it "someday", and would even list off the features I planned. Then one day I decided to start writing my ideas down and see where the design evolved (and so i wouldn't forget them) On a whim one weekend, I designed an 80s SS style game called "Cosmic Lady" in order to teach myself to design using the excellent free Visual Pinball digital platform. The goal of the CL project was to eventually use the new skills to someday make a digital prototype of my dream Sonic game. It was perfect. No need to buy anything at all! infinite hypothetical parts, and I could try my creations and decide when I had something worth building.
After a year of planning during long car rides and excited hypothetical conversations with friends about features and how I would design it, I decided to get started. It only took a few weeks to finish the digital prototype. I had about 1/2 of the playfield planned out, and a few more ideas to fit wherever I could. The design came together very smoothly. Unfortunately, once it was done I didn't think it was very fun. It was missing something. Then a friend of mine made a recommendation: "you need another ramp, there is no way to feed your left flipper." I looked at my design, and immediately knew exactly where it would go. After adding that ramp I swear I played my rule-less digital prototype for 2-3 hours. It was suddenly REALLY fun to shoot even with no scoring to shoot for. That's when I knew I had something worth building, and the rest of this project started soon after.
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At this point I had the party for my Twilight Zone restoration coming up, and I decided to code some rules for my digital prototype in visual pinball. I got started quickly since I was able to copy code from my previous project. I knew that these rules should only be basic, as they would be later thrown out in favor of coding on a real platform, but I wanted to demo to people how the basic game would be played to get them excited and get valuable feedback. I ended up with around 700 lines of code (450 or so copy pasted from previous project) and a mostly playable demo. It was FUN. I loaded it onto my digital pinball coffee table (previous project) and everyone at the party enjoyed it. It was at this party that Mark the creator of Metroid pinball brought me a bunch of parts from his donor game and a surprise playfield plywood to get me started. If you haven't seen his game you are seriously missing out: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metroid-pinball
Since then, I've been slowly collecting parts, and started re-coding the game using the Mission Pinball Framework. One of their users created a bridge between MPF and Visual pinball so I am able to start writing real code using my digital prototype before I even start building. I'm a few weeks in, and have a basic game running, one major game mechanic completed, and just finished my first game-play mode tonight. I also picked up my donor cabinet today which is why I decided I finally have enough substance to this project that its worth starting a thread. I'll write a post detailing the code I have done so far soon. In the meantime, here is the donor cab: a really rough looking but surprisingly solid Space Shuttle cabinet (Which did not end up being used).

I have just added an FAQ section to the first post in this thread. This is now answered there.

I use the following PPE to ensure I dont die in the spray tent:
Full face respirator mask - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007JZ1M10/ref=dp_iou_view_product
Air System - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MU2Z17Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title
Air tube - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WGQ3BKB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00
Nitrile gloves - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DPEGZ92/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title
Tyvek suit - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JZZTMGY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01

I pump fresh air into my mask from my air compressor roughly 50 feet away. Ensure your air flow is greater than your actual breathing rate so you have positive air pressure in the mask. This helps keep fumes from leaking in from imperfect face seal (because I have a beard.)

I'll edit this onto the clearcoat post

Stupid question, anyone know how to mark posts as "key posts" and have that lovely list of important posts at the top of the page? Cant find any buttons that do that.

A few hours working today. Lights under flippers done, and all but one of the boards is installed and wired.

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Snuck a few hours in today, thought I'd just start tossing mechs on and have another Sprint session. I was not correct.

I was excited to have splurged on a new smart drop target so I could ditch the monstrosity of the SEGA drop target. The new mech is about a third the size of the old one, and yet somehow it didn't fit. Not slightly, like the reset coil occupied the same space as the target next to it. There was no fudging this one, or moving a hole, or trimming an edge. This needed major surgery. I'm not sure how obvious it is, but I spent 3 hours staring, bending, hammering, and swearing at this thing until it fit. I was able to move the entire drop coil an inch and a half backwards by mutilating the mounting bracket it came with, and completely re-bent (also broke and welded) the arm. I don't think I have a good picture of before. It can be seen on pinball life I suppose. But hopefully the pictures tell the tale of my adventure.

It fits. It works. It's actually quite robust. I'm impressed with myself.

Also there is a flipper and scoop on the playfield but that is no where near as exciting as surgery.

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Mechs are on. All that is left for the back is light wiring, which I saved for last because it's what causes the most mess/blocks access. That will probably take a few hours to get everything wired up and map out the new light chains (which I didn't even bother saving since I knew they would change so much. Added ~70 new lights so gonna make sure to spread out those channels.

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No space to spare whatsoever. Its even more dense than before (and so am I for thinking more would fit)

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It really does. Since V1 I have a little more aptitude for detecting bottom conflicts. Most of the ones I found here I saw coming or at least knew it MIGHT be an issue. It will be easier next time I do it if I make basic 3D models of all the parts.

Coming along nicely!

I'm really liking a lot of the changes I've made for v2. Finally getting to visualize them is awesome. I changed the left orbit geometry AGAIN, so I'm gonna have to plug a light hole that will no longer be used. I think it will REALLY benefit from the change though. I pushed the wall all the way left and used up a lot of that space. I think it will be a LOT easier to shoot loops now. I was doing some brief testing with a loose ball and I couldn't get it to rattle out even when trying to. It's a lot wider now though. The spinner might have to go farther back. Not sure at what point (if any) that becomes a problem.

Another day of building tomorrow. Though I've been having some back pain so if that decides to murder me then I may put it off. I'm not longer worried about finishing, Especially with the week of labor day off.

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Another good day of building.

The loop lines up great, and the mounting brackets are in the right spot now so it's easy to work with.

I fixed a lot of geometry In the back of the game. Should see no more stuck balls, smoother orbit looping, and better pop action.

Changed the right orbit switch to an opto. I wasn't sure if it would fit, so I had the switch hole there anyways. It fits. Might plug the switch hole but undecided.

I'm going to make a backboard off camera, then we will need to mess around with mirror angles, and put the ramps on to finish it off. Might need to adjust the return ramps to fit new changes, but should be minor.

A little coding left to do before it will work right. Light number assignments need to be be redone as the light chains are totally different now. I mapped them all out when wiring them though so it's just plugging the numbers in, and organizing them if I'm feeling ambitious.

I'll probably do a few hours tomorrow night. There is a six hour stream vod if you wanna check any of it out.

https://www.twitch.tv/ryan_mcsquid/v/1133285595?sr=a

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Flippers won't be the same color in the end. But it's part of the art package and it's staying.

I have spoken with several but none are set in stone yet.

It'll be there for sure

Plot twist: we just make them real and have random flippers in the middle of the PF :p

Ordered. Will be available at the shows (or same process as last time)

$25 free shipping (color costs way more than just white)

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I think you guys won't get confused when you are looking at the game and not a top down, but I understand. Obviously too late to change it now, but I'll consider it for V3 whenever that happens. Thanks for the feedback though. This wouldn't have even occurred to me if it hadn't been pointed out.

This would be totally awesome, but I can't IMAGINE how you would do drop down flipper mechs without them breaking constantly.

Got V1 PF back, if I were to hypothetically auction this off for charity at some point in the future, would you prefer it had been cleaned, or with all the dirt and marks in place? I have received conflicting opinions.

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Snuck in a little more work. Hand to do a little editing on the wireforms to make them fit right on the new game. I popped a weld by accident when bending the left return, only to realize that weld was putting almost a full twist of tension into the rest of the piece. I'm actually glad it popped. After rewelding in a better position it's straighter and more stable.

I have this week off. Will likely be streaming nearly non-stop til it's flipping. Hope that PBL order I placed on Tuesday gets out the door soon.

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Do we love or hate this as a concept?