haha thanks man, I appreciate the nice words! Honestly from a manufacturing standpoint (ignoring licensing issues) this would be a nightmare as it is since I approached it pretty much opposite from how I would if I was designing something for a company to mass produce. Not only starting with CAD instead of just physically building, but in regards to accessibility of mechs and serviceability. It's really tight under the pf.. hard to work on things. It would be awesome to see it produced but I think a production game would just have to be quite a bit different.

Maybe tho once the coding is tightened up and things are running good I'll take a trip with it out your way to bring it to a show

As far as art goes -- Since I already took the approach of using movie shots for the cab, as-is I feel the need to finish in that style. I don't know pin artists real well, but if started over I really like the sort of rasterized effect with a limited # of shades like this:
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OR.. if the guy that did this poster wanted to do that art I would def. be down with that! Joel Jerry:
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Backglass tempered glass was cut and I mounted the new translite I ordered a month back — maybe 7% lighter so it’s brighter and not as dark when unlit. Probably hard to tell w/out comparison photo tho.
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Lotta frustration and time getting the 2/3/4 person displays setup correctly w/the video playing behind. Not just orientation:
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But also in code trying to get the slides to add and remove correctly. Finally going now correctly on all 3 balls I believe.
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Working on highlighting the current player up now.

Added some video clips and code bits here and there.. still a list of items before the show to knock out.

I am def. proud The community has been integral in development tho and the encouragement I get on here from people like you helps a lot to keep me going It does feel like I eat, breath, live and sleep FC.. I am often solving issues or thinking of ideas in bed, while driving, .. sadly even when 'relaxing' on camping trips, hiking.. etc haha. And I am ready to step back from that just a little bit to free up some time this summer.

Thanks! I am sure yours will be great! You've made a lot of great progress already, love watching it come together. Feel free to reach out with any questions and/or for help or ideas If you go for 4 displays I will be impressed -- just juggling content on 2 seems like a lot to me and next time I will probably just do 1 although I do like the idea of apron screens to give instructions or maybe another place for the score that's closer to the flippers. Gameplay vids -- I haven't updated too much as far as modes go.. a lot of focus on displays right now and getting the tilt setup, working on highscores. I think I'll have time to get some of 1 scene mode done for the show. I may be able to take another video before I pack it up.

haha that would be rad! I am toying with a wide body for the next build down the road..

Ha! Hmm I hadn’t actually considered this. I can read it fine standing near it. There’s only so much real estate - at least in particular with multiple players. I’m sure I’ll get some feedback on that soon enough

Translite is just 2d but a 3D one would be badass.

Play tested with friends last night with glass on. Only one stuck ball I had to tilt out and one restart due to a scoop not ejecting when tilted. Fixing one of those issues in code - and hoping the other doesn’t happen too often. All in all very pleased mpf was behaving. It’s not an easy game but it’s nice for multiplayer in that respect.

This is about the progress to come to the show. Working on converting the porch more over to video but I don’t know if it will fully make it. The lower lights were whacky - gotta look at that tmrw.

Eventually I’ll have to get a separate cam on the display.

There's 2 magnets under the PF, 1 left and 1 right in different positions above the slings. I have them randomly firing during the mini-mode where the drop targets pop up and you get some pretty interesting interactions with the balls, like what you saw. There's no switches for them so technically no way to grab and hold the ball in a reliable/predictable way though.

I'll have to watch the vid again.. didn't notice any orbits going SDTM.. I think it's maybe happened twice in all the times I've play tested, but yeah, could be adjusted if needed.

Happy to see others enjoy the clips and sound bites.. they crack me up still even tho i've heard/seen them a bunch now

Thanks -- yea I highly encourage the magnets, they just add a cool element and people question what the ball just did if they don't know what's going on. It's super easy to code. Just an extra driver for each, define the coils in MPF and then I'm using the random_event_player to pick a magnet/pulse time. The only tricky part is if you need/want a delay from the event/switch hit that triggers them to when they should pulse. I forget now exactly how that was working, but it's possible to do as well if needed.

Totally legit - no offense at all. Hard to say at this point. But I hope not. I’ve seen a lot over and over this weekend testing and trying to troubleshoot. The thing is - I spend 95% of my time playing troubleshooting rather than just enjoying playing. Does that get old? A little. But it’s immensely satisfying to solve an issue and see the game work as intended after hours of frustrations. I’ve got a first official mode in And damn it’s fun trying to finish, for me at Least. All I can say is that I’ve spent a lot of time and will continue so in integrating randomness / variability into the sounds and video clips that play— in addition to how many modes will select shots. I hope that provides some fun for me down the road seeing things I’ve never seen to keep it fresh.

Every once in a while.. fun little trick. It’s actually meant to work as a nudge off a right outlane drain but I’m not positive that works anymore as I had to narrow the gap when I refit the apron so the glass would clear.

Fixed one last bug today, secured the pc to the cab and it’s packed up. Didn’t hear any crazy noises of things sliding around when I tipped it over and the head to cab wires were all long enough to fold the head so all is well. Ready for a trip to a show
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Up and running. Noticed a few minor glitches/bugs but otherwise working good after some assistance from mpf creator Brian Madden. We’ll see how it holds up.

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Thanks guys! Cool to meet some people in person that have been following! Really great talking with a lot of people about homebrew .. well yelling really, it’s loud in the hall.

FC has been behaving pretty good so far. I need to redefine a ball device differently to cut out a few errors that have come up but it’ll have to wait till after the show probably.

Other than that — I think there’s been 1 ball completely stuck, a few times it’s been hung up but freed with a good shove, and 3-5 crashes or so in 13 hours. Saturday is always way busier though so we’ll see how that goes.

A lotta really nice comments from people - really happy that people enjoy it and Really appreciate the nice things people have said.

Few pics.. I enjoyed this group that came by who are in a cult (not really) that wear yellow crocs and fur hats. Possibly more extravagant costumes coming tmrw.
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View of some of the fast pinball area - D223D76C-5263-4C67-B28D-2F9DA30334C5 (resized).jpeg

Here’s Steve from ThePinballRoom giving an interview on his homebrew Led Zeppelin he brought from SLC. His layout is awesome and shoots good! If you don’t already follow him on YouTube I recommend checking it out.
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Ball sticks are killing me today. They are just enough where players tilt out but the ball is not quite unstuck and the game gets left like that. For some reason my tilt slide isn’t working, so it looks like the game is broken. Got 3-4 places that need an adjustment .. luckily it’s not super often.

Nice to get that feedback at least

I was shown this so I thought I’d cross link if anyone that played wanted comment on the post. I’m open to negative feedback or things that could be better here as well .. I’ve heard the ball feed launch is brutal sometimes and I may go with that to to a more traditional feed where the ball stops and drops so it’s not flying at the flipper at 20mph for the skill shot. I was expecting that to be honest, but i also enjoy it because it IS so fast .. but I do recognize how hard it is to hit a skill shot, even for me and I’ve tried a LOT.

https://www.knapparcade.org/post/fight-club-homebrew-pinball-machine-makes-appearance-at-northwest-show

Thanks for the feedback on the autolaunch feed! Alright, perhaps you all have helped me make up my mind to keep it. Indeed it was supposed to be kind of brutal - and it's very true that once it happens a couple times you are ready for it. I'm so used to it now that I can't remember what it was first like. If I can get it to be a bit more consistent and the right pulse to shoot it out but not at 100mph I will go with it. Although I have a back of the head idea to have a controlled guide that can come down on an "easy" setting to drop it to the flipper like a normal feed.

ah man, such a great quote. I might have to add that to the pool that plays when a new ball starts.

Speaking of Ball saves SLCpunk2113 - seeing people play at the show made me realize that I need to change that a bit. The kickbacks and outlane gate are controlled by the second pair of flipper buttons but they are also earned 1 by 1.. I was going to have them go back to zero at the ball end if you don't use them but I think persisting them through all 3 balls so you could even accumulate a few will be more fair and actually provide a chance for some to be earned and used.. it's another pretty fun flail moment if you see the ball going down an outlane and you're trying to time the kickback or the gate save. This should also increase ball times a bit, which were mostly pretty short for people.

The final day, FC held up well but a funny thing started to happen. I have a BT capable amp.. which has no switch or code to turn it on/off. Thus it's always on. At home, I have to pair to it.. but once you do, it will drop whatever is plugged into the amp in favor of the BT connection. On Sunday Imoto from Marco was going to play and the audio suddenly stopped. I spent 10 minutes checking and rechecking cables and computer settings until I realized what probably happened.. and confirmed by connecting my BT in then disconnecting. Someone's phone auto-connected to the BT and took over the audio lol. It happened twice more on Sunday.. which is no good. I have to figure out a way to disable it via a switch in the circuit or something

anyway.. that's a show wrap. Few tweaks and fixes to implement and on to more code for next year. I will try to post some interesting code or mode stuff once in a while going fwd. PF artwork is going to be held off for now in favor of game modes and assets. ..and I just might get the lower playfield hooked up and running so I can code that as well.

Again it was awesome to meet a number of you at the show, for sure this will be one of the most memorable NWPAAS's I've attended.

I got it down to my basement last night.. probably set up by next week. If it's still working after the transportation back home, you are welcome to stop by if you want to give it a shot There was a rick and morty down in Kent area (South of seattle) at the 8-bit arcade the last time I went there (was probably at least a year ago to be fair).. but maybe worth checking out if you don't want to drive all the way to Bellingham. Although I do enjoy Bellingham more than Kent.. just a good 1.5hr drive w/out traffic.

sounds good! I assume you're going thru seatac, if so might make sense to stop by on the way up or down. Just give me a PM and we can see what works.