I've been wanting to build this for years and I've finally finished up enough house and pin projects to feel like there's time to get this going. Fight Club is my favorite movie -- probably the only movie I've watched more than 20 times other than UHF and Holy Grail and imo deserving of a pin. I am hoping to do it some justice.. so here goes:

Fight Club Pinball

Concept:
My concept right now is to have something similar to POTC (Stern), Sopranos, or the Shadow -- A large finale insert with a lot of side quests/missions that need to be filled out prior to getting to finale. This will closely follow the movie and use both sound, art, and animation assets directly from the movie in conjunction with others. The minor & major side quests will be scenes (modes), collecting recruits (space monkeys), fights (3 or 4 per the movie --boss, stranger, destroy something beautiful, first fight, etc), Collecting support groups, setting up franchise fight clubs, collecting characters, doing maythem, and collecting rules. Total side quest of collecting jacks parts for a separate leaderboard. The finale will involve hitting some shots and then locking balls in a skyscraper that lowers into the playfield like the cabinet in X-files. Then you blow up several skyscrapers that sink into the playfield while the pixies play "where is my mind" and you do a fun run of some sort after the lights all drop out after the explosions.

Modes:

Multiballs: I am planning 4 - 5 multiballs. Mayhem (3 ball + add-a-ball), Meditation (2 ball?), group therapy (#?), finale (5 ball), +1 or 2 more.

Scenes: condo blow up, Burning hand (hit shots within time to continue mode), realization, carl?, Just let go!, others?
Franchises:Orbit Loops will collect franchise cities, probably need 5 or so to finish/light insert (I am planning dual gate controls (left/right) on orbits, so the first right orbit will be blocked by the left gate and drop into pops, then open on next right orbit and vice-versa for a left orbit. Only a full orbit sequence (right, left, full) will count as a franchise city. Charactors & support groups will be collected via some shots TBD, recruits collected via slim targets sprinkled around playfield (like POTC), Fights bill for sure include self, boss, stranger and will be done in the "basement" - my lower mini playfield which currently is planned to be located lower in cab and and have a camera on it that feeds back to a small LCD in playfield above flippers.

Design: As of now (2/15/18), design is fairly fleshed out and tested. I will post a picture soon below once I catch up on progress to date. From left to right I have: left ball save kicker to subway/scoop, captive ball, 5-bank drop target, quick-fire scoop, left upper ramp (feeds back to orbit), left-right orbit (2 control gates), left ramp/wireform return with lift ramp (feeds ball lock), up/down scyscraper ball lock, 3-lane change @ pops, mode scoop, mini-orbit, right ramp with divertor (returns to right flipper & to ball lock), right-left orbit, and behind an upper flipper a saucer, right lane save gate (returns ball to shooter). Maythem ball lock is a 3-sided motorized billboard on the backboard that locks 3 balls via the lift ramp and a VUK. Billboard will change sides when balls lock, then dump them all at once.

Sounds: Using a TON of sound pulls from the movie using Audacity -- so many awesome quotes. Will supplement as needed for voice calls and music, and may improvise off some existing music using Reason software.

Art: Taking this in the same direction that David Fincher did -- I like the dark colors along with the pink soap.. There will be pink lighting (it's all RGB controlled lighting), with dark greens & blues and black. When you search fight club on google, it pretty much brings up what I am thinking.. I'd like to try and use existing assets and bring them together with a program like photoshop (or something cheaper preferably)

Code: All MPF, with possibly some Python code thrown in. There will be a ton of code, which will be a learning experience as I go and will probably take at least a year (more likely 2+) of the project time.

Hardware: FAST board sets. Nano, 1x 1616, 2x 0804, 2x 3208, fuse blocks, and servo daughter boar + filter board and power supplies.

Mechs: Using a lot of existing stuff from used playfields, along with a few newer items mostly ordered from pinball life. I think I've counted up roughtly 30+ drivers w/out flasher circuits so there's some serious mechs on this. Hoping to use some servos as well where I can. Custom wireforms in most places, possibly 1 ramp here or there. Sinking skyscrapers, rotating 3-sided billboard and mayhem lock will all be custom.

Lighting: FAST rgb LEDS for inserts & flashers and RGB x-mas lights for GI.

Dev: Done on SkyPilot's Rotesserie with tool storage capacity add on

I think that covers the basics.. I have some catch up posting to do until I get to current day progress, so here goes:

I'm going to date each of these posts (as they were in the past, I started this project 2 months ago) just for records keeping.

I began this adventure nov 11/2013. I knew I wanted to build a game, but had 0 pinballs and my only experience was playing a Bally BlackBelt with my siblings in my parents basement growing up. Granted I did graduate in EE in 2012 so I have some electronics & computer background, but pinball knowledge was pretty zilch at this point. I purchased a $300 Non-working Firepower with the intention of taking it apart and using the cab and parts to build my own pin. As you can imagine, that quickly spiraled first into a long restore/refurb project (which involved acquiring more new pins to play while I work on FP), that devolved into more pin collecting/selling/shopping that seemed to go on for years.

I'm sure many of you know how that goes..

At any rate I just wrapped up a full restore of a proto junkyard and called that enough, on to my long delayed homebrew. In the mean time, I've spent several years acquiring parts and more importantly knowledge/experiance to hopefully pull this build off. Onwards!

8/2015

After seeing Aaron from FAST pinball @ the NW show, I was pretty sold on the FAST system and thought I was close to starting a build so I went ahead and purchased a board set to get started. Unfortunately the boards sat for a long time in a box while I shopped out other pins and moved into my wife & I's first house (queue 10,000 house projects).

Fast Fwd 11ish/2017: Ordered filter board & power supplies from FAST. Options were really FAST or Proc for me. I had a Proc a while back and was going to follow the Pinball Amigos and tear into a super cheap WC94 I had acquired but I didn't have the heart to follow thru with that plan and sold it to my brother instead and decided to continue with FAST.

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11/29/17

Prototyping Play-field wood cut @ lumber yard and brought home. I think it's 9 ply maple if I remember correctly.

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12/1/17

Starting wiring on power supplies. Screwed them all to 1 board which should fit in the back of a cabinet when the time comes. Ideally some boards will migrate to the play field or head and wiring will ultimately be redone once, probably twice as I go along.

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12/2/17

Took my stripped dev JY playfield and mapped out a lower third onto my blank plywood.

12/3/17

Lower 3rd holes cut out with jigsaw and drills. Messy for sure but it will do. The jigsaw leaves something to be desired for cut accuracy and the drills bust up the plywood on the bottom side of the drill-thru. *note top and bottom of playfield pics*

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Some awesome tools for wiring -- a combo strip/cut tool that you can get online or thru rob Anthony if you see him at a show.. and my favorite -- the crimper tool. I was using it incorrectly for a while until I finally looked up a youtube video. Used correctly this thing makes awesome crimps for wire/pin connections.

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12/4/17

Started delving into MPF. The guys that work on this have put so much time into it, and what truly kicks ass is that they've also done a really great job on documentation and continue to work on it to make it better and to support it. The tutorial takes you from nothing to a flipping playfield in hopefully a couple hours (assuming you're all wired up and boards are working & communicating correctly).

MPF makes it really easy to get started - and having a flipping lower 3rd is somewhat key to development so you can flesh out shots. It probably will frustrate true coders, but for the rest it will make homebrew pinball that much more accessible, which I think is their goal.

For anyone following thinking about doing homebrew, I will also recommend (on top of MPf's recommendations) downloading sublime for the YAML coding. It makes formatting really nice and smooth.

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12/8/17

Treats arrive. Pinball packages are like christmas

Order from pololu -- pinned wires for LED's, headers for LED's, more FAST boards, and flippers/flipper mechs. Going with an opto set-up for flipper buttons. I accidentally ordered version 1 from PL (pinball life) -- version 2 is much cheaper.

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12/10/17

Wirings all wrapped up on power supplies. Have a lighted, fused switch to power it all up. Got side rails on and backboard. Just cut some random sizes that were close.. not final dim's.

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12/12/17

Another package -- ordered a cheap Dell Laptop for development which I am typing on now from Ebay. All good except the package arrived like this:
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Yikes! Took lots of pics but it ended up working fine.

12/13/17

Added a clear plexi sheild for the boards to protect them. Ends up that I have not used it much -- the boards mount below my rotesserie and I am constantly dropping parts from above so ultimately the protection I need is above the boards, not in front. Once I actually destroy a board by dropping something on it I'll probably do something about that... knock on wood.

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12/13/17

Flippahs! Installed but not running yet.

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This thing is donating some parts.. picked this up local for cheap for the purpose. Kinda cool looking playfield, I've never played it.

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12/15/17

Time to figure out some sling action. Sling parts are from a WCS94. Inlane guides from JY - just for prototyping.

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12/15/17

Added tool storage to the rotesserie. Super helpful, and highly recommended. I'll also give a shout out to Skypilot for his awesome plans for this! It's a solid design!

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You can see here -- It is locked in and I've built it to roughly a 6.5 degree tilt -- so it works well for play testing as the dev goes along.

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12/22/17

Getting in some pin time amid x-mas madness.. slings installed.

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Getting some more boards and bars wired in as well. 1 48v bar, 1 dedicated ground bar. FAST boards have switches broken out in 8-switch banks with common grounds to the 8 switches (ultimately ran thru the rj45 jacks between all the boards that distributes 12v among them). However, having the common ground is nice for grounding all the drivers on the boards and ultimately to all the metal parts on the final pin.

I am running 48v, 12v, and 5v. 48 goes to the coils, 12 to the boards and servos, and 5 to the LED's.

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12/23/17

Got a bit of wiring done. Just a few for now but it soon turns into a rats nest.
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12/27/17

Started mapping out on paper some drivers and switches. Going to be important later to have this on paper so I can convert to digital to clearly show wiring.
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Wiring up to this point:

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Flipper optos wiring and working:

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1/1/17:

First flips! (youtube vid to be uploaded)

1/4/17

Autofire wired in.

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1/5/18:

At the art store checking out prototyping options. Ended up with foamcore, cardboard, and several pre-made cardboard pieces (planning on sculpting or 3d printing the house from the movie)

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1/6/18

Trough time.. lot's of wires on this one to go from trough optos to the FAST boards via WMS trough opto boards. I am waiting on FAST opto boards that eliminate the extra board and a lot of connections.
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Also bought a router for all the rest of the PF cuts and inserts. No experience with these.. should be fun.

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1/6/18

GI lights arrive:
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These are pretty cool -- good diffused for through-PF.. they are not RGB like the FAST LED's but GRB or something I believe -- But it doesn't matter.. you can chain them in a serial chain (up to 256) off the FAST nano board no problem. You define what kind of LED's they are in MPF.

Finished up trough wiring for now:

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Looking at shooter rod options I'm not a huge Pink person but it fits fight club really well.. and I kind of like the idea that this might be one of the first modern pins to really incorporate it (other than possibly TNA).

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20 years next year?? shit.. I gotta get cracking harder on this Yeah - the cabinet will come in cornflower blue for sure as an option LOL.

Design stage. I have an idea of a few pieces, but the layout is ever-changing I find as I start to lay out parts and realize it's all different on the whitewood vs in my head. Dammit how does that happen?!

Here's some parts I collected thrown out just to see what it looked like:
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OK, time to get serious:
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I was pretty confident to this point but when you have to start drilling holes in the playfield it really makes you start to think and rethink things. Obviously it's just a proto so there's going to be lots of mistakes and extra holes, but still.. hate drilling UN-neccesary holes I have to fill later on.

Hmm.. appolo13 wireform could go here:
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or here:
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no scrap that altogether..
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That's a given -- it will be one of many random sfx triggered on drain, but also plan on using several of the laughs when he's getting the shit beat out of him by Lou for a pop up single drop target that blocks shots like GB Scolari Brothers. One for Marla, one for Tyler - to represent how they get in the Narrator's mind. I might kill them later on in Dev but I will try them out to see how it goes..

House here?
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Or Here?
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Arrrgh .. already the design is changing a lot from what was in my head. 2x upper flippers or just 1x?

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haha -- yeah it will be the sfx for the mediation ball lock off the right ramp divertor. Lock 2, than they "slide" thru a cave (3d printed?) with marla on the DMD saying it (clip from movie, converted to dots)

This is the gate mech from my donor PF -- it opens to drop the ball from right oulane back into shooter lane. I am robbing it Although in final game I think a servo could better serve the purpose if it's activated fast enough.

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1/22/18

Geometry. I don't understand how people figure out shots from looking at a playfield.. I need a ruler and angle thing-ee. (what the hell are these called, it's not a protractor..?)

There's a sweet spot on the flippers, and putting shots outside that makes them difficult. The tip of the flipper shots are quite difficult -- mine to to the captive ball on the left and to a saucer on the right behind the upper right flipper. The saucer in particular is not easy.. I am still considering what the shot will do but I like having some harder shots for stuff like extra ball.

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1/26/18

Hot glue time! This stuff is sweet for cardboard and foamcore prototyping! I can't believe how strong it holds after it sets. If you can manage not to burn your fingers with it +5 bonus points! However, I've since learned it's annoying to subsequently remove to install mechs. But well worth the effort to get something laid out to shoot against (yes, you can shoot against cardboard and Styrofoam without destroying them!)

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1/27/17

Ok -- ramp time, let's go! Technically these are wireforms, but given that I'm working with cardboard for now.. I'll call them ramps.

Upper left (from upper fliper shot) first design:

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Left ramp (loops around sinking skyscraper lock shot):
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Right ramp (With shadow divertor, controlled by software to lock balls for guided meditation multiball):
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I don't think I've ever had anything arrive like this until I started ordering stuff for this project. Insane that it was a computer. I've heard stories from a friend that used to drive UPS though.. shit happens.

LOL -- just noting from my experiments. It's actually truely amazing how many angles you get off the flippers and how little length it takes to get a different shot, esp when you are near the upper part of the flipper or near the tip. But if you want to make ramps consistently, it seems the flipper tip is not a good place to put a shot at.

2/1/18

Parts!! PL and Bay Area Amusements order in. More flipper mechs, a long shaft flipper, AFM scoop, up/down single drop, and some other stuff.

I want to mess with the long shaft flipper (from No fear) for an upper playfield idea above the pop bumpers in back, playing on clear plexi with the house up above as a shot from the flipper. I will probably trash the idea in the end but design is all about experimenting.

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Moved the upper flipper ramp to a thru-the-backboard design. Idea at this point (2/1/18) is to have the mayhem lock divert off of this to lock back in front of the backboard where the billboard is now mounted (previously on the playfield).

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2/2/18

Let's wire some stuff! Upper flipper getting wired up for testing.

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doing some testing of upper ramp shot:
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I've got like 10 LED's I think wired up, and all they do is a silly attract mode thing but it's super satisfying to fire it up once in a while and watch, then flip thru a 3 ball "game". My family came over about this time to shoot it and while the adults were intrugued and did a few flips, my 6 year old nephew was killing it - nailing back to back ramp shots and playing over and over to "get good so I can beat you when it's finished". LOL That was a great moment.. I hope I can finish it so he can beat me.

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2/9/17:

An awesome pinsider and fellow-slacker sent me up some 3d printed wire form ramp brackets. I am protyping in brass because it is easier to bend than stainless and hopefully I will be able to braze/solder wire on for a more "final" version. I don't have a welder or have capacity in my garage for one at the moment.. but the final version will hopefully be stainless.

So my second mail issue with this project -- the brackets arrive like so, with them spilling out into mailbox:
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WTF mailmen/women?!! Lost like half the brackets, so bummed. But moving fwd:

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Here's what I ended up with on my 1st attempt. (This is after hours of bending) -- what a pain in the ass! I still don't have them quite right but it's close. It turns out it's super difficult to bend wire in one axis while maintaining them straight in another axis. (ie, my z-axis was getting goofy while I was bending the wire in the x and y axis's).

It should work out good.. but it's some difficult work I wasn't expecting.

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2/10/18:

Replacing some cardboard with metal. Reusing some old guides I had from JY, added DE style pop bumper, my AFM scoop, another scoop, and cut holes for lift ramp.
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Got to use my dad's caliper/compass set from engineering school in the 60's/70's finally.. kinda cool to use. Engineering was so different back then with hand drawing -- they did some really cool stuff. And the punch cards for programming, that's one thing that probably isn't missed much LOL.
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2/11/18

That wraps things up for tonight (2/15/18). Here's where I'm at:

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Picked up 6' brass wire lengths today from the metal shop and have guides to pick up tomorrow to finish those up. More wire bending this weekend while I wait for more used parts/mechs to arrive from Bulgaria.

I am really excited to get those mechs and finish up the basic design so I can test it and code a mode to try it out. With MPF, I stand right now with a super simple attract mode with a 4 slide show and music, and a 3-ball game that tracks score via the 4 inlane/outlane switches I have wired.

Sweeeet!! Thanks Aaron! This wouldn’t be possible without the support from you and Dave!

Always room for more than one not a competition - love to see parallel builds. Be cool to have not 1 but 2 FC’s in the world I went thru a lot of design possibilities but ultimately I realized the same thing you said — pick the one your most passionate about. It’s a long project, don’t want to lose interest..

And the last and final rule — if you’ve never played Fight Club Pinball... then you HAVE to play!

Come to the nw show next year - should be there in whatever state it’s in at that point. Too early along for this year probably but we’ll see

On my way to pick up stainless for ball guides and upper ramp. In the mean time I’ve been pondering this:

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The left side at the pencil is my 5bank drop set. I think it’s ok here but I’ve been looking at other games and it’s not typical to have pf components out so far on the sides. Can’t decide if it’s going to be an issue- may try some slo mo video to see where shots are coming off the flipper going that way.

Ok, metal picked up. Lucked out and onlinemetals.com has a pickup location here so saved $20 in shipping although it was an hour of driving or so.
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Thanks — love the haiku that’s another side mission I’ve thought about — some shot or combo will collect haikus I am thinking. I like the corporate art captive ball. Right now the idea is the skyscraper lowers 2 levels and the ball crashes thru like the coffee shop to a subway beneath it ideas are always changing as I go.

Love the thoughts and ideAs so far though - keeps me thinking

I did yeah thanks -- Actually at that same time I found someone else who *just* got a FF and he measured the exact 5 bank I am getting - matched your updated measurements. The piece of styrofoam I'm using is actually 1/4" short or so.. What do you mean by angling the back more - so it's closer to straight up/down and less into the playfield? I am wondering why Stern has gone with angling targets in similar positions.. it seems like they used to be much more straight but you look at ACDC, SW.. they are much more angled. The left flip backhand shots -- yeah not too many, you can hit the orbit and ramp I think. I don't want the 5-bank to be a main focus which will happen if it's angled so it's the cleanest shot off the flippers.

yes! The lane change at the pops is 3 positions so right now I'm going with "BOB", and maybe after a certain # completions you hit Robert Paulson mode. For some reason it make me also think of Being John Malkovich - when he goes into his own head "malkovich? Malkovich! Malkvovich"

That's a great idea!! Writing it down for when I get to that point. Maybe the animations rotates thru different briefcase for 00-90 or something for the match.

I like it! There's a lot of great material on the soundtrack that just needs to be cut up and clipped to size that is usable I think. I am planning on having a number of different shoot lane tracks and each ball 1 - 3 will have maybe 3 different tracks that could be selected to play thru a random selection generator.

$6 -- dang, cheap!! No I don't have one yet -- I spent a long time trying to find one that was cheap and looked like it would work well.. ordered something that's coming, I think it's similar to this will have to see.. The one I wanted was more substantial but Harbor Freight discontinued it and they just sold out. May have to order one of these too and try it -- hate to pay $6 in shipping for $6 item.. will have to gather together some more parts needs for an order. thanks!

2/16/18

Got my longest guide bent - need to clean up done hot glue before fastening in place.
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Prototyping skyscraper in wood now. It will have an opto set in front to register hits when all the way up. Lowers two positions with a rack/pinion gear system below Playfield. Will have a slightly larger case around it below that will funnel balls down to subway. Tentatively at least.
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It appears tall yes — but that’s because it has over an inch below the Playfield to engage the rack/pinion gearing. Zoom in - there’s a line I drew about 2” up where they Playfield level is. It’s 5.75” above the Playfield - should fit.

There was no way around that I’m afraid LOL - but I figure anyone in here has got to be a member ...

Can’t compete with the crazy mansion — except that I can build on days besides Friday, but the Amigos are awesome and I’m a follower as well.

2/17/18

Ok time to get this back guide installed..
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Drill some holes for screws and to mount angle brackets.
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And boom! Installed. Using ramp screws for now, just enough clearance below the ball. This took way longer than it should have.. and disheartening as it involved a lot of deconstruction but stuff is going back on now. Couple more critical guides and then on to something else.
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Mail!! Hey hey- turns out I did order that exact wire bender that Marco sells LOL - I had no idea what I had ordered. Will try that out Monday.

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And from another awesome pinsider — some breakout boards for optos. So weird - this I the second letter of pin parts I’ve received in last couple weeks and both of them arrived like this:
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Totally tipped open! Crazy mail handlers throwing these things around!

Boards:
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Disclaimer: damn metal edges are sharp. I thought this might happen eventually...and it did.

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Guides are in after a lot of grinding, filing, bending, and dicking around with them.

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Here’s my elevator mech. I didn’t think this was going to work and I was looking at ordering a rack pinion gear system but this might actually be perfect after some grinding and bending. It should fit under the Playfield allowing room for subways and provides bonus nice solid glide system on the metal shafts. Another nice shadow mech usage.
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Thanks for the reminder! At a minimum I do need a paper street street sign for somewhere on Playfield and keep forgetting about it. Topper would be cool

2/18/18

Trying to piece stuff together from spare parts.. turns out wms coils are slightly longer than Gottlieb by about 2mm or so.. my wms coil ain’t gonna fit so it’s gottileb for now to lift the ramp.
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I didn’t want to pay $30 for a mini coil to control the orbit gates when I have like 10 of them here from this old gottileb pf. So it’s to the garage to make some proto brackets in wood.
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Got the shadow bracket in place below the skyscraper. Still need to secure it, then I can figure out switch needs to trigger the 3 positions.
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That would be great - yet another great 3d print option!

I think I’m going to order 1 to see what they look like.. in mean time I made one with wood and an old spring. Works pretty good actually.
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2/20/18

Spent the morning building this..
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The skyscraper is mounted now and has the correct movement needed up and down just barely. Next up is to figure out the position switches and build a quick proto subway where the square is sharpied on the wood.

Also did some metal work - not a great job at all as I was hurrying along but got the upper ramp built mostly. Did 2 consecutive loops on it without it being secured completely so it should work ok I think. Gonna need some trimming later on.
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Of course after mounting all the upper lane change guides, I realized stern/Sega ones are not as wide and I should be able to squeeze an extra in.. meaning the lanes will become “soap” for a soap bonus multiplier on each completion I think. Or something else..I dunno, but Soap pretty for certain.

Thanks! glad at least a few pinsiders are into the theme

I put the “ramps” back on for a quick shot to date of progress. Still have not gotten to rest of wire forms. I need to pick up a blow torch this week and then will try brazing the brass forms with solder. Hopefully finished about the time the rest of the mechs arrive from Bulgaria.
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Thanks swinks ! I’m official

Thanks Monk — I probably have other things I should have been doing some of the time but when I get going on a project I may get a little obsessed haha. Can’t keep up with some of these other guys though - last starfighter came together so damn quick and I’m super impressed with swinks and his CAD skills and awesome surf theme pin.

Divertor is def. staying, I’m a big fan of that. Right now I don’t see much on the chopping block - I’ve got a plan for most mechs but we’ll see how it plays when wired up.

2/22/18
Not too much done today but I was wondering if there’s a fight club font as that’s what I’d like to use for the display. lo and behold there is indeed! (See below). Fired up a document to start getting higher level details down defining all shots/mechs, modes and how they work, finale, etc. I will go into more detail on each mode later (defining sounds/lights/triggers,mode enter/exit,etc.) once everything is functioning. Also will do seperate document for scoring. Not super interesting to post about, but here’s a shot just to show the fight club font (at top):
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Worked a bit on 2nd wireform. These are really a pain to bend exactly. The first is easier but the 2nd is hard to match. Can’t wait to get them brazed and in place though - will be satisfying to complete.
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Thought about that - not specifically a shot but purposely trying to go down an outlane to start something.. interesting twist to start a mode. On side note, I remembered a couple good quotes for drains:

“This is your {game} and it’s ending one {drain} at a time”

“On a long enough time scale, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero “

Lol so true so true, I will add that tonight - the first rule of fight club Pinball is that you don’t talk about fight club Pinball.

2/24/18
Errands today mostly, running around town to find a torch and brazing rods. Had to order rods in the end but picked up a torch and got another form mocked up for fit:
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Pinball life order delivered this morning as well — love opening these packages. They do an awesome packing job. Unfortunately it’s like Costco - you can’t get out without spending $200+ and wondering how the hell that added up so quickly. Have flipper mechs for lower Playfield now so I can start getting that laid out on wood.
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Also - the stern lane guides. These things are sweet - did not realize the posts are integrated into the guide, that’s a smart design! Pulled out my larger wms ones and fitted the sterns. Yep - that will do it I think, 4 lanes with s few adjustments for SOAP. Sweet!

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Thanks Fortytwo — I just tried to rubber them only to discover the rubbers were loose on the smaller side. Then I also discovered I somehow did not order 3/8 rubber in my shipment and I don’t have any. Grrrrr.

2/26/18

Feeling behind now.. copper brazing rods and flux came today and my wireforms both need 2x more wires bent for each.

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Was going to graze Friday, but then this arrived from Bulgaria:

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What’s inside?!? Ordered 4 weeks ago and I’ve completely forgotten. Let’s open Er up:

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Dragon packages this stuff pretty good - but it’s akso all used so you never know exactly what you’re getting although it’s always a great deal imo, just got to be willing to clean done stuff up and adjust or replace an opto here or there.

Here’s the haul in package #1:

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My pops, up post, lane save kicker, 5 bank, some extra spinners to try, a variety of vuks, and a huge 1-ball trough from flipper football (possibly for lower Playfield but rethinking that after seeing it’s size.

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Interesting to see how differently these mechs were designed as well— vuks:

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Unfortunately I’m still fitting the new lane guides so I’ve got lots to do before getting back to wire forms now. Aaand- still package #1 about a week out. Somehow customs held it 2weeks extra. No idea what else I needed but apparently there’s something goodies in it

3/2/18

No time to braze today, spent morning finally getting upper lane guides fitted correctly, installed matching pop bumpers, and did some post/rubber work.

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Then went back to wiring— want scoops hooked up so I can see where they are firing to.
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Been a long time since I’ve wired.. forgot where I left off. Added a 3208 board to my collection- what a rats nest already:
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Added this guy near the Playfield to get a few optos going:
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Finished by getting the middle scoop coil in my config file and successfully firing from it with a simulated (keyboard) switch for the moment. Next up is my left scoop so I can decide where to cut a hole for the 5bank drops.

Just added up my driver needs - I’m at 40 with 2 flasher circuits, and 3 servos.. still a couple things I wanted to add on lower of though so likely 44 drivers & 4 servo total. Damn that added up fast!! Hard with 5 flippers- that’s 10 drivers burned already. Still feels like I have to be mid-adding though lol. What a mess of cable this will be!

Lol Fortytwo - project wiring mayhem I like that. Def a version 1. I like how you are layering yours out I will follow suit when that time comes.

That’s true - but you run into the stern coil buzzing issues that way (single wound). Could go sys11 on the upper Playfield upper flipper— but for the lower pf I don’t want them firing unless the ball is there. However, those might actually be a good candidate for single windings.. will depend how close I am on drivers but nice option.. could get back 3.

3/3/18
Christmas again - final package here from Bulgaria.

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Lots of mechs, what is all this stuff?!?

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Wow, lots of options now.. certainly more than I will use but I like having options. Hopefully I will have a second build down the road that I can use some of the extras on..
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Ok, fun times but back to work on wiring for now.

Thanks grivin !

5hrs of adding to the rats nest today. Connectorizing most mechs for easy removal and swap.. takes time though. Brought up 48v and ground to Playfield to lessen wiring needs. 6A6770C9-784E-4578-B1CB-6FDF54C0AD5C (resized).jpegD5D3A5BF-74F3-4E9A-8B82-987644828D68 (resized).jpeg

3/4/18

Another 6hrs today, got 5 bank installed and reset coil wired, some posts in, more targets, spinner:
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Left kickback:
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and changed out my gottileb lift ramp mech for far superior jackpot mech with a locking up position (dropped back down with mini coil) :

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Did a lot of scoop position testing with SLO-mo as well.. nice to have a couple working now + pop cooks wired (just need to wire switches). The 5-bank has a mini coil that drops the middle target — going to be a jackpot multiplier shot to a saucer or just a hole that drops down to left vuk more likely..

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Also decided to leave guides OFF the left upper ramp so a slow shot falls back down into the left orbit lane.

Vuk is going in next and will protype first subway.. unless I get caught up wiring pop bumpers

Wireform brazing getting delayed.. going to try and get all pf holes cut first and finish up anything below them first.

3/7/18

Hard to get things done in the weekdays with work. Few things though-

Cut some more holes for subway entrances and vuk. Then today, got a couple presents in the mail:

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Thank you Aaron and Dave fastpinball !!!! Trough boards to replace my wms ones that are giving me shit all the time. If this fixes my issues I’m gonna be stoked!

Also:
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Few random things for testing. Found a wide top drop target replacement for my capcom slim ones — stern/dataeast ones. Gonna order 5 in black.

Also working on lower pf design:

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Not final but a concept for now. Kind of an afm style middle shot, with 4 loops on the sides and spinners and targets. Want it to be fun.. no idea if this will be fun until I proto it though. Will prob be a bit wider than standard lower, with standard mini flippers.

Mmm- 2 opto switches for the mini loops too.. 17 switches

Working on subways now.. using s few parts I had - hacked this into 3 pieces:

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Top scoop goes here after some bending and drilling:

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Back subway #1 hole drilled - just enough clearance below to get around back to the far right side to my behind the backboard vuk. 9E9B7076-7F82-482E-A54C-75799FDC6B4D (resized).jpeg

Pl parts in - some extra hardware and rubbers.. ordered a few samples of stuff in diff colors to try out too. E324A153-FF98-4B36-84CA-4923374FCA30 (resized).jpeg

3/11/18

Couple hours today -

Back to foam core and hot glue for a bit to work out subways before I attempt origami on some plexiglass with a heat gun to bend it into shape.
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Subway fitted and feeding vuk:

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Bit trickier on this one as it rolls against gravity. Tight fit with 5 bank drops back in:

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Two more feeds to this vuk to do next. Also tried out the roll-over style drop I got for testing — should work good but will be a bit of fitting work. 75C31C7D-05C7-48F9-ABA7-F32D12E98B93 (resized).jpeg

3/18/18

Cutting, bending, drilling, and grinding today. End result isn’t pretty but it’s functional - subway shot is complete from under the left ramp to the billboard lock on my backboard.

Started today with an issue - the wood pf supports to keep it at 6.5 degrees are now in the way of progress. Subway needs to fed thru them.
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So- sawzaw time (and drilling, etc.)
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Good to go now:
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Grinded and bent the crap out of this piece
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To get this first section:

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Second section will be this wireform after some more transformation. Found it laying around here..

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And we’re golden! Feeds around to a vuk.
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Mocked up the vuk shaft and the feed ramp for the lock:
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And the flip side - the mock billboard. Using a up/down post sideways to release locked balls for now.. will eventually be a servo mech. The motorized billboard will likely be one of the last pieces as I want to get this thing shootable first.
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Have another idea now for a small upper Playfield that the mayhem (billboard) lock would feed.. will experiment down the road with that one.

Thanks all for incouraging words I have ideas but it kind of morphs as I go along. I’ve been fortunate that no mechs have interfered yet, although I’m getting sone tight fits as of late as more things come together. Hadn’t thought much about ramp count- just 3 but there’s 5 paths because of divertor and under ramp flap + 4 subway entrances. Not quite the flow that demo man has though ha!

Few days this upcoming weekend to hopefully get wireforms built and installed so it’s shootable again. Will be exciting to get there + some wiring so more mechs work.

Awesome — Hope you do a build thread! And steal away

Yeah it’s probably embarrassing how many times I’ve watched it lol.

3/22/18

Battling the final segment of subway. Super tired of doing subway work - luckily I got thru it mostly.. minor tweaks from here on out (on this version at least).

This is the housing under the sckyscraper lock that goes up and down.
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The balls fly down the shaft pretty damn quick so I’ve got a metal guide going in there.
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Got that working pretty good - the final piece is from this shaft about 6” to a vuk under the Playfield that fires up to an upper subway portion. There was no way to directly hit the other subway portion - this section is much lower. The benefit is that I can stage two ball locks here with the Optos - probably have a 3rd switch for the final lock.

So- the final section:
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Yeah that seems to do the trick. Bit of work to get it perm. Attached, and we’re good.
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