Already exists.

https://fastpinball.com/retro/

If by Balls of Steel you mean Kings of Steel then yes, it's possible, and been done with the same board:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/flash-gordon-2021-re-imagined-code-for-bally-flash-gordon-1981

As with anything it takes work though.

Do they? If I asked for some evidence for that cost could you produce it? I mean no offense, but anyone can make up numbers that sound good in their heads, but that doesn't mean that's what things actually cost.

The Stern optical spinners look like they're using diffuse-reflective photoelectric sensors. If you can find one for 50¢ I'd love to see it, and homebrew mod makers would thank you.

A thousand $1 parts are still $1000.

The reason I'm assuming Stern is using diffuse-reflective photoelectric sensors is if you look at how the spinners work the emitter and receiver are on the same board, they're reading off the spinner passing in front and bouncing the beam:

14-james-bond-only-play-twice (resized).jpg

I genuinely have no idea what they cost to build, maybe it's dirt cheap. If someone can actually show a comparable product I'd be curious to see an actual price, I've never used one. I know how to buy cheap LEDs already.

Medieval Madness is one of the most famous modern pins of all time. People who've never played physical pinball know it.

New collectors would join the hobby and that would be the first game they wanted.

It's perpetually living at the top of the silly Pinside Top 100, which might be pointless but is also undeniably a resource some people look at.

I'm running a team with beginners in a local league, they all ask to play MM because they know it from playing it in an app on their phone.

Collectors buy it because it's a known thing, and hyped up. Ops buy it because it's been a proven earner for decades.

All of the things that a license brings to the table are there, and then some. How many licenses can you get that come with the CAD files, all the rules, and a built in market?

I've been an advocate of original themes on Pinside for the last decade, I love the idea, but I can't fight the reality of things. Licenses sell.

Pinball companies sink a lot of money into developing a game, it's hard to blame them for being risk adverse when they know what works.

Modern games require a lot of assets and story/thematic elements. People expect lots of callouts, cool animations on an LCD, and a sense of progression that ties all the gameplay elements together. And to be entertained by all of this for at least a 30-45 minute game if they're going to make the wizard mode.

The era of "just put a sexy robot girl on the backglass and let the player fill in the rest with their imagination" is long gone.

Viper (resized).png

When Stern did a new Black Knight they had to come up with all that stuff. The previous versions just needed a bad ass backglass and some music.

It's hard to say how much people did or did not connect with it all on Swords of Rage. I honestly think the gameplay just wasn't that interesting, and no theme in the world will save that. But either way it still was a lot of work. Just because you're not paying for a license doesn't mean you're not paying your staff to develop the world. Time is not free.

If you're a solo designer doing this as a hobby and you enjoy making up a story for your personal game that's cool, in the world of business people like to get paid for their time. Months of design and effort don't appear for nothing.

Pinball is fun. It's a neat hobby, if you have a lot of space and spare cash you can own one. If you're lucky and have the access you can just play it on location and let someone else worry all the expenses and maintenance.

It's not something important to most people. In fact, most people thought we were nuts when we were paying 2013 prices.

We don't need a "pinball in everyone home, chicken in every pot" program. It's not life sustaining. Stern is not overcharging people for insulin.

If you don't like their topper prices, just don't buy them.

I'm selling $1500 toppers right now, just shipped numbers 5 & 6 yesterday. I don't think my customers are idiots. Nor do I think I'm overcharging. But I certainly understand if you own a Tron and don't want to pay fifteen hundred bucks for some fancy lights. It's just a little fun.

I'm not ripping off farmers. I've never watched Shark Tank, and I sure as fuck have never gone to a Kid Rock concert.

Thanks. Value is a subjective thing though. I think I'm providing good value too, but it's my product, of course I do. I could lay out my argument, but not everyone is going to agree no matter how hard I try and convince them. At a certain point no matter how creative, cool, and exclusive something feels it's just a topper.

We'll see how many I make in the end, I have 20 pre-orders right now, but it's not going to be substantially more than that, it's too expensive. Which is fine, part of my pricing strategy was to keep production low, I simply cannot make these in numbers. If I sold them for half the price and had 3X as many orders I'd make more money, and I'd also be a stressed wreck.

BOM never tells the full story.

The reason my topper is so expensive isn't because of how much acrylic it uses. Honestly my single largest cost is paying my friend for his help with the electronics. Which is rad, one of my goals for the project was to involve him and make him some money and provide an opportunity to work on his PCB design skills. I could have found a cheaper way to do it through China I'm sure, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

You can argue Stern's toppers are overpriced, but BOM doesn't tell the full story for them either. People's time is a real cost.

Well you'd vastly underestimate the time put into it, I can tell you that.

It's fine, I didn't take offense.

You want to build cheap pinball as a hobby for people go for it. You're certainly willing to put your time and money where your mouth is. I respect it.

Nobody who's ever said pinball was easy has been right. But you can always prove me wrong.

I wanted to get into pinball for a long time, but I was intimidated by the complications of all the electronics and mechanical bits. I didn't know the first thing about them, not really enough to even know what questions to ask.

Then I got into early virtual pinball stuff, and built my own cab. That helped me learn a lot, or at least learn enough to know what questions to ask, and I graduated to physical games. The virtual pin got sold pretty quickly after that, once I had the real thing it just lost all appeal. I still think they're a good gateway, or something to just enjoy for what they are, but not for me anymore.

I played my new pinball friend's The Shadow and knew I wanted one as my first game. My friend told me to be patient, but I didn't want to be (we've all been there) so I paid to ship one down from Oregon. IIRC was a $2800 game with $400 in shipping. Still have it, and that's the game a lot of people know me for, if I ever sell it I think that's probably the sign I'm exiting the hobby.

I didn't find one locally for years after that, never regretted shipping one down. $3200 for a Shadow still sounds pretty good.

I don't move games in and out like some people, but I did keep buying games and learning about different eras. I think at my peak I had 11 games at once, mostly used, a couple NIB games, which isn't crazy compared to some people, but a respectable collection. I'm down to 3 now, and flirting with maybe adding another, but we'll see. It's not so easy these days to add them.

I try and focus on just having fun. Playing games I like. Doing mods that bring me happiness to make. When I had too many games and too many interests that needed space I let a bunch go. Part of that was the post-Alien funk sucking some of the fun out too. I'm over that now, so yeah, maybe another game or two would be nice. But I've learned bigger collections aren't for me, I only want what I can play, not rows of games that are pretty but too much to keep up with.