VR pinball (+ MAME) cabinet

Well I finished up a good chunk of a VR pinball cabinet project over the past couple of weeks. The cabinet itself was professionally made by Greg Butcher who makes professional grade pinball and arcade cabinets here in Michigan. I ended up priming, painting (a metallic blue) and clear coating the cabinet to try and give it a nice finished look. I still need to wire everything up inside the cabinet and plan to add side rails to the cabinet after I replace a set on a real pin. Most of the new parts I ordered are going on one of my real pinball machines while the older parts are on the VR cabinet.

In no way to do I think VR pinball will ever replace real mechanical pinball, not a chance. I wanted to build a VR pinball cabinet as I think playing pinball in VR is now the best simulated pinball experience, oh and yeah because I'll never be able to afford (or house) dozens of real pins, lol. The tables offered in Pinball FX 2 play extremely well in VR and being able to replicate the feel of a real pinball machine with those tables creates a pretty realistic playing experience.

I added some additional buttons to the cabinet so that it can also be used as MAME controller and hopefully for some VR MAME games once they are out.

Wiring / hardware information came from the Tested.com article below and the link to the buttons I used on the cabinet (recommended by Greg) are below that.

http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/569647-how-build-pinsim-virtual-reality-pinball-machine/

ebay.com link

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Yup, using an Oculus Rift. Honestly, for me I'm not a big fan of visual pinball or any virtual pinball setup that is played on a full size cabinet. The cabinets are cool but the gameplays always feels off and flat to me. Below are a few reasons why I would go with a VR setup over a full sized virtual pinball cabinet

1. Cost: For around $2000-2500 you can build a high end gaming PC, the VR cabinet controller and buy an Oculus Rift. Both the Oculus Rift and PC can then be used for a lot other tasks (playing games, work, etc) unlike the hardware for a virtual pin cabinet which will only have one purpose.

2. Space: The controller I posted above is the first 10" of a pinball machine. It's easy to move around, can be stored,

3. Immersion: Everything in a virtual pinball game such as Pinball FX 2 is in 3D. Also, depth perception and tracking while in 3D is very immersive while using a VR headset (can not be replicated the same way by a virtual pin).

4. Ease of use: Other then initially configuring the buttons for the VR controller there's no need for spending a lot of time tweaking settings using a VR setup.

Yes, same as standing in front of a real pinball cabinet. The scaling in Pinball FX2 is pretty spot on.While playing the game you can see the cabinet, playfield, back box and even look around the room.

I haven't noticed any lag, seems very responsive.