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Optimus-Pin a Pinball Simulator

This is a full size digital Pinball Cabinet, with full force feed back to correctly mimmick a real Pinball table.

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Optimus Pin was born of my love for all things Pinball. In my spare time I love to work on Pinball tables, restore or repair them.. But not nearly as much as I love to play them! But Pinball tables are BIG and take up a lot of room. So my desire to own them all, was negated by my home size and bank account size. But being an industrious geek, I was not about to let that stop me.

Thus was born the plan to build the ultimate Pinball Simulator! Optimus-Pin!

Pinballs..... How can you not love them? There are an art form all their own. Once you step past just "Mashing the Flippers", you realize they often have a deep ruleset and mini games. And then there is the artwork and the lights and sounds!

Needless to say, I am a bit of a pin-head. That is, I grew up in an arcade in the 80's. Surrounded by Arcades games like Galaga, PacMan, Dig Dug, Burger time... And Pinball Machines! Our particular arcade had an entire wall dedicated to Pinball machines. As I was always there.. and have always been somewhat of a nerd, I learned to work on the machines as well as play them.. And hey Free Games!! So why not right?

Anyway, I obviously grew up wanting my own arcade... Crammed FULL of Pinball machines! I have always had an arcade game, or A pinball machine.. But the cold hard reality is, These Pinball machines are expensive! To Purchase and to maintain. So, unless I win the Lucky Lotto, That was probably never going to happen.

However, having been around M.A.M.E. for years, I had heard about this Virtual Pinball, so I started to check it out. Next thing I knew, I was a few grand lighter in the wallet and building my own Digital wet dream :D With full approval from the Misses even!

That was Christmas 2012. It is now Christmas 2014, the cabinet is complete and functional. I have been enjoying it for some time now, with the outside looking great.. The inside was a holy mess. So that is my final task.

The art work, was all done by Javier Reyes for me on commission.


  • 1 × I will update this list this weekend. It is a LOT of parts.

  • Feedback!!!

    Randy Walker12/16/2014 at 00:40 0 comments

    Ok, so having 3 LCD screens is cool and all, but this does not make it FEEL like playing Pinball. Inside the cabinet are 8 24 volt siemens contactors. These are placed thru-out the cabinet to replicate the feel off the bumpers, slings and flippers. There is a VW golf wiper motor. This replicates the gear noises in some machines.. For example, Thing, the hand on Addams Family. Or the Cannons on Star Trek TNG.

    There is a shaker motor, to vibrate the cabinet. 2 Strobe lights, 5 RGB Cree Flashers at the back of the playfield, RGB Flipper button lights, to match the table you are playing, RGB Undercab lights, to also match the table you are playing.

    It has a 400 Amp, 8 inch Sub and 2 Pyle speakers. I also installed a digital gyroscope for nudging and tilt.

  • Video of Optimus-Pin in action

    Randy Walker12/16/2014 at 00:31 0 comments

    This video is a bit old now. I have since updated the software. I will have to get new video soon.

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