Putting the mechanical into electro-mechanical

March 10, 2019 1:25 PM

Mustafa Yasar makes (among other things) homemade pinball machines. They don't have blinking lights, sound effects, scoring over two digits or powered playfield gimmicks. But they do have multiball. (Found from ausretrogamer's Twitter.)
posted by JHarris (13 comments total)

wonderous
posted by growabrain at 1:37 PM on March 10, 2019

Rad. Reminds me of the old Pinball Construction Kit I had on my mac back in the day. If it was a bit more modular for quicker adjustments and iteration, you could crank out some wild ideas.
posted by rifflesby at 2:17 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

ZOMG. I love this.
posted by Horkus at 4:50 PM on March 10, 2019

These resemble what are called in commercial pinball circles "whitewoods," which are plain boards used to iterate upon ideas. Of course here it's unlikely that these tables will advance beyond that point. But that's okay, these look fun as they are! There's something pure about just using wood and rubberbands to make your playfield, and simple mechanisms and switches to implement your ruleset.
posted by JHarris at 5:09 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Wow these are really cool. I did a search for "pinball paddle mechanism" and it looks like a lot of people have made these sorts of DIY tables and they all look like a ton of fun to build and play.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:58 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

This one especially looks pretty fun
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:01 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

Woah, that two-player device looks awesome! Here's the making-of video, which has just a tiny bit of live play in it.
posted by kaibutsu at 6:28 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I recently moved to a new office that has a couple pinball machines in permanent free-play mode. (in fact, they're on contract with a company that switches out the machines every N months?) So I've been playing probably half an hour a day on average for the last month... Up side, it's hella fun and I'm getting much better. Down side, I permanently have AC/DC stuck in my head.
posted by kaibutsu at 6:38 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

kabutsu, if they take suggestions, I recommend Ripley's Believe It Or Not! It's a favorite of mine.
posted by JHarris at 7:30 PM on March 10, 2019

Damn that's nice. I'm also impressed with the X-carve that carves out the wooden shapes like a 3D printer... That'd take so much time, precision, and skill to do that with other saw(s), or even at all.
posted by fizzix at 8:19 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Very lovely. And probably well matched with my pinball skill level. I really dislike the fancy new machines that have a million different ways to score bonuses and points. I'd rather have something with scoring goals I can understand.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:14 AM on March 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Neat. Makes me want to play pinball, which marks it as a success in my eyes.
posted by aspersioncast at 5:53 PM on March 11, 2019

I recommend Ripley's Believe It Or Not! It's a favorite of mine.

Me too!
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:19 AM on March 12, 2019 [1 favorite]