Author: txm1918

Alright, the final post! The Strong was a surprisingly fun experience(pun intended) I had plenty of people come and play my machines. The most interesting part had to have been seeing kids play the games and completely refusing to play the digital machine. I don’t think this was a fault with the field itself, as I think aesthetically, the digital field came out better. What I do think this shows is the appeal of something physical. A digital field can be interesting and cool, but it will never be able to meet the appeal of a physical machine. I would also agree with this, a physical pinball machine just feels right.

I was happy to see that people genuinely enjoyed the board, as I saw parents have to literally pull their kids from my pinbox. It was also funny to watch. In terms of like actual feedback, I did not get much, though I saw ways that I could improve the board, one of which being doing a better job of getting the visuals onto the board. If I simply colored the ramps, and used the backdrop of my digital board, the field would definitely pop a lot more than it does.

This is the final playtes! Hooray! During my playtest I learned a few things. The first was where there several hit collision locations, this just required me to add some walls so that the ball did not have weird interactions with ramps. These were easy fixes, and were simply a result of testing.

I also received the feedback that the targets were difficult to see, even with my completed visual design. Again, this wasn’t a very difficult fix, as I simply added more lights to each target, and I think this fixed that visual discrepancy.

The next thing on list of things that needed to fixing was my right ramp, which, combined with my visually busy (in a good way) board, was too distracting. I needed to make the color more solid, so that it did not clash as much with my board. This was probably the most disappointing change I had to make, as I loved how the ramp looked with the image that I overlayed onto it, but I understood why the change needed to be made.

So that was my final playtest for The Experience, at least for now. It was a fun ride, now the only thing left is to show off my work at The Strong Museum.

For the advanced pinball machine, I chose to continue my Jimi Hendrix themed machine. This time though, rather than use my original design for the field, I completely redid the entire field. I felt that the old design worked well for the pinbox, as there was no score system involved, however, with a virtual pinball machine, there was a higher bar to hit due to how easy it is to create more complex mechanics within the machines.

First off, I knew that I want to keep the long winding ramps, however the original design for them created a lot of empty space for them that I needed to remove. So what I did was make them thinner, and longer instead. I hope that this will keep the appeal that my past machines had where the ramps were fun, while giving me more room to work with to add more things.

Next I completely reworked my bumpers. If you’ve played pinball machines, you probably know the standard use of bumpers. A trio that will rack up a few points by bumping the ball between them. The reason this is so widely use isn’t because of a lack of imagination, but rather that this formation just works great. I realize that in the first machine, I didn’t put enough thought into the placement, however, being in anything less than a group of three meant that you didn’t get the fun bumping that you do with three, and honestly, anything more than three is just overkill.

I also wanted to add something more akin to a professional machine, and that meant giving the player some objectives. So what I did was add a set of targets that will then light one of the ramps, or the bumpers. Hitting these will give you a bunch of extra points. This I think makes the game have more direction than just shooting the ball hoping to not drain.

The final touch I added was putting in sound effects, I found a few open-source sound effects and threw them in. The effects I kept short enough that they didn’t create loud obnoxious noises, but long enough that they made sense for what type of trigger they were being set off. What I mean by this is that the ramp has a longer guitar riff, while the bumpers are single strums of a guitar. I think this really brings the entire machine together to make it more unique.

So, now I have just come back from playtesting the first iteration of my Hendrix pinball machine. It had three ramps, 2 being somewhat identical with a few differences just to be able to fit on the machine, and one ramp that swooped from one side to the other, along the back of the board. It also had a few different bumpers splattered around the board.

Overall, I don’t this machine captured what I was looking for. It had music, and the visual design people seemed to enjoy, and even the ramps people said felt okay. However, I don’t think it was really as successful as the original physical machine. I attribute this to poor mechanical design on my part, there were a few flaws on the board. The first being the bumpers that I had placed, they felt random and were simply not enjoyable. Moving forward for the second iteration of the machine, I will try to be more purposeful with my placements.

The part that was relatively successful was the swooping ramps that the machine contained. The feedback for them was that the amount of points given to them seemed fair, and that they felt relatively fun to use. The only issue was some clipping that the back ramp had, which I didn’t realize until people began playtesting, as it felt normal to me, and I didn’t give it the attention it needed.

Moving forward, I know that while three ramps was cool, I need to use less ramps, and add more variety to the field. I plan on doing this through adding more than just bumpers, as well as, like I said, having more thought put into where I place the bumpers rather than the random placement that I had used previously.

I think with more work, this machine can be quite fun, but I need to really hone in on the feeling of crazy guitar solos, by using parts of his solos within the machine as part of sound effects.

For my first iteration, I had few goals further than the previous Jimi Hendrix design. I was mostly, like most of us, looking to get a feel for using Visual Pinball. I had to figure out how to fit what I previously had in the Pinbox 3000, into a digital field, and keeping it withing the bounds of the pinball machine.

I knew I wanted similar mechanics to the physical machine, because people enjoyed the swooping ramps. It made the game have a feel more akin to Jimi Hendrix’s long solos. This was a bit difficult, as I couldn’t use the outside of the field to make the ramps feel wider and longer. What also constraint me was the fact that I wasn’t aware of how to make the field larger, since I thought all machines had a standard size, I didn’t think this would have been feature. (I was wrong)

Lastly, there was no type of fidget spinner kind of object in visual pinball so I had to change that mechanic. I ended up changing it for a few bumpers splattered around the board. I wasn’t sure how well they’d work and feel, but there’s only one way to figure that out.

For my advanced pinball machine, I decided that I’d go with Jimi Hendrix. I have always loved Jimi Hendrix, and felt that he deserved a pinball machine. I knew I wanted to capitalize on his guitar solos. The way I decided to do this was through the use of more elaborate ramps, which also happened to fill the “advanced”-ness of the assignment.

I tried to fit as many ramps as I could, originally trying to go with four, but then realizing that the pinbox 3000 would not be able to feasibly fit them, but I somehow managed to get three to fit well enough. The only problem that I noticed with the ramps was during playtests, the left-most ramp was incredibly difficult to land in, which arguably isn’t that bad, as it means that there is at least one shot that requires more skill than the others. If I were to continue building upon this machine, I believe I’d probably simply make the entrance to the ramp to be larger, but keeping the angle that is required for it, as that should make it easier, but making not nearly impossible anymore.
The other design that I used was a multiball. The inspiration for this was from a few machines I saw at the Strong Museum that used a target, requiring a hard hit to reward the player with a multiball. Mine was not as difficult as the ones I had seen, however I think players enjoyed having a multiball option. On the fly while playtesting I actually also allowed for skilled players to lock a ball back into the multiball zone, because it was a difficult shot to make, and felt that rewarding them in that way was fair. Overall I’d say it was a successful mechanic.

The last mechanic I had in the machine was one I had been trying to get into my machine since the completion of the bagatelle machine, a fidget spinner as a spinner. It wasn’t very complicated, which was exactly why I wanted it, it was simple to get on the field, just buy a fidget spinner, and it worked great. The only problem I found is that fidget spinners aren’t built to be hit constantly, so towards the end of the day, the spinner actually broke apart, requiring me to put it back together, thankfully it wasn’t permanent, but it is something I should keep in mind for the future.

Overall, I think my machine was fun, and there are a few changed that I’d want to make, particularly in the visual appeal, as I kind of threw together the visual part of the machine. I also plan on continuing this machine into the virtual pinball assignments, as I had a ton of fun making the machine.

The bagatelle machine was interesting to design. It was nearly a pinball machine, but had some differences that I had to design around. The biggest one was just not having paddles. This means that one ball will only be on the field for a few seconds, so I had to design around making that time it was on the field a fun experience. In terms of mechanical aspects of the machines that I had difficulties with, one of the challenges was making a seesaw-type mechanic. This was actually one that I was not able to finish, but I know now how to do it in future machines. The problem that came from this is a bit difficult to put into words, but the essence of it, is basically that the see-saw would get stuck if two ball would hit either side. The solution to this is to put the seesaw at an angle so that only one ball will ever be able to be in the see-saw.
Another challenge faces was building the ramp, I knew that if I made it too high, the player would never be able to get the ball onto the ramp, and if it was too low, it wouldn’t feel like a ramp. I think that overall the ramp came out fine, although it could have used a bit more hop to it.

Based on the feedback, I think the pinball machine overall had a decent idea, and used unique mechanics that people enjoyed. The problem lied in the implementation and some placement issues. The way the ramp was layed out, it made it so that if the ball didn’t go off the ramp, it simply went right back into the launcher area. This meant that players were getting a bit frustrated if they did this more than twice. It was also quite difficult to get the ball anywhere other than on the ramp, because you needed to know the physics of the field very well to get it to the right side of the field.
If I were to make a second version of this field, I would remove one of the top-most holes, as well as shifting the ramp to a be further down in the board, and add some pin obstacles on the upper area.

I used Google to find all my assets:
https://imgur.com/fYTYWUB
https://www.canstockphoto.com/cute-circus-elephant-with-a-striped-ball-47105501.html
https://www.123rf.com/photo_110851024_stock-vector-rabbit-in-hat-magic-hat-with-bunny-ears-vector-flat-illustration-on-white-
background-.html
https://kicks105.com/dunking-booth-set-up-at-angelina-college-get-that-frustration-out/

The limited-ness of pinball machines is a good example of how limitations give way for innovation. This can be seen in the creation of multiple play fields, this allows for variety in play within the game. I always loved the idea of games within games, and the multiple play field can be implemented in so many ways, both digitally and analogously, such as in the Black Knight 2000, or the Game of Thrones games, as well as the digital pinball machine, Sorcerer’s Lair(Can be played in the Pinball FX2 in Strong museum). These multiple play fields cover a lot of ground, in terms of what they can be. In Black Knight, it is a second raised playfield that has its own paddle and gravity, while in the Game of Thrones one is a completely unique, but small, pinball game, while in the Sorcerer’s Lair , consists of around 3 different self-contained pinball machines, as well as one completely unique style of mini-game, where the ball is moved with a few gears, kind of like a Pachinko machine with moveball pins. The multiple play fields always fascinated me, because it requires you to then understand more than just one type of physics and gameplay, but two or more. The best part of most of these smaller games is that they also give you a great number of points for beating them (most of them are beatable in the sense that they have an end).

The other interesting thing I found in nearly all of the newest machines in the Strong museum of their constant digitization. There are nearly no machines in the newer machines that does not include some sort of digitization. This goes from the Star Wars games, to the Game of Thrones machine, or the Lord of the Rings machine. When I say digitization I’m encompassing the use of more complex hardware as well. So in the Lord of the Rings games, this would be the slot where you shoot the ball into the Eye of Sauron, or when you have to fight the Balrog. There is also machines like Revenge from Mars, revolutionary pinball machine that has a holographic screen to interact with. I think it is fascinating to be able to see the pinball machines evolve to have more of these complex or just interesting mechanics, that just were not feasible prior to them, due to technological restrictions. Digitization also comes into play with digital machines, since they allow for things are actually not possible with a regular analog machine, such as tons of interactive locations, multiple play fields, and gravity shifting, where the ball actually slows down or speeds up depending on the buffs you get. It even allows for health and mana points, such as with the Bethesda map, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The digitization of machines just expands the horizons for pinball machines, and gives me hopes that pinball machines will continue to evolve and not become a fad of older days.

I find the fact that the pinball machines were banned for some time to be very interesting. If they were banned, that means that someone must have thought that the machines were dangerous, or the people involved with them were dangerous, which is the opposite of how I see them. As it turns out, because of their ban, pinball machines were seen as a symbol of youth and rebellion between the 1940s to 1976. The use of Pinball as a sign of rebellion can be seen in episodes of “Happy Days” and The Who’s album, Tommy. It’s even more interesting when you realize that this interpretation has been lost over the years, where Tommy, known as the Pinball Wizard, is no longer seen as this rebellious character, while the original purpose for the character was to show the off as such. What this means for pinball is that it evolved alongside Rock n’ Roll as the symbol for rebellion and youth, which is very interesting, as pinball has very much lost that rebellious attitude, while Rock still holds onto its roots as a Rebellious genre (maybe not as much as punk, but still).

Name: Revenge From Mars
Date of Manufacture: January, 1999
Name of Manufacturer: Miday Manufacturing Company, a subsidiary of WMS Industries, Incorporated of Chicago, Illinois, USA

The Revenge From Mars instantly catches your eye as being an old retro alien invasion pinball themed game. It has the evil green aliens, and it features explosions which also catch the eye. It instantly fills the bar for me in terms of looking like a cheesy ‘80s/’90s alien invasion movie, and I loved it.

The Game (when it was not having issues), was very fun, there was funny conversations between aliens, and there were interesting game loops. The gravity in the machine was very fast, however this was not overwhelming in any way, and made play interesting and action packed. There were issues with the mission, where the balls would be stuck in places in the back, which seemed to just be maintenance issues, however it was still frustrating when I had to sit there for 5 minutes confused, trying to tilt it, and then also getting locked out of any gameplay.

What was fun was the integration of analog and digital, the game featured a holographic screen, that would interact with the physical ball , which was very cool. There were sometimes aliens walking around a bar, and other times tanks and UFOs that I had to shoot down with the ball. The overall visuals were very good and kept me engaged.

There were also around 7 aliens bumpers that you were able to hit for an objective, these were actually quite difficult to hit, and while I managed to hit them, they were a bit too sensitive to the ball, I felt like it would have been better if they were less sensitive, where simply grazing them didn’t trigger a hit, added with making them a little easier to hit, compensating for the decreased sensitivity.

I would definitely recommend playing this, at least once, and deciding whether or not you enjoy the digital and analog integration. I don’t believe it is for everyone, because sometimes you just want the analog version, but for something trying to compete with arcade machines, it definitely fits the bridge between the two types of machines.