Oh yes, that had to be an incredible moment. Not many shots are as high stakes as that!

I suppose this would've fit equally well here or in the Conventions thread. But anyway, spent a good chunk of time today fixing up some issues with one of the games I'm bringing to MGC. It's the oldest of the group, from 1979, and has been sitting idle for a few months while awaiting new rubber after we broke one during some late-night fun. Also discovered some sensors not working, so I fixed those and now it's ready to rumble.

Biscuit helped me out with the repair process!

That is so awesome. I admire your craftsmanship. My biggest achievement today was cooking cheeseburgers without filling my apt with smoke like last time.

For what it's worth, my cooking has definitely set off the smoke alarm on a few occasions!

(03-03-2026, 08:51 PM)Ellie Wrote: All right, I think most of you here know I'm an insane pinball lover. And restorer... and scratch-builder when I'm not procrastinating and/or diverting all my attention to assembling a web community for a hentai franchise. All probably made abundantly clear when I wrote that fanfic in which the Black Cats find themselves unwillingly obligated to learn how to fix a machine.

That said, I figure if we have threads on everything from H recommendations to mainstream anime to cooking, I might as well make one to share this too. Now, admittedly, pinball is not a very share-able experience on an online community, considering how rare it is to see games in public these days. But I like to think it might still be interesting for some of you to see some behind-the-scenes and maybe share what experiences you've had.

And so - given the topics we all know and love on this forum - I'm going to start things off with these photos of a game I ran into at a convention last year. This is "Transporter: The Rescue," a relatively rare 1989 title created by Bally/Midway during a transitional period when they were being bought out by Williams Electronics. It runs on the beloved System 11 hardware/software platform....
...
...and it looks like something straight out of the Inyouchuu universe.

Spoiler

100 years into the future, perhaps?

Maybe Mikoto's future descendants went to space and things went terribly wrong.

Anyhow, I figured I'd post potentially interesting stuff in here every now and then!

(03-13-2026, 08:54 PM)Ellie Wrote: I suppose I ought to make good on those claims that I've built stuff. Out of everything I've ever done, this is probably the thing I'm best known for creating:

Spoiler

A couple years down the road from that project, I started a new build, a completely original theme that fits alongside a novel I've been writing. Several things have delayed it by quite a bit, but I'm still chipping away at finishing the art and software. The image below definitely shows off the prototype-ness of it (paper printed art taped down, rough edges on hole cuts, not real lamp inserts, etc)... but I'm sure there's something in here y'all can extra appreciate. Just a little reference, perhaps, a tiny nod to something familiar.

Spoiler

At some point I'll be releasing the novel for all to read. I'm pretty darn happy with how it's turning out, to the point where I'd say I'm more passionate about the lore than the actual game. Which sounds, uh, familiar somehow. Speaking of which, to those wondering if the book has any Inyouchuu references in it... oh, you better believe it. The tiny sketch of Mikoto x Nightmare shown above isn't just a random and unrelated thing I threw into the art for no reason. It so happens that, in-universe, there is an adult anime franchise called Don't Bug Me, I'm Hunting Lewd Demons, and other little references are also sprinkled throughout. Like this one, for instance:

Quote:But regardless of opportunities, the last few months in the shower room had been harrowing, and today was no exception.
She fixed her gaze firmly on herself and her locker as she reached for a dry towel, feeling others' eyes burning into her. Yumi didn't dare look back at anyone, but she already knew the faces only too well. Disgust, anger, and fear.
It was the fear that hurt most of all.
Whispers and empty accusations followed her everywhere. Half the girls had dubbed her a threat, a predator, a danger to their safe place. An evil presence to cower from, as if at any moment she would morph into the violently horny half-unicorn demon from one of October's art commissions. For the sake of surviving her school life, she'd toned down the nature of her art by a considerable margin - to the detriment of her already-limited family income - but the damage had been done.

[Very light actual spoiler below]

Spoiler

Don't worry, she eventually goes on to become a school hero.

Definitely ahead of its time with that art package, huh!

Games can be a bit rare to find in public these days, unfortunately. A lot of vendors have realized it's much more profitable to put out things that break less often. But nothing really compares to that physical experience of playing one in person. Actually, I remember somebody trying to make an IRL version of Space Cadet. Sometime I'll go back and see if I can find that again.

I haven't read that, actually. I'll have to check it out.

Also, thanks! It was admittedly pretty tedious to figure out the poses and stuff, considering I'm still pretty much a beginner artist, but I think the pic turned out nicely. Also, yes indeed, I built the Undertale homebrew. It's here at the convention I'm at now, and once again people seem to love it. It's certainly not without its occasional technical issues, but it's already inspired at least a couple more custom builders, so that makes me happy!

(04-25-2026, 09:48 PM)Ellie Wrote: Definitely ahead of its time with that art package, huh!

Games can be a bit rare to find in public these days, unfortunately. A lot of vendors have realized it's much more profitable to put out things that break less often. But nothing really compares to that physical experience of playing one in person. Actually, I remember somebody trying to make an IRL version of Space Cadet. Sometime I'll go back and see if I can find that again.

I haven't read that, actually. I'll have to check it out.

Also, thanks! It was admittedly pretty tedious to figure out the poses and stuff, considering I'm still pretty much a beginner artist, but I think the pic turned out nicely. Also, yes indeed, I built the Undertale homebrew. It's here at the convention I'm at now, and once again people seem to love it. It's certainly not without its occasional technical issues, but it's already inspired at least a couple more custom builders, so that makes me happy!

and yeah thats the thing, like you say actually physically playing those games on the original hardware is really nice and the ideal way to play them, really wish i could play some of my favourite shmups that way someday. since im not too familiar with physical pinball machines i can't say for sure but id imagine its even moreso the case especially cause i imagine trying to get the physics right would be really hard, and even the best digital pinball games probably still can't be 100% accurate, or even if the physics were it still wouldn't be the same as playing on an actual pinball machine. those older machines are really cool and just have a lot of charm. there was a senran kagura pinball game on switch/PC, but i don't think its considered that great since for one the ball physics or something was probably disappointing to people who know more about that stuff then me(i did only try it for a little bit) i like the idea of a fanservice pinball game but the other problem with the senran kagura pinball game is that while its got some nice fanservice minigames with the pinball action there are only 2 tables which is a real shame. i also remember playing and liking sonic spinball from awhile back in this one sonic collection i played it in, but it probably wasn't great.

its really cool that the undertale machine inspired other custom builders! im wondering how does one even get into custom building pinball machines? im sure there are lots of people like me out there that would be interested in stuff like that but wouldn't even know where to start from or where to find resources/info about that kinda stuff.

Oh, they are absolute monsters for breaking down. Even here at this show, at least a few games are shut off with issues by the end. A few examples of issues you might see:

• Screw fell out, landed in sensor slot, and trapped the ball. Saw this one on a Star Trek yesterday.
• Flipper spring broke
• Plunger handle cracked off. Saw this one on a Black Knight 2000 yesterday.
• Old memory batteries corroded
• Rubber ring broke
• Optical sensor gets dirty
• Limit switch on flipper mechanism fails to open on an older game and fries the coil that drives it
• Gas-tube display loses its gas
• Solder joint breaks off
• Driver transistor fails

And that's just the tip of the iceberg really! That's an interesting idea about games lasting longer in Japan, although in the case of pinball, most issues I see are due to internal parts wearing out over time which isn't really the fault of a player.
Physics are definitely hard to get right, especially with how many very specific skills there are when controlling the ball that a simulation might not be able to do effectively. IRL it goes down to insane levels of timing that a computer/console at 60fps actually can't even match.

Building a game takes a ton of passion and a ton of skills, but honestly some of those skills can be learned in the process with the ultimate result motivating you to learn it! I know I gained a few skills from the two (one and a half?) games I've built. There are actually a couple of communities now of people who build them and share info and experiences. A couple of different companies make electronics kits that make it much more approachable, and even some templates that people can start with. But if you're truly insane such as myself, you might design everything from scratch right down to the control hardware's communication protocol! (Yes, people in the community know I'm crazy)

That's not crazy, that's amazing.

EchelonV mentioned Dune in the movies thread the other day, and that reminded me, there's a recent game with that theme as well!

There's even a giant sandworm that can emerge from the playfield up in the top left and grab and/or devour the ball. Fascinatingly complex mechanism for it too!