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I've probably been working on this on and off for about 8 months but haven't touched it in at least 4 months or so. I needed to do this on a tiny budget and essentially use what already had with minimal further outlay.

 

I'm determined to finish this bugger off over the next 4-8weeks though and what better incentive than to post about it on here thereby guilting me into a result LOL!

 

Playfield is a 22" widescreen monitor. Backglass is a 19" 4:3. I have left anough room for a 3rd for a DMD but funds won't allow this so I'll do without for now.

 

The overall design is a mix between a woodrail and a Williams but leaning towards more of a woodrail look.

 

The PC has been built for about 12 months with about 50pins divided between Visual Pinball and Future Pinball all running via Hyperpin frontend. It works fantastically and will come up a real treat in the cab.

 

I'm using donated legs rather than wood and will clean them up and possbily paint them. The cab will a look of an older machine and is inspired by this awesome reproduction linked here:

 

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2749

 

I do want a small coin door however to give it a more authentic look. I'm lookin at making some sort of replica.

 

Things left to make are a custom made lockdown bar, speaker bezel, backglass bezel and to mount the PC inside the cab.

 

Parts left to purchase

 

a plunger or make one, side buttons and front buttons. I have some already but they are arcade and not pinball and I'm also looking at getting them backlit instead. I will also need glass cut for the playfield and backglass.

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Good progress being made there Brad - can't wait to see once you've got it all trimmed and painted.

 

Re the plunger, have you considered taking a stag at making your own? If you go for a retro style similar to the woodrail cab you linked to then the "beehive" type of plunger would look best:

http://www.pbresource.com/signatur/gtb48.jpg

You could make one by cutting a series of successively larger MDF discs using a hole saw, then sandwich them together, sand, paint and fit. Plunger rods are easy to come by and you just use a coin mech microswitch hooked up to the I-PAC for ball launch.

 

BTW, what are the specs on the pc and video card you are using in this one Brad?

 

Hey begee,

 

PC specs need to be pretty high for a virtual pin, especially if running the playfield at 1920x1080. I have a mini-pin and its a Core2Duo E6500 with 2Gb RAM and a GTS250 video card. I'm running a 2 monitor setup - the playfield is a 24" and the backbox is a 17" 4:3. I've got a good mix of both Visual and Future Pinball tables and nearly all of them run well. The exception is a few VP tables that stutter quite badly when they go into special feature modes and have a lot of lights etc flashing, but it makes them annoying rather than unplayable.

 

My mini-pin is for sale as I am in the process of making another, so if you're interested I can forward you a few pics and info. Let me know.......:cool:

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Hi Chris,

I thought it would be fairly resource hungry. Thanks for the info.

Your machine sounds pretty speccy! I'm guessing it would be out of my budget unless it's the bargain of the century, thanks for the offer though.!!

I'd love to see some pictures of it anyway.:)

 

Cheers, begee.

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Hi Chris,

I thought it would be fairly resource hungry. Thanks for the info.

Your machine sounds pretty speccy! I'm guessing it would be out of my budget unless it's the bargain of the century, thanks for the offer though.!!

I'd love to see some pictures of it anyway.:)

 

Cheers, begee.

 

Pics and details are in my build thread over at the HyperSpin forums here: http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7848

 

As far as price is concerned I'm pretty negotiable as the cabinet needs some cosmetic final touches that I felt it best for the new owner to do. My intention was to build this one just to see what was involved and then move on. I really only want to cover what it owes me, which is a bit less than $1k so it could be the bargain of the century.........

 

Anyway, have a look at that thread and if you are interested drop me an email and we can no doubt sort something out.

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  • 2 months later...

Hey Brad, it looks pretty good.

 

Any current pics of what it looks like now ?

 

In regards to securing the legs to the body - did you just put the bolts through another piece of wood in the corner, or did you buy a set of those legs brace things ive seen on other pins?

 

Where did you get the plans for your machine?

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This is awesome, I've been wanting to build one myself for years.

 

I have a 19" monitor, and may in future retire my 22" monitor for a greater cause like this. It actually looks bigger than I thought in your pictures.

 

One of the biggest things holding me back however was always the software. I found pinball software/tables/frontends so fiddly that it was never really 'approachable' for my kids, as it always required some tweaking to get it running. I'd be interested if your software configuration was able to be packaged up some how.

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Hi Adam,

 

No pics of current state although there is little change. What set me back was my main desktop PC's CPU/Motherboard died so I had to take the Socket AM2 setup from the pinball machine and lost heart =( I have since put in an old Intel P4 2.8 machine I had in the garage. It works but is under-powered for some of the more intense pinball replicas. In the meantime I'll continue on with the build.

 

With the legs I braced the cab body with angled wood (glued) and then used flat leg braces to bolt the legs in using original leg bolts. Essentially the braces are just flat strips of metal so in theory you could make them from scrap. As for plans I pretty much made them up myself so it would fit the gear I had. I just scaled it down from full sized plans I found so that it would look good proportionally. I can measure it up for you if you like?

 

Dale:Yeah the machine whilst not large is definitely bigger than you realise. I should take a picture of this sitting next to the full size pinball carcass I have LOL!

 

As to software, I can package it up for you and your right initial set up is a pain. Not difficult just fiddly. Once set though, you don't need to do anything else. You set it up per table and your done. Then insert coin(s) and Player start and your off. No different to a mame cab.

 

Cheers,

Brad

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One of the biggest things holding me back however was always the software. I found pinball software/tables/frontends so fiddly that it was never really 'approachable' for my kids, as it always required some tweaking to get it running. I'd be interested if your software configuration was able to be packaged up some how.

 

Same here. I've got enough hardware but having the time to get through all the software and setup is the problem.

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With the legs I braced the cab body with angled wood (glued) and then used flat leg braces to bolt the legs in using original leg bolts. Essentially the braces are just flat strips of metal so in theory you could make them from scrap. As for plans I pretty much made them up myself so it would fit the gear I had. I just scaled it down from full sized plans I found so that it would look good proportionally. I can measure it up for you if you like?

 

Dale:Yeah the machine whilst not large is definitely bigger than you realise. I should take a picture of this sitting next to the full size pinball carcass I have LOL!

 

As to software, I can package it up for you and your right initial set up is a pain. Not difficult just fiddly. Once set though, you don't need to do anything else. You set it up per table and your done. Then insert coin(s) and Player start and your off. No different to a mame cab.

 

Cheers,

Brad

 

Yeah a pic next to other machines would be handy , also a peek inside where you have those bolts and bracket.

I have seen someone else use a metal bracket (not using wood inthere at all) - but ive looked at so many threads the last cpl of days, i cant remember whree i saw it. :unsure

 

Im still in the buying stage (pc parts first) , then ill decide on the screens.. not sure if ill go your way with a 19" 4:3 , or use a widescreen sideways so i can have a DMD display as well.... and still deciding how big of a screen to go for with the playfield.... I might stay with 24 .. or 27" - all depends on $$$.

 

How much Hard drive space to all the table files take up ? im budgeted for a 500 Gb HDD - seems to be the standard size these days

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I was looking at a widescreen for the back rotated but all the ones I've seen look silly and out of proportion. a 19" 4:3 looks spot on for pre-90's games and close enough for post 90's games.

 

I'll take some shots on the weekend and let you compare. As for hdd space you don't need huge amounts. 500gig is more than enough and given you can pick up a 1TB drive for around $65.00 storage will not be your problem. If your going to run 3 monitors, I'd be concentrating on a good primary video card and a cheapie secondary one. Then make sure you have a decent spec PC (CPU/Ram) to run tables smoothly.

 

Forgot to mention that you guys having issues with the software, this tutorial on the hyperspin forums is awesome with simple blow by blow steps for setup:

 

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7905

 

Cheers,

Brad

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I am currently in the process of doing the same thing Brad. Have all the software finally working a treat. Using a 19" 4:3 for backglass and DMD and currently a 24" asus LED for the playfield. Next is the cabinet I guess. Did you make the cab your self or get someone else to make it up as the size youve done is exactly what im looking at.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27525[/ATTACH]

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Hey Hashman, no I made it myself. I'll take measurements for you guys and post it up but you really need to consider your monitor size as they will vary dependent on size , manufacturer and model.

 

Leg brackets as discussed Adam

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  • 4 months later...

Hey Brad, how's this project going?

 

I've managed to gather a AMD dual core 2.7ghz with 1gig of RAM, a 19" 4:3 LCD, and am probably ready to retire my 22" widescreen LCD monitor. Do you reckon this is suitable hardware (ratios of monitors, and power of PC) for running the kind of setup you've made above?

 

Also, is the whole software thing (front end and pinball emulators) able to be cut & paste onto another machine, or does it require install & configuration every time? I'd love to leverage your hard work it it was possible to burn a copy of your config to plug & play :D

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Hey Brad, how's this project going?

 

I've managed to gather a AMD dual core 2.7ghz with 1gig of RAM, a 19" 4:3 LCD, and am probably ready to retire my 22" widescreen LCD monitor. Do you reckon this is suitable hardware (ratios of monitors, and power of PC) for running the kind of setup you've made above?

 

Also, is the whole software thing (front end and pinball emulators) able to be cut & paste onto another machine, or does it require install & configuration every time? I'd love to leverage your hard work it it was possible to burn a copy of your config to plug & play :D

 

That's the same hardware I have 'reserved' for mine once I find a new place and have space to work in.

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Didn't see this thread DM. Mate by project hasn't moved much to my embarrassment. I haven't had a lot of time =(

 

The specs you have are identical to mine except for Ram. you want at least another gig and it will work fine. I reckon the screen ratio you have is great too. Again identical to mine and it makes for a full backglass to match EM machines. Or you can create a bezel and cutout to make it match DMD size machines so it's pretty flexible in my opinion.

 

As for software you can almost do a dupe but there are some pieces of software that must be installed.

 

Cheers

Brad

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Im loving your work Brad.....Im in the process of building one of these too.

 

I have been mucking round with Future Pinball for a while now, and i can tell you straight up that in order to run it spanned across multiple monitors at any decent sort of resolution you will require a pretty hefty rig! Plenty of Ram and a decent graphics card are an absolute must as some of the tables are absolute resource pigs (Dark Knight - Iron Man - Three Angels... etc,etc).

It will not do you much good to cut and paste the programs as each table needs to be configured individually to suit your monitor setup anyway....adjusted to suit playfield dimensions and for peformance on your rig...its a pretty time consuming process, especially if like me you try and setup a few hundred tables on it in a couple of days!

If making a cab then it pays to really consider the monitors you will be using and also heat/ventilation issues. Using LED Monitors is a good step in solving this without using multiple fans etc. Also a good idea to use a Solid State HD if you are going to mount PC in The cab itself...especially if you are goin to add some sort of interface for nudging.

Here is a link for a digital plunger/nudge control specifically designed for this sort of cab setup....I will be getting one for mine when time and funds allow.

http://http://www.nanotechent.com/vp-mkitdiscount.php

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  • 4 months later...
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I've cut out the coin door insert and installed along with lock and coin mech.

 

Also installed a slide/rail system for the PC and door on the rear. Still need to acquire 2 fans to install in the back but that can wait. Been building the PC system over the last few weeks. I forgot how much of a pain in the arse it is =/

 

Just prepping to paint the cab over the next 2 days. Also constructing the lockdown bar out of timber =)

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  • 1 month later...
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I have been working on this, just damn slowly AND waiting for time combined with decent weather for painting. In that time I've been building/configuring the PC and Hyperpin as well as custom lockdown bar and apron.

 

Here are a few pictures:

 

The apron is attached with a couple of brackets. The lockdown bar attaches to that with two bolts that slot into the apron just like on an old woodrail. It was made with two pieces of timber sandwiching in the bolts. When inserted into the apron there is a recessed slot left over for the glass to slide into. Overall I'm very happy with it except for the final clearcoat. The timber looked freaking awesome being really shiny and smooth but I just HAD to put an extra coat on for peace of mind and the last coat speckled =( I'll need to use some 1200 or 1500 grit and then recoat again.

 

I currently have 3 coats of undercoat on the cab and plan on a white main colour with red and blue details to go on after.

 

Cheers,

Brad

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  • 2 months later...

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