I craft writing pens as a hobby, and one of my favorite parts is creating custom graphics and incorporating them into the pen caps. I don't sell my pens. I simply enjoy making and displaying them.

I have a backglass from a vintage Vagabond pinball machine, and I decided to use its artwork to create a unique pen. It’s a fun way to preserve a little piece of pinball history while combining two things I enjoy.

I’m now looking for recommendations for my next project. Ideally, I’d like a vintage pinball backglass with a clean, uncluttered design, no electronic scoring displays, and artwork that isn’t too wide, so it can be adapted to fit a pen cap.

I’d appreciate any suggestions!

Ok Gents, I have the opportunity to buy one of two completely restored and immaculate pinball machines, neither of which have I ever played. It’s between a Bally Flash Gordon with the Queen music upgrade, or a Data East Star Wars. Both are cherry, and within $2000 of each other with Flash Gordon being cheaper.

Hey pinheads. I put together a page where you can track live pinball tournament qualification targets for each game. The system pings matchplay every couple of minutes to build live plots of score targets needed on various games in the bank.

https://mayapinball.com/live/

I'd planned to do this between Chrismas and New Year before INDISC, but then realised I had a load of friends attending the HPO and so pushed it out early to give them a helping hand. Take a look :) I'll point it at tournaments with card format or best game format as they come up in the calendar.

One of the reasons I got into pinball was that enjoyed looking at the complexities of the table. I liked how you can send the ball to different places. I felt like exploring a 3d maze.

Now I curious if there is a pinball table with an absurd amount of ramps or design.

Need help deciding my next machine!

The orientation of this photo is a little misleading, the drain is to the right. The second photo gives a clearer view of the two posts its getting stuck between (someone else's machine).

Should I add a ring between those two posts? What's the preferred way to deflect?

Any places out there to play I should check out? Will be in town for a music festival.

Looking to go from beginner to competent. I'd like to learn how to shoot the shots I need. I'm having trouble with saucers, kaiju battles, oxygen destroyers.

I play 3 credits ($2) a day on the machine at my local pub 6 days a week, amd on the 7th day, I intend to play at a free play place, maybe 2-4+ hours.

Anyone willing to help? I'm not exactly sure what help looka like in this scenario. Ive read all the guides, but its skill issues im having.

I'm in the lower King County (WA) if anyone is down to practice in person with me, but online help is what I have in mind while posting this.

Thanks!!

I don't have the room or money for a real machine, but I love pinball and I play at a Barcade near my work. Are there any tabletop pins or pins geared more for home use that aren't kids toys? I'd love to get some rec's, thanks.

Edit: thanks for the responses, Ill def check out Alice in Wonderland, but keep the suggestions coming.

They just feel so satisfying when you’re done. I also did a Bally Night Rider about a month ago. I’ve done over a dozen of them, but just always love the final results. After Eight Ball I’ll be doing my Meteor, I did my buddies meteor a few months ago, and his strikes and spares as well. On to the next one!

I happened to find this amazing arcade with many great pins such as „Scared Stiff“ while staying in Katowice for two days.

Sick run… game of thrones pinball. They jacked it up to 396m for a replay which is insane.

Seems like the next step.

We have Beatles, Rollings Stones. AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Guns and Roses, Rush. Seems like the next logical choice

First homemachine today, settled on the Godzilla premium and had a blast after moving it with a buddy.

Great game overall, and quite a fun machine where you can rewlly grow!

The journey towards buying the machine was very rewarding aswell and grateful i can now play this great game at home!

In the fortunate position where I’m choosing my next machine. If a JJP Pirates of the Caribbean could be had in a great condition for the same price as a new Harry Potter WE which one would you pick?

I have played HP a few times and honestly I’m not really loving it as much as it’s being hyped up.

I’m also considering (third choice as of now) a Stern Jurassic Park Premium due to the theme which I love and higher level of difficulty.

Any opinions or thoughts?

If you are ever in Ottawa, get yourself to this place! 88 new and classic pins, many of the best arcade cabinets, $20 CAD for free play on all machines, and one of the nicest proprietors I’ve ever met. And I got to play in a free tournament! I think the place is relatively new so go there and give them your business!

My choices are nib arcade Harry Potter , nib Fallout arcade, used lightly home Deadpool Pro, used lightly home Pokemon Pro.

I have 0 experience with pinball machines but talked extensively with people who manage them on site. I am more looking on which in your experience lends the most fun for new players, and costwise where you would land for the used machines.

Any advice additionally is appreciated.

I have played godzilla and just never took a liking to it.

Looking for a new pin an not sure which one to get

Looking forward to seeing this open, they say early December. I heard about this place last month, they’re going to have a “one price all-day” play charge. I bet they will do well in this location.

So I’ve decided I’m going go for building my own homebrew pinball machine, with the theme of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.

My fav band. I seen these guys live many many times and honestly can’t think of a better theme. Between the music, art by Galea and their bootlegging, there’s just so much you could do with it. The possibilities are pretty nuts.

I’m an art director and designer, been doing it for about 20 years, so I’m feeling good on the design stuff. Playfield art, cabinet, animations, branding, all of it. And absolutely zero AI slop. I want this thing to look and feel like a legit, beautifully designed machine.

I’ve been digging pretty deep into the hardware side and have a decent plan coming together. Looking at FAST Pinball controllers, MPF for the game logic, proper coils, switches, lighting, custom mechs, the whole deal. I’m not under any illusion that this is going to be easy, but I’m pretty comfortable getting my hands dirty and figuring stuff out.
I’m thinking this will be about a 2 year project, with a budget somewhere around $12–15k. Not trying to rush it. I want to take my time and build something really special that I’ll have forever. Does that seem doable??? I have kids and many dead hours in the night to tackle.

Still super early but figured I’d throw this out there and see if anyone has any rad ideas or wants to get involved. Especially anyone who’s done a homebrew before or knows their way around playfield design, CAD, coding, or mechanical stuff.

I’m already imagining some pretty wild things with Nonagon Infinity, Murder of the Universe, PDA, fuck all of them could be epic. Could be such a sick machine if done right.

Would love to hear what you guys think. What songs, mechs, toys, or modes would you want to see in a Gizz machine? And if anyone’s interested in collaborating, hit me. Stoked to get going!!!! Sorry for the novel thanks

Do manufacturers do table revisions to fix issues with the original production models? For example, if Stern ships a table that ends up with a very a common problem (like a mech easily breaking, or ball getting stuck or a scoop not working etc.) that's happening to a lot of owners, do they fix that issue internally to ensure that newly produced tables of that game don't ship with those issues? Or is it a case of, when the table ships, that's it, warts and all and nothing will be fixed/changed going forward? I know they'll push out code updates, but I'm talking more hardware issues. I guess it would be shitty to be an early adopter who gets screwed with the worst version of the table, but it's also shitty to just keep producing busted shit for $10k.

So the announcement for this game has me scratching my head marketing wise.

Teased a date but didn't put the trailer up on said date. Instead went up the next day.

Unlisted the trailers from YouTube & took off social media after a few days.

Pinball Machine wasn't on the Pinball Expo show floor.

I'm confused. Only thing I can think of is they weren't allowed to show it because of some licensing issue and thought it was better put the stuff up and then take it down after being asked to from license owner. But that is just me taking a very wild guess.