Test Your Fate: Pinball Machine Research

In order to start developing initial ideas/designs that would be featured within the pinball machine, I need to acquire a pinball machine or the dimensions. This is needed to develop the designs due to the different elements and unusual size of a pinball machine.

Initially when approaching this brief the idea was to develop graphics that could be stuck onto an existing pinball machine. However upon researching used pinball machines, buying a working pinball machine isn't economically possible as they range from £600 - £5000 (see figures 1-2). Therefore I've looked to see if it is possible to make one from scratch, using wood and limited materials. I discovered a number of tutorials ranging from small machines created using cardboard to more elaborate ones which use electronic systems to power lights and sound (see figures 3-5). For this project I need a working pinball machine however the engineering element to the more complex light and sound machines isn't necessary. This lead me to discover an existing startup that produces DIY pinball machine kits which don't require sound and light (see figure 6). Furthermore upon looking for existing pinball machines, I discovered multiple toy versions (see figures 7-8) which could be easily recreated on a larger scale. This more simplistic approach is the avenue I plan to further explore as I don't have the technical skills to wire and code an advanced pinball machine.

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Figure 8