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Category: pinball

Team One, vector reconstruction from trace

Published August 16, 2018

After trying to find a place to scan my trace for a few months with no success, i finally decided to scan it in piecemeal and stitch it back together in Photoshop. After i got that done and tweaked the image so measurements were extremely close to 1:1 with the actual playfield, I started vector tracing elements in Adobe Illustrator. It’s been awhile since i spent this much time in Illustrator, and i gotta say that i like the updates—they’ve made it MUCH easier to create these kind of shapes with accuracy.

The idea is that i’m going to trace in all the fundamental playfield elements, then use that as the foundation for the re-theme art/design. So far, i’ve made a huge amount of progress, vectorizing:

  • Holes and playfield cutouts
  • Screw/post/nail holes
  • Keylines around holes and cutouts
  • Keylines for areas below plastics
  • Inserts
  • Pop bumper area placeholder
  • Line showing ball travel from the shooter lane.

Next i’ve got some more elements to scan and/or draw, so that i can lay them in this design as well.

  • Posts
  • Plastics
  • Lane guides
  • Return bumper
  • Ball gates
  • Flippers
  • Ball guides
  • Top metal arch

This is going to be an enormous project but i’m really having a blast.

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Putting in pinball work

Published July 28, 2018
  • Fixed a GI issue with Taxi, got it cleaned and leveled
  • Leveled, cleaned, and replaced bulbs on Sinbad
  • Leveled, cleaned, and switched out flipper rubbers on Surf Champ
  • Cleaned Shadow and replaced a few flashers
  • Cleaned, leveled, and finally put the right shooter spring on Blackout

Tomorrow I’ll go through Funhouse and that’ll mean I’ve got 8 machines nicely dialed in.

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Millennium Falcon mod (final)

Published June 12, 2018

Wanted to post the final version with properly sculpted lens (I sanded down the excess), including the vertical striations etched in with a dremel. It’s tied to some controlled lighting right now but after playing a premium on location that was lit the whole time I think I’ll end up moving it to a persistent GI socket. I’m glad I did this.

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PinVault (Indianapolis)

Published June 5, 2018

Thanks to some real lucky connections, we were able to get into the PinVault for a couple of hours on Tuesday. What a great space and collection! Thanks to Matt, Ben, and Jon, for making it possible.

Special mention to some games i hadn’t played before and thoroughly enjoyed:

  • Victory
  • Hard Body
  • Future Spa

They also had the best working NBA Fastbreak i’d ever played, and a really great mix of early solid state, 80′s, and 90′s games. Not to mention some really nice beers on tap.

It’s worth noting that the beer selection at La Margarita (below PinVault) is OUT OF THIS WORLD. And over at New Day we tasted the Imperial Breakfast Magpie which was a goddam revelation. A fun night in Indy and my first real exploration of Fountain Square.

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