Pinball Machine!

So, folks, I'm building a pinball machine. :D It's a ton of fun, but I needed a theme.

A lot of people suggested different stuff, Star Trek, Flo, Doctor Who, even a pinball themed pinball machine (Yo dawg, I heard you liked pinball machines...), but the suggestion that I really liked the best (obviously) was a Rhett&Link theme.

Benjaman J. Heckindorn built a Bill Paxton themed pinball machine, http://benheck.com/03-16-2010/bill-paxton-pinball and my machine will hopefully look something like that when it's done, only with a Rhett & Link theme, and my own playfield design.

Here's a prototype of a test play-field with flippers and the power supply I built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIJh0PUAUQ

Here's a very preliminary play field design. It's mostly conceptual at this point. Notice the bacon shooter lane on the left, the "dirty blonde rockets into space" reference, GMM drop targets, mythical beast bumpers, and a nilla wafer top hat drop hole. :)

Does anybody have any thoughts or ideas for incorporating the R&L theme with a pinball machine? I could really use some good ideas. :)

Also, you can follow the project from a technical point of view on my blog: http://marktbaldridge.blogspot.com/

But I'm serious. Any thought? Ideas? Suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Eaton (Fire Wolf) on July 26, 2012 at 7:11pm

You could make the bumpers look like mythical shoes! I'll give you more ideas when I think of them.

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Permalink Reply by Donna (peachgeek) on July 28, 2012 at 10:55pm

Just saw this -- what a great idea! If it's not too late how about:

If you have dirty blonde rockets on the chute then maybe a waterfall between the paddles.
I'd use the new logo since it looks more like they do now (though I love the Rhett eyebrow in this one and pinball screams retro anyway so either way)
Incorporate some older references -- like maybe instead of the top hat, the drop hole could be called "commercial break" -- that way you could refer to their ads without mentioning any particular one. Also space junk, squirrels, BBQ, Lionel Richie pose (Rusty and Larnold? haha)
Could there be some kind of challenge called Rap Battle?

Can't wait to see it -- really cool!

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Permalink Reply by Mark Baldridge (Wesley Crusher) on July 29, 2012 at 2:11am

Awesome ideas! And no, it's totally not too late. This project will keep going on for the rest of the year at least. It could take me a while to finish it.

I like your last idea a lot. A Rap Battle mode could be awesome during the game-play.

Waterfall between the paddles is also a great idea. Designing the graphics for the playfield is something I am finding quite challenging.

But totally thanks for these ideas! :)

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Permalink Reply by Donna (peachgeek) on July 29, 2012 at 10:26am

If graphics are a pain, I'm sure you could get help from the artists here. And I remember that R&L offered the Hair Goes Up graphics on GMM around the time the song was released. Maybe you could use those.

Had another thought later that maybe the space where the ball falls to the sides of the paddles could be "caption fail."

Oh, and writing that yesterday I had an idea -- there should be a rap battle between Rusty & Larnold. haha submitted as 5-word song title. So thanks for that!

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Permalink Reply by Donna (peachgeek) on February 8, 2013 at 9:34pm

hey! Saw ya on GMM -- congratulations! VERY COOL

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Permalink Reply by Mark Baldridge (Wesley Crusher) on March 24, 2013 at 9:45am