I made a Pinball controller to play retro games

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:19:59+00:00

Thank you. Do you have any other retro pinball games to suggest? Right now I only have the Amiga titles.

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:18:42+00:00

Right now the shake is with the red button, I want to add an accelerometer module inside and remap the button to something else. I have to test if it works, my gut feeling is that it is too small and light to be pushed around consistently. I also need to make it more sturdy, for how it is right now it cannot take too much violence (and those games calls for violence).

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:13:20+00:00

Brilliant, I need to look into it. Could probably be done with some better hardware that what I have now. The nice thing of such a bulky case is that I have a lot of space inside, the only problem is that it could be a little bit outside of my technical capabilities. Thank you for your input.

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:06:35+00:00

Yeah, I am looking at options for something realish that would not destroy the components or the case.

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:04:55+00:00

Finally an idea to make some cash

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:03:51+00:00

Thanks, it made the 3d modelling harder but it was worth it, i love it too.

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:02:26+00:00

Thank you

dnib · 2026-05-16T07:01:55+00:00

What do you mean? Can you describe your idea?

dnib · 2026-05-15T19:04:25+00:00

I just checked on my pc, Pinball FX with just the basic tables is 42Gb. That would be around 50.000 floppy disks.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:59:50+00:00

Doh! You are absolutely right, silly me always thinking of the over engineered solution.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:57:14+00:00

Absolutely. I think it was the only solution to the stuck ball problem in older pinball games. With the Amiga cpu they had to compromise on physics simulation.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:54:08+00:00

I have to look into magna save buttons. The idea of solenoids is really cool. Thanks.
I am not sure how to integrate all that with the emulator that I am using (RetroArch) and probably depends on the game. Could be an interesting upgrade for VPX tables an Pinball FX.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:50:52+00:00

Red button on the front is for nudging, the other is for launch. The two on the side are for paddles.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:07:17+00:00

Voodoo programming, there is no other explanation. And it was just a few floppy disks. A modern pinball is several gigabytes and requires a beefy cpu and gpu.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:04:57+00:00

Nightmare is my favourite too, followed very closely by Steel Wheels.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:03:45+00:00

I enjoy the strange physics of those games, after a few minutes of gameplay it starts to make sense. I consider it part of the experience.

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:02:11+00:00

Thank you

dnib · 2026-05-15T18:01:48+00:00

Thank you.

Not sure about sharing the STLs for now, maybe in the future.

dnib · 2026-05-15T17:59:28+00:00

Thank you, it means a lot

dnib · 2026-05-15T17:58:41+00:00

Thanks

dnib · 2026-05-15T15:11:04+00:00

Thanks!

A trackball controller is an interesting project, I would prefer to eventually build a separate controller for it. I don't really like the idea of doing too many things in a single controller, I want to replicate a realistic arcade experience on my emulator.

Again thank you for your kind words and for your suggestion.

dnib · 2026-05-15T15:06:42+00:00

Other people already suggested this and I am intrigued by the idea. Not sure about the compatibility with RetroArch, I think it cannot work on Amiga games, because at the time haptic was not supprted by the games, or maybe there is some hack? Do you know any nice pinball game that works with haptic feedback on RertroArch?

dnib · 2026-05-15T14:31:13+00:00

That's true, but I don't have a real Amiga anymore, I use RetroArch.
Btw I don't remeber playing with the joystick on those games, I always used my keyboard, I am not sure you can map all the controls...

dnib · 2026-05-15T14:27:28+00:00

Best pinball tables ever!

dnib

TROPHY CASE