I will be on a “Future of Pinball” panel this Saturday at the California Extreme in San Jose, CA. If you’re in the area, stop by and see what we all have to say about the future of this fun hobby!
All posts by benheck
Raspberry Pi Project
A nice slice of Pi. Click for larger version.
For the latest episode of the Ben Heck show we built a retro-style case for the Raspberry Pi single board computer.
Features include:
- Power switch and standard barrel power plug / wall wart.
- Card-edge connector (cartridge slot) for easy general purpose I/O breakout.
- Custom PCB’s for experimentation and learning.
- Hinged keyboard allowing easy access to internals and storage for experimentation parts.
To see how it was built and the unit in action, visit element14.com/tbhs.
Click for larger version.
How To Email a Famous Person
Have you ever wanted to email a famous person, or an internet-famous one like me? Or perhaps you need to contact a company about a product, service, job opening or your charity / event?
Well, you’re in luck! In this article we discuss how to format your email and, more importantly, how not to format it. Read on!
Maker Faire 2012
Hipster Ben is ready for Maker Faire!
Thanks to my sponsor Element14.com, I will be attending Maker Faire 2012 and doing a few panels and presentations. More information to come, check show schedules.
See you all then! Makerbots!
Latest in the World of Pinball
Ghost Squad whitewood
So the big news is we scrapped “Lost” pinball. This was for a variety of reasons, the main being we spent so much time trying to cram things into it that we didn’t spend enough time making it play well. So it’s a beautiful game with boring loops and bad ball returns.
But, much like our independent film projects of the past, we took this as a learning experience of how NOT to build a pinball machine. Since then we’ve been working with John Popaduik who’s taught us a lot, and is even putting me in his Zombie game!
Our next pinball project is a custom game inspired by the 2011 Halloween episode of The Ben Heck Show… Ghost Squad! It started as a way to test our new system, but is developing into a game as well. Here’s why we picked this theme:
- Easy-to-create assets. Like everyone else, our pinball is going video and our backbox is basically one big LCD. One issue with this is you need far more art assets than an old DMD game. With Ghost Squad we already have access to our characters and can easily film content in front of a green screen. Compare this to a hand-drawn game like “Tesla Vs Edison” where we’d have to create everything from scratch.
- Unlicensed Theme: While Ghost Squad is obviously inspired by the 94,000 Ghost Hunting shows on cable, it’s an original theme which means we can build multiple copies and sell them.
- Humor Potential: The theme is great for satire, we can’t really insult anyone with it, and since women love those kind of shows, it might even be The Pinball Machine Your Wife Likes Too. (holy grail of collectors)
We’re also trying to have more ball interaction toys than our previous efforts. Special features include:
- Spooky Door. A plastic door than opens, closes, traps balls or can be bashed open. Has a VUK (vertical up-kicker) behind it for ball locks or flow interruption for mode start.
- Hellavator. An elevator from Hell. Balls can enter from behind (“first floor”) or enter via a ramp shot (“second floor”) The Hellavator can change floors, release the ball and also lock it. The ball can also fall through into the Basement of Horrors.
- Basement of Horrors: A tunnel under the playfield that leads from the Hellavator to the Basement Scoop. Balls can be blocks and collected in the basement.
- Spirit Magnet: A moving magnet under the playfield, like in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Playfield art in that area will be a Spirit Board (Ouiji is copyrighted so we can’t call it that) so the ball “moves by itself” to answer questions from the dead!
- Ball Jump: One shot is up a broken staircase to a balcony, and you have to actually jump the ball across a gap to get there. We’re working hard to make this shot around a 50/50 probability of success.
So keep on eye on this site, my YouTube page and of course the Ben Heck Show!
Midwest Gaming Classic this Week!
If you’re anywhere near the Milwaukee, WI area and any bit interested in gaming then you owe it to yourself and family to attend the 2012 Midwest Gaming Classic!
We’ll be doing 2 panels – Ben Heck Zombie Advenure on Saturday at noon, and Spooky Pinball Homebrew discussion Sunday at noon.
See you all then!
Got an idea for The Ben Heck Show?
We still have some episodes openings in Season 2 for viewer suggested builds. If you have an idea you’d like to see us build – especially if it’s weird, unusual and useful – why not email us and let us know?
You could see your ideas come to life!