Hasta La Gadget!

When we spoke to Gary Stern way back in January at CES, the pinball exec let it be known that his was the only company currently producing pinball machines — and while that may be accurate so far as actual shipping systems go, there are a handful of startups looking to get into the game. One of the more compelling examples we’ve seen is the offering from Multimorphic, an Austin-based company showcasing a prototype at SXSW Interactive’s Game Expo.

The P3 is interesting for a number of reasons. First, and arguably most importantly, is the modular nature of the machine. If you take a look at the (still-unfinished) sides of the cabinet, you can see a big slit down the center, where the top can be lifted off and replaced — since the machine is targeted toward home users, there’s no concern about vandalism there. The idea is to essentially offer a platform to both developers and at-home hackers to create their own games atop what is essentially a clean slate.

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Source: Multimorphic

If you thought it was intense when Hot Wheels cars zoomed around loops, narrowly missing each other at high speed intersections that would make a civil engineer fall to his knees and cry, Hot Wheel’s new Carcade might give you a heart attack. And if your favorite speed is “10 mph under the limit,” the same applies. More »

Sure, CES isn’t all fun and games, but, well, sometimes it’s exactly that. Like when Stern Pinball CEO Gary Stern pays a visit to our CES stage and brings along his company’s latest, the Transformers Pin. This isn’t just any old pinball machine — it’s a home unit, aimed at the large portion of the pinball-buying audience looking to bring silver ball to their humble abodes, available though outlets like Amazon with a price tag well under those of the company’s pro units.

It’s also noticeably smaller than those machines — in fact, if you give it a bit of the old body English during play, you can actually scoot the machine a bit. The back glass is also not quite as grand as those on its professional siblings, but it’s still got a working display for scrolls and the requisite text crawl. The playfield, meanwhile, is pretty close to the real deal. Stern’s clearly expert in making flippers, bumpers and the like, and many of those components went into the making of this machine.

Continue reading Stern Pinball’s Transformers Pin home game hands-on (video)

Filed under: Gaming

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Love pinball? So does professional modder Ben Heck — he’s building a ghost hunt-themed pinball machine, and needs it to sound just right. Luckily, a local musician is happy to help, provided Heck can rejigger his midi controller into a guitar. Challenge accepted. With the help of his musician friend, Heck spends the first episode of a two-part Ben Heck Show disassembling the instrument, desoldering its components and reassembling them in the desired pattern — stitching together a few undersized circuit boards along the way. Ben lays out the key pattern too, which will dictate how large the axe’s case will need to be. It’s classic hardware modding, and a darn fine break to the deluge of CES news. Check out the first episode in the series after the break.

Continue reading Ben Heck mods midi controller into guitar enclosure, scores pinball soundtrack in return

Filed under: Misc

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Source: The Ben Heck Show

K’Nex is an amazing building system. People have made some really amazing and huge contraptions using nothing but K’Nex pieces. The latest is this amazing K’Nex pinball machine from University of Colorado student Andrew Locke.

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