Rules, Rules, Rules...

It's been some time since we posted, but there still has been some progress behind the scenes. The playfield has been clear coated and embellished.

We've also started programming of the original rules and started thinking about the expanded rules.

As a teaser here is a few of the additional modes we've got on paper:

Dracula - Bats mode

Inspired by: http://pinball.org/rules/dracula.html

Hit Drac 3 times to start “Bats”
In Bats mode, there is a certain amount of time to scare away a certain number of bats. The faster you do this, the higher your awarded Bats Bonus will be.

Hit Drac 5 times to start “Super Bats”
Same premise as above with a few specific differences

Hit Drac 6 times to collect a “Bats Bonus”
If you collected a Bats Bonus that will be the value otherwise it’s minimum value.

Hit Drac 10 times to collect a “Super Bats Bonus”
If you collected a Super Bats Bonus that will be the value otherwise it’s minimum value.

Santa - Christmas Mode

In this mode, the playfield lights up like a Christmas tree in Red, Green, and Blue and the object is to hit the required shots to turn the playfield back to normal. Hitting a shot will turn that section back to normal lighting.

Shots: Drac or Left Ramp, Santa, Lola, Gorbie, Right Ramp, Pinbot, Pinbot Bank

Marilyn/Lola - Collect the Kennedy's

Focused on the LOLA 3-bank you have to collect 3 of the "cursed Kennedy’s". Collecting all of them will light “Mr. President Multiball”.

“Mr. President Multiball” (3 ball)
A 3 ball, timed multiball. Between 2-3 minutes based on song length, Marilyn Monroe happy birthday song played as 3 balls are played at once. (Scoring to be determined)

Gorbie Mode - I’m seeing Red

In this mode, the playfield lights turn "Communist Red" and the object is to hit the required shots to turn the playfield back to normal. Hitting a shot will turn that section back to normal lighting.

Shots: Drac or Left Ramp, Santa, Lola, Gorbie, Right Ramp, Pinbot, Pinbot Bank

Pinbot - Press your luck

Collected at the Pinbot saucer, in this mode, you are launching as many balls as you want to collect all the bonus collects at the spinout. If you collect one that you already have you are done and get no bonus, otherwise you may continue to launch balls.

Time to go shopping OR what will we need?

So where are we at with this...

We've started to purchase some of the things we'll need to rewire and replace the parts on the Taxi while retaining as much of the original pinball parts that make sense. The primary functions of the upper playfield will remain: flippers, pop-bumpers, ramps switches, etc., while the lower playfield will get rebuilt.

We'll be rewiring the under playfield and replacing the existing under-playfield bulbs with controlled LEDs. Additionally, we'll be replacing the general illumination (GI) bulbs as well with some bulk LEDs. This will give us the power to control color, brightness, and fade to build custom light shows and attract modes.

Below is a list if items we've received to get us started:


Bill of materials

[1] Used Taxi Pinball Machine
     > This will include all our pinball specific parts, playfield, flippers, pop bumpers, ramps, shooter rods, pinball's, etc.

[1] Set of Fast Pinball Boards

• FAST Nano Controller
• 2 @ FAST I/O 3208
• FAST RGB LED Inserts - 50 pack
• FAST Power Filter Board

[8] Rolls of 100' Bulk 18 Gauge Wire
     > (2) Green, (2) Black, (2) Red, (1) Yellow, (1) Blue

[6] Rolls of 25' Bulk 22 Gauge Wire
     > (1) Red, (1) Black, (1) White, (1) Blue, (1) Yellow, (1) Green

[50] Bulk LED Bulbs for GI lighting
     > DC5V 12mm Diffused Digital RGB LED Pixels Lights WS2811 Addressable Color

[2] 5/12 Amp Power Supply
     > AC to DC Power Supply Dual Output 5 Volt 12 Volt 8 Amp 4 Amp 66 Watt (Jameco Part no. 323505)

[1] 48V 6.7 Amp 320W Power Supply
     > PWR SPLY,SW,ENCL,321.6W,PFC (Jameco Part no. 244770)


Other Miscellaneous

LED Connectors
0.1" (2.54mm) Crimp Connector Housing: 2x3-Pin 10-Pack
LED Mounting brackets
RJ-45 Patch Cables
Autodesk Fusion360
     > 3D modeling software is free, but we bought 1 year subscription to take advantage of some of the collaboration features with the Fast Pinball group of friends.

Cabinet work

We've got a shopping list and have started work on cabinet restoration. This was a player quality machine when we received it and some work would need to be done to put some shine on the project.

We've removed all the game boards, electronics, and hardware from the cabinet and playfield. After some examination we're filling in nicks and gouges using a auto-body filler and sanding till satisfied. Some good progress so far.

The playfield has been touched up and is ready to get so clear coat. The cabinet will get resprayed with yellow and more than likely we find a decal kit for the side art.

Additionally, we'll need to rebuild the neck of the machine (parts between the back box and main body of the pinball). It might be an opportunity to improve or customize the look subtly, we'll see.

Let's make a pinball machine

You've passively considered doing it on your own. You and your friends have talked about it. You've even done some of the research about what involved, but you're never really ready for that feeling when you decide to make it real. You're going to build a pinball machine.

On November 19th 2015 I had that feeling at a Fast Pinball Meetup. All the pieces mentally lay in front of me and the room was full of ambition and curiosity. Standing on the precipice, the only thing that was keeping me from taking that last step was a date. That made it real, too real.

With lots of help from the community at large, the hope is to have a working Williams Taxi pinball machine wired and flipping to take to the Northwest Pinball and Arcade show June of 2016.

Goal: Take an existing Williams Taxi pinball

1. Restore and touch up the cabinet and playfield
2. Replace all the running boards with Fast Pinball hardware and Raspberry Pi.
3. Rewire all the lighting in the machine.
4. Rewrite the existing rules using Mission Pinball framework

    * Impress friends with new found talent

Bonus Content:

• Add new rules to the game (like a 3 ball multiball?)
• Add a DMD or other display to the back box
• Add Animations to above display

Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show

http://www.nwpinballshow.com/

Mission Pinball Framework

https://missionpinball.com/mpf/

Fast Pinball Hardware

http://fastpinball.com/

The Meetup

http://blog.fastpinball.com/fast-pinball-mission-pinball-meet-up-11192015/
https://missionpinball.com/blog/2015/11/mission-pinball-fast-pinball-meet-up-nov-2015/

Here is some footage from that night: