So, I already completed a mini-cabinet with a 27"/24"/15" but realized that it simply was too small to be enjoyable. It was custom built by me in 3/4" plywood and really got my wife's attention - big advantage leading up to the next steps!
Looking for bigger cabinets instead of building a completely new one I found an ad stating there was several Bingo Flipper cabinets for sale. The measurements looked alright eyeballing the picture and after getting a half-decent confirmation that the playfield had same measurements as a standard pinball cabinet I simply had to pick one up.
Boy, Bingo tables does NOT get a lot of love! The one I purchased is a Bally Continental, cool piece of hardware. It was non functioning and I gave up any hopes of repairing it quickly. For the price of $150 I got the table in nice condition with playfield glass and legs in various colors and finishes. Since it was dead I decided to proceed with rebuilding it to fit my needs. I don't have any build pictures since this was my second build and I just wanted to get it done. Let's just say the previous experience and having mounting holes everywhere sped up the process a lot.
See the flyer for Bally Continental: http://www.gamersuni.../pins/flyer.jpg
Hardware
The playfield is an older 37" Panasonic LCD I had lent out to a friend and the backbox uses a 24" BenQ LCD. For DMD I used a 15" 4:3 LCD that I picked up for $15.
Computerwise it's a i3 gen4 with a surplus HD6970 which runs everything smooth as butter.
Since the backbox is not of a traditional type - it's both higher and have no speaker grills, I decided to mount speakers in the back of the backbox near the venting holes that run vertically along the top. I also have a big bass in the bottom of the cabinet.
Now let's talk Force Feedback - this is the fun part! Since I like to improvise I just took whatever I had laying around and stuffed it in. Kinda. Read on!
Lights
After going with the standard RGB Star Flashers mounted backbox top I mounted RGB strips for undercab lightning. Well, this really enhanced the effect in almost an ambilight effect which made me scrap the Crees and do RGB Strips for flashers. Mounted at the back of the backbox there's three strips running: two at the sides running down and one running along the top. Combined with two strips at the bottom of the cabinet I now have a 5 flasher system that lights up the entire room in a tremendously nice effect. Standard 12V strobes at the top tilted slightly upwards not to induce epileptic seizures.
Action
Another thing I tried out was a 3V dildo motor. Believe it or not, this sucker really does shake nicely! It's mounted in the bottom of the cabinet running at 5V PWM:ed down to intensity of 30 (otherwise it's too loud!
). Makes the lockdown bar shake so it's good enough for me.
When mounting a top fan (now removed) I used a simple 12V car relay (from Biltema) and realized that this would probably work nice instead of contactors. Said and done, 8 x 12V car relays mounted in realistic positions (2 flippers, 2 slingshots, 4 bumpers) gives a nice sound and feel whenever the ROM triggers them off. No lag and cheap as dirt!
Other
Coins: Machine came with a modern bill validator - not my cup of tea so I stripped it and put in a mechanical coin acceptor. Works great, cheap to buy, and cheap to play now. I'm still wondering if I should try to restore the table to use a top coin dropper instead but then I have to figure out a way to fill up the front. Another day perhaps.
Nudge: Still using the plumbob that sat in the cabinet for nudging. Only front just now, my Sidewinder should arrive tomorrow. Have a U-Hid-G laying around but it has truly been a nightmare so it's going to be shelved permanently.
Fan: Yeah, whirlwhind is an addictive table. A 200CFM fan was TRULY AWESOME, but a bit too noisy... So it's down but ready to be plugged in again!
Buttons: Leaf switches for flippers, using the standard buttons of the cabinet for everything else. Red button on coin door exits tables. Lockdown buttons starts tables & games, coindrop and there's a combo-button for raising and lowering the volume. Underneath the plunger is a small unobtrusive black launch button that's also standard for the cabinet.
Check out the videos. I took them just now in a hurry and there are probably 100000 tables with cooler looking flashers but that's for another day. If anybody wants to tell me how to embed a youtube video, please do so.
Gameplay, flashers, strobes and shaker motor
Cabinet
Top
I'm about to start making my virtual pinball cab. First i wanted to build one without the feedback part, but i know i won't be satisfied so i decided to atleast get some rgb flashers and undercab lightning, but now i also want some feedback for flippers etc. Can you please link the relays you got from biltema? Thank you.
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