!!! UPDATE !!!

2015-06-08

Tattoo Mystique just won "Best Original Pinball” at the Seattle Pinball Show this past weekend !!!! Special thanks go out to the Mission Pinball Framework guys, and the FAST Pinball hardware team !!

So, I guess Custom Pinball is a thing now?!?

Just a summary for those new to this project, this is a “vintage” style machine that is actually being controlled by a Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10.

The hardware (driving all the flippers, coils and lights) was provided by FAST Pinball, while the software is handled by the Mission Pinball Framework (MPF), a tool that allows for simple Python scripting.

This combination is perfect for the Maker community interested in home-brew pinball, without the overhead of programming or designing electronics from scratch.

Check out HOW TO BUILD A PINBALL MACHINE for material sources, CAD drawings and fabrication instructions...

This is a report from the NW Pinball show floor by the Tacoma News Tribune.

The new Stern "Kiss" machine made it's debut at the show, and is featured towards the middle of this video.

Tattoo Mystique stuff starts around 0:12 and goes to about the 0:58 mark.

Originally built with P-ROC driver hardware, but swapped out in favor of the FAST Pinball stuff later.

Both systems work equally well with the MPF, but FAST had an edge in overall features and performace.

Check out HOW TO BUILD A PINBALL MACHINE for material sources, CAD drawings and fabrication instructions...

First time the head was complete with backglass, DMD and speaker covers.

Side view of the head showing the two-color stenciled paint job.

Close-up of the first time the DMD was installed.

Cabinet painting completed, with all stencils removed.

Many thanks to Kendra and Rich from This Old Game for their great work on the expedited stencils!

First color put down on the cabinet.

SPECIFICATIONS:

One of the first tests using NeoPixels strips from Adafruit.

Using RGB LEDs allows for some interesting graphic effects on the plastics. The color-changing lights give the illusion of a Mermaid or a Tattoo'ed Pinup, depending on which game mode you're in.

Special thanks to Washington Graphics for doing this short-run on there direct print UV cured ink large-format machine.

Speaker grill and DMD screen protector in place.

Side-lit acrylic gives a spooky look to the central backglass character.

Specially programmed Arduino Mega provides a playfield switch matrix, reducing the number of wires from about 40 down to 16.

First time putting assembled playfield into the cabinet.

Starting the underside assembly, installing all of the coil-activated mechanisms.

Checking how the choice of colors for the posts and skirts work with the rest of the design.

Test-fit the playfield into the donor cabinet.

Putting the final poly-crylic clearcoat on the playfield.

Once all of the hole and slots were cut, and the plastic lens inserts were in and sealed, local artist Courtney Henderson was commisioned to hand-paint the entire playfield.

The imagery is inspired by the awesome flash work of Angelique Houtkamp, from which the title of the game "Tattoo Mystique" is also drawn.

Screenshot from the Visual Pinball computer simulation.

Although the playfield geometry was designed with old fashoned pen and paper, this simulation was used to explore game rules, scoring, and other potential functionality. This was implemented using Visual Pinball (VP) software (can be found here) and is freely available to play on a personal computer. Enjoy!