A Dust Bowl Themed Machine?

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It’s been quite a while since my last post, but the custom pinball business keeps me busy (on nights and weekends anyway). My current project is quite interesting- although at first it might not seem so. I affectionately call this project my “Dirt Machine”, since it is a custom design for a museum exhibit dedicated to the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s. The Smoky Hill Museum is located in Salina, Kansas.

The museum’s website is at https://smokyhillmuseumorg.presencehost.net/.

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Farming Fun in Kansas, 1930s. No, Thank You.

With the Great Depression as the backdrop, many families fell victim to circumstances that included over farming, extreme debt, economic collapse of the wheat markets, drought, illness, and death brought on by monstrous dirt and dust storms. Suffice it to say that the people of this region experienced some miserable conditions at the time.

So how is that for a challenge to design a custom pinball machine? Sound like fun?

Fortunately, I have the guidance and enthusiasm of Josh Morris, Curator of Exhibits at the museum, to feed me information and ideas. The first thing to note is that the machine will be a centerpiece of a new area of the museum called “The Curiosity Shop”, a hands-on area for children to explore.

My goal is to have the parents of these kids- in a fit of nostalgia- flock towards my pinball machine. The kids won’t have a chance.

So what’s the plan?

The theme of the machine will be to take on the challenge of an impending dust storm, and to take (symbolic) actions that can “save the farm” and otherwise weather the storm. Progress/success takes the form of accumulated points on the vintage machine that is the basis of my new design (a 1964 Williams “Wing Ding” EM unit). There is a feature in this machine that lets the player hit targets to “rack” little wooden balls in the back glass of the unit, and after accumulating 9 such balls, the machine rewards the player with an extra ball. At this point, any dust storm in progress will end.

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Wing Ding Back Glass: That Doesn’t Look Like a Dust Storm to Me….

I’ve adapted this game play such that the targets and “racking” represent the proactive things that farmers needed to do to improve their chances of saving their farms and surviving the dust storms.

For example, one target will activate mechanical “wind breaks” (gates) that will close off the sides of the game making it easier by eliminating the side drains. These “wind breaks” in reality would be the planting of lines of trees to lessen the impact of heavy wind.

The key feature of the game, however, will be the presence of a mechanical mechanism that simulates a dust storm- that slowly covers the lower playfield, obscuring the player’s view and making it difficult to play. This dust cloud effect will cover more of the play field as time progresses.

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The “Dust Storm” Mechanism Design

So the game includes both positive and negative impacts to game play that the player needs to deal with in order to score more points, get an extra ball, or play on through the dust storm so that peace is restored to the game play.

Add to this a custom sound track that simulates an old-timey news cast, with music, news, and weather alerts from that era. All of this will be played through a sound system that incorporates a vintage RCA speaker on the top of the machine (Thanks eBay!)

Looks Authentic To Me: RCA 100A Speaker

Concept artwork designs are in process, and I’ve solicited the talents of my friend and comic book artist Chad Cicconi to finalize the look and feel of the playfield. We are considering a scarecrow as the central figure to the design.

Check out some of Chad’s work at http://ccicconi.deviantart.com/

Stay tuned for more details as work progresses.

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The Basic Layout of the Playfield: Missing? Scarecrow.

 

A Triumphant Return….and there are no losers.

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It’s been a while.

I enjoy writing these blog entries, and I want to keep my website fresh. I really do. I promise.
But I have been extremely busy doing a few fun things, a few charitable things, and a few other things designed to build my business and network. I have also heard rumblings from the underworld concerning my promise to pay $50 for any pinball design ideas I use.

And as I keep reminding myself and others- I still have a day job that I am committed to (FM Global needs to know that!)

But “Digress, I do .” says the little Yoda on my shoulder. So let’s tackle a few topics in order:

1. Pinball Design Contest

I received about 30 design ideas through various means (including Facebook, emails, and notes in bottles) -although an objective in creating the contest was that I was kinda hoping to drive up the traffic to my website. But never mind- a few of the ideas have real promise, and if I ever pursue any of them- I sincerely promise to pay off the idea man or woman. To be honest, I am not working on any of them currently- so there are no winners yet- and there are no losers! I wish things could be different. It’s not me, it’s you. You deserve prizes from someone better than me. Can’t we just be friends?

Moving on.

2. Roger Willliams University Engineering Senior Design Project

I am very excited that my endeavor “Pinventions” is sponsoring a senior design project at RWU. Some of you know that I serve on the professional advisory board for the university’s engineering school, and working with the faculty there we came up with the very cool idea of packaging a senior design project around one of my machine’s designs.

The challenge? Create a fog-filled cemetery scene in the back glass of my “Night of the Living Dead” custom machine design. To do this the team needs to develop a self-contained, self-cleaning fog management system that can respond to various actions taking place in a pinball machine.

Dr. Linda Riley at RWU tells me this was one of the most popular and most requested projects. I’ve already met with this very impressive team of young engineers who visited me at home for a tour of my shop and an overview of the project objectives. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. They are:

-Alexander Gilman
-Anthony Melkonian
-Brian Stuckman
-Richard Mendoza

3. NYC World Maker Faire

I got my first taste of the Maker Faire in Providence a few weeks ago, and realized I am indeed a “Maker”- which is a difficult term to define. In general, a “Maker” makes, creates, hacks, mashes, etc. for his own enjoyment, or to challenge themselves to solve a problem that they may in fact create for the sole purpose of solving it. I create custom pinball machines (among other things).

Anyway, I am hooked on this “Maker” movement, and knew I had to attend the New York City version to saturate my senses and curiosity. I was not disappointed. The photo above is of me by the icon of the movement- the Maker Robot.

I also had a meeting with some “Make” representatives there who were more than a little interested in my pinball creations. Nothing for sure yet, but we continue to talk.

4. The Pittsburgh Pirates

I am a life-long baseball fan, and grew up in the 1970’s with the Pirates- Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell- these were my heroes. As a professional working in downtown Pittsburgh in 1992, I attended every home game of their last playoff series. As a “Maker” even then, I created a banner mocking the Brave’s “tomahawk chop” and hung it in the stadium. It even made the ESPN broadcast back in the day. Just prior to that playoff series in 1992 our daughter Amanda was born, and I recall watching the Pirates on TV in the hospital while Linda was in labor. At that time they were gunning for the playoffs (the Pirates, not Linda and infant Amanda), which they made, and cruised through until…

…my beloved Pirates were minutes away from the World Series. It was the seventh game of the NL final. They were ahead in the bottom of the ninth with two outs. Then with a single swing of the bat it all changed. A weak single. A weak throw from Barry Bonds to the plate. A lumbering Sid Bream- who for years prior had been a fan favorite in Pittsburgh but then the traitor bolted to the hated Braves-scored the winning run in slow motion, and sent the shell-shocked Pirates home to a cold exile for 21 years.

Pittsburgh baseball fans like myself have been in shock ever since, afraid to commit as fans, reluctant to ever come close to experiencing that heartbreak again.

Amanda just turned 21 a few weeks ago, and the Pittsburgh Pirates have had a total of zero winning seasons since that terrible day.

Until now.

Let’s go Bucs!

Validation

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The wording and image above are not mine. This is a screenshot from a Make Magazine article covering the 2013 Maker Faire in Providence, RI. In this article, the “pleasant bing-bing sounds” of my machine were used to set the ambience of the piece, as the author described some truly amazing displays and creations put on by my fellow “makers” at the show last Saturday. There were scores of very cool 3D printers, electronics gizmos, and gadgets galore. Fellow weirdos, as promised, and a feast for the eyes and brains at every turn.

The article went on to describe many of the displays, and included many pictures, including one where a face-painted teen takes on my Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out pinball game. After that photo, that included me creepily in the background, came the wording as reproduced above-the author’s favorite “stumble upon” at the Faire- followed by the only video in the entire article- of a simple LED effect under the faux turntable in my creation.

With all the cutting edge technology in play here, with all the robotics, 3D scans, prints, and Arduino infested creations- the author was most affected by essentially a parlor trick that would have been possible decades ago. Such is “art” when combined with science. Such is the old- if treated correctly- that can be made to seem new again.

The author’s name is Nick Normal, and the link is here: Reporting Back from the RI Maker Faire

Thank you to Nick for the kind words. My web traffic has increased exponentially since this article. However, 1 to the second power is still 1.

While that was my favorite validation of the past week, I had three others that were noteworthy:

1. First, “Erika and Bear”- coauthors of the I (heart) Rhody magazine/blog- interviewed me about my custom pinball/art business after visiting my booth at the Faire. This interview focused on the artistic merit of my creations, and I was happy to oblige.

2. Secondly, after submitting photos and descriptions of my work to the www.pinballowners.com website- the premiere site for pinball enthusiasts world-wide, I was accepted as a “manufacturer” and my works are now included in the database, galleries and descriptions.

3. Finally, I have submitted my idea for a controlled-fog back glass unit to the Roger Williams University Engineering school for consideration as a Senior Design Project. Dr. Riley and the other staff there were very supportive of the idea, and it has been approved. I will now have the benefit of having a team of student engineers mulling over the technical challenges of creating a closed fog control system- all simply to be able to create a cool foggy cemetery scene for my “Night of the Living Dead” machine design.

Along with this additional validation, I now have several expressions of interest, and a few tentative orders. I would urge those of you on the fence about this to consider the advantage of being “first”- in terms of getting your machine before everyone else, and paying the minimal amount for the early models.

As a reminder, pricing can be seen here, and available donor machines are listed and described here.

Thinks are looking up- so I need to get back to designing and building.

Toodles,

Dave

Foo Fest: Success!

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So my first experience “manning a booth” is over- it was exciting, rewarding, and exhausting. I came home from Providence’s Foo Fest/Makers Faire late on Saturday night, and Sunday was a day of foggy memories, sore muscles, and slow, zombie-like movements. Standing all day, talking to potential clients continuously, and lifting and moving my machine and all my display materials had taken a toll on my mind, body, and soul.

Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by to see my work and to reminisce about the old arcades and the early days of the E-street Band. I could have sold several “Bruce” machines if I had them or was willing to sell my prototype. Several guys lingered and studied my price sheets to see how they could afford to have me make them a new/old machine. If any of you are reading this- please give me a call- we can make that a reality! Several small groups of guys and gals huddled near the booth just to hear the endless string of songs from the machine in its “jukebox” mode.

If nothing else, I proved to myself that there is an audience for my work- and the positive feedback and words of encouragement and praise made it all worthwhile.

I had no expectations of getting any strong leads from my booth at this festival- after all, the demographics for Foo Fest tend towards the younger, “fringier” crowd. I considered this a practice show- I am really aiming to show more at arts festivals where I am more likely to find more clients from my era that would appreciate my work- but I was very pleased with the feedback here- the younger attendees especially were very complimentary- and interested in what these old machines were like- many having never seen or played anything but video games.

For example- I got sincere compliments from a 20-something DJ, who appreciated the art work and attention to the artist in the design. I heard words of appreciation from a young local female radio personality. I was asked if I would be interested in displaying a machine in the Providence Museum of Art and Science (if the curator’s dream ever becomes a reality). Finally, a writer for a prominent Rhode Island monthly publication indicated that she wanted to write a story about my work.

Even if nothing comes from any of this, I believe these are signs that I may be onto something. Thank you to anyone and everyone who offered kind and encouraging words.

Chapter 1 is complete.

My First Booth

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I hadn’t planned on getting serious about my custom pinball machine business endeavor for another year. I wanted to complete 3 sample/prototype machines, work through a business plan, meet with a lawyer and an accountant, etc.

But in the space of about three weeks, I’ve developed a “real” website, purchased my own domain name, worked up a pricing strategy, written a few blogs, and submitted one of my projects- Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out – for consideration in the local “Maker’s Faire” in Providence- a showcase of “Makers”- those like me who dabble in unique combinations of art, technology, etc. In other words, a place where weirdos can go to meet other weirdos so they don’t feel so weird.

I didn’t have high hopes that I would be accepted into the weirdo circles immediately- I suspected that they needed to get to know me, quiz me on my eccentricities, challenge me to prove that I deserved to be on the far end of the weirdo-spectrum. Only then could I be accepted to participate in their “Faire”.

But either they aren’t so weird or I’m weirder than I thought I was- my application was almost immediately accepted, and I was invited to put my creation on display in a booth at the event this Saturday. I was honored, pleased, and panicked a bit at the thought of putting something semi-professional to promote my business concept (and solicit potential clients) as part of the show.

This week has been a crash course in designing a hanging banner for my booth (designed in one night, submitted to Staples for printing yesterday, printed today, trimmed and ready for pick-up tomorrow), designing and printing business cards (complete with a QR code), designing tri-fold promotional fliers (inside designed and printed tonight, outside to be designed and printed tomorrow), and planning the layout of the booth (complete with the actual functioning machine, promotional materials, email sign-up sheets, price lists, free candy/bribes for the kiddies, etc. etc. etc.)

Oh yes- and I just returned from a week-long vacation so I had a lot of catching up to do at my real job. So my pinball work happens in the evenings. It will all magically come together on Saturday morning, I am certain.

So if anyone happens to read this, and if anyone reading this happens to be in Providence, RI on Saturday, please stop by to stare at the weirdos at our little Faire. I’ll be the one sleeping behind the booth as little kids steal all my candy.