As I embark on the journey of building my own Virtual Pinball machine by using a Judge Dredd machine as the cabinet and backbox I have some key goals in mind-
I want everything inside the cabinet. My current machine has the PC outside and the inside wiring is a rats nest since I've avoided removing the monitor.
More solenoids. My current machine has flipper solenoids, but to better approximate the feel of a real machine, it needs more. I'm going to use the Cleveland Software Design Virtual Pinball Builders Kit for simplicity.
Access to the inside. I want to make sure I can get to the interior of the machine without too much trouble so the monitor needs to tilt up out of the way to work inside.
No LED matrix. Lots of virtual pinball builders fill the empty space around the monitor with LEDs. I'm not a fan of all the excess lights. I think they are distracting and make it harder to play.
Action/fire button on lockdown bar. The lockdown bar is the piece of metal that covers the top front of the cabinet. It has rounded corners for your hands and is locked in place using a “receiver” inside. I’m still looking for a good source of one that will fit. I found one on VirtuaPin.net that costs a bit more than I was hoping to spend on this part. I’ll probably end up adding this near the end or later.
I’m hoping to keep the graphics as/is. I don't mind the dings/scrapes for now. I could see myself changing my mind though once I get further along (mainly cause I'm likely to screw it up more).
After getting it home and inspecting it, there were definitely some things that needed to be addressed.
First thing was that it needed to be cleaned. It was filthy.
I've wiped most of the outside with some basic glass cleaner to get a lot of grim off. I need to get a scrub brush and some rags to get at the grooves and the interior.
Along with cabinet and backbox, it came with side rails (the metal trim that runs the length of the cabinet, legs, a lockdown bar and receiver, playfield glass, and a coin door. This will hopefully save me some money.
I've already ordered new legs. While the ones it came with are probably functional, there's more rust on them than I want to deal with. My time to clean them up is worth more than the cost of new legs from Pinball Life.
My first part order also included-
Leg Bolts (these attach the legs on to the cabinet)
Levelers (these screw into the bottom of the legs to allow you to raise/lower and level the cabinet)
Leveler Cups (these fit over the levelers to protect the floor)
Rear Glass Channel (it was missing)
Beer Seal - This is a foam strip that attaches under the lockdown bar and protects the interior of the cabinet from spills on the glass. It is not a seal drinking beer.
Backbox Hinge - This is a hinge that attaches to the cabinet and backbox and allows the backbox to fold down onto the cabinet for transport.
All of his made it so that I was able to set up the machine once I finished cleaning. That’s for the next post….