Pinball has long been a staple of the arcade scene; even after the introduction of now-classic arcade games like Space Invaders and Pacman, pinball was never completely wiped out.
For starters, the game inspired what was possibly the first mainstream song about a hardcore gamer – “Pinball Wizard”, by The Who. It has even survived to the present day to bear witness to the slowly-decaying arcade scene. The only problem with the standard pinball machine is that it’s simply too big to fit in your basement or on your desktop.
Sure, there are virtual pinball games you can play on your computer, but nothing compares to the satisfying springs, pings and beeps of a real machine. That is, unless you take a shrink ray to the whole thing.
Don’t get too excited – it’s not a shrink ray, just a really clever bit of modding. A really, really clever DIY project, to be exact. To make this, the creator, pocket lucho used two screens, four speakers, a mini iTX motherboard with GeForce 9300 graphics, five fans, and a whole lot of awesomeness. Any pinball game can be played on this mini machine, and from the photos of the device I can see he enjoys both Star Wars and Star Trek pinball games. I suppose that’s reasonable – allegiance rivalries don’t extend to the neutral game of pinball, right?
This machine is fantastically small, and taking a look inside, you can see that everything is really cramped up – good thing there are four fans to cool everything off. The laser-printed decals and stainless steel legs add an extra touch of professionality to the pinball machine, and it really looks like it could be an official pinball machine if it weren’t a fraction of the size of a regular machine.
The mini pinball table is really a much better alternative to a full size machine – you can comfortably fit it anywhere at home, from your computer desk to your kitchen counter. It’s also perfect if you have kids who are into video games – first, for educating them about the history of the humble arcade, and second, the size of the machine is perfect for children who are too small to properly play at a large table.
This isn’t the only awesome pinball mod we’ve seen here – there’s also the super shiny LCD pinball machine and the ultra-chic pinball coffee table.
Via: Nowhere Else and Geeky Gadgets
