Editing Pinball (section)

==Manufacturing process==
[[File:Judge Dredd Pinball Machine underside.jpg|thumb|The underside of a 1990s playfield, showing a variety of mechanical and electrical components]]
The assembly of a pinball machine is a complex process and involves several manual steps.

The wiring for the game's electronic system is a major effort. A color-coded flexible wiring harness is typically soldered to many lamps, switches and solenoids, and connected with plugs to the main electronic circuit boards in modern machines. Technicians are guided by a set of instructions and templates to ensure all wires (that can have a total length of almost half a mile) are installed properly.

The main construction on one hand involves the mounting of mechanical components onto the wooden playfield, such as hammering in anchored metal railing that keeps the balls from exiting the playfield and attachment of plastic parts with nuts and screws.  On the other hand, electrical components are installed, like bumpers, slingshots, and sockets for lamps and flashing lights. All of the wiring is fastened to the playfield and big components like speakers, mains transformers or shaker motors are bolted into the bottom of the cabinet. The player-accessible parts like the spring plunger, buttons and the coin door with its mechanics are attached directly to the cabinet.

After successful testing, the playfield is set on hinges into the cabinet. The cabinet of computerized games contains very few parts. On older electromechanical games, the entire floor of the lower box was used to mount custom relays and special scoring switches, making them much heavier. To protect the top of the playfield, tempered glass is slid into side rails and secured with a metal locking bar.

The backbox is installed with hinges on modern machines or screws on older games. It contains the scoring displays and electronic circuit boards and is historically covered with a removable, painted, partially transparent, backglass which defined the game's appeal as much as the playfield design and the cabinet art. Since a damaged backglass is hard to restore, newer games use (sometimes optional) plastic translites behind a clear glass.

Other steps include installation of removable boards with speaker and dot-matrix displays and/or hinged wooden boards with lights and displays. The cabinet and backbox are covered with artwork that was historically sprayed on with stencils and later is applied as full-size decal stickers.

===Solenoids===
* ''Solenoids or coils'': These are found in every modern pinball machine since the flipper age. They are usually hidden under the playfield, or covered by playfield components. By applying power to the coil, the magnetic field created by electromagnetism causes a metal object (usually called a plunger) to move. The plunger is then connected mechanically to a feature or accessory on the playfield.

Flipper solenoids contain two coil windings in one package; a short, heavy gage 'power' winding to give the flipper its initial thrust up, and a long, light gage 'hold' winding that uses lower power (and creates far less heat) and essentially just holds the flipper up allowing the player to capture the ball in the inlane for more precise aiming. As the flipper nears the end of its upward travel, a switch under the flipper disconnects the power-winding and leaves only the second sustain winding to hold the flipper up in place. If this switch fails 'open' the flipper will be too weak to be usable, since only the weak winding is available. If it fails 'closed' the coil will overheat and destroy itself, since both windings will hold the flipper at the top of its stroke.

Solenoids also control pop-bumpers, kickbacks, drop target resets, and many other features on the machine. These solenoid coils contain a single coil winding. The plunger size and wire gage & length are matched to the strength required for each coil to do its work, so some types are repeated throughout the game, some are not.

All solenoids and coils used on microprocessor games include a special reverse-biased diode to eliminate a high-voltage pulse of reverse EMF ([[electromotive force]]). Without this diode, when the solenoid is de-energized, the magnetic field that was built up in the coil collapses and generates a brief, high-voltage pulse backward into the wiring, capable of destroying the solid-state components used to control the solenoid. Proper wiring polarity must be retained during coil replacement or this diode will act as a dead short, immediately destroying electronic switches. Older electromechanical AC game solenoids do not require this diode, since they were controlled with mechanical switches. However, electromechanical games running on DC do require diodes to protect the rectifier.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepinballrepair.com/pinballflipperrepair.html|title=Pinball Flippers Rebuilding|website=homepinballrepair.com|access-date=November 8, 2017}}</ref>

All but very old games use low DC voltages to power the solenoids and electronics (or relays). Some microprocessor games use high voltages (potentially hazardous) for the score displays. Very early games used low-voltage AC power for solenoids, requiring fewer components, but AC is less efficient for powering solenoids, causing heavier wiring and slower performance. For locations that suffer from low AC wall outlet voltage, additional taps may be provided on the AC transformer in electromechanical games to permit raising the game's DC voltage levels, thus strengthening the solenoids. Microprocessor games have electronic power supplies that automatically compensate for inaccurate AC supply voltages.

Historically, pinball machines have employed a central fixed I/O board connected to the primary CPU controlled by a custom microcontroller platform running an in-house operating system. For a variety of reasons that include thermal flow, reliability, vibration reduction and serviceability, I/O electronics have been located in the upper backbox of the game, requiring significant custom wiring harnesses to connect the central I/O board to the playfield devices.

A typical pinball machine I/O mix includes 16 to 24 outputs for driving solenoids, motors, electromagnets and other mechanical devices in the game. These devices can draw up to 500 W momentarily and operate at voltages up to 50 Vdc. There is also individually controlled lighting that consists of 64 to 96 individually addressable lights. Recently developed games have switched from incandescent bulbs to LEDs. And there is general illumination lighting that comprises two or more higher-power light strings connected and controlled in parallel for providing broad illumination to the playfield and backbox artwork. Additionally, 12 to 24 high-impulse lighting outputs, traditionally incandescent but now LED, provide flash effects within the game. Traditionally, these were often controlled by solenoid-level drivers.

A game typically includes 64 to 96 TTL-level inputs from a variety of sensors such as mechanical leaf switches, optical sensors and electromagnetic sensors. Occasionally extra signal conditioning is necessary to adapt custom sensors, such as eddy sensors, to the system TTL inputs.

Recently, some pinball manufacturers have replaced some of the discrete control wiring with standard communication buses. In one case, the pinball control system might include a custom embedded network node bus, a custom embedded Linux-based software stack, and a 48-V embedded power distribution system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.designworldonline.com/advanced-networks-make-pinball-games-pop/#_|title=Advanced networks make pinball games pop! |magazine=Design World Magazine |date=6 May 2015 |access-date=May 6, 2015}}</ref>

===Custom machines===
[[File:A rebuilt Terminator 2 pinball machine.jpg|thumb|200px|A restored [[Terminator 2: Judgment Day (pinball)|''Terminator 2'' pinball]] machine with all metal parts plated with [[chrome plating|chrome]]]]

Some hobbyists and small companies modify existing pinball machines or create their own custom pinball machines. Some want, for example, a game with a specific subject or theme that cannot be bought in this form or was never built at all.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pnwpinball.com/projects.htm|title=Pacific Northwest Pinball - Custom Pinball Projects|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref> Some custom games are built by using the programmable P-ROC controller board.<ref name=arscustom>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/10/the-custom-pinball-machines-of-chicagos-pinball-expo-2013/|title=The custom pinball machines of Chicago's Pinball Expo 2013|work=Ars Technica|date=21 October 2013|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref> Modifications include the use of ColorDMD that is used to replace the standard mono color [[dot-matrix display]]s<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.performancepinball.com/news/color-dmd-new-and-improved|title=Pinball and car news, tech and resources - Performance Pinball|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref> or the addition of features, e.g. figures or other toys.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freeplayamusements.com/boogie.htm|title=Scared Stiff Pinball Dancing Boogiemen Kit|access-date=April 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209112219/http://freeplayamusements.com/boogie.htm|archive-date=February 9, 2015|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

A few notable examples of custom pinball machines include a ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' theme machine,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ghostbustersnews.com/2012/09/25/10508/|title=Fan Creation: Ghostbusters Pinball Machine|date=25 September 2012|access-date=April 6, 2015}}</ref> a ''[[The Matrix|Matrix]]'' style game,<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szBLqjyffnQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/szBLqjyffnQ| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=Pinball News - The Matrix at the Dutch Pinball Open 2012|date=October 9, 2012|work=YouTube|access-date=April 6, 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> [[Bill Paxton]] Pinball,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benheck.com/bill-paxton-pinball/|title=Bill Paxton Pinball: The Official Site|date=16 March 2010 |access-date=April 20, 2015}}</ref> ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic]]'', ''[[Star Fox]]'', ''[[Predators (film)|Predator]]'', and [[Iron Man (2008 film)|Iron man]]<ref>{{Cite book | title = The Pinball Compendium| author=Michael Shalhoub| publisher = Schiffer |isbn=978-0-7643-4107-6 |date= 2012| pages = 299}}</ref> machines.<ref name=arscustom />

[[Data East]] was one of the few regular pinball companies that manufactured custom pinball games (e.g. for [[Aaron Spelling]], [[Michael Jordan]] and the movie ''[[Richie Rich (film)|Richie Rich]]''), though these were basically mods of existing or soon to be released pinball machines (e.g. ''[[Lethal Weapon 3 (pinball)|Lethal Weapon 3]]'' or ''[[The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard]]'').