Windows' Classic 3D Space Cadet Pinball Is Getting a Physical Re-Creation (arstechnica.com) 51
Hobbyist CNCDan is trying to build a real-world version of Windows' classic 3D Pinball for Windows -- Space Cadet, using 3D-printed flippers, bumpers, LEDs, slingshots, and a raised playfield modeled after the original virtual table. But in bringing the digital table into the real world, CNCDan has already run into several physical challenges the software never had to contend with... Ars Technica reports: After scaling and skewing the on-screen, perspective-shifted view of the Space Cadet playfield onto a 1-meter-tall table, he ended up with a rectangular playfield just 56 cm wide. That's on the smaller side for commercial pinball tables and maps to playfield bumpers that are just 53 mm wide -- way smaller than any prebuilt bumpers that are commercially available.
Once CNCDan dealt with issues with unreliable plastic microswitches for those tiny bumpers (Hall effect magnets seemed to help), he ran into a separate problem with the even smaller bumpers on the raised playfield. The wiring for those bumpers had to be arranged very carefully to avoid blocking a kickback return alley underneath, a positioning problem that the original designers of the virtual table didn't have to consider at all. CNCDan also ended up adding a physical mechanism to simulate the short delay 3D Space Cadet players may remember, when the ball dropped down a hole from the raised playfield back to the flippers below.
CNCDan says he's currently looking for artists to help him with a hand-drawn re-creation of the original Space Cadet playfield, which he doesn't want to use AI for. "I'm sure [AI] can do it, but I'd much rather give this job to a real human being," he said in the video.
Once CNCDan dealt with issues with unreliable plastic microswitches for those tiny bumpers (Hall effect magnets seemed to help), he ran into a separate problem with the even smaller bumpers on the raised playfield. The wiring for those bumpers had to be arranged very carefully to avoid blocking a kickback return alley underneath, a positioning problem that the original designers of the virtual table didn't have to consider at all. CNCDan also ended up adding a physical mechanism to simulate the short delay 3D Space Cadet players may remember, when the ball dropped down a hole from the raised playfield back to the flippers below.
CNCDan says he's currently looking for artists to help him with a hand-drawn re-creation of the original Space Cadet playfield, which he doesn't want to use AI for. "I'm sure [AI] can do it, but I'd much rather give this job to a real human being," he said in the video.
Why not scale it up? (Score:1)
If this guy's problems are all related to the thing being too small, scale it to 125% or 150% or whatever is needed to make it work.
It's a virtual object so it doesn't have a real world dimension so he can set any base unit size he wants and still get an "authentic" table.
Actually, where did he get the size he's working with anyway? Measured it against a background object or something?
Re:Why not scale it up? (Score:4, Informative)
Watch the video. Even at quite a large scale some of the stuff is still too small for off the shelf parts.
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By "quite a large scale" you mean 1.3m long. He certainly could have made it longer than that. Honestly, I mainly think he just wanted an excuse to do more 3d printing and electronics work ;)
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I broke the rules and watched the video. He chose to make it 1m long to fit in his studio apartment, then scaled the playfield until the bumpers were round in order to determine the width.
Re:Pinball machines are still made (Score:5, Insightful)
because the objective is to build something, not to simply have it.
Re:Pinball machines are still made (Score:4)
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Because the original only ever existed as a video game, the proportion of the parts are not compatible with off-the-shelf parts.
So the choice is make his own components to the proper proportions and get something faithful to the game version, or completely redesign the table layout to make standard parts work.
He got a resin printer for making smooth parts where required. What he really needs, from what I've seen in the video, are more powerful solenoids.
=Smidge=
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It's not all resin printing, he only used resin printing for one part in the video. Most was FDM printing. Though I did find it strange that he was using PLA. If it's parts facing repeated impact, you think he'd at least go with PETG, if not something like ABS/ASA or a nylon. I really don't get why so many people are so averse to non-PLA polymers. I guess PLA is more "eco-friendly"**, and yeah, there's a ton of PLA options out there, but that's mainly just because people are buying so much PLA.
** I'm a
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PLA blends like PLA+es can be just as tough as PETG but without the sagging. (You can get the sag out of PETG, but that commonly means reducing layer adhesion by reducing temperature.) PLA+ parts can handle a lot of abuse, e.g. the gun printing community overwhelmingly uses it.
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I've never experienced any sort of "sagging" with PETG, and honestly don't even know what you mean by that (and I generally print very hot). Do you mean printing overhangs without support? That's not great with anything. Do you mean elephant foot? Never experienced it. I make primarily functional parts, not decor, so dimensional accuracy is key; zero problems. And concerning sagging, let me tell you, PLA *really* sags if it sits in the hot sun long enough...
To get PLA to be "tough" (impact resistant)
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I can understand arguments against ABS, ASA, PC, PA, etc. They're more difficult to print, need enclosed chambers, etc. But that doesn't apply to PETG; it's super-easy to print (IMHO, easier than PLA). And basically any modern printer can handle it. And it's cheaper. So I simply do not understand the people still sticking with PLA so much (beyond a desire to be more environmentally conscious, or wanting a very specific product that doesn't have a PETG equivalent).
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I've never experienced any sort of "sagging" with PETG, and honestly don't even know what you mean by that
You've never printed anything with a horizontal hole?
To get PLA to be "tough" (impact resistant) on the order of PETG you have to load it up with PU microplastics, which makes it worse for the environment than PETG so you lose that advantage.
So what? Your average colored PLA has additives in it anyway.
And it gets rid of its stiffness
It reduces it, it doesn't eliminate it. Try actually printing some PLA+.
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All the time? Low overhang speeds + fan with overhang. Not tricky.
Not remotely the same. Black is carbon black. Basically soot. Tiny amounts. White is titanium dioxide (like in sunscreen - just a mineral). Blues and greens, generally like 1% or so copper phthalocyanines (very stable, sort of like humus, *very* slowly give off copper (an essential micronutrient) as they break down over hund
Re: Pinball machines are still made (Score:2)
"All the time? Low overhang speeds + fan with overhang. Not tricky."
If you have printed parts with horizontal holes which were not relieved on top, and you printed them in PETG, then you either had sag, or poor layer adhesion due to insufficient temperature. That's a huge percentage of why people still print in PLA. (Another big part is that it's so much cheaper than PHA.)
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Literally just look at the spec sheets from Bambu above you:
Max bridging length: 30mm vs. 30mm (tie)
Re: Pinball machines are still made (Score:2)
It's so cute that you think that makes your case for you. Is this just another thing you claim to be doing but aren't, like when you said you were a plant science expert but couldn't manage to figure out that mature forests sequester more CO2?
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I don't plan to link anything with my name to you, so you can believe whatever you want, though if you'd like I'll 3d print something with your name on it, with horizontal holes, in PETG and post it online for you. And yes, I have a BA in Horticulture (subfield: greenhouse cultivation) from Fjölbrautaskóli Su[th]urlands (originally Landbúna[th]arháskólinn, in Hveragerði), along with a BS in CS - again, I don't plan to link anything with my name on it, so you're free to believe
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I do think your "you can't print horizontal holes" in PETG thing is pretty hilarious, BTW, because it's an open admission that you're terrible at understanding how to set print parameters ;)
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I think your lack of reading comprehension is hilarious, because that's not what I said; I find your putting that in quotation marks scurrilous, because that's not how quotation marks work. But I expect no better from you.
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That's not what "sneer quotes" do [wikipedia.org].
(And the quotes in the above are neither direct quotation nor sneer quotes, but use-mention distinction quotes, which let the sentence "know" that the thing in the quotes is the word/phrase itself, not what it refers to)
(And the quotes in the above are signaling quotes, to convey that a word is being used in an unconventional manner; it's a "clever" way to distance yourself from the word)
(And the quotes in the above are irony quotes....)
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Other related terms:
* Pseudo-quotation: Putting a paraphrase or the general "gist" of someone’s argument inside quotation marks, rather than their literal verbatim words. Acts structurally like a quote, but semantically is a summary.
* 'Fictive Direct Speech (Esther Pascual): The structure of direct speech used to express a non-conversational concept, such as a belief, attitude, or general stance.
* Constructed Dialogue (Deborah Tannen): Used for "reported speech" - when people "
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(and you can suck my balls [wikipedia.org])
they don't have the rights to do that! (Score:2)
they don't have the rights to do that!
Re: they don't have the rights to do that! (Score:2)
Of course he has the rights!
He just can't manufacture and sell them.
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Got the money for that?
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Because he decided to scale it down to 1 meter instead of the regular side of 1.3 ~1.6 meter.
So he won't be able to use standard size parts which are readily available.
Hard to get the look right (Score:5, Funny)
Trying to get the real table to update the ball at 20fps is proving insanely difficult.
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I imagine a standard thickness is probably something like 9.5mm.
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Maybe on a 20Mhz 386, but by the time Windows XP was being tested, it would do over million FPS so the XP version was hard-limited to 120FPS, dropping the CPU to under 1%.
https://devblogs.microsoft.com... [microsoft.com]
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That's dead simple. Light the table with a strobe light at 20fps.
Nice sentiment... maybe (Score:2)
Is he offering to pay that "real human being", or is he just looking for someone who'll donate their time and skills to his hobby project for free?
I got an idea.... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Because the coders never designed the table to match commercially available parts.
If he uses off the shelf parts, the table won't look right and the physics will be different.
My first thought was 'why doesn't he just use parts available on the market?'
But if what you create doesn't look and feel like Space Cadet.... the effort feels like a waste of time.
Space Cadet is so cool! (Score:1)
It ran perfectly on my 33mhz 486sx laptop very smoothly, and still runs on my Windows 10 machine just as well.
Great project (Score:2)
CNCDan has a long way to go to make this game work like a real pinball machine. I used to service and repair coin-op pinballs. The action was provided by large 120 volt solenoids. The biggest being the flippers.
When pinball machines went to electronic play they used 24 volt DC solenoids. Either way the action was fast. Hope he gets the fast play the computer game has. Good luck.
Live Action sucks (Score:3)
Live-action recreations usually suck.
Delta Queen (Score:2)
I've got a Delta Queen 2 plays for .25 on the patio. Wouldn't it be easier to take an existing machine and redo the playing field to match ? Getting parts for my old machine is not fun. I've made rubber bumpers and swapped light bulbs to low power led's. I had an artistic friend recreate some of the decals and made a whole new playing field base to replace the sagging boards that were there.
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At that point, why not just go VPin [vpinhub.com]?
because you can't hip check a virtual table.
Honestly I don't know. I've loved pinball since I was a kid and could play on a chair at the Mr. Video arcade. The touch, the smell of the electricity all combine into a thing I can't get enough of.
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It's just a hobby (and content for his channel). Everyone has their own :) Right now I'm working on a CO2 capture system to take atmospheric CO2 and pump it into my greenhouse.
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That is not a small project. How are you going to separate the CO2 from the general atmosphere ? I worked in a grow house briefly in college and they used commercial CO2 cannisters for that effect.
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Yeah, I've been using canisters, and they're expensive and a chore (and because of that, it encourages me to give the plants much less than would be ideal).
The basic process is potassium carbonate/bicarbonate swing absorption. Potassium carbonate absorbs CO2 (and H2O) from the air at low temperatures , forming bicarbonate, but the bicarbonate emits CO2 (and H2O) at high temperatures. So the system has two modes: one, a powerful radial blower blows air through a pumice bed packed with potassium carbonate so
Old news (Score:2)
https://hackaday.com/2026/05/2... [hackaday.com].
There were better pinball games (Score:1)
Pinball Fantasies, Timeshock...