Building a Pinball Cabinet

Step 1: Research

Quick Nav: Intro - Research - Cutting Wood - Assembling - Wiring - Done
 

Research
 

My first thought was to use an old i3 laptop I had and the 27" monitor as a playfield (similar to the Mini-Cabinet in the Coding Horror story).  I grabbed that and an old 4:3 monitor I had laying around and set it up.
 

I did a quick Google search and found a free pinball game on Steam.  I installed that and tried it out:
 

It was amazing!  Wow, this really is going to work.
 

I did a bunch more research (youtube videos, forum posts, etc.) and discovered Visual Pinball and the vpforums.  There they have hundreds of tables you can download for free.  This includes all the classic tables you remember playing as well as some incredible original tables.
 

 
Next >