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Old pinball machines are amazingly complex

⁨335⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨IonAddis@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨videos@lemmy.world⁩

https://youtu.be/ue-1JoJQaEg

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  • IonAddis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I like all his videos, but I particularly like this one because it kind of feels like the “missing link” between clockwork machines and electronic machines that I didn’t realize I was missing a ton of stuff about.

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    • yiliu@informis.land ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Seriously, this guy makes great videos. I’ve enjoyed his videos on heat exchangers, VHS vs Beta, liquid dish detergent vs pods, or humidifiers way more than is reasonable.

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      • kameecoding@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        his debunking of the Bulb planned obsolescence is also very good.

        he changed how I use my dishwasher too, lol

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    • SHOW_ME_YOUR_ASSHOLE@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Many pipe organs from the mid to late 1900’s use similar electro mechanical technology to take the key presses and actuate valves in the organ closet to activate the correct pipe. I’d love to see him do a video on pipe organs, they’re amazingly complex!

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  • deweydecibel@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    God I love Technology Connections. He’s such a refreshingly passionate yet chill person, has absolutely no air of condescension, soft-spoken, excitable but not too much, thorough, and just generally pleasant. Not the typical YouTube personality at all, and I love it.

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    • Agent641@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Steve Mould likewise.

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  • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    What a masterpiece of a walkthrough. 60 minutes of pure electromechanical bliss

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  • Diplomjodler@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I think I’m going to have nightmares about having to repair these things after watching this.

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    • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      I felt the opposite. Imagine being familiar enough with one of these that you can be the wizard that walks up and makes the magic work again.

      All it would take is time working on a rotation of maintenance of these things.

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  • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Wow, that’s so cool! I have Little Chief by Williams which is a LOT like Aztec. I haven’t even begun to restore that one. I also have El Toro, by Bally. It took me a week to get all the contacts clean…

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    • IonAddis@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Hey, since you’re familiar with pinball machines, I have a question…in his video above, some of the solenoids seemed to have a motorola logo on them.

      But I don’t know enough about electronic parts (or replacement parts–or hell, blue tape with a motorola-like logo on them) to know how to interpret it. I was mostly like, “Wait, motorola did solenoids in the 70s? Or are those replacements? Or just branded electrical tape?”

      What are your thoughts?

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      • Ranadok@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        He posted a picture on Mastodon, that’s actually the logo of Williams upside-down.

        mas.to/@TechConnectify/111234846346590902

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  • FlyingSquid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Yes. Yes they are. I worked at an arcade in the 1990s. Fixing pinball machines is a nightmare.

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  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Amazing video by @TechConnectify@mas.to as usual, pinball machines are quite the curiousity.

    The mechanisms that move the ball itself (bumpers and kickers) are probably much the same as in a modern computerized unit, but the electro-mechanic logic (like the spinning motor that counts to five) is very fascinating.

    I’m looking forward to the next part. I might think triggering the 10k solenoid twice and the 1k solenoid 5 times would be more succinct, but maybe it has to do with activating one score coil at a time: that could be why instead it opts to count to 5, 5 times.

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    • Exusia@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Got a friend who fixes pinball machines as his main income and sitting as he explains to me the way old Electromechanicals work is a LOT to take in.

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  • Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I love pinball. Kinda want to make one myself IRL; they’re one of my favorite things to build in creative games like Space Engineers.

    Is there even any kind of mechanical game that is more complex than pinball?

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    • archonet@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Just to be clear, you use a game about building intergalactic spaceships to make pinball machines?

      Radical.

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    • jasondj@ttrpg.network ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      He had one on jukeboxes a long time ago, I think. Not quite a game but still coin-op.

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    • UntouchedWagons@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Maybe a bowling alley?

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  • arthur@ludosphere.fr ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    @IonAddis love it, finally understood a few things about my 1968 pinball... #pinball

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