Jan Klomp, as a child of the 80s, and according to him, “still a 44 year old child,” grew up with such wonderful things as the Commodore 64, arcade cabinets, and pinball machines.
After building a MAME (emulated arcade) cabinet, he was introduced to the pinball versions, pinMAME and Visual Pinball, which allow one to emulate pinball games on a screen. Naturally, he decided to build his own machine.
Besides the very good visuals, what is really cool about PinMAME is the ability to control external hardware with it. Klomp takes full advantage of this in his build (based around a 42 year old “Little Joe” Cabinet) with a shaker motor, various LED lights, and eight industrial contactors to simulate the bumper, flipper fingers, and slingshots.
For anyone that has spent a lot of time around industrial electronics, using a contactor like this will make perfect sense once you wrap your head around what he’s doing. Additionally, you might find it a little more than coincidental that Klomp has a “.de” website and just happens to be using a “Siemens” contactor. I suppose if there was air involved, he’d be using “Festo” components as well.
All kidding aside, it’s a great build, and lets Klomp and his wife play lots of different tables without taking up a huge amount of room!
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