We still have some episodes openings in Season 2 for viewer suggested builds. If you have an idea you’d like to see us build – especially if it’s weird, unusual and useful – why not email us and let us know?
You could see your ideas come to life!
Category Archives: Video Games
Midwest Gaming Classic 2012
It’s almost that time of year again – time for the Midwest Gaming Classic!
Aside from classic gaming they also have lots and lots of Pinball! Enjoy homebrew games from Team Heck and Spooky Pinball such as:
1) Lost – hopefully with the final playfield installed!
2) Godzilla – now with sound!
3) Bill Paxton Pinball – with an improved shooter lane and a Start button that actually adds players the right way.
Hope to see you there!
Run your pinball DMD with a Parallax Propeller
No better way to spend a Sunday afternoon! John Popaduik gave me one of his spare LED Vishay displays so I thought it would be fun to hook it up to a microcontroller (MCU)
Because it has 8 simultaneous cores and does not require interrupts, the Parallax Propeller seemed like a good bet. The code still had to be written in machine language to be fast enough.
You can download the resulting code here. Wire your DMD to your MCU by cross-referencing your machine’s pinout to the commented code (you need 6 signal wires + ground) or by looking at the Vishay docs.
A single COG is launched in SPIN and will continuously spit out data to your display. The variable array “displayX” holds your screen memory and requires 2 bits per pixel.
This gives you 4 shades of color: 0ff (00), dim (01), medium (10) and bright (11). Check the code comments for more information.
Hopefully this may be of use to anyone modding or doing homebrew pinball – have fun!
After half a decade, a new site layout!
After 5 years of having the same theme, I’ve finally updated my site. I’m still putting in functionality, but here are some key new features:
- Services section. The end goal is to have CNC and laser work be available to clients over the internet. So if you’ve got a project idea, we can help! I’m working on a very detailed tutorial to help you make the best files possible.
- Store. Common items such as Controller Monitors and accessibility mods can be found here. Also possibly kits in the future.
- Very comprehensive “Downloads” section. Free access to almost all of my classic designs and projects, right up to things as recent as “Lost” pinball.
- Live Shop Cam via Ustream. If we’re broadcasting, you’ll see it on the homepage.
And as usual, the forums are available as well. Have fun and I hope to add even more features soon!
Ben Heck Podcast Episode 76
Yes, believe it or not, we’ve done a year-end podcast! We’ve got a lot of topics, including:
- How Liam Neeson might organically slip the line “You Sunk My Battleship!” into Universal’s $250 million “Battleship” movie.
- Our favorite games of 2011, and biggest disappointments.
- Tom Cruise, Scientology and the expense of going to the movies.
- Zombie trend in gaming, and why a zombie apocalypse wouldn’t be as cool as nerds would hope.
- Our latest adventures in pinball.
- Tablets and phones versus portable gaming systems.
- Speculation about the next Xbox and what if it’s ARM based.
- Why “Project 10 Dollar” is just the tip of the digital download only future.
- The problems with Rocky 4. Yes, it has problems.
- Netflix and the future of media.
Enjoy and have a happy new year!
Download Ben Heck Dot Com Podcast # 76!
Something you never have to ask me for again!
Has anyone seen the BATMAN controllers? For both PS3 and 360?
Yes that’s right – it’s a PS360 controller you don’t have to ask me to build! Have fun…
Play “Lost” Pinball at Chicago Pinball Expo Next Weekend
McFarlane’s “Lost” action figures allowed us to increase the bikini content of this pinball machine 175% over previous models.
Team Heckendorn has been working furiously on “Lost” pinball for several months now, with the goal of having a playable game at the Chicago Expo. Through our tireless efforts and backbreaking work. this goal will be a reality, unless a meteor strikes the Midwest or something.
Not only can you play the game, but you can enjoy our seminar “Godzilla Gets Lost in the Big Juicy Melons” at 3:30 on Friday, featuring Dennis Nordman, Greg Freres, Chuck Emery and myself, speaking about homebrew pinball.
“Lost” easily surpasses “Bill Paxton Pinball” (which we may also bring) as the most complicated project I’ve ever built. It contains:
- New pinball OS that re-uses almost 5% of the code I wrote for Bill Paxton Pinball.
- Full color LCD display
- (5) Skill Shots that let you put the ball where you want it upon launch (crash?)
- On that note, autoplunger!
- Frozen Donkey Wheel that can collect up to all 5 balls.
- 3D printed playfield toys such as the “Jughead” bomb and the lighthouse.
- Under playfield tunnels.
- Fully working hatch you can shoot the ball into.
- A magnet, since the show had lots of electromagnetism, it just made sense.
- Servo-controlled lane changer on upper playfield.
- Ball-barfing “Light Cave”, the only thing I allowed from Season 6.
- Ball stopper on main orbit and “hidden” John Locke Lock. (yeah we went there)
- Kickback on left outlane.
“Lost” runs off the breadboard version of the Ben Heck “Pinball Development Platform” which can run 64 matrixed switches, 64 matrixed lights, RGB cabinet lighting, 24 solenoids / magnets / shakers, 3 servos, 8+ optos or general I/O, (3) channel 16 bit stereo sound, 16 bits of LED backbox lighting elements plus NTSC, VGA or DMD display.
Hope to see you all there!