Electro-Mechanical (EM) Pinball Machines were once common place all across the world. They were characterized with fairly simple gameplay, chimes or bells for sound, scoring reels to track progress. They were early mechanical computers with relays, contacts, cams and indexes all contributing to gameplay. Still fun but as technology progressed to solid state and computerized sounds, the EM pinball was pushed aside for more modern pinballs with computerized sounds, scoring and rules sets.

I was talking to a friend at a pinball tournament and discussing what we liked about our favorite pinball machines and how far they have come. We were left wondering , what if we could add some “modern” features to those old ems in the corner. Not having an electronics background and terrible soldering skills was not seen as a hindrance as the curiosity was too just great to stop investigating.

I discovered that EM pinballs have great potential to make even more fun. Utilizing todays micro controllers such as Arduino or Raspberry PI provides the hobbyist with incredible computing power, for a very low cost, easily obtainable sensors from electronic suppliers such as Mouser or Amazon, AI programs such as Chatgtp or Grok can give tremendous assistance in programming. The potential for customization of an EM pinball is actually fantastic and easy to accomplish.

The goal of this site is to provide a forum where progress can be shared, question can be posed and answered, technical challenges can be posed, and progressed can be shared.

Please join our community of fellow hobbyist show off your creativity in making your old EM the coolest machine in the arcade.