The Three Stooges

In February of 2007, I decided to make my own custom pinball machine. I finally finished the game in November of 2007. I started off with a Dolly Parton project game that was in rough shape. I repaired all of the electronics and made the game functional. I then took a sander to the game and took the playfield and cabinet to bare wood.

I made my own stencils for the cabinet "art" (my artistic abilities are quite limited). I then started to work on the playfied. I put a gray basecoat down on the playfield and used tape to cover the inserts. I then used waterslide decals from a local hobby store to print the artwork for the playfield. After the artwork was completed, I sprayed mutiple coats of polyurethane to protect and seal the playfield.

I made my own plastics by tracing the old plastics on Lexan and using a scroll saw to cut them out. I used a belt sander and Dremel tool to form the plastics and smooth the edges. I printed "reversed" images out on waterslide decal paper and applied the decals to the underside of the plastics. I then used white spray paint to give the decals a backing.

The sounds were probably the toughest part of the project. I wanted to have a custom soundboard to play 3 Stooges sound clips, but I couldn't find anything that would work so I decided to make my own sound board. I used an IC called a chipcorder (actually, I used 11 of them) and used some DPDT relays to enable the sounds on switch closures.

I brought the game to the 2007 Midwest Gaming Classic and it won for "Best Game Modification" and check out the Pingame Journal for a more detailed description in an article that I'm writing. Below is a link to a video I shot of the game (sorry about the video quality). Also below are links to additional photos of the project and the finished game.

UPDATE: In May 2009, the Three Stooges Pinball machine found a new permanent home at the only Three Stooges Museum in the world! The Three Stooges Pinball Machine is now home at the Stoogeum, near Philadelphia, PA.