Initially I thought I’d do a two screen setup. My new monitor for the playfield and an old one for the backglass and DMD (the little LED display showing the score and what-not). But the more research I’ve done I found some people will take an old laptop screen and repurpose it. Looking in the closet I found an old Dell laptop with a 15″ monitor, which is the perfect size.

Ah, but how do you use that as a stand alone monitor you may ask? Well they sell these little LCD controller inverter board monitor kit thingies. After removing the display from the laptop and getting the exact model number, I did a search and found someone on eBay who sells them. Sent them pictures of my display and they directed me to the one I need. It was coming from China, so I didn’t expect it until May, but I received a surprise eBay alert on my phone that it was delivered today!

Sure enough, while walking the dogs I checked the mailbox and there was this tiny little box. Once again, I neglected to get pics of it before hooking it up due to my excitement, but it works! So now I have a cool three monitor setup and it only cost like $25!

New three screen setup, but still on a table supported by a bunch of books.

Next up is getting the various buttons, coin door, and legs for the table. I have all the buttons and door picked out, but unsure what color I want for the legs. I can go classic chrome or get fancy. I’m also waiting a bit since we had some other expenses recently and trying to pace myself with this.

In the meantime, I installed Pinup Popper which is an awesome front-end for several virtual pinball programs and allows me to easily select a table to play using only flipper buttons. I’ve only scratched the surface with it so far with all the custom media you can add for various parts of each table. Also there was an annoying voice that would tell you to wait while the table loads, so I replaced that with a light saber turning on sound effect.

Yeah, I have 200 tables installed so far.

Also trying to go through every table I installed and make sure I have the version I want (some tables have different creators and look/play differently from each other) and then make sure each one actually works and is setup correctly.

I’m also getting tempted into learning how to build my own. Maybe start by modding an existing one and go from there. I have some crazy ideas, just need time, which is usually at a premium. Stupid work…