Today, we're taking a direct look at one of the problems of spacing/fitment that will need to be tackled in the efforts to build a physical Space Cadet machine.
A common component of pinball machines are pop bumpers. Sometimes called "jet bumpers" or "thumper bumpers", these introduce randomness by pushing the ball around with a metal ring, activated by a circular piece of plastic called a "skirt".
Space Cadet's design is generous with the number of pop bumpers used, with a whopping 7! Four are used on the main playfield, with three located on an elevated playfield on the left side of the game. These pop bumpers also appear to be smaller than the ones on the main playfield, which (FORESHADOWING!) may cause some issues.
A common component of pinball machines are pop bumpers. Sometimes called "jet bumpers" or "thumper bumpers", these introduce randomness by pushing the ball around with a metal ring, activated by a circular piece of plastic called a "skirt".
Space Cadet's design is generous with the number of pop bumpers used, with a whopping 7! Four are used on the main playfield, with three located on an elevated playfield on the left side of the game. These pop bumpers also appear to be smaller than the ones on the main playfield, which (FORESHADOWING!) may cause some issues.
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| Pop bumpers on elevated playfield. |
For initial checks of fit/placement, I am using LibreCAD, a free, strictly 2D CAD software that has proven to be quite a good fit. Checking fit at this point is a matter of placing everything the ball can interact with, be it posts, plastic guides, metal rails, or switches; and making sure there is enough clearance (often the width of a pinball, sometimes more, sometimes less). This is where we run into problems.
As mentioned earlier, the pop bumpers on the elevated playfield appear smaller than the ones on the main playfield. This is... well... because they are, and their positioning corroborates this. An unmodified pop bumper skirt is a bit over 2 inches across, and a pinball is just over 1 inch across. If one were to use a standard pop bumper skirt, not only would there not be any space for the ball to roll by, but the skirts would interfere with each other. Needless to say, this will need to change.
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| Pop bumper placement test. Purple circles indicate original placement. White circles show a potential modified layout. Skirt overlap marked in red. |
To keep the same feel as the original arrangement, I drew a line through the center of each pair of skirts, forming a triangle. This triangle was then extended to allow for better spacing of the skirts, with some extra nudging between the right and bottom pop bumpers.
This is the first of what will likely be a series of adjustments to make everything work like it should. Once the 2D layout is all figured out, the 3D CAD will begin, and almost certainly require adjustments at that phase. Until then, progress moves forward.
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