The step-by-step mechanical logic of old pinball machines [video]
youtube.com
youtube.com
I've been a supporter of TC for many years, he has a fantastic backlog of videos on many topics. The series that hooked me (especially since I do a lot of work around broadcast software) was the one about the technology of television.
Give yourself a gift in the new year of watching through his backlog, you will not be disappointed!
He is getting millions of views on those videos, so I think he doing just fine and isn’t concerned with a “broader appeal”.
Honestly how many people are the pinball videos useful to? Almost no one. Who cares. It’s really interesting.
I don’t know what the European/Australian/Chilean/Zimbabwean equivalent of a “popcorn button video” would be but I can almost guarantee I would want to watch it.
My favourite videos are about washing machines, electrical plugs, turning lights and such, where technology intersects with culture. I’m looking forward to his next project, because this one wasn’t for me.
There's several other channels that feature work on the old Electromechanical pinball machines like Goat Shed EM Pinball repair.
> The motivation for representing sequential control logic in a ladder diagram was to allow factory engineers and technicians to develop software without additional training to learn a language such as FORTRAN or other general-purpose computer language.
> Ladder logic can be thought of as a rule-based language rather than a procedural language. A "rung" in the ladder represents a rule. When implemented with relays and other electromechanical devices, the various rules execute simultaneously and immediately.
(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladder_logic)
The combination of both statements entertains me, because while defenders of imperative languages might even admit that they are worse languages, they still cling on to the notion that imperative is easier to teach or understand and that other approaches requires genius level intellect. When it's mostly about what you are familiar with that determines what approach feels easy.
(Different approaches still differ in how well they can express or maintain your program whilst making errors harder to make, of course.)
It was specifically designed for electricians (sparkies), not electrical engineers. And indeed, it’s intuitive with that background. Junior engineers struggle at first, but ladder logic is an elegant language for the problem domain.
About ten years ago we hired a pair of local guys to replace some worn-out bits - nothing major, just bumpers and light bulbs. They were exactly what you would hope for in such a duo: their initial evaluation step was just one guy playing (the guy with long hair), while the other guy (the guy with glasses) watched closely. During this phase they communicated in grunts and monosyllables, a tight code borne of years of shared experience between them.
[update: The Spirit of 76 gameplay is nearly identical to the Aztec shown in the vid]
the scoring motors and relay logic were fascinating, but if you want to see even more interesting electromechanical logic check out the turing bombe and collosus rebuilds at bletchley park. that em logic was credited with shaving years off of wwii and came many decades before.
They're so noisy. I can't imagine the sound of a pinball arcade back in the day when they were all mechanical.
Also, did you know the qbert arcade cabinets contained a the free game wood block traditionally found inside pinball machines.
I did not know that and still am not sure that I understand, after Googling: is this a wooden block that provides audio/haptic feedback for "specials" (usually free games) unlocked in pinball games by achieving certain scores? If so, what was its use in QBert?