Old pinball machines are amazingly complex
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points people to it as a deep dive showing how complex logic was built without computers.
What it is
Technology Connections takes a long, detailed look at how a 1970s electromechanical pinball machine works, from relays to stepper motors and mechanical logic. It is the first part of a series.
Recommended by 6 HN commenters across 6 different months, 2023 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec bsimpson · 2025-08 · on “VHS-C: When a lazy idea stumbles towards perfection [video]”
YT recently recommended his explanation of how pre-computer pinball machines worked to me - a series of 3, hour-long videos. Gave me something to look forward to on my commute. I shared it with everyone I know, and now I'm sharing it with you: [this video] Fascinating (and insanely impressive) to see how a bunch of switches and stepper motors implement complex logic.
Recommends iancmceachern · 2023-11 · on “Automata: The Extraordinary "Robots" Designed Hundreds of Years Ago [video]”
This video from Technology Connections on old mechanical pinball machines does a great job of explaining how a lot of this stuff can be done mechanically. Re: your for loop question, check out how they handle the scoring and I think it'll give you some ideas. [this video]
Recommends brewdad · 2024-01 · on “Why a toaster from 1949 is still smarter than any sold today (2021)”
I've been watching his videos on a 1970s pinball machine. It goes horribly in-depth (in a good way). Fascinating how much complexity could be managed with the simplest of interfaces. [this video] [LINK]
Recommends chongli · 2024-10 · on “How were 70s versions of games like Pong built without a programmable computer?”
You still use paper. Instead of writing the game in a general purpose programming language you write it using logic gates. You get abstraction and modularity by designing larger components (adders, flip-flops, timers, shift registers) on separate pieces of paper and then including them as named black boxes in a higher-level diagram. The good news for the Pong developers is that most of those larger components were already available off-the-shelf. Common families of these chips, such as the venerable 4000-series and 7400-series logic families, began to appear on the market in the mid-1960's. Edit just to add another bit of nuance . If it still seems like an extremely difficult task without mu
Recommends exhilaration · 2025-01 · on “A man keeping hope, and 70-year-old pinball machines, alive”
Related - Technology Connections has several videos about old pinball machines that showcase how incredibly complex they are, here's the first video: Old pinball machines are amazingly complex [this video]
Recommends roskelld · 2026-02 · on “Fun With Pinball”
I would have loved seeing this as a kid. I was obsessed with wanting to build a pinball machine when I was young. At the time my skills only stretched as far as cardboard builds with elastic band bumpers and pencils for flippers, but I got a huge kick out of making different layouts for the balls to travel around. It would be great to see some home made efforts now with so many amazing off the shelf bits of tech and 3D printers. The site is also a nice compliment to the Technology Connections series on old pinball machines [1]. 1. [this video]
Cites atum47 · 2023-10 · on “Ask HN: Why is there no modern successor to the 3D Pinball games of yesteryear?”
I was watching a video [1] about pinball machines the other day and thought about creating a pinball using my "physics engine" [2]. I was able to create a simple billiards [3] game using it. I've been pretty busy with work and other personal projects, but I've been meaning to get back to program for fun. 1 - [this video] 2 - [LINK] 3 - [LINK]
Cites shizcakes · 2023-11 · on “Now You're Thinking with Relays”
Technology Connections very recently put out a walkthrough of relay-based logic as it applied to a pinball machine: [this video]