Every pinball enthusiast dreams of having access to every table ever made, but unless you have Jay Leno's car collection budget, that's an impossible mission—unless virtual reality lends a hand. That said, playing pinball with a gamepad spoils the experience, and that's precisely what the PinSim project aims to fix. What is it? At its core, it's a physical interface for virtual pinball.
The Lost Perspective of Digital Pinball
Restoring a pinball machine demands as much love, time, dedication and money as any other arcade machine, but despite how simple the game itself is (two flippers and a metal ball), it conveys a completely different sensation. Physical interaction with the game is much more direct. Sometimes it's very subtle, other times it leaves us on the edge of the dreaded "tilt". We must also adjust the perspective from which we view the ball, and here we find one of the main complaints that enthusiasts have about digital pinball: that perspective disappears, and everything is flat, crushed, two-dimensional. With the arrival of virtual reality, there's a chance to restore that lost perspective. The ball, the flippers, the bumper systems... everything becomes 3D again. This was demonstrated with the presentation of Pinball FX2 VR at the last GDC in March, a game already available exclusively for Oculus Rift users.
PinSim: A Physical Interface
When Jeremy Williams, a passionate pinball fan like few others, had the chance to try Pinball FX2 VR, the decision was automatic: create a compatible physical interface for the game. The project was named PinSim, and it respects the dimensions found in the vast majority of real pinball machines. According to Williams himself, PinSim is equivalent to "the first 20 centimeters" of any pinball table, with buttons on the sides, a lever to navigate within the game, and the best part: an accelerometer that detects those small extra bumps we give the pinball to steer the ball. Now, if we hit too hard... tilt.
Building Your Own PinSim
Assembling the PinSim is a relatively simple process if you get the parts in advance or improvise properly, but the trickiest part is on the software side. As an Oculus Rift exclusive, Pinball FX2 VR only supports Xbox gamepads, so Williams had to use alternatives like x360ce and MSF-XINPUT so that the Teensy LC controller in the PinSim is recognized as an Xbox gamepad. The official Make page offers all the details needed to build the PinSim for free. In a word: spectacular.
