It’s a standard width pinball “machine” that uses a Nintendo Switch powered by Pinball FX3 (the initial download and Sorcerers Lair table are free).

Sporting a removable 32" 1080p IPS panel based TV and foldable table legs means I can even pack it up and put it in my trunk by just removing the TV from the mount:

Overall putting it together took me about 15–20 hours across one local Hackathon (thanks RokkinCat!) and two nights. I wanted to put together a little bit of a write-up on how I did it in case anyone else is interested 🎉

The Parts & Materials

Total: $108 + TV + Switch + Tools

Phase 1: The “Controller”

I got the inspiration for this project from Stemage on YouTube who put together a video on how he made a Pinball controller for the Switch by tearing apart a cheap wired controller and then soldering an arcade button kit to it:

I recommend watching his video to get a feel for how it’s put together so you can solder your own. Here’s a link to his button layout and spreadsheet, I modified mine slightly, a lot is preference.

The front of the Switch Controller

The back of the Switch Controller

Here are some tips I found useful:

The only black wire is connected to the back of the right trigger.

When you’re daisy-chaining the rest of the black wires, strip the end of the black wires, then solder them directly to the metal connector of the previous black wire. You can also use wire taps, but I didn’t have any luck there (mine were the wrong size).

When you’re soldering the left and right triggers, don’t remove the “buttons” from the top of the controller, just solder the wires to the back “posts” (use the top posts, not the bottom ones)

Have lots of patience if you have never soldered, watch some soldering tutorials, take deep breaths.

Once I got all the wires set up, I also put it in a cardboard box just to make playing with it easier. I rewired some of the buttons to get the right combination and positions I liked a well.

Phase 2: The “Machine”

Next up, time to start building the table!

I used a 1/2 inch thick 4x8 sheet of Sandle Plywood from Home Depot for the wooden box portion of the setup. They made some of the cuts for me there (enough that I could fit it in my car at least), but due to a size limit, I had to make some cuts at home. Here’s the pieces you’ll need:

22" x 7" piece for the front of the box

Two 34" x 6" pieces for the sides of the box

Two 34" x 22" pieces for the top and bottom of the box

Here’s the cuts I made in the board to accomplish this (Home Depot made the purple X cuts for me):