I’ve wanted to build my own Virtual Pinball cabinet for years, but never had the room or budget for a full size cabinet. I never thought it would be possible and didn’t know how good it could be.

Flash forward to January 2019 when I decided to add some side buttons to my Arcade1up machine to play some Virtual Pinball. It was a simple mod that would allow me to play tables in desktop mode. The idea was that I could just play pinball on my Arcade machine and it would satisfy my Pinball itch. The problem was, it was fun, but wasn’t exactly like playing on a pinball table.

Virtual Pinball has 2 “modes” – a cabinet mode which is your typical landscape mode that displays the table the length of your TV (and could have multiple monitors for the backglass) and a desktop mode which simulates looking down the table with everything appearing on 1 screen.

Desktop Mode Cabinet Mode

The problem with desktop mode is that you have a slanted view of the table which simulates looking down a pinball table, but it’s hard to see the action going on further up in the playfield. With a virtual pinball cabinet in landscape mode, you can see much more towards the top of the playfield. Plus, the natural landscape nature just looks like a real pinball machine.

So I started rationalizing a plan for a cheap build. My goal was something that was

Compact – I don’t have the room for a full sized Pinball cabinet, so this would need to use a smaller playfield and would also be shorter than a real cabinet

– I don’t have the room for a full sized Pinball cabinet, so this would need to use a smaller playfield and would also be shorter than a real cabinet Budget Friendly – with anything, the sky is the limit with bells and whistles that you might want to add. I wanted a simple build that wouldn’t break the bank – a few hundred dollars if possible, nothing more

So after a few weeks of planning, research and time, I built this. It’s my simple, low cost Virtual Pinball machine that plays like a dream and turned out better than I could have hoped for! So I am creating this build log in the hopes that it helps you with ideas to build your own.