“Let’s Go! Take Some Shots!” – Repairing a Johnny Mnemonic Pinball Machine

I have not played the Johnny Mnemonic pinball game but I definitely yearn to (what a awesomely terrible movie, one that I think about perhaps more than I should!) The backside of this flyer which shows outlines of a pair of integrated circuits splayed flat with images superimposed within the package of the IC are also brilliant! And in this blog post Blondihacks explores the ‘physics bubble’ of multiple simultaneous failures within a single pinball game, which is more common than you’d expect:

Pinball machines operate in a special realm where the normal laws of physics don’t apply. In this realm, complex machinery is working perfectly for a long time, and then three unrelated systems all fail simultaneously. The odds of that are astronomical in the normal world, but in pinball world, it’s par for the course. Race cars also occupy this rarified physics bubble, but that’s a story for another time.

Of course, what’s actually happening is that multiple systems are starting to experience occasional glitches, and our human brains write them off in the moment. Eventually these glitches accumulate sufficient frequency that we decide Now There’s a Problem™. In something as complex as a pinball machine, the perceived odds of this happening to multiple things at once is really down to confirmation bias, selective memory, and our powers of apathy towards fixing things.

Johnny has been overdue for some love, and he was starting to pile up a lot of little problems that I’ve been ignoring for a while. First of all, one of the nine positions in the Cyber Matrix toy was occasionally not detecting balls. Meanwhile, I was playing my favorite mode (NAS Cure), and the drop target (which acts as a gate to control access to the glove) started behaving very strangely. It was consistently in the wrong position- it was preventing access to the glove, when using the glove is the whole point of this mode. Furthermore, it was popping up and down somewhat randomly in other modes. It was acting as though the CPU didn’t know what position the target was in. Then, while investigating that problem, the glove started throwing error messages about “No Y Progress”. This is a pretty common glove error- more on that in a minute.

Read more.

Gameplay of this pinball machine can be seen here – complete with J-Bone LED animations.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.