I stumbled across a new home made machine today; Alchemy. Made by a guy named TheRedOpusBXL.
This machine is definatly in a league of it’s own in the DIY world. It looks like it’s really well done. I couldn’t find any details aside from the videos.
Earlier in the week I ordered a few parts that I needed for the switch matrix of the machine. To give you a little sneak peak of what’s to come, I’ll let you know that it involves 10 CD4021BE chips and a lot of buttons. I just recieved them Saturday afternoon so it’s a bit early to say for sure how awesome they are (I’m pretty sure they will be super awesome). I’m hoping to connect at least 16 buttons/switches using 2 CD4021BE chips and 3 pins on the propeller chip.
I’ve also decided that I want to get a real machine. Not to salvage, but to get dimensions and an idea of how things are positioned on the playfield. I want to get a better understanding on how the flipper system and the ball kickers work. If you have or know where I can get a cheap machine, please let me know.
As far as the machine design I’ve made a few changes and ‘maybe’ changes. The biggest change is that I’m tossing around the idea about nixing the 7″ LCD on the head. I’m not sure of what it can add to the head that a nice back glass can’t. We’ll see what I can work out. I figured the design part was going to be the most difficult task. So far I’m proving myself right 
I haven’t forgotten about open sourcing pinball. I picked out the wiki software and got it all setup. I’m struggling getting through the documention on how to customize it now. I swear there has to be a million sperate options to customize. On top of that I’m working on getting information in the system before it goes public. If you’d like to help contribute to the wiki before it goes public send me an email (me@jeremymelton.com) or leave a comment and let me know that you’re interested. I’ll give you access and help you get started.
So there you have it, quite a few things going on this past week, and a lot more to come. As long as everything goes to plan, I should have schematics and code up for the switch matrix and a few more sketches up this week. If I get lucky I’ll have another update on the open source community project.
Ok, so like usual, after I think I’ve seen it all I usually find something that contradicts my thoughts. Apparently people are calling their own pinball machines, Homemade pinball machines. Not homebrew or DIY like I was searching for. So I found a couple other, not so popular, machines listed below.
The “Lost” Machines:
Astro Boy – Very well done conversion.
GH2006 - Custom built machine using a similar approach to what I want to do. Few documents here and there that could be useful.
Solar Ride – From the same guy(s) that did GH2006. More of a proof of concept machine. Has a bit more detailed information.
Futurerama – Conversion…All the links to this machine are dead.
Capitol Pinball - Still working on it. Working on the playfield now.
Mars Attacks - Well done conversion from a William’s ‘Password’ machine.
Oragami Pinball – It’s not EM or SS. But damn it’s freaking cool!
Cosmic Colony - Well done conversion hooked up to a PC.
Gothic – Hasn’t been updated in a long time. A few details on how it was done.
Alchemy – Only information is in youtube videos.
Popular Machines:
Creepy Crypt
Coconut Island
If you know of any other machines I’ve missed, please let me know!
Edit:
Scott over at XTCPinball has a list of some machines that I didn’t list here. Check it out!
Feb. 04 – Added Alchemy
Feb. 15 – Added Astro Boy
.