Mini-cab build - 27" playfield monitor

[tjaf]

I am fairly new to the world of virtual pinball. I was lucky enough to own a Twilight zone (and even a Truck Stop before that) at some point in my life, but when kids came along and space in the house became a premium, I sold it and kind of lost track of pinball. A few months ago, I stumbled upon a Youtube video about virtual pinball and I was amazed by what I saw. After watching way too many video on the topic, digging through the amazing Pinscape V2 build guide (awesome resource!), I decided to give it a go. Now, the kids are still around(, and they take up even more space,) so a full-size cabinet build with all the bells and whistles was not going to be possible. I also wasn't ready to completely break the bank 😅 So, I figured a 27" playfield was probably the largest I could get away with without being forced to stash it somewhere where it wouldn't be played a lot. And with some stuff I had lying around I could probably get it build at an acceptable price point. 

 

I first bought a 27" monitor. I figured at that size, 1440p was probably good enough, no need for 4K. I found a reasonably priced gaming monitor (MSI G272QPF) with a 165Hz refresh. And I was going to build the cab around the monitor. I first sketched the cabinet very roughly in Blender. My goal wasn't necessarily to stick 100% to normal pinball dimensions. I just wanted something that looked not completely out of proportion, while making sure I could fit everything inside. This is what I came up with. It was going to be a tight fit 😄

 

 

For the actual build, since I don't have a fancy workshop, and I only own very basic power tools, I was not going to attempt anything special. I just bought a single 18mm think MDF sheet (only 30 eur) and just attached all the panels using metal L-profiles. I know this is likely a very noob woodworking technique (if you can even call it a technique), but it was something I could pull off and I figured the edges would be covered anyway with stickers later. I did make sure all screws were on the inside though, no screws or nails on the outside.

 

 

I sketched where the PC parts would go, drilled a whole for the subwoofer and some 12mm fans. The bottom fan will pull cold air in, the top fan will suck hot air out. 

 

 

I had also drilled the holes for the buttons. In retrospect, I wouldn't do that again at this point in the build. If I would do another build, I would actually build the whole cab, put it on it's legs and figure out where my fingers would naturally want the buttons to be when I am in a normal playing position, especially if you add nudge and magna-save buttons, you want to make sure they are sufficiently close, but at the same time you won't hit them accidentally during play. 

 

On to the PC hardware next. I had to buy most of it new, and figuring out what to buy was not easy. Since I didn't go for 4K, I hoped an RTX4060 (basic version with 8GB) would be sufficient. Fortunately that turned out to be the case. It runs even the latest VPW tables nicely at ~165fps in line with my monitor refresh rate. I paired it with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 with stock cooling and 16GB RAM on a B550-based motherboard. I still had a 500W PSU which was enough for this modest setup. The motherboard was bolted on the MDF. To achieve this, I drilled 3mm holes in the MDF and then hammered female female standoff in the holes. Since the standoffs are hexagonal and hence slightly larger than 3mm, this provides a very solid basis for the motherboard. I mounted a simple wooden cross bracket to provide some support for the GPU. This is not the best solution since it makes access to the ports quite difficult. The PSU is held in place with some scrap MDF. Super simple and it won't go anywhere. I also mounted some wooden beams to the sides which will hold the playfield. Instead of a single beam on each side, I split it in 2. The idea was that I would mount some blocks underneath the playfield that would hook into the wooden rails and keep the playfield in place (avoiding that the playfield could slide further down). While this works perfectly, it is quite tricky to properly align the rails. And if they are not perfectly aligned, the playfield will be wobbly. This was the case with my upper left siderail. Fortunately I could even it out with some duct tape 😂

 

 

Sound was next. I knew I absolutely needed to hear that sweet SSF. I read a lot of people use exciters and a few dedicated amps, but none of that is easy to get where I live (at least not at a reasonable price). I still had a very decent 5.1 surround sound speaker set from Creative lying around that I wasn't using. So I decided to just go with that. In the picture below you can see I actually didn't even bother to dismantle the subwoofer (which has the 5.1 amplifier built-in), instead I simply mounted the complete subwoofer housing with the amp inside the cabinet. To avoid rattling, I Velcro-ed the subwoofer assembly to the cabinet. Works perfectly fine and makes the subwoofer easy to remove. You can also see the buttons mounted. And yes, they are cheap amazon arcade buttons 🫣 Again, where I live this was the easiest to get at a reasonable price and cost. They feel cheap, and that's is of course because they are cheap. They do work fine though.

 

 

Here you can see how I mounted the speakers and the playfield. I wanted the speakers up firing since I hoped that would make the sound a bit more directional. The top speakers are mounted on the playfield, which is the wooden panel standing up on the left. You can also see those blocks I mentioned earlier that keep the playfield from sliding down. The bottom speakers are mounted on a cross beam and slightly deeper in the cabinet (because they would interfere with the flipper buttons otherwise). The playfield monitor is bolted straight onto the playfield though the VESA mounts. If you have any kind of OCD, you might get very nervous seeing my cable management in this picture 🤣

 

 

This is what it looks like with the subwoofer placed in the cabinet and before lowering the playfield in place. I also mounted a crossbeam at the end which will hold the backbox. For the apron, I again used velcro. I imagine this is a very unusual solution. The idea here was to be able to quickly remove the apron without needing to unscrew anything. With the apron removed, I can simply reach under the playfield and lift it up.

 

 

Here is a picture of the final product. The backbox is super simple. Just 4 wooden panels again attached to each other with simple L-profiles. The backbox screen is an old 20inch display which is the prefect size in my opinion for this build. Since I am using a 5.1 system, I had 1 speaker left. So decided to mount that in the middle - which just looks very weird, and in retrospect I probably should have also just mounted it under the playfield. Ah well, live and learn ... The legs are Ikea table legs that I still had lying around. Again I wouldn't recommend this, it works OK, but it is not the most stable platform. I can imagine I will eventually swap these out. Because of the small size, no lockdown bar, no coin door, just simple wooden trim. To cover the ugly exposed MDF edges, I finished them with something called "edge-banding". This is essentially some veneer that you iron on MDF edges giving a much nicer finish.

 

 

I came across the cabinet work Stuzza over at VPForums shared and ordered some vinyl stickers based on his awesome work (Thanks Stuzza). I plan on finishing it with proper black edges all around, so don't focus on the single black edge which feels a bit out of place. 

 

 

And here is the other side. It also give you an impression how I set up my backbox. I have a 2 screen setup, with the backbox screen having a 4:3 format. I configured it such that the B2S backglass display is actually not fullscreen, but only covers the top part leaving an area at the bottom where I put the DMD. The 2 fake speakers are actually just part of the windows background. I feel this works quite well and looks slightly better (IMO) than having the DMD on top of the backglass. And it also avoid any issues with DMDs appearing behind the backglass. When I was running a more standard 2-screen setup (meaning full screen backglass and DMD on top of backglass), no matter what I did in the configuration, from time to time I would always have a few tables where the DMD randomly decided to appear behind the backglass despite following all the correct settings). This solution completely circumvents that. 

 

 

That is where I am right now. I have ordered a playfield glass, but still waiting for it to be delivered. Once the playfield glass is here, I'll also properly finish the siderails.

 

I am very happy with the cab. I am very happy with the size and the build process was extremely fun. I am so grateful for all the talented folks who make awesome content and develop awesome software and share it with us.

 

Edited May 18, 2024 by tjaf

[psych0matt]

Did you ever complete this project? Looks awesome! I’m just starting to get a list together for my first build but now you have me tempted to go with a mini build like this… do you have any pictures with someone playing it for scale comparison? Thanks!

[tjaf]

I did complete it. I added an actual glass, small plunger and actual leaf switches. They all do make a big difference. The table gets a lot of play, I am still happy I went this way and can it have permanently in my living room. I'll add more pictures soon, including someone playing for scale reference

Edited May 14, 2025 by tjaf

[tjaf]

Here are a few more pictures of the finished build. I added a glass which really adds to the overall feeling. It does dampen the sound a bit and also slightly reduced the SSF effect, but not by much. I added true leaf switches for the flipper buttons. And finally I added a cheap amazon plunger. This is a smaller plunger for which I 3D printer my own holder to connect it to a 10cm long linear potmeter which I read out via a cheap Wemos D1 mini I had lying around. It shows up in windows as a joystick and works perfect. 

 

For size reference, I asked my son to model, he is about 1m85 (~6feet). I hope it give an idea about the size?

 

[tjaf]

And here is a very short video of some actual play. Happy to share some actual measurements if you need them.

 

 

[psych0matt]

That helps a lot, thanks!

[rand459]

Would be very interested in bottom cabinets dimensions. Getting ready to start my own mini build. 

[tjaf]

Here are a few dimensions. The width of the cabinet (not shown on the picture) is 42cm and I used 18mm thick MDF. I show the flipper button position as reference, but as mentioned in my build thread, I would recommend to build up the cabinet completely and feel where you fingers end up naturally. I would also not recommend my placement for the nudge and magnasave buttons. There are probably better placements possible.

 

[Brucey]

Nice build!