Vortex is an idea that emerged after making the Tronkade. I thought it would be awesome to have both an arcade and a pinball machine next to each other as an ode to 90s gaming. Real pinballs are quite expensive though, so I decided to make a Virtual Pinball.

In a Virtual Pinball, the playfield is replaced with a large screen on which you can digitally play recreations of real pinball machines. It's all powered by a beefy PC and lots of extra feedback devices are added to make the experience as realistic as possible.

This has been my most complex project so far, working on it for about 2 years. Not only was the cabinet restored, down to each metal part, it's also filled to the brim with all kinds of electronics.

I'm very proud of this project though, and I was fortunate enough to bring it to Maker Faire Gent, Nerdland Festival, and FACTS, 3 large Belgian events. It even got briefly showcased on TV in "De Tafel van Gert".

I filmed the entire build process and made videos about it. They're available on my Overtinker YouTube channel