Wheelchair accessable pinball
Dan Mowczan
Hello,
I was asked by a friend of mine who's been in a chair since 1963 to help him
find a pinball machine and modify it for wheelchair use. He says he loved
to play up until he was disabled, and I'd like to help him any way I can.
I'm picturing a modification with shorter legs, the coin door and
surrounding area removed, a new bottom on the machine at about coin level
(back far enough for just his legs to fit under), and wide bowed out legs in
the front to allow the chair to be pulled up. Figure it will have to be a
game with no features near the bottom, solid state. Of course, then
rewiring the power switch to the front panel (what's left of it) and other
simple mods.
Two questions:
1. Has anyone done this?
2. What era/manufacturer machine will be the most solid once I've removed
this much of the primary structure? Of course, I'll build it back enclosed,
but I'm definitely concerned about losing the structure when the front two
corners are more or less removed.
Thanks for any advice
-Dan
Scott/Michelle Tiesma
The April 2, 1990 edition of Sports Illustrated contained a story
entitled "A New Breed Of Pinballers Goes At It Full Tilt" by Richard
Sassaman. This story was about setting up pinball machines for use by
those in wheelchairs (parapalegics and quadrapalegics). It was rather
short but very good... the general thought was that giving the
wheelchair bound person some sense of control over the physical world
through pinball was very rewarding (emotionally, etc). This article
also contained a picture of a Gottlieb Victory set up for a man in a
wheelchair.
On a personal note: I would like to hear about how this project goes for
you... in fact, if you are interested I would love to detail it in a
future issue of Silverball News and Views (for the world to see) if you
are interested (I definitely think this promotes pinball positively).
FYI: I believe a ROM revision of Twilight Zone was written to support a
person with the use of only one side (or one arm) of his body... perhaps
someone else will chime in on this (or check dejanews).
--
Scott R. Tiesma
tiesma_@_livingonline.com
http://www.livingonline.com/~tiesma/
Note: Remove underscores surrounding the @ symbol to email.
Dave Mackey
Dan Mowczan <da...@ic.net> wrote in article <66nm12$i9m$1...@news.ic.net>...
>
> Hello,
>
> I was asked by a friend of mine who's been in a chair since 1963 to help
him
> find a pinball machine and modify it for wheelchair use. He says he
loved
> to play up until he was disabled, and I'd like to help him any way I can.
At Pinball Expo one year, there was a demonstration of specially modified
pinball machines for the disabled. They explored special flipper
controllers (large touch pads or sip/puff pipes), and showed special
bowed-out legs that can allow a wheelchair to slide under the machine. I
don't have the name of the company that does these adaptive modifications.
And they do them custom, but perhaps at a price.
--
Dave Mackey
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Tim Drake
In article , "Dave says...
>
>Dan Mowczan <da...@ic.net> wrote in article <66nm12$i9m$1...@news.ic.net>...
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I was asked by a friend of mine who's been in a chair since 1963 to help
>him
>> find a pinball machine and modify it for wheelchair use. He says he
>loved
>> to play up until he was disabled, and I'd like to help him any way I can.
>
>At Pinball Expo one year, there was a demonstration of specially modified
>pinball machines for the disabled. They explored special flipper
>controllers (large touch pads or sip/puff pipes), and showed special
>bowed-out legs that can allow a wheelchair to slide under the machine. I
>don't have the name of the company that does these adaptive modifications.
>And they do them custom, but perhaps at a price.
>--
>Dave Mackey
I think it was the same company that was in the article mentioned in
post. -Tim
Orin A. Day
>Hello,
>I was asked by a friend of mine who's been in a chair since 1963 to help him
>find a pinball machine and modify it for wheelchair use. He says he loved
>to play up until he was disabled, and I'd like to help him any way I can.
>I'm picturing a modification with shorter legs, the coin door and
>surrounding area removed, a new bottom on the machine at about coin level
>(back far enough for just his legs to fit under), and wide bowed out legs in
>the front to allow the chair to be pulled up. Figure it will have to be a
>game with no features near the bottom, solid state. Of course, then
>rewiring the power switch to the front panel (what's left of it) and other
>simple mods.
>Two questions:
>1. Has anyone done this?
>2. What era/manufacturer machine will be the most solid once I've removed
>this much of the primary structure? Of course, I'll build it back enclosed,
>but I'm definitely concerned about losing the structure when the front two
>corners are more or less removed.
>Thanks for any advice
Sega has produced several games that are accessible to players in wheelchairs.
Versions of Independence Day and Space Jam were made with special cabinets
and a sip/puff interface to facilitate use for those who cannot use the
buttons to flip. I believe that pictures of these games appeared in
trade publications Vending Times, Playmeter, and Replay. If anybody
is interested in these games, I would recommend calling Sega at
(708) 345-7700 - ask for either Joe Kaminkow (VP of Engineering) or
Jolly Backer (Sales) and I'm sure they will be glad to give you more info.
OD
--
--- Orin Day ------------------------------------------- lob...@tezcat.com ---
For Duke Basketball news via email, write to dukehoop-l...@tezcat.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Squid Boy...Wait a Minute....I hafta convert Display.hex to Prom.hex first!
David Gersic
In <66nm12$i9m$1...@news.ic.net>, "Dan Mowczan" <da...@ic.net> writes:
>
>Hello,
>
>I was asked by a friend of mine who's been in a chair since 1963 to help him
>find a pinball machine and modify it for wheelchair use. He says he loved
>to play up until he was disabled, and I'd like to help him any way I can.
Now this is a cool project. If you do it, please post some pictures; I'd
love to see the end result.
>I'm picturing a modification with shorter legs, the coin door and
>surrounding area removed, a new bottom on the machine at about coin level
>(back far enough for just his legs to fit under), and wide bowed out legs in
>the front to allow the chair to be pulled up.
Maybe you should start with a wide-body game to begin with?
>1. Has anyone done this?
If you find the company that does this, again, please post it. Maybe it'll
help somebody else out in the future.
>2. What era/manufacturer machine will be the most solid once I've removed
>this much of the primary structure?
They'd all be about the same, I'd think.
>Of course, I'll build it back enclosed,
>but I'm definitely concerned about losing the structure when the front two
>corners are more or less removed.
I don't think you'll have any trouble here. By enclosing it again, you'll
get back most of the rigidity and strength, and it's not like your freind
is going to be bouncing the game up and down on the floor or similar.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
|David Gersic dgersic_@_niu.edu |
|Systems Programmer Northern Illinois University |
| |
| Trust in God, but row away from the rocks. - Indian proverb. |
| |
|I'm tired of receiving crap in my mailbox, so the E-mail address has been|
|munged to foil the junkmail bots. Humans will figure it out on their own.|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
David Gersic
In <348F6D1A.58B5@_livingonline.com>, Scott/Michelle Tiesma <tiesma_@_livingonline.com> writes:
>The April 2, 1990 edition of Sports Illustrated contained a story
>entitled "A New Breed Of Pinballers Goes At It Full Tilt" by Richard
>Sassaman.
Anybody have this one around?
>This story was about setting up pinball machines for use by
>those in wheelchairs (parapalegics and quadrapalegics). It was rather
>short but very good... the general thought was that giving the
>wheelchair bound person some sense of control over the physical world
>through pinball was very rewarding (emotionally, etc).
Well, if I'm ever unfortunate enough to be in a chair, at least I'll have
plenty of time to play pinball. ;-)
I don't know about the mental health benefits, but it still sounds like a
good idea to me.
>FYI: I believe a ROM revision of Twilight Zone was written to support a
>person with the use of only one side (or one arm) of his body... perhaps
>someone else will chime in on this (or check dejanews).
I recall a post about that, but I don't think it was TZ, and I don't think
it was done in ROMs. IIRC, it was done by simply wiring the flipper buttons
together.
I could, of course, be wrong.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
|David Gersic dgersic_@_niu.edu |
|Systems Programmer Northern Illinois University |
| |
| L'ETAT, C'EST MOE - All the world's a stooge |
Scott/Michelle Tiesma
David Gersic wrote:
>
> >The April 2, 1990 edition of Sports Illustrated contained a story
> >entitled "A New Breed Of Pinballers Goes At It Full Tilt" by Richard
> >Sassaman.
> Anybody have this one around?
I (the original poster about the article) do. Check out
http://www.livingonline.com/~tiesma/pinball/pinbib/pinbib.html for what
else you might be interested in. If enough people are interested I may
be able to scan in my photocopy and post it to the web for a day or
two...
>>FYI: I believe a ROM revision of Twilight Zone was written to support
>>a person with the use of only one side (or one arm) of his body...
>>perhaps someone else will chime in on this (or check dejanews).
>I recall a post about that, but I don't think it was TZ, and I don't
>think it was done in ROMs. IIRC, it was done by simply wiring the
>flipper buttons together.
I had the impression that if you held a flipper in for x seconds at
while after pressing start it would default to any flipper button
activating all flippers... (again, I'm going from memory). IIRC, Larry
DeMar or Ted Estes did the programming.
I could, of course, be mis-remembering as well.