Summary
- Steam Deck used to power a virtual pinball machine with a 16-inch screen
- Pinball FX3 software utilized for game rendering on the larger display
- Detailed instructions and materials list provided for making a DIY virtual pinball enclosure
We’ve seen people get creative with modding their Steam Deck, but this definitely takes the cake. Someone has found a way to wire up the Steam Deck to a larger screen and turned their setup into a full digital pinball machine, complete with a 3D printed shell.
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This amazing project uses a Steam Deck at the head of a virtual pinball machine
On the Steam Deck subreddit, user Ponop1 shared their amazing project with the world. By the looks of the setup, the Steam Deck is used as the pinball’s screen, showing the current high score and the status of any sub-games in progress. There’s a 16-inch screen rotated vertically and laid flat that acts as the table.
For the software, Ponop1 used Pinball FX3 to handle the game itself. I know Pinball FX3 has settings that let you render it on physical pinball machines, so they must have tinkered with that to get everything running.
Pretty incredible, right? Fortunately, Ponop1 caved to the sheer weight of people begging him for instructions on how to make this at home. You can see everything he uploaded over on MakerWorld, which lists the bill of materials as such:
A virtual pinball enclosure for use with steam deck.
parts:
steamdeck
jsaux dock
uperfect 16 inch monitor
haute board mini
arcade buttons and encoder board
Enclosure covered in carbon fiber vinyl sticker to keep it looking clean.
Full Model was created in tinkercad and then cut in bambustudio.
Unfortunately, Ponop1 didn’t upload a video of the table in action, which would have made for a fantastic way to check out this project at its finest. Still, if you think you can do better, be sure to check out all the project notes and see if you can make your own digital pinball table at home.
Would you be surprised if I told you that this is only scratching the surface of what you can do with a Steam Deck? If you’ve never thought about tinkering with your handheld PC, then boy, do we have some news for you. Check out these five mods and upgrades you can make to your Steam Deck for some inspiration.
