How a Pinball Machine works in Slow Motion - The Slow Mo Guys

Uh oh. I've gone and lied to you. All of you. At 7:20 in the video a thing pops up saying 1000fps but it's actually 100fps during that part. I hope this erroneous 0 does not cause a rift between us. Lots of love. - Gav

Just me or was this like the most interesting video of the year?

This video is like candy for any pinball fan. Very well done. Thanks.

This is art. It's so beautifully shot and edited! It is so incredibly relaxing, too... thank you!

0:43 the absolute loudest game in existence. Even when the computer volume was at 10/100 this game was still loud AF

gav deserves an oscar for sound editing I swear

I always wondered how the bumpers worked, so seeing them in slow motion with a full explanation was pretty cool.

"I'm a total novice at pinball" does a perfect slap save 3:05 bro you are better than like 99.9% of people

this was mesmerizing

All this did was make me seriously want a pinball machine. Great.

I found the footage incredibly relaxing. Wish they had hours of this stuff. Would be better than meditating.

I started playing pinball machines in the mid to late 1970's as a young teenager. Back then, they were completely mechanical, including the score board which used rotating wheels to display the digits in your score. The thing the newer electronic machines sadly lack are mechanical flippers. On the old machines, the button was connected to a rod which connected to the flipper. You had complete control over how hard the flipper pushed the ball. If you caught the ball on your right flipper, but wanted to hit a target off of the left flipper, you could give it such a gentle tap that the ball would do a u-turn from the right to the left, then you could slam it up towards the target. That fine control and finesse is completely absent in the more modern machines. The flippers swing at 100% force or not at all.

Makes me wonder. Due to these crazy flipper rubber physics, is a live catch possible on a virtual pinball machine? I’ve never played one (other than space cadet) but maybe someone can let me know? - Gav

We're developing an open source pinball simulator. You can't imagine how valuable this is. Cheers!

This is a type of video that will be in everyone's recommended 7 years later

Does anyone else wanna see beyblade in slow motion cause I’ve always been curious how they contact eachother

He's really getting that mad scientist look going.

"just shoving the camera in different spots and learning how each piece works from the footage alone" is exactly how my doctor briefed me for my colonoscopy.

Being a huge pinball fan, I have to say that was EPIC! This was so interesting!! I think 1 of the more brilliant things about these machines is that even though the score rollers have been replaced with digital screens, they've basically remained unchanged for decades.

I love how simple but complex pinball machines are. This video is always fun to watch and learn about the physical mechanisms of a pinball table.