Below are is the list of materials I used and the associated cost I paid.  Use this as a guide for materials and components you might need:

• Computer with Video Card (re-purposed)
  • AMD Phenom II CPU
  • 4GB ram
  • ATI R7 250 video card
  • 128GB SSD storage
• 32” Sharp TV from Best Buy ($99)
• 19” Dell Monitor from GoodWill ($15)
• 1/2″ 4ft x 2ft birch ply for sides – $16
• 1/2″ 4ft x 2ft crap ply wood for bottom – $7.00
• 6 2” x 2” long boards – $ 1.00 each
• Wood Screws

• table legs + mount pieces – $50
• Metallic blue Spray Paint – $7.00

• zero delay USB controller and buttons

• launch button from eBay – $10

• insert coin button from eBay – $10

• Logitech 313 speaker with sub woofer (refurb from micro center) – $25

The Displays

In order to keep the cabinet small and affordable, I decided on using a 32″ TV size for the Playfield. I chose the Sharp 32″ LC-32Q3170U TV since it was on sale, had a nice picture quality and was $99 at the time. This is something to consider when selecting a TV – look down the side of the TV as if it were your playfield to see what the viewing angle is like.  If it looks washed or is hard to see towards the sides, it’s not going to be a good display for a VP setup.  You want to be able to see down the playfield since that’s is what your focus will be on.

For the Backglass, I found a used, 19″ Dell Monitor from my local Goodwill store.  It has a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of a 16:9 which I wanted since I was not using a 3rd screen or a real DMD for this cab.  There are builds that use a separate DMD screen or even a real DMD which use a 16:9 aspect ratio screen for the top portion.  I chose a 4:3 because I was only going to use 1 monitor for the backglass so would have the DMD on the same screen.  The nice thing is that the B2S Backscreen setup (more on that on the software page) has options to account for both.  In my case, it would add a speaker grill with the DMD in between.

Terminology wise, the playfield is the main game portion of the Pinball machine where the ball rolls and most of the action occurs.

The backglass is typically a smaller screen that sits facing the player and had details about the score. Then there is the Dot Matrix Display (DMD) which is the smaller display that sits on the backglass and shows score as well as animations and information about the game as you play it.

For more details on Pinball Terminology, check this page out.

The Cabinet

For the cabinet, I opted for 0.5″ Birch Plywood for the sides of the cabinet.  It has a smooth surface, is fairly light weight and is sturdy enough for the size build I was going for.  Typical builds would be 0.75″ for larger cabs, but since TV’s are so light, there wasn’t a need for anything overly robust.  The Dell 19″ monitor actually weighs nearly twice as much as the TV.

I used a similar sized piece for the bottom portion of the cabinet, but opted for a cheaper, more rough piece of plywood since it would not be seen unless you looked under or inside the cabinet.

For the box supports and the TV rails I used the long 2×2 boards that I screwed down into the base and side panels.  I also used these pieces for the rails that hold the TV in place.

The Legs

Getting straight to the point, real legs for a pinball machine can be pricey.  Depending on quality (new vs used), you could be spending 100+ dollars on legs.  I would have opted to use real legs, but given my VP machine was going to be shorter, I chose to add my own – which I’m not 100% convinced was the right choice.

I ended up using table legs from my local hardware store. I thought I could get by with this being a cheaper alternative, but after a lot of trying, measuring and retrying of different legs, I ended up having to get these below.

They are 28″ legs which I ended up having to cut down about 6 inches in order to meet the dimensions I wanted.  I probably should have taken more time to look into alternatives, but for the sake of sharing, table legs can be used as a simple way to add legs to the cabinet.

Extras

There are so many things you can add to your cabinet depending on how much you are willing to invest.  I chose, again, to keep is simple and only use a few buttons for the flippers, start and exit buttons.  I did opt to use a lighted Launch and Coin button for mine.  Some other options to consider are

• coin doors

• digital plungers

• lit buttons
• solenoids and adapter boards to simulate flipper and pin hit feedback
• shakers
• LED’s