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Hacked Hobbit Pinball Machine Joins IoT, Broadcasts Itself Over Twitch (lachniet.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the an-unexpected-journey dept.

Random web surfers could send a text message or even upload an image to be displayed on the back glass of Mark Lachniet's pinball machine, according to Mael517, while the machine itself webcast footage of both its playing field and backglass using Twitch. Interestingly, all the extra functionality was coded directly into the machine, according to Lachniet, who added only the webcam and an ethernet cord. The Hobbit [machine] has a whole bunch of hardware that I don't really understand and can barely fix... However, it has a computer in its guts, and this I can mostly understand.
After identifying the pinball machine's motherboard, CPU, operating system (Ubuntu) and an SQL database, Lachniet was able to backup its software, and then create his own modifications. He envisions more possibilities -- for example, the ability to announce high scores on social media accounts or allow remote servicing of the machine. Lachniet even sees the possibility of a world-wide registry of pinball game scores with each player's location overlaid on Google Maps "so you could view pinball hot spots and where the high scores were coming from," and maybe even networking machines together to allow real-time global competition."

45 comments

  1. what am I missing ? by brasselv · · Score: 1

    Essentially, upon discovering that the pinball was an Ubuntu machine, he connected it to Twitch?

    what am i missing? if it is basically that, it does not appear to warrant too much boasting ...

    --
    "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." (Oscar Wilde)
    1. Re: what am I missing ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seems pretty cool to me.

    2. Re:what am I missing ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You said warrant.

      huhuhuhuh FBI joke here.

      No way. They only bother with warrants when they feel like it.

    3. Re:what am I missing ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be cynical, you're not missing anything,,, except that perhaps the most interesting things about pinball machines are not the CPU, but everything else, which our intrepid hacker has deemed impossible to understand. Historically, those that repaired classic pinball machines were very curious geniuses. This guy may have genus-level intelligence, but his curiosity is somewhat lazy.

    4. Re:what am I missing ? by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      You're missing the uber geek out. he hacked a Hobbit Pinball Machine thus making him a Pinball Wizard

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  2. They can try to burn coils out. But I told them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They can try to burn coils out. But I told them that stuff like this can happen with them going on line with out having timely os updates.

    1. Re:They can try to burn coils out. But I told them by DewDude · · Score: 1

      No...that probably won't happen. Most of the low-level stuff is pretty watertight.

  3. Stern is better! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    At least they don't have a full PC running a full os in it. Just an ARM board.

  4. High score list based on how it's configured? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    High score list based on how it's configured? What about the non software setting configs? Or just glass off cheating.

  5. remotely diagnose? more like remote reports as by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    remotely diagnose? more like remote reports as diagnosing stuff is hands on with pinball as it's the parts them self's that can go bad get out of alignment.

  6. The game is not tied to that 1 MB will work with a by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    The game is not tied to that 1 MB will work with any PC MB that has right ports.

  7. Can we please just get over IOT (N/T) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    N/T

    1. Re:Can we please just get over IOT (N/T) by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I wish we could but no, we cannot. This is merely a start.

      Appliance manufacturers have a problem. You're using your appliances for too long. When do you buy a new fridge? Well, when the old one doesn't keep your beer cold anymore. And the new stove is due when the old one doesn't get your sausages warm anymore.

      And they look in envy over to the TV makers who get to sell you a new one every other year, despite the old one still being quite ok and fine. And they want in on that game. Not to mention all the sweet extra cash from selling your habits. When you shop, what you buy, what you eat, what you throw away, so many juicy info tidbits that could be monetized so incredibly well.

      We'll get to see more of this. Much, much more. Not because the customer wants it. The customer doesn't give half a shit about whether his toaster is on snapchat. But the manufacturer sure is interested in this. Not only for the info.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Can we please just get over IOT (N/T) by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      Now, Now. Wait for the end of life as we know it like the rest of us!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  8. Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates and in to days world it's the thing that I really do not want to be on the network 24/7.

    Just think of the games on site that get hacked to free play mode and that may be one of least damaging things that can be done to them. Others things that can be done are over driving coils hope that your fuses blow before you burn something out.

    1. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most pinballs don't have an OS. This is just Jersey Jack being lazy and cramming a computer and a huge LCD panel into a pinball machine. Same goes for their Wizard of Oz machine, its all video and very little game.

    2. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      Yes the JJP games are a bit big on the video and it's to high up.

      Stern games are running arm Linux on them.

    3. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That must be the modern Sterns only, because all the tables from the 80s/90s were coded in assembler, and burned onto EEPROMs.

    4. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      Other then that pinball 2000 stuff. PS that pinball 2000 emulator stole code from qemu and tried to pass it off as there own with them selling it and more.

    5. Re: Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very little game? That's the dumbest and most incorrect thing you can possibly say about Wizard of Oz. it's got one of the most elaborate playfields ever made. Either you don't know shit about pinball or you haven't played this game.

      Also, Version 6 of the software was released recently, and it is now probably the deepest rule set ever implemented on a pinball machine.

    6. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Now that I didn't know. Funny that Williams thought Pin2000 was their saving grace.

    7. Re: Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "There are inherent problems putting a video monitor staring straight at you in a pinball machine. One of those is if you are playing a pinball machine, you're looking down and you're watching a ball roll around. Why do you want to be looking up and watching something that's happening on a video monitor. What you end up with are two separate games that you are trying to glue together and convince someone that they're playing one game." -- Pat Lawlor, Williams, from "Tilt, the Battle to Save Pinball"

    8. Re: Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      In pinball 2000 it got in the way some what of the play field. With JJP it's more like a big DMD but it's to far up.

    9. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by DewDude · · Score: 1

      WPC machines had an OS, it was called APPLE OS, Advanced Pinball Programming Logic Executive. The UI between WPC machines was pretty standard; most people don't actually see the UI. But it's an embedded OS.

    10. Re:Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Williams WPC games technically ran on an OS.

    11. Re: Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by DewDude · · Score: 1

      Pinball 200's actual goal *was* to make the display "get in the way" of the playfield; it's how they did "holographic targets".

    12. Re: Most pinball games are slow to get OS updates by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      and it was to much up the middle.

  9. FBI REALITY UPDATE --- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right now updates make your systems more vulnerable, not less.

    Windows 10 actually adds new IP addresses to phone home to during updates, in case you blocked them.

    1. Re:FBI REALITY UPDATE --- by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      But when you have stuff like Apache running on a system you want updates and this is linux.

    2. Re:FBI REALITY UPDATE --- by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't update based on what the application is. You update based on does it help or hinder.

      With Windows it hinders. Linux and Apache are open source so you get a fair shot.

      Somehow you think you made a point though.

  10. Pinball games are MADE IN THE USA! by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 0

    Pinball games are MADE IN THE USA!

  11. Slashdot effect comes to a pinball machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Get ready for goatse :/

  12. Meh, too easy. by slimjim8094 · · Score: 1

    Now this is cool: http://spritesmods.com/?art=twitter1943

    Guy hacked a 1987 arcade game by coding up another Z80 "processor" on an ATMega to share bus-mastering duties with the other two already there, in order to periodically mess with the RAM for the purpose of saving/restoring high scores and tweeting. He made a board that just plugs in between the CPU and the board and gives total Ethernet-ready control. It's easily adaptable to other machines, too.

    Rest of the guy's site is neat too, like his hard disk controller hack that lets you root a machine by faking the cache read for /etc/passwd and is triggered by writing to a special file.

    --
    I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
  13. Go Figure by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1
    Hey now - these kind of things happen with the Internet of Things.

    Let's just hope they don't make a hobbit of it.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  14. worldwide arcade video game scores by Gunstick · · Score: 1

    There is a module to put into your own arcade cabinet to share your scores online. Turning any arcade machine into an IoT device. Currently the arcade machines upload scores, but it is not possible to connect to them from the net.

    --
    Atari rules... ermm... ruled.