Gerard Heijmen has designed a little pinball controller box, the PinbBallBox, for use when playing pinball simulations, especially Visual Pinball tables.

The PinBallBox

The PinBallBox in use

The box consists of two flipper keys, a plunger key and a set of buttons on top of the box. According to Gerard, if you take the box into your hands with your index fingers on the flipper keys, your thumbs are practically resting on the left/right/up nudge keys. The other keys are VP specific i.e. 5-Add credit, 1-Player, S-Start, A-Add ball and Esc-Down-Enter to exit VP and selection for a frontend.

If you buy (they are for sale on Gerard's PinBallBox page) one of the (totally 30 handmade) boxes you get a cd that eases setup of Visual Pinball tables and contains directions to places on the internet where you can download tables and roms.

This box was used at the World Championships PC-Pinball 2003.

Visit Gerard's PinBallBox page for more information.