Created by: Scott Rzepka
Classic Space Spin was my first arcade game that that wasn’t a coin pusher. I wanted to make another arcade game that I didn’t already see on the internet. This game is inspired by the real arcade game Tower of Tickets. Just like my previous machines, this one was made specifically for Brickworld. At Brickworld 2019 the game was called Benny’s Candy Candy Candy. This is because I was giving away small pieces of candy away in the game as prizes instead of Lego. Unlike my previous coin pusher games which required players to give something up to play, this game was completely free to play.
The game is very easy to play. The player needs to gently push down the red button on the right side of the machine to lift a lever which activates the swinging arm. The goal is for the swinging arm to knock a prize off of a disk that is spinning counter clockwise. Once the prize is knocked off, it will travel on a horizontal conveyor belt through a tunnel to the prize drop area where Benny is watching on through the window with glee.
The space base that makes up the entire back wall in the interior of the game is actually a very slow moving conveyor ramp that periodically drops prizes onto the spinning disk. I created this mechanism so that I could regulate the number of prizes that I would give away. The prizes are loaded into the machine through a trap door on the top without having to open up the game. The mechanism for the ramp is just a very geared down M-motor. This provides all of the torque I could ever need but also slows the speed of the ramp down considerably. Unfortunately, the ramp constantly ran and it wasn’t as slow as I had hoped so prizes would be depleted in about 30 minutes. If no one was playing then the entire spinning disk could become filled with prizes. This became an issue at Brickworld 2019 since I was not able to be by my display the entire time during public hours.
In addition, children are the best at finding flaws in your machine and they quickly discovered a flaw in the mechanism that activated the swinging arm. I mentioned above that the player needs to gently push down the red button to activate the swinging arm. The public at Brickworld were not very gentle. Pushing down on the button just lifts a long 1×40 brick-built lever and when the public pushed down very hard, the plates that held the 1×40 beam together eventually came apart. During the show I was able to fasten technic beams to add strength but getting into the area to make the repair was very difficult.
Another flaw that was discovered was actually a feature of how the game operates. One XL motor drives a differential gear which has two outputs to drive either the swinging arm or the horizontal conveyor belt at the front of the game. The gear train for the swinging arm is locked by the lever that is lifted by the player when they push down on the red button at the front of the game. The horizontal conveyor belt at the front will run until the player pushes down on the button at the front of the game to lift the lever up and release the gears that were previously stopped by the lever. The differential will drive power to the output with the least resistance so the horizontal conveyor belt stops and the swinging arm is able to complete one revolution before the lever stops the gears and the horizontal conveyor belt gears start again. This turns out to be an issue when kids start playing and always keep lever lifted. The swinging arm constantly runs and the horizontal conveyor belt is never able to run. As a result, the prize area clogs up and the spinning disk gets stuck.
For the exterior design, I borrowed the mosaic idea from Brick Booty. This time I had mosaics of the classic space logo on either side of the machine. I do regret not doing anything with the front of the machine. Just having it be plain black is something that I would love to change.
Overall, I really enjoyed building this game and I do still enjoy playing it. I have created a few “10 minutes challenge” videos on the Brick Arcade YouTube channel to see if I am able to win 25 minifigs in less than 10 minutes.