Someone made a Steam Deck-powered pinball machine, and you can too with help from 3D printing
Table of Contents
Valve’s Steam Deck is one of the most popular gaming handhelds on the market, and is certainly the most popular in the PC space. Since it’s essentially a handheld PC, that opens up the opportunity to customize it in many ways. When it comes to crafting something original, 3D printing has become a go-to way for modders.
We’ve seen plenty of 3D-printed Steam Deck accessories since the handheld released – some you may consider mods. One great example is this case for the Deck that costs less than $10. But now, this custom virtual pinball blows many things we’ve seen out of the water.
Steam Deck transformed into a virtual pinball machine
We first spotted this on Reddit; further details about the virtual pinball machine were posted on the 3D printing site Maker World, where you can download the .3mf file, a standard file format for 3D printing. This is for the casing of the creation, which was uploaded by user PrzemyslawGG as their first 3D model on the site.
As seen in the images above, the Steam Deck is hooked up to a larger monitor, with controls at the base of the pinball machine. Although the external monitor is displaying the game itself, the Deck’s display still serves a purpose, relaying instructions to the player in the same way a traditional pinball machine often does. Along with the enclosure, here’s everything you’ll need to recreate this project for yourself:
- Steam Deck
- JSAUX dock
- UPERFECT 16-inch monitor
- Haute Board mini
- Arcade buttons and encoder board
This custom creation has been met with overwhelmingly positive response, with one user saying, “This is easily the coolest mod I've seen on here”. With its arcade-style buttons (albeit in keyboard form), it reminds us of a recent Lenovo Legion Go mod that essentially fuses the handheld with an arcade stick, perfect for fighting games or old school titles.
About the Author