Zerdly Pinball

An original circuitry table, tilted 6.5° so the ball crosses it in 1.39 seconds instead of 0.47. Three SYNC lanes, three NODE bumpers, a CPU drop-target bank, a CACHE saucer that starts 3 missions, and two orbits. 3 ways to play it.

Warming the coils…

The whole game is one wedge of wood

A pinball table is inclined about 6.5 degrees, so the ball is pulled down the playfield rather than toward the floor. The acceleration that matters is g × sin(6.5°) = 1.11 m/s², an eleventh of real gravity.

That is the difference between a sport and a coin slot. Dropped from the top of this 20.25 by 42.00 inch playfield, the ball reaches the flippers in 1.39 s. Flat, it would take 0.47 s — less than a reaction time. Every other number on this table follows from having about a second and a half to decide.

The ball is a real one too: 27.0 mm across and 80 grams, which is heavy for its size and why it hits so hard. The cloth takes 0.22 m/s² back off it as it rolls.

The drain is a hole the table is built around

There is 36.4 mm of clear daylight between the resting flipper tips and the ball is 27.0 mm across. It fits, with 9.4 mm to spare, and a table it could not fit through would be a pachinko machine with a timer.

Everything else on the lower table is about what happens on the way there. The slingshots fire the ball across the table at the opposite outlane rather than away from the point of contact, which is why a ball that drops into them is so often lost. The orbit channels lean inward over their length so a ball still carrying speed passes inside the outlane post and is handed to an inlane — and a ball that has lost the wall goes outside it and is gone.

What is on the table

SYNC lanes — three rollovers under the roof. A bank pays 12,000 and adds a multiplier, to 5x.
NODE bumpers — three in a triangle, 500 a hit. Three is the number that makes a ball rattle: with two it bounces out, with four the middle is dead space.
CPU bank — 3 drop targets. All three down pays 20,000 and lights the CACHE.
CACHE saucer — the only fixture that stops play, because a mission needs a moment of quiet to start in.
Orbits — a channel down each side, 2,500 a loop.

Local play

Everything runs in this browser. There is no sign-in, no leaderboard and no account: your settings, your bests and which Daily tables you have played are kept in local storage under this route’s own keys, and clearing this game’s data leaves every other Zerdly tool alone.

Questions

Why is the ball slow enough to hit?: Because the table is tilted 6.5°, and that is the one number this whole route rests on. The ball is pulled down the playfield at g × sin(6.5°) = 1.11 m/s² — about a 8.8th of real gravity. A ball dropped from the top reaches the flippers in 1.39 seconds; on a flat table it would take 0.47 and no human reaction could touch it. Pinball is a game because of a wedge of wood under the back of the cabinet.
How wide is the drain?: 36.4 mm of clear daylight between the resting flipper tips, against a 27.0 mm ball. The drain is not a failure of the table; it is a hole the table is built around, and every other decision — where the slingshots throw, how steep the return guides are, how far the bumpers sit from the middle — is about what happens on the way to it. The shooter lane is 36.4 mm for the same reason: one ball plus a little is the unit this table is drawn in.
What does the plunger actually control?: A real trade, and it is measured rather than asserted. The shooter lane turns the ball through ninety degrees at the top and lets it go travelling left under a nearly flat roof, where it falls away from the ceiling as a projectile. The softest plunge sinks quickly enough to cross the two near SYNC lanes and stops there, for 2,000. A full one is still high when it passes them, crosses the far lane alone, and carries on into the left orbit — for 4,500. Fewer lanes, more points. It is the only shot on the table aimed with force alone.
Why is the roof flat rather than a dome?: Because a dome is a centrifuge. A ball on the inside of an arc keeps contact while v²/r beats the tilt pulling it away, which on a 257 mm radius means 0.53 m/s at the apex — and the plunger cannot deliver less than that AND still reach the top. Every ball at every setting rode the arc round to the far side and fell down the outside of the table having touched nothing. A real cabinet is nearly flat with rounded corners, and that is exactly why.
What are the SYNC lanes for?: Three rollovers under the roof, and they are the table's metronome. Light all three and the bank pays 12,000 and adds a multiplier, up to 5x. No single plunge crosses all three — that is the point of the dial — so a bank takes two launches of different strengths, or a launch and an orbit.
How do the missions start?: Knock the three CPU drop targets down and the CACHE saucer lights. Roll into a lit CACHE and it swallows the ball, starts a mission, and hands it back. There are 3: Packet Relay (send a packet round both orbits), Cache Flush (knock the cpu bank down again), Overclock (twelve node hits before the clock runs out). They come in rotation rather than at random, so a player who has just finished one can plan the ball they are about to get.
Is there multiball?: No, and the page says so rather than implying it. One ball, three missions and a multiplier ladder is what this table has; a second ball would double the physics cost of every step on a route that already runs at 240 Hz, and a feature that only worked on a fast machine is a feature that does not work.
Why does the simulation run at 240 steps a second?: Because a flipper sweeps about sixty degrees in twenty-two milliseconds, so its tip moves at roughly 3 m/s and meets a ball arriving at 6.5 with a closing speed near nine. At the speed cap the ball covers 27.1 mm in a step and is 27.0 mm across, which is already marginal against a thin wall — so every contact on this table is swept through the step rather than tested at the end of it. At 60 Hz the flipper would move sixty millimetres at a time and the two would pass straight through each other.
Do the three modes actually differ?: Yes. Classic 3-Ball, 5-Minute Score Attack, Daily Ruleset. Score Attack is five minutes with unlimited balls, and its clock stops while the ball is in the shooter lane — so a slow plunge costs you position and nothing else. The Daily is the same three balls for everybody, seeded by the UTC date, with one class of fixture paying double and the mission rotation starting somewhere new. The seed moves the SCORING and never the table, because a layout that changed daily would throw away the only reason pinball is worth replaying.
Can I play without a keyboard?: Yes. A tap on the left half of the table works the left flipper and the right half the right, which is how every pinball machine ever built works and the only scheme a phone has room for. Pull down anywhere on the table to load the plunger. There are also two named flipper buttons and a plunger slider under the table, and on a keyboard Z and slash — or the arrow keys — work the flippers with space to launch. Both flippers answer at once, which is most of what a pinball player does.
What is stored about me?: Nothing that leaves this browser. Your settings, your best score for each mode and which Daily tables you have played are kept in local storage under this route's own keys, and clearing this game's data leaves every other Zerdly tool alone. There is no sign-in and no leaderboard, because there is no server to hold one.
Does reduced motion change the game?: No. It turns off the decorative flashes and leaves the table exactly as it is: the same fixed 240 logical steps a second, the same rules, the same 8-second ball save. Effects are reduced before timing ever is.

Related interactives

Zerdly Darts — Where the best place to aim moves with how steady your hand is.
Zerdly Bowling — A straight ball cannot strike: the ball is wider than the gap.
Zerdly Air Hockey — The other table where a mallet guards a line rather than a goal.
Zerdly Table Tennis — Spin buys margin and costs pace, measured at forty to one.