I recently posted a video about the various tilt mechanism an 80s pinball machine has. It got bit of a viral hit compared to what I normally post and it has reached a lot of new audience. From that I'm amused to see a thing I often come across when talking about things that were made 40 to 50 years ago: people questioning the implementation and suggesting "obvious" ways they should've done it.
A popular take on the various mechanical switches to detect rough-handling a pin is that OF COURSE they should've just put an accelerometer in there! I mean those cost a penny, everyone and their grandma has put one on an Arduino and made a thing that plays Star Wars light saber sounds when you wave it in the air.
But the thing is that while accelerometers did actually exist in the 80s, they were more of space technology compared to what was put in amusement games where a one penny leaf switch would do the job. So amazing to think how ubiquitous low cost technology is these days.
#retrotech #retrocomputing