Originally published as an Advisory Hour Substack post on 2026-10-24. This first-party site copy preserves the text, localizes public supporting media, and connects the record to its project trail.
Original post
TiltLab is a new lab on the site, and it started as a way to test something I’d been noticing in my other projects.
When I’m more methodical about exploring a particular concept, as I’ve been with IslandLab and, more broadly, GameLab, the work starts to compound. Things I figure out in one project become available for the next. Over time, I can take an idea considerably further than I could when I started.
I wanted to try something wholly new, compress that timeline a little, and see if I could reproduce the experience.
So I decided to build a pinball machine in a webpage, from the modeling through to getting the thing working.
The first entry in TiltLab is Chrome Orbit. It’s the first pinball machine I’ve ever had built.
I’ve played pinball in arcades and on an old version of Windows, though I wouldn’t call myself a huge pinball fan. I enjoy it from time to time. This seemed like an interesting excuse to find out more about how a machine goes together.
You’ll recognize some ideas carried over from other work. The display borrows from character experiments in GameLab. There are bloom effects I learned earlier this year, and some of the mechanical details draw on things I’ve been figuring out with different CAD setups.
Chrome Orbit also fits pretty comfortably into the spacefaring adventures I’ve been putting on the site. It has a chrome-and-airbrush cabinet and a cosmic backglass. For a first go at a pinball machine, it’s not bad.
One interesting wrinkle is that I ended up needing both Claude and OpenAI models to build these tables. I couldn’t quite get to a working pinball state using just one or the other. Working with both finally got me there.
I’ve already built some more machines that I’m excited to share. I think I’ll post one a day over the next few days so you can see how this develops from the first table.
I haven’t decided what to do about videos yet. I’m not sure each machine needs its own trailer, or quite how I’d approach that. I might put together a video for TiltLab as a whole later on.
For now, this is Chrome Orbit, and you can play it today.
The controls are documented, and you can also move the camera around the cabinet. If you want to inspect how the machine is put together, take a free look around. There’s quite a bit there to poke at.
Good luck.
Connected work
- Play Chrome Orbit: Launch a ball into the first TiltLab machine.
- About Chrome Orbit: Read about the cabinet, rules, and parts behind the table.