Ben and Pinball Extraordinaire John Popadiuk Strike Back in Round Two of Pinball Wars with Custom Zombie Adventureland Build in element14's "The Ben Heck Show"

CHICAGO, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, and modding guru Ben Heck, pull out all the stops in round two of Pinball Wars on this week's episode of "The Ben Heck Show." Special guest and pinball designer John Popadiuk returns to the studio with a 1950's-inspired pinball build, Ben Heck's Zombie Adventureland, starring none other than Ben Heck, himself.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110216/CG49295LOGO)

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111107/CG00783)

"My love for pinball is no secret, and I'm beyond excited to be involved with this build," said Ben. "Not only is it fun for me to use my skills in this challenging field, but it's also an honor to be featured in a game designed and built by the legendary John Popadiuk."

The team begins by stripping down an original Super Mario Bros. pinball machine to create the test play field for the new game. Using a breadboard configuration in the driver system, a design wired by hand using blank PCBs or wire-wrap, the team is able to test individual components such as the Arduino mega-compatible brain and parallax propellers, before assembling them together on the motherboard. In addition, John's standard prototype "Italian Bottom" is composed using foam and paper, in lieu of the usual wood and metal, to make for a much quicker build time.

"Ben's passion for pinball is obvious in this segment," said Kevin Yapp, chief marketing officer, Premier Farnell. "With no more than the simple exchange of ideas, a little DIY finesse and access to element14's wide array of design solutions and electronics components, the team inspires one another to build an amazing machine."

Known for pinball machines such as Bally's Cirqus Voltaire™ and Theatre of Magic™, John teams up with Ben to design the "super secret" playfield geometry, 304 stainless Adventureland mechanisms and amazing thematic elements for the final design—from Ben's weapon of choice, an atomic neon glue gun, to King Arthur, the once-stray, good luck cat that finds his way into all of John's builds. Pinball enthusiasts across the globe are sure to be impressed with Ben Heck's Zombie Adventureland, and even more excited to learn that John will be taking preorders for the full-size custom build that features Ben beginning in January 2012.

Show fans are also invited to join the element14 community to send Ben a challenge for a future build, engage with community members, and enter for a chance to win one of four pinball circuit board prototypes autographed by Ben himself.

About "The Ben Heck Show"

"The Ben Heck Show" is a bi-weekly online television series aired in English that's dedicated to the science and art of system and hardware modding with a global audience of design engineers, students and electronic enthusiasts. Sponsored exclusively by element14, each episode spotlights Ben's mods of popular electronic devices while educating viewers on the underlying technology powering each project.  

About element14

Launched in June 2009, element14 is the first, innovative information portal and eCommunity specifically built for electronic design engineers. The community recently unveiled its element14 knode, a unique automated platform that enables engineers to quickly research, design, develop and prototype in a single, intelligent environment. element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel electronics distribution trading throughout Europe (Farnell), the Americas (Newark) and Asia Pacific (element14). The company had group sales of £990.8m and underlying profits of £93.3m last year.

SOURCE element14

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