1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2024–2025score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN recommends it as an in-depth look at mechanical logic, and uses it as an analogy for state machines and biological instruction processing.
Technology Connections takes apart the step-by-step electromechanical logic of a 1970s pinball machine. He shows how relays, steppers and switches track state and score without electronics.
“It goes horribly in-depth (in a good way).” (HN, 2024)
I've been watching his videos on a 1970s pinball machine. It goes horribly in-depth (in a good way). Fascinating how much complexity could be managed with the simplest of interfaces. [link] [this video]
Very in-depth look at a 1970s pinball machine's mechanical logic
After reading the reason why code isn't a good analogy, the mechanical/analog logic of old pinball machines might be a better example of how DNA processes instructions? Ref: [this video]
Mechanical pinball logic as analogy for biological instruction processing
Yup - the first few minutes of one of Technology Connections' videos on electromechanical pinball machines shows this mechanism in action: [this video]
I think it's pretty charming. Games have so much abstraction these days it feels like there's no way to truly understand what it is they're even doing. One can spend months agonizing over the true nature of things and how ideas and concepts relate to each other and eventually distill it all into some object oriented organization that implements not just your game but all possible games. One can also just cycle the game's state machine in a big function, haha switch statement go brrr. Reminds me of the old NES games which would statically allocate memory for game objects, very much in the "structure of arrays" style, they too had game logic just like that. Also reminds me of old electromechanical pinball machines. You can literally see the machine cycle. [link] [this video]
Electromechanical pinball visibly cycles like a game state machine
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