In 2015 Zen Studios released a Plants vs. Zombies table for Pinball FX2. It never existed as a real machine, and it only plays inside Zen’s own app. This project rebuilds it in Visual Pinball X for private play, following the original table’s rules and look as closely as the evidence allows.
What the evidence is
There’s nothing to copy from. Everything comes from three places:
- a fan-made table guide by ShoryukenToTheChin, which has a true top-down picture of the playfield and the most complete written rules,
- Zen’s own announcement from July 2015,
- a long gameplay video, filmed from a low angle, which is the only way to see where the flippers actually send the ball.
Where they disagree, the build picks one and says which. Where none of them says anything, the build uses a standard pinball value and marks it as assumed, so it can be found and corrected later.
The order of work
A real pinball machine starts life as a whitewood: bare plywood with the ramps, holes and flippers in place and no art or rules. You play it until every shot feels right, and only then do the rules and artwork go on. This build follows the same order, one ball at a time.
- Whitewood. Every one of the fourteen shots is in place, and a test proves each one can be made from its flipper.
- Rules. Sun, seeds, zombies, Money and Crazy Dave’s Shop, the three multiballs, the four BRAINZ Missions and the Dr. Zomboss wizard mode.
- Art and scenery. Playfield and plastics art, on-table scenery, and zombies that walk the playfield.
- Sound and screens. A green dot-matrix display, music and effects, and a leaderboard.
Every finished step gets written up here.
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