Doors, Magnets, and Happy Accidents: Ernie Silverberg's Monsters Inc.

Sometimes the best lessons in pinball come from a single sentence. For Ernie Silverberg, that sentence was: "Ground, guys. Electricity wants to flow."

It came from another builder in the community. Ernie took it home, spent two weeks troubleshooting, and got his Taxi working. That's how pinball knowledge spreads. One connection at a time.

Fast forward to Pinball Expo 2025, and Ernie's standing next to his fifth homebrew build: Monsters Inc. — a fully original FAST Pinball layout that stopped pinball legend Roger Sharpe mid-interview.

Disney Magic Meets Design Philosophy

"I wanted to do a Disney-inspired theme," Ernie explains. "Me and my family go to Disney probably four or five times a year. Season pass holders."

Monsters Inc. made perfect sense. Doors. The scare floor. The factory. Every shot maps to a moment from the film. But this isn't just a pinball machine — it's a piece of art celebrating what his family loves. Something he can keep in his house forever.

"This is 100% my best layout that I've done," Ernie says without hesitation. "It's a very, very fun layout to shoot."

Watching people play it proves him right. The flow works. The angles feel good. And then there's the showstopper: the magnetic door ramp. The ball travels down the ramp suspended in mid-air, held by magnets, mimicking the door rail system from the movie. It's the kind of creative engineering that makes homebrew builders stop and stare.

Building Around One Piece

Ernie's process starts simple: lower playfield with slings and flippers. Layout in Adobe Illustrator. No 3D modeling yet (though he's learning). Just flat design, physical parts, and iteration.

"I started with that little center orbit where Mike is sitting on top," Ernie says. "The game kind of got built around that."

Every game he's built starts with one anchor piece. For Monsters Inc., it was Mike Wazowski perched above the playfield. Everything else evolved from there.

But not every shot is planned. "Some are intentional, and some are just me moving something a little bit and — happy little accident. It ends up being awesome."

Design for Forgiveness

Ernie's philosophy: "I'm not a very good player. So I like a shot where if you miss it, it leads to another shot. It's not like you bounce off a wall and you're done."

Smart design. Keep the player in the game. Reward near-misses with new opportunities.

Roger Sharpe noticed. Mid-game, he paused to analyze the geometry: "One of the issues with a lot of games today is you lose sight of the ball. But the bigger issue is the exit — where's it coming out to? This has some interesting angles."

High praise from a legend.

Magnetic Ingenuity - the door-conveyer shot is born...

"Before I even knew “pinball magic” was a thing, I picked Monsters Inc. as a theme and immediately knew I needed some kind of door-conveyor shot. While sketching concepts, the idea hit me: what if the ball actually traveled underneath a wireform, just like the doors hanging from the track in the movie?
I grabbed some wireform and started experimenting with passive magnets after a friend gave me some initial ideas to make it work. My first attempt was mounting the magnets on top — and it just didn’t grip the ball well enough. Then I tried putting the magnets underneath the wireform and bingo — it worked perfectly.
The magnets are fused directly into the wireform, and the ball rides the entire length (about 14") using nothing but gravity and that magnetic grab!
Funny part? Kyle Reed was cooking up something similar on Harry Potter at the exact same time. We were hanging out, compared notes, and realized we had unintentionally created a “magnet wireform rivalry.” Totally friendly banter, but still hilarious how parallel the ideas were.
For me, having a shot that feels like a moment is everything in a machine — and this one nails it. It’s unique, it’s cinematic, and it delivers that “oh damn” interaction that sticks with people.
Ernie Silverberg

Artwork, Iteration, and Fiverr

Once the shots feel right, Ernie hands off the artwork. He's used the same Fiverr artist for his last three games. "He's kind of learned how to do art for a pinball machine."

Every shot corresponds to something from the movie — the kid's bed, the scare floor, the door vault. The playfield tells the story.

A direct-print playfield is coming soon with tweaks. Ernie moved a couple of targets back to open up some shots. Always iterating. Always improving.

This is Ernie's fifth build: League of Legends, Beavis and Butthead (Roger told him the toilet paper had to go — Ernie kept it anyway), Vox Machina, Adventure Time, and now Monsters Inc.

"My wife likes to tell me I have ADHD," Ernie laughs. "I get hyper-focused. When I want it to work, I just go until it feels right."

The Heart of Homebrew

When Roger asked about licensing, Ernie smiled: "Money talks. You never know."

Roger's response? "The more important question is: what's the bill of materials? How affordable is this to build and scale?"

Passion meets practicality. Art meets manufacturing. Ernie's building for love right now — but who knows what's next.

Before we wrapped, Ernie thanked Roger for playing. "We love it when you guys come out and play. It means a lot to the people who create these games."

Roger's reply: "I take my hat off to you and everybody else who takes the time, effort, financial and otherwise to actually build stuff like this."

That's the heart of homebrew. Builders learning from each other. Legends stopping to test shots and share feedback. Community knowledge flowing from one person to the next.

Ernie learned about grounding from a passing comment. He built five games. And now he's teaching others just by showing up.

That's how we keep the silverball spinning.

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