The agreed shot list, the owner's hardware answers and the owner's walkthrough of the playfield
parts and their roles, from the story planning of 2026-10-05 (rounds 3-5). They were kept in
plans/story-and-shots.md until that plan was retired on 2026-10-08 (CHANGES #71); the plan's
story drafts and decision rounds are superseded by STORY.md and stay in git history.
What every shot does in the built game, mode by mode, with its scoring: shot-map.md
(generated from the configs).
Later decisions win over the dated text here: STORY.md for the story and the parts'
roles, rule-sheets.md for what each shot does per chapter, and the registry
(tools/hw_console/data/components.yaml) for where each part is and how it's wired. For example,
the walkthrough's era order (old Aperture first) was corrected the same day: period 1 is modern
Aperture with GLaDOS, period 2 old Aperture.
Major shots, left to right:
| # | Shot name | Made by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Left Orbit | s-orbit-l -> spinner -> s-orbit-r (Up1 can stop it into the top lanes) |
Plain pinball name; story flavour text: momentum - "speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out". |
| 2 | Aperture Science Emergency Intelligence Incinerator | s-insinerator (VUK lock) |
Multiball lock 2. Full in-game name. |
| 3 | Excursion Funnel | s-ramp-l1 + s-ramp-l2 |
Left ramp; diverter 2 (destination open). |
| 4 | Aerial Faith Plate | room -> s-aerial (VUK launch) -> s-pedestal -> hole -> primes the Blue Portal |
Fed by the Mid-Flipper, or a bounce off the wall left of the exit. |
| 5 | Turret Gauntlet | Drp2 targets down -> s-exit-success (VUK lock) |
Multiball lock 3; the exit hole behind the turret drop bank. |
| 6 | Orange Portal | Portal A VUK switch (front shot, or pre-loaded through Up3) | Releases the Blue Portal's ball when that's loaded (swap rule). |
| 7 | Hard Light Bridge | s-ramp-r1 + s-ramp-r2 (top room) -> light bridge; Div1 -> VUK6 -> ball dropper |
Right ramp; multiball lock 1 when the dropper's active and empty. |
| 8 | Propulsion Run | s-orbit-r -> s-orbit-l |
Right orbit; Propulsion Gel = orange = speed (the orange side). |
| - | Blue Portal | Portal B VUK switch | Gets its own VUK, a new hole and up-kicker (owner, 2026-10-19; needs a playfield change), no longer the Mid-Flipper's shot. Releases the Orange Portal's ball when that's loaded. |
The Mid-Flipper aims at the Aerial Faith Plate room (the Blue Portal gets its own VUK, owner 2026-10-19).
Minor targets
Derived shots (kept)
Open: arrow inserts per major shot (led-portal-r/-m could become the Orange/Blue Portal
arrows).
| # | Question | Answer |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | s-pedestal vs s-aerial |
Separate: s-pedestal = the pedestal-button target on the Faith Plate platform; s-aerial = the ball switch in the Faith Plate launcher VUK. |
| H2 | The pull-down post between the pop bumpers | Up3. |
| H3 | s-portal-r / s-portal-m |
Obsolete (old design sheet) - remove; the portals use their VUK switches. |
| H4 | VUK labels for the roles | Decided at wiring; the story uses role names (Portal A, Portal B, Faith Plate, incinerator, exit). |
| H5 | The ball shot into Portal B | Stays as the new pre-load: the portals keep swapping, one ball always "in transit". |
| H6 | Shooting Portal A from the front | Yes, it's a shot (counts as entering a portal). |
| H7 | The exit behind the drop targets | The third multiball lock, released by a VUK. |
| H8 | Multiball | 3 locks: ball dropper, incinerator, exit - with the ball in play, a 4-ball multiball. |
| H9 | Second diverter | On the left ramp; destination still open. |
| H10 | Last 2 standup targets | One between the rollover button and the incinerator; the 7th not placed yet. |
| H11 | Drp1, Up2, Up4, Pull1 | Up4: the drop-down post in front of the Incinerator; Up2: a period 3 shortcut gate (owner, 2026-10-06, design/research/story-brainstorm/hardware-ideas.md). Drp1: Rattmann's panel blocking a hidden passage (owner, 2026-10-06, D24). Pull1: the period 2 lemon target (owner, 2026-10-06, D25). |
VUKs with a role: Portal A, Portal B, Faith Plate launcher, incinerator lock, exit lock, VUK6 (ball
dropper) - 6 of the 8. Each needs a ball switch, so the roles go to VUKs that have one (VUK1-4,
VUK6) or that get one fitted (VUK5/7/8).
Still open: which word the top (3) and bottom (4) lanes spell; the exit's opening conditions; the
second diverter's destination; the 7th target; Drp1/Up2/Up4/Pull1.
As written by the owner, lightly tidied; [Claude: ...] marks Claude's reading or a question at
the time.
As written by the owner, lightly tidied; [Claude: ...] marks Claude's reading or a question.
Three time periods — the game is played across three eras of Aperture:
Launch
c-plunger.]Top lanes [s-toplane1-3]
Pop bumpers and slings [Pop1-3, SlingL, SlingR]
The portal mechanic: instant ball travel
balls_installed: 4 today - this implies 6; noted under "Implied changes".]This first portal sits to the left of the right ramp. To its left are the Mid-Flipper
and the path to the drop-target-protected exit [Drp2]. [Claude: this matches STORY.md's
Portal A ("a ball lock next to the ramp, fed via a secret path from between the pop bumpers or
from the front"). So Portal A = the VUK pre-loaded through the Up3 post. Which of VUK1-4 is it,
and which VUK is the "different portal" (Portal B on the left?)]
The right ramp leads up to the light bridge [LED-Bridge], with the diverter [Div1] to the ball
dropper [VUK6, Servo1] (as in the registry).
The top of the right ramp has a small room with a portal-shaped entry and exit hole,
simulating the ball travelling through portals.
s-ramp-r1 = room entry, just before the top and s-ramp-r2 = room exit, just past theBetween the ball dropper and the right orbit entry are 2 standup targets ("normal target
switches"); they can have different functions (per era/mode). [Claude: these are 2 of
S-Target1-7 - which labels? They'd get area: right. STORY.md's "a few stand-up targets in front
of the diverter" is probably these.]
More standup targets along the same arc:
[Claude: that's 5 of the 7 standup targets placed. The right side, in order from the right
outside in: ball dropper -> 2 targets -> right orbit entry -> target -> right ramp entry -> target
-> Portal A -> target -> Mid-Flipper -> path to the drop-target-protected exit. Which S-Target
label is where is still to map.]
(Owner: this describes the right side and part of the top and middle of the playfield.)
The top: a long orbit (as already described in STORY.md), with:
The middle top: the exit (Test Chamber exit style), protected by the 3-target drop bank
[Drp2].
s-exit-success? What are "the conditions" that let targets stay down /The left side, from the middle left upwards (the left orbit and left ramp - confirmed by the
owner).
s-insinerator would be its switch, pluss-ramp-l1 just before the top, s-ramp-l2 just after, like thes-pedestal (owner). [Claude:s-aerial renamed, or a separate switch? If separate,s-aerial (e.g. the Faith Plate VUK's ball switch)?]The bottom lanes [s-bottomlane1-4]
[Claude: VUK roles so far - Portal A (pre-loaded via the Up3 post), the Faith Plate launcher,
Portal B (primed from the platform hole), the incinerator lock, VUK6 (into the ball dropper).
That's 5 of VUK1-8 with a role; which label is which is still to assign.]
What the shots and the walkthrough implied for the build. Most game-logic items are now designed
in the rule sheets and design/features/*.md; what's still open is tracked in TODO.md.
Registry/hardware-status part done 2026-10-05 at the owner's request (branch
design/story-and-shots): ramp optos, Faith Plate (s-aerial = launcher VUK switch, new
s-pedestal part), incinerator and exit locks, Up3, spinner, targets, VUK roles, new left-ramp
diverter part; s-portal-r/-m removed from the registry (still in hardware-draft.yaml for the
portal mode until its redesign). Round 6 additions also done: the era-select button
(s-era-select, draft) and the Old Aperture prop as new parts; groups Cabinet buttons, Turret
Gauntlet, Aerial Faith Plate, VUKs (role at wiring), Old Aperture prop, and the left-ramp diverter
in Left ramp. The game-logic items below are still to do.
balls_installed: 6 (trough has 6 balls; config says 4).category: machine); attract-mode logic to pick the starting period.s-pedestal (new draft part); s-aerial becomes the Faith Plates-portal-r/s-portal-m (and led-portal-r/-m if they go too);area: right-top (between the pop bumpers); a new part for the left-ramp diverter;drop_target_bank reset on hit while locked); turret firing sound on reset, turret dying soundmb_dropbank multiball (IDEAS.md's "ball dropper asramp-right-mid (s-ramp-r1) and ramp-right-top (s-ramp-r2) are the top room's