The Future Pinball (FP) platform, released in 2005 by Chris Leathley, enabled users to design, script, and play fully simulated 3D pinball tables. Over two decades, a vast ecosystem of user-generated content has emerged, facing threats from link rot, file hosting shutdowns, and software dependency decay. This paper examines the concept of a "Future Pinball Archive"—both as an unofficial community-driven effort and as a proposed formal digital preservation model. It analyzes the technical structure of FP tables ( .fpt files, scripting, and media assets), the legal ambiguities of archiving community content, and proposes a framework for sustainable long-term access using emulation, metadata standardization, and distributed storage.
There are several ways to get involved with the Future Pinball Archive: future pinball archive
October 26, 2023 Subject: Digital Preservation, Software Archiving, and Simulation Technology Status: Draft Proposal The Future Pinball (FP) platform, released in 2005