Firstly, education is a community service. Secondly, these clown pukers sell the pin 6 months later to someone else who has to fix it. The OP is right. When tons of clueless newbs start turning classics into visual abominations it's no surprise many are speaking out. Imagine if The Louvre began illuminating their masterpieces with ultrabright colored LEDs. Mass public outrage.

I generally think “to each his own,” but this one drives it home to me. Here’s my CBW with Comet sunlight LEDs in comparison. Taken with an old iPhone so the camera settings are comparable I’m sure.

E2A94650-329B-460F-A3AC-60B0B5930408 (resized).jpeg

FB7E9B0E-0B2D-4B89-97D1-93FB53C17D71 (resized).jpeg

Boo hoo

No one is forcing anyone to buy any game. Factor it into the purchase price/decision and move on if changing the LEDs is too costly or time consuming for you.

LED OCD and GI OCD are a must for a proper led installation. Retains all the dimming effects as intended and can adjust the brightness of the GI to proper levels. Just putting in some leds is only doing half the job.

I’m pretty lazy. Even for the worst puke job I’ll usually just change out the lowest third of the playfield for incandescents or white LEDs. Doesn’t take very long to do this.

I really just want to be able to see the pinball. Purple and pink lights down by the flippers are no bueno.

Surprising amount of clown puke defenders here.

Mine is...

“Serious question…”

I spent 5 years fighting it.
Felt good to give up caring.

Always started with, "what do you recommend"?
and then, "Oh No" I want color everywhere!"

Maybe Younger eyes?

Are you sure it is their own choice? This is the internet where trolling people thoughts, opinions and beliefs seem to be the norm. I kid of course….people can, and should, do what they want with their pins.

I have colored LED inserts in some of my games, and my opinion is they look pretty good. I have recently switched to warm white myself because in my opinion they look pretty good also, and it saves me from buying lots of different colored LEDs.

Good post, I agree 100%

Well they are out of stock currently. When they are in stock I do recommend getting the printed brackets with them, makes installation even easier.

I just think its a Noob thing. When I got my first pin (a WH20) I was so excited. And you are also excited to tinker and mod. LED's are easiest way to tinker.

Then your next thought is that color is so much more exciting than plain white and it will spice up the game. This is where the error is made.

I think most outgrow this or come to realize you cannot see the artwork with all that splashed on color. But obviously many do not.

It's not just looks on why Clown puke is terrible. If it was just looks of the machine only, and didn't effect gameplay, it wouldn't be a problem. The problem is.... The human eye has trouble focusing in short wavelength spectrum colors. The farther to the edges of the spectrum, the more difficult it is to focus and the shorter the light travels. So purple and red is the hardest to see in since they are the edges of the visible spectrum. White light has all the colors of the spectrum, hence why it travels the farthest and lights up everything the most. So when you change your GI's from this, it changes the art package to monochromatic, but also, greatly reduces the visible light to see the ball. In a dark gameroom, a game done in blue, red, purple is almost impossible to see the ball. Games have been taken out of tournaments and leagues, due to no visibility in colored light.

We care, if the person is selling it. Because now you are putting your "taste" on other people to fix. And if you have other people try and play on it. They have to strain to see anything. If you want to do it, go ahead. Just don't have others have to play it, and keep it to yourself, so new people in the hobby, don't think this is the thing to do. Because, newbies look at it in pictures, and think it looks good, but don't realize how impractical it is in a play situation.

Isn’t it odd that everyone doesn’t think like me? Should we not all have the same thoughts and opinions? The amount of time spent criticizing others choices is a complete waste. Some dislike the newbs, or mods, or lighting … who cares. Enjoy the hobby as you like.

I think it’s such a first world problem to be complaining that people put color led their pinball machines. It’s all preference, who really care that much.

There is a weird cult of noob pinball that has coalesced around "Modding/LEDs" as integral to total pinball ownership experience - the TPOE, if you will. The idea has evolved that you really aren't taking part in the hobby unless you swap in LEDs and cover your game in all manner of plastic garbage.

You see it all the time...before people even get their games, they are asking "which key mods should I buy?" and "Who sells the best LED kit?"

I suppose it's even worse now that it's taking months for people to get their games. Idle hands are the Devil's workshop!

Some people get over this as they realize that ownership of these games is usually temporary, and it's a waste of time and money to lipstick pig a game you'll just end up selling or trading in 6 months anyway. For others, it's a lifestyle and addiction that only gets worse.

I like to pimp my games out with all sorts of mods including lighting enhancements as part of my enjoyment of the hobby. That said, I have seen plenty of mods, including some LED lighting, that I personally consider to be done in poor (sometimes GOD awful) taste. And I know some others have issues with some of my mods as well.

Be that as it may, your argument against "Clown puke", although it may be correct on a technical human eye function level, is irrelevant. Maybe the owner can see the lighting better or differently than the majority of others who play the game. Or maybe the additional colors just provide him/her more joy when playing the game. And again, as far as having to "fix" the LEDs on a game if you buy it, if it's too much cost and/or trouble, DON't buy it.

Who is anyone to tell someone else what is right or acceptable as far as what they do with their game? Not everyone has to follow the same supposed standards in pinball. Creativity can be a good thing.

BOTTOM LINE: Everyone's games are theirs to do with as they desire. If you don't like it, respect their right, and just move on. Don't criticize and persecute them for it.

This thread is trash so … your welcome? Clearly too busy to change lighting but not for endless posting about your preferences. Got it!

Unless you have super human vision, nobody can see well in colored light. Just think about the days when people had to develop black and white film in a red room. How well could you see in that room? couldn't see for shit. Nobody can. It was a strain to do anything. That's what colored lights do to your GI's.

So if you are selling a game, is like selling a house. How well do you think a house will sell if the walls are painted dark blue, fuchsia, or polka dot? You think the buyer isn't going to be already taking money off in their head, to compensate for the work they have to fix because of "taste"? That's why when selling, they tell you paint the walls white. Stay neutral to appeal to everyone. You go color GI's, you are appealing to 3% of the buyer market. Everyone else is going to be thinking about the time it's going to take to fix it. BUT........... When selling a game. There is NOBODY ... and I mean Nobody that will ever say, that WHITE GI's looks like shit and needs to have money deducted. So when selling. Would you want to appeal to 3%, or 100% of the buyers out there?

And if you are a tournament player, you will know you have been fawked over by having some asshole, put a game in a tournament that has colored GI's, making it so you can't see shit to play. This is the shit that pisses most of us off, and why it can't get out of hand from the newbs.

Ah there it is again. Is there anything that isn't a first world problem on a first world pinball message board?!

Valid points as far as potential sales detriments, but whatever. Then the seller will pay any consequences as a result (and maybe learn from the experience). In the meantime, they will enjoy their game as they see fit. Their business - not yours or anyone elses.

If a game doesn't meet tournament gameplay standards, than it shouldn't be accepted for play. Make the rules known beforehand and enforce them. Simple enough.

Pinside would have a lot less drama if we all stop letting someone else's choices piss us off. Newbs (or any other pinheads for that matter) are going to do what they want regardless of whether someone else approves of it or not.

"White bulbs for your general illumination. Anything less would be uncivilized."

hqdefault (1) (resized).jpg

only pisses me off, when you have incompetent directors allowing them in for play for major tournaments. Sometimes they are forced to use them, because they have no other games to pick from. Which if the game was done right in the first place, it wouldn't be an issue. Now they have to use a game someone brought, that nobody can see on, but they have to use because they have no other choice.

Educating people on correct lighting, benefits everyone. New people don't realize how much it limits visibility for gameplay. It's like if people got on a kick, on swapping out flipper bats to the tiny small ones used on Woodrails. Newbs see other newbs doing it, and think it's the thing to do. So now they start showing up everywhere. Gets to the point where you can't even buy a game anymore and have to run out and buy normal flipper bats to put back in games. When stuff like this is left unchecked, it runs amuck if people are not educated. Putting colored LED's in a GI socket, is like putting baby flippers in place of normal flippers. Makes it very hard to play and it will not play correctly. if at all.

99% of that 1% comes directly from this website. Stats don't lie

"Persecute"? C'mon! Is having bad taste a protected class now? Is posting some joke threads persecution?

I used to clown puke games until I saw the original thread and Neos comments about how terrible it looks. I see the value in ordering white LEDs. #Reformed

Now when I see clown puke in a for sale thread I chuckle and say what an asshole.

A thread refresher every so often is good. Clown puke sucks. So do blow up clown heads.

I put colored LEDs in my ‘73 Gottlieb Hot Shot, but I can assure you it was tastefully done. It doesn’t look a thing like clown puke, but in all fairness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a clown puke.

Just a turn of phrase as I'm sure you know. Using it tends to bring a response from the OP, rather than feeling like a rhetorical question. Nothing to do with legitimacy or honesty of other questions.

This thread may have been intended as humor, but a lot of the posts reflect the same attitude found in the repetitive other anti-mod, anti-LED, anti-powdercoating, etc. threads to be found on Pinside.

You're talking about web sites. There's a dearth of variety in websites.

The internet however is vastly larger than just websites.

Any electronic sensor can be placed anywhere on earth and send that information to any other machine on earth. That's the internet.

The web is just for porn though mostly.

dup

High Speed before and after. The back glass is faded but you get the idea. New glass is in the way.

Before

AE8A91E7-42BD-44C9-9AC7-B0E3365A99E5 (resized).jpeg

After
49943F98-A5B7-412C-89D9-01D057B11FBF (resized).jpeg

The main reason why most cars are monochrome and most homes are a shade of grey/beige is the massive cost to paint them and the worry about resale.

If changing the color of a house or car would be as cheap and reversible as changing some $2 LEDs in a pinball machine, we’d be living in a psychedelic color extravaganza.

$18 at Amazon, go nuts!

61bb9PJ0Z9L._AC_SL1200_ (resized).jpg

I think Levi hit the nail on the head here. It's an ownership thing- you buy this super expensive thing and then you're like... now what? It's like the game itself isn't fun and challenging enough, now you have to make it yours. I was in that camp temporarily with my first couple games - when I went to sell one later on the buyer was like... yeah I don't want extra stuff. Taught me a valuable lesson.... most "mods" are crap and add nothing to the game.

Oh, I already went nuts with my bathroom and LEDs years ago!

ED3563DA-77C3-47F5-B9A4-0047D913012A (resized).jpeg

F0D80D7C-89A7-4729-91AE-80B0733FF828 (resized).jpeg

3FB718A1-B308-4B2D-B185-972E12D9FEE9 (resized).jpeg

all the games that are color LED'd (GI's) like this, are toilets as well. except with your toilet, it's acceptable, because you don't have to try and follow a reflective ball around. So here it is applied correctly.

Well, they might miss the scoop.