Hey Pinside, been a little while since we talked, I know I haven't been around. I'll add a post about that under this. On to the topic at hand:

My printer reached out to me the other day to let me know they're retiring the high end printers we use to print my translites. Of the 7 machines they had they're now down to 2. He's not sure if they're going to keep even those. So he told me if I wanted to do another run of Shadow it might be now or never, so get off my ass if I cared. I do care, so here I am getting off my ass to make this post.

No telling what the future holds I guess, but it feels like this might be it this time. I love the quality of these prints, I hope they don't go away, but not much I can do to control it.

Same deal as always, high quality custom translite, new speaker panel, custom instruction cards. Costs have risen since I first started this however many years ago, so I've raised the price a little, otherwise this is the same package that's always made everyone happy.

I'm going to leave my Google interest form up for 2 weeks, just to give everyone enough time to see it and sign up, and then I'll close it down and submit the order to my printer. Once he tells me the prints are ready I'll email everyone with a payment link. I never take money before things are ready, keeps the stress down for everyone.

All are claimed from this run, but not all are paid for. I might have extras, I might not. Message me if you want to be on the waiting list.

(A note for international buyers: I've checked, no country I've ever shipped to before is on any kind of restricted list. But with the pandemic I imagine shipping times are slower, and customs will be more of a pain in the ass. I can't control any of that, so I have to say order at your own risk.)

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I didn't want to clutter up the top post with personal stuff, so adding a separate post. I know I have really been around in last ... year? Honestly I'm not sure, I'd have to search my own posts and look. I know it's been a while.

First off, I want to apologize to anyone who's messaged me. I see I have a lot of unread messages next to that bouncing mail icon. Wasn't purposefully ignoring you, just got behind on it all and sort of gave up trying to catch up and stopped visiting Pinside much, and then at all. I think a lot of them were about Shadow translites, so I'll try and go through all that, hopefully this thread makes you happy.

I basically hit burn out. With pinball, with the internet and everyone constantly being negative, with my creative juices. Has to refocus my energies, took a break from a lot of stuff, including things like Twitter and Pinsdie. I have this Metallica mod that I started before the damn Alien project that I've never finished, and it's a shame, because I still think it's a cool idea, and nobody has done anything like it yet. Just couldn't seem to find the traction to finish it off.

I've sold most of my pins, I'm down to my own Shadow, Tron Pro, and Metallica LE. Unclear what my plans are for them right now. No rush to figure it out I suppose, but they're really not getting played at all now, and that's a shame.

I did check back in a for a bit when I heard about Rick and Morty. Was so happy for Scott and Bowen and Eric and Spooky. All these people who are my friends and who's success makes me feel good. So that's great. I'm feeling pretty out of the loop now though, I imagine the pandemic is just crushing pinball stuff. I haven't read any threads before posting this. The only 'new' game from the past couple years I've had a chance to play I think is Jurassic Park. Keith killed it, no surprise. Was going to get out to play Rick and Morty but was too slow before lockdown.

I just checked, it was over 6 years ago when I first put up this Shadow project for sale. I can't imagine there's really anything more to possibly say about it at this point. People have been very gracious in their appreciation for a project that was never intended for so many, and I thank all of you for that. But if I can answer any questions just hit me up.

In the meantime I'm just riding out the pandemic in Southern California with my family. Everyone here is doing well all things considered. My passion project in a kind of post-pinball space, and one of the reasons I sold some more of my games, was building up my arcade. Been collecting more Japanese arcade cabs, and playing a lot of fighting games. Before the virus shut me down I was hosting a weekly fight night for the last three years. Sometimes people played the pins, but they weren't really here for that. I do miss it, had a great regular crowd who came every week.

I have a lot of friends here still I think. If you're around and reading this lemme know how you're doing.

Hey Ned, glad you found a good home for that Abra Ca Dabra. I enjoyed my brief flirtation with EMs, but they didn't ultimately hold my interest. Still one of my favorite backglasses though, and that repro I put on was super nice. Is Spooky even building games right now? I have to think at the very least Rick and Morty is slowed down just by parts availability. I did see that Pinball Life is shipping parts, just not allowing in-person pickup, which seems wise. I haven't spoken to anyone from the R&M team in a few months, before the pandemic hit.

If I decided to move more of my games I'd probably save Shadow for the last holdout. It was my first game, and still one of my favorites. And for obvious reasons kind of my emotional connection to the hobby, since it's what people really got to know me for. It's gotten harder to let games go as I've narrowed them down. I sold my TNA and I don't regret it, but I do miss it a bit. My rule these days is if new things come in old things gotta go out. It pays for the toys, but more than anything else I just need the space.

Thanks! I'm putting a priority on taking care of my mental health these days. I do need to go through all these PMs and at least link people to this thread if they asked about Shadow. Feels bad to not respond.

I've found other creative projects and outlets, but yeah, you probably know exactly what I mean about that one project you always mean to finish and can't quite see through. I still have different ideas for how to handle the lights/electronics for it sometimes, it's gone through so many different revisions. Not only on paper, built prototypes out of cardboard, 3D printed things, customs PCBs, just somehow can't quite finish it all. The bulk of the art was finished before Alien, it's the custom interactive stuff where I stalled out.

Glad I could do that.

I often end up with extras of those just with the way the process works, can probably help you out when things are settled. Not sure if I have any now, I'd have to look, can't remember what's stashed away anymore.

I had hoped maybe I'd missed people cheering up some, and being happier about pinball and hanging out together to be honest.

One of the reasons I took a long break was that the vibe just seemed to be getting more and more negative here, and people forgot how to have fun.

I'm sure the pandemic isn't helping, it's really heartbreaking how it's crushing the remaining arcade industry. And it's become stupidly politicized when we should just be looking out for each other. Whatever your politics, whoever you voted for, stay safe out there.

Thanks! The pinball mod game has changed over the last 6 years, went from being a niche little hobby to big business. Can't really slip some of these underground mods under the radar now like you used to be able to. I dunno what the future holds for me doing more, I do miss it. But anything I do from now on is staying clear of trademark and copyright issues, just too much hassle. ACDC and ST were the last of that.

I'll try and start going through my PMs tomorrow, make sure anyone who's asked about Shadow gets pointed to this thread. I see I have a few new ones already, I'll get to you too.

I dunno that I have "an all time favorite", but yeah, Shadow is definitely in the top. For me it's just the perfect mix of things, from gameplay, to sound, to challenge, to innovative mechs, and then that magic element of being the first pin I owned. I forget how long I had it before I added a second game, we all know how that goes. But for a while there it's all I had to play, and I never got tired of it. That's something I can't say about a lot of other games I owned and loved.

I honestly don't know. I'm pretty sure it's over 700, but I don't really keep detailed records for that kind of thing to know more exactly.

I'll try and not be a stranger. I posted something in the covid-19 thread last night, and people seemed to appreciate my perspective, but then I realized I can't get sucked into it. My day job deals with moderating comments on the pandemic all day, I can't deal with another avenue. I think I'll try and stick to pinball here.

That's great. I mentioned this earlier, but for me the thing I was able to find passion in again was getting back to my fighting game roots. I was a big Street Fighter fan back in the original arcade days, and then lost people to play with and let it wane. Re-discovering my love for that got me a lot more serious about my arcade collecting. It's a way for me to connect with people, I really only have the cabinets to share them with others. Right now they're all staying dark until I can open hosting again.

This is what I'm looking forward to my garage looking like again:

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Okay, I think I've hit all my PMs about Shadow stuff, some of them were 6 months old, feel bad about that, sorry!

Yes, Priority International is how I’ve always done it. I did once have a package bound for Austria go by way of Australia, but otherwise been happy with the service.

Thanks! That was a fun mod. I'm glad I limited it to 30, was a real project hand making them all. I had a little help with the 3D printing for the core armatures, this guy named Scott Danesi, wonder what ever happened to him ...

I have my own 3D printer now, and all these things he was explaining to me back then about the 3D model I sent him and overhangs makes so much more sense now. Thanks Scott!

Best to you too Art, you stay safe in crazy Florida okay?

I don't know that I recommend planning your retirement on stashing Shadow alt translites.

Pinside has the best ignore features on the internet Robin, I compare what you've done against everything else. You don't see quotes from people you ignore, a common problem, and maybe best of all the drain thread feature is really helpful. I don't trust my own willpower sometimes when I get sucked into replying or reading trainwrecks. When I realize I'm just wasting my own time and energy draining a thread to remove temptation is really helpful.

I drained the covid-19 thread already after replying to it once for instance. I deal with pandemic comments every day at work as part of moderating Ars Technica, I just didn't need another source of people bashing science and making up conspiracies. It's sad how politicized it's become, but I just don't have the patience for it. But I know I'd keep reading it if I saw it pop up in my thread list.

Honestly I wish everything you've done with bbPress was just an off the shelf package, I'd move Ars to it. We're looking at Vanilla as an option, but I'd have to steal some of your good ideas for it!

No worries, I saw your post and replied there a moment ago.

Hope you're doing well too, I miss all the OC people. Heard from Doug yesterday.

Hey frolic! Hope you're doing well up North.

Thanks! Didn't really mean to disappear without warning, just kind of happened that way. Online communities are funny. But it's nice to feel appreciated to be around again.

One of my hats is managing the community for Ars Technica, where I'm the creative director. So I keep tabs on a lot things, but the pandemic is of course a really hot button issue, and tempers get flared. Our commenters are pretty chill in general, but even the rational people are sick of the misinformation, lies, and crappy management and are pretty grumpy.

Luckily I work with some amazing science and health writers, and they all have PhDs in topics like pharmacology, microbiology, molecular biology, and cell biology. We're pretty uniquely set as tech publication to be on this. But that means we're writing about it all a lot, and that keeps me pretty busy making sure things don't get too ugly.

https://arstechnica.com/series/covid-19-coverage/

These printers aren't exactly the kind of thing you can sit in a corner of your office.

They 'print' using lasers, up to very large format sizes. It's how my translites are able to keep such rich colors even when backlit by pretty bright LEDs. It's more like a photo exposure, with a continuous tone, which is why you don't see any dots or dithering when you look closely. Basically really high quality stuff, but they're pretty huge machines:

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You're not the first person to buy the translite first while game searching. I had someone do that, find the game, but it already had my package on it.

I wish I could promise I will keep making these for as long as people want them, but it's probably smart to stock it away now if you really want it.

Someone just PM'd me a suggestion to use a printing service I don't feel like naming as an option. They were the first thing I tried over 6 years ago, and the quality sucked, and then I had an issue with them selling an unauthorized test print. Almost gave up on the whole thing then!

But it made me reflect back on what my plans were at the time. I really did this as a personal project, and figured I'd print up 10 of them in case anyone else wanted one. I forget who it was, but pretty sure it might have been vid, but somebody suggested that the translite probably wouldn't be that popular but people might want the speaker panel.

Me too, I dunno that I would have done any of my other projects if this one hadn't happened.

Being back is kinda giving me the itch to toy with things again, but I dunno, we'll see how that goes. Normally it's getting a new game that sparks an idea, and I don't see that in the cards right now.

Nothing wrong with the LE I have!

Yes, same size, all those games are standard, widebody or not.

The last game I think I was tempted to buy because it would have been a lot of fun to mod was Iron Maiden. I haven't kept up with the mod market for it, but I saw a lot of untapped potential.

The only "LCD era" game I've bought so far though was TNA, and that only barely counts in that category really.

I'm trying to stick to positive opinions here now, but I could write a long post about everything I hate about companies are using those LCD screens. I know I'm pickier than most, but it's one of the things that keeps me less interested in the new titles now.

Stern hasn't done better animations than the dots on Metallica in my mind. With a ColorDMD (all my remaining games have them) it's all I need or want.

I haven't put a lot of time on it, so I dunno what the long term appeal is really like for me, but I suspect pretty good. I like the layout a lot. I'm not a big fan of the band, but I don't mind listening to them while I play for a bit. I liked their original lead singer more though.

I got to play Archer and talk with Keith about it prior to his move to Stern, and he's clearly one of the best hires they've had in recent memory, so super happy for him and his success. I did play Jurassic Park some finally, and it's obviously a great game too. He's bringing the right kind of new thinking within the basic parameters of a pinball layout.

I dunno, if I had a chance to maybe trade my Tron for a Maiden or something I'd probably take it, but I'm not actively seeking out a game right now, or wanting to sell a game and then try and hunt one down.

I'd have to read up on the real consensus now between Pro and Premium too, and what's really worth it. And obviously there's nothing wrong with Zombie Yeti's art, it's not a game I'd get to replace a package I didn't care for, like I did with Star Trek. Would be more building on a solid foundation.

Thanks! Pretty sure I remember shipping yours even, it might be the only one I've ever sent to Alaska. Possible there was one other, but not exactly a state I get a lot of orders from.

I'm seeing the sign ups for orders slowing to a halt now. Response has been great, this will be plenty of packing for me, thanks everyone. But I think given that I'm going to close the pre-order list after the weekend and put the order in next week. There's no point in making everyone wait longer for no reason. I'll buffer in a few extras for latecomers.

Then we'll see what happens for the future. My printer told me he's fighting to keep these last two printers up and running. Really hope they stick around, never know if I'll get the itch for a new project. There's one title that's free and clear of trademark issues I've always meant to do but never got past initial sketches on. That's probably a pretty easy clue right there for what it is, but no promises.

Just talked to my printer, told him I'll give him final numbers on Monday. Asked what he thought turnaround time would be.

"I’d say for sure within two weeks, but hopefully within one week. The printing is no issue, would just be getting it through laminating."

The lamination process is about getting the diffusion layer on the back, helps the translite light up evenly. It's not strictly necessary, I tried not doing it on a run of I think Star Trek translites once (back when I was still making those), but it does provide a better result, and I see no reason to cut corners at this stage.

So that's the timeline we're looking at.

Heh, thanks, this is the thing about posting everywhere under my real name, I'm kinda easy to spot.

I don't post a ton on Arcade Projects, but great forum, lot of serious knowledge there. Try and contribute where I can. I'm a big fan of Darksoft's products, my arcade features his multiboards for CPS2, CPS3, and Neo Geo most nights. Well, featured, everything closed down right now. But whenever I get to host again those boards will be waiting.

Final weekend warning!

I think I've got everyone already, but I'll bump this today and tomorrow to be sure before I close things down.

Yeah, it's really cool tech, I can't imagine going back to anything else now. And of course it lights up beautifully. I know I can go with dark and rich colors and they'll pop when backlit, no washing out or dullness.

I've started work on another game several times, just never found the traction. This is part of the whole "taking a break" narrative, when I hit burnout it really messed with my creative output too. I've learned I can't force it, just seeing how I find my way back to things. At this point I need something that sparks or inspires me, more than just a "good idea".

I dunno, we'll see. This is why I never announced a project until it's done though!

As for just general stuff I will say that the market for alt translites is pretty different now. I don't sell my Star Trek or ACDC stuff anymore, you can't really just do little community projects like that now. It's too big, too public, too easy to get asked to stop.

So going forward anything I do will steer clear of trademark issues. That limits the options for straight up "replacement" products.

Okay, closed the form, will submit numbers to the printer and get this going. Lots of support both for the order and in personal messages, really appreciate everyone.

I'll buffer in some extras to be safe, so if you're late to the party you can always see if I still have any, just message me.

Printer told me they're working on speaker panels today, everything should be on track. Had a couple dropouts already, and someone just asked if it was too late to get in. Not too late, between the people dropped out and the extras I have slots still. Just PM me.

Otherwise hope to send the list the final work this week still, I'll be in touch when I hear more.

Little update from printer: everything is due to ship to me on Friday.

It's not a great movie, but watching it made me appreciate how well they integrated the theme into the game. Everything but the damn translite lol. Like the locks popping open for Khan multiball, or the mirror shattering on the battlefield, just so many great details from the film.

Sorry, just heard from him, small delay, now looking like shipping to me either Monday or Tuesday. Will still email everyone as soon as I know things are good to go.

Miss you o-din, stay well.

Already answered your PM, but for anyone else wondering, no, it's not too late. I went ahead and sprung for extras to be safe. I don't really love sitting on inventory, but I dunno when I'll order these again, so I'll deal with it. So by all means, take them off my hands.

I'm getting too old for this stuff I think. I just want it minimalist and out of my way. The less I notice it the better.

I'll reserve judgement until I see it in person, but I feel like maybe it's trying too hard. Just doesn't feel like they're grasping the moment, as far as design and what people want.

I dunno, this new generation doesn't excite me honestly just in general. I had a launch PS4, and then quickly realized there wasn't that much must have content that early. This time around I'm feeling no rush. I need a killer app to get me to bite. Right now it all looks like "more of the same", which isn't bad really, but it's also not a compelling reason to shell out money.

The new gen consoles will pass up my gaming PC, but right now I'm mostly using it for fighting games, and I can run all of them with maxed out settings, so I haven't felt limited in any real fashion.

Only next gen title I'm really thinking about right now is Cyberpunk 2077, have to think about what platform I'd want that on. I'm not a real FPS player, I don't care about mouse and keyboard, I'd probably play with a controller even on PC.

Update: Prints were supposed to ship today (Tuesday), they're done, but was a delay at the shop. Should go out to me tomorrow. As soon as I have a tracking number and feel set I'll email everyone with payment instructions and we'll get things moving finally.

We're working on a new forum package for Ars, but it's hard to find time for it sometimes with everything else we're working on. It's a small team.

The discussion is mostly on the front page now, our article comments are extremely lively. But hopefully we can bring some life back to the forum side, we'll see. More modern software would help at least some for sure.

None of it is remotely connected to Condé Nast, and more just the rise of social media murdering forums. That's what hurt us. Lots of people moved to Facebook (ugh). The only forums that have really survived are those that have really narrow focuses. Pinside is a good example of course, and Robin has done fabulous work with how he's wrangled bbPress into such a great package. That helps a ton.

Didn't hear from my printer today, so I'm assuming shipping early next week. The speaker panels and cards are already on their way I think.

After this is done I might need to take another Pinside break, little disappointed in some things as of late here. Probably best to just fade away. Nice to talk to people for a bit though, still a lot of good people here.

Every hobby has jerks and stupid people. I tune out plenty, and those that are too loudly stupid I add to my ignore list. But Pinside has some really deeply rooted issues that I can't ignore. There's a lot of hate here, and I'm not a fan. Frankly I don't need it in my life. I'm tired of adding people to that list.

It shows up in a lot of ways. The criticisms of games and ideas that turn personal fast. The constant need to tear things down. Just negative energy after negative energy.

I wrote about how the fighting game community and pinball are different here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/backbox-podcast-let-s-talk-about-diversity#post-5705478

My point was when we're playing we're all on the same ground. But when we're a community, hanging out, shooting the shit, doing all of the stuff outside the game, the differences really appear. The FGC's diversity really shines at moments like this, when there's a conversation that needs to happen about how we come together. Pinside tries to pretend it's not happening.

That Backbox podcast thread I linked? Got locked right away because people were being shitty. And frankly a couple were letting their racist side show, let's not pretend otherwise. The Pinside response was to lock the thread right away, hand out some thread ejects a few hours afterwards, and then sit on it for a bit. Then Robin re-opened it with that post approval mode, where nothing shows up without review first.

Took hours for my post to be seen by a mod and appear. Which in and of itself is fine, they're not sitting there just waiting 24/7 to read my post. But let's be real about what that means, it's a conversation killer. That thread was buried alive instead of shot, but the end result will be the same soon enough.

So what does that mean, really? Look who's on that podcast:

Juana Summers (Baltimore Belles + Chimes, IFPA)
Jessica Kent (Belles + Chimes Chicago)
Josh Sharpe (IFPA)
Steven Bowden (Fun With Bonus + Deeproot)
Jack Danger (Deadflip)
Lauren Gray (host)

You're telling me those people discussing an issue inside of pinball is too hot and controversial for Pinside to handle? I have a problem with that. I don't care if you don't agree with them, but if we can't have even the most somewhat polite discussion then maybe there's not a lot of point in hanging out here.

Yeah, you're right about that for sure. I gave up Twitter for the new year, which has been a bit of a ritual for me for a couple years now, just a mental break for a month or two. This time I haven't gone back. I miss friends there, and it's how I kept up with news on fighting game and retro arcade stuff, but the tradeoffs right now are too much. I can't deal with with the constant anxiety, even when I'm not sucked into arguments or BS directly.

I'm not looking to talk politics on Pinside. I have some 20,000 posts here, pretty sure I've never gotten into the mud over anything really. Called someone out for being sexist or something, but if you want to know what I think about Trump you gotta just guess. Plenty of people here manage to slip in their thoughts a lot more explicitly, that's for sure.

But when it comes to community I'm passionate, and I stand for what I believe in. It shouldn't be political to discuss how to make pinball more welcoming for more people. If you make it such you're an asshole I don't want to be around. But beyond that, Pinside has let those assholes decide what we can talk about. And I'm not cool with that. This is the right time to be having that conversation, and the wrong time to take the stand that we can't.

I'm Iceman levels of drunk right now and I still won't tell you what I really think. And you know I've got the essays on deck too.

Just emailed the list, finally taking payments. Translites have been reprinted and passed inspection and are shipping to me tomorrow, I got the speaker panels and instruction cards today.

I have a couple extras still, and I'll probably get some dropouts when I ask for the money, I always do.

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Should be fine, I almost always have extras just from how the process works. I have boxes of them I haven't opened yet, haven't counted to check.

The bulk of people have paid up already, you guys are nice and responsive, thanks. I just got the boxes today from Uline, while I'm waiting for the translites I can start taping them together. Not my favorite job, not gonna lie, I've taped so many of these damn things over the years.

But I'll get on it anyways so I'm ready to get everything out next week. Translites come on Monday according to UPS, but who knows what time. I'll pack up as soon as I'm able.

In theory I'm utterly sold out of this run, someone claimed my last extra.

I still have 7 people who haven't paid up or contacted me about there being an issue. If you're someone who doesn't want it anymore please just tell me instead of silently ignoring the payment email. It's not a problem, I can handle it, just don't leave me hanging.

UPS just sent me an update, translites are out for delivery, I should have them by mid afternoon in theory.

My printer told me the other day he's working on a plan to keep the last two printers running. So while I can't predict the future it seems like at least for now the danger of not being able to do these might be low. See how it goes.

Thanks!

Still waiting on those people who haven't responded, dunno what's up with them. I'm not gonna hold your spot if you don't reply to me though. Then it's first come first served for what's left.

I'm working my way through packing, got a stack of boxes beginning to pile up in my office. Will do some more tonight.

Over. People surprised me, I wasn't really expecting this much interest at this point. I'm grateful for the support though.

I'll be honest, it kinda makes me want to do a new project, but we'll see.

Emailed you just now. These last 5 flakes are officially being cut loose. I'll have 3 left after darkknight and you if you still want it.

Haha, I know, I know. Star Trek is just hard now, I gotta respect Stern's wishes.

Someone told me they got their package today, I didn't look up where they are, gotta be in CA though, that was really fast with the holiday weekend, I only dropped them off on Friday. I'm seeing a note about delays on the USPS website because of covid, see how the rest of the country does with getting them over the next few days.

Got another few to drop off, and then I'm down to my last two.

Wow, Vermont, go USPS, they hustled them out. It's always a little nerve wracking sending things out, I do start to relax when I hear about them arriving safely.

I've been doing this for a long time. It's pretty rare that things get damaged in transit. Definitely happens, but not often enough to be a concern.

I'm a fan of the USPS service honestly. Look how fast they got things out even with the holiday weekend and pandemic.

I just use cool white LEDs in mine, I don't like colored lights. The only 'trick' I use is for my flashers I use the extendable LEDs that are on little flexible arms so I can aim them at the parts I want to light up more precisely.

But the fun of modding is to do whatever feels right to you, so don't feel like you gotta stick with "my way".

I have exactly one package left unclaimed. After this I dunno what will happen.

It seems like for the time being my printer is keeping the big printers going, so I'm hopeful I can still do translites in the future, but hard to say. I'm happy to collect names for another potential run after this last package is gone, but my feeling is it will be a while before there's enough to do it given the success of this one. At some point it all has to end.

Thanks everyone for the support over the years!

In the meantime I'm trying to poke at a stalled project to see if I have any fire for it. I kinda want to get it going again, but it's hard to get creative traction. People's enthusiasm in this thread has been helpful though, appreciate you guys.

Neither, though I have a project for Metallica I've sunk a lot of hours in and never finished. I really wanted to get my own laser cutter to work on it more, waiting for outsourcing to try things sucks. But that's a whole project in and of itself.

Just sold the last one from this batch, so that's it for now. Glad everyone is getting them ok, haven't heard any bad reports yet. Fingers crossed!

Woah, that's great. I was worried about international shipping with the pandemic. Actually there's something I want to order from France, that's motivating me to get on it it lol.

Thanks, appreciate it. This is just a really minor thing, there's no rush on it, just been putting it off. Gotten back in Warhammer mini painting and was interested in this wet palette that was developed in Paris: https://www.redgrassgames.com/everlasting-wet-palette/everlasting-wet-palette-painter/

But actually looking through their FAQ it seems like maybe it's actually shipping from Germany.

Tell you what, German customs seem like the slowest of all the places I send to. They like to hold onto stuff for a long time for whatever reason.

hawknole was looking for one after I sold out, shoot him a PM.

Sounds like you're all set, but just to make sure it's super clear, there's a protective layer on the front, but not on the back.

Here's the quick explanation for both things though: On the back is a diffuser layer that's bonded with the print to ensure it lights up super evenly. To be honest it's not 100% necessary, I've done it without them, but it leads to a higher quality product so I do it anyways.

But when that layer is bonded to the translite it can leave some fine scratches on the front. So first we put that protective layer over it to protect it during the process, and that's what you need to peel off. Helps keep it pristine during transit too.

Also, clearly it made it through customs just fine, that's great news!

Really? That’s not encouraging. What’s your tracking say?

No clog, I want to hear about anything that's not right. In general I've found the USPS service during the pandemic to be excellent, but bound to be hiccups right now.

People are still asking me about this, so someone just buy this one, save yourself a lot of waiting, no idea what will happen in the future!

Man, pandemic really wrenching stuff, that's gotta be the longest shipping to Canada I've ever done. Glad it showed up.

I never finished it, so I never showed anything. I spent a lot of time working on it, revised ideas a bunch of times, but just never got it over the finish line. I set it aside to work on Alien and then just kinda deflated on pinball stuff after that project turned into such an emotional swamp.

I still think it's a great idea that nobody has done, so it's still relevant, but I dunno what the plan is for it. Don't want to say I'll finish it and then never do it.

Not reading Pinside regularly right now, just saw this.

I have three people on my waiting list, not sure if they all still want one. Not enough to really do a full Shadow run, but I was gonna do a small Star Trek run, I might be able to piggy back a few Shadows off it. Just message me and I can give you the link to my form I track this stuff on, see what I can do for you.

Buy from someone here instead of waiting for me if you're looking. I can probably find a way to help you, but likely to be a few weeks before that would happen.

Okay, I am gonna do a small handful of Shadows as part of this other print run. I have a few people on my waiting list, already reached out to them, they get first dibs. I'll have at least a couple left over after that, so hit me up if you need one still and haven't managed to get it from someone else here.

If I were to sell my Shadow I think it would probably be the final straw in moving all my pins out. I've downsized a bit, I think I had 11 at my peak and now I'm down to 3, just have other interests that compete for money and space. But not ready to throw in the towel like that yet.

Whole package. I have some extra speaker panels from last run, so it seemed easy enough to tack on a few Shadow translites to this order.

Short answer: maybe

Longer answer: I have exactly one left unclaimed on this little extra run I just did, but someone asked me about it and then never replied back. I just messaged them to make sure they're passing on it before I offer it to anyone else.

Edit: Just heard back, they don't need it, so it's free. I'll PM you. If you pass for any reason I'll update this thread to let people know I have one last one free still, otherwise I'm sold out again.

It looks like Kungen is not taking it, no response after a week (I private messaged, not just the thread), so if anyone want their spot the next person on the list already found one and I have one free.

Packed up and ready to go to whoever ask me for it first.

Sold!

PM'd.

I am completely sold out now, all of them shipped.

It seems that at least for now my printer is able to keep two of the printers up and running, so I can do another run later if there's enough interest. I'm always happy to keep it alive as long as I can.

To be honest I really have no idea, I don't keep detailed records like that. I have a rough idea how many translites total I've done just from looking at some email folders, but it's not broken out by games.

It was just a personal project for my own game. I used some comic book images for drawing references and did up a design and I thought maybe I'd sell 10 of them just to make it worth printing some up. Mods weren't such a big thing back then, I had no clue it would turn out to be popular.

I'm grateful for the support it still has, and the nicest compliments I've ever had in pinball were from the people who told me they only bought the game because of my package. It's one of my favorite pins, so being part of its story like that is really cool.

I have other thoughts on games I might like to do, but for me this is really something that's still personal. If I'm not emotionally feeling it I don't force it. I have a mod I've put countless hours into that been in progress for years because I keep restarting how the tech behind it works, or abandoning it for a year before starting it again. Just how it goes.

Anyways, we'll see what happens. There's one specific translite I've meant to do for ages, and started multiple times, and somehow I just never find the right path for it. Still like to go down that road at some point.

You can't improve on perfection, why even try?

Generally speaking I do a run when I can get 10 people. If I can garner enough interest I'm happy to do it, seems like at least for now we'll have two of the printers we use for these still in production, and hopefully it stays that way.

Alright, looks like there's a bit of interest again, so I started a Google form to track it, that way I don't forget anyone. If you're interested just add your email address to it here:

https://forms.gle/HDPP9oTfghT9YBZq5

If I get enough people signed up I'll email everyone to confirm interest and do a run if enough people are still in.

Huh, already have 7 people on it, so I guess this might happen sooner than I realized. I'll keep an eye on it.

Sorry, I've been really busy with work lately and I haven't been around Pinside. I think I probably have enough people to do a run, just haven't had time to organize it. Several big projects happening right now that are limiting my ability to focus on side work at the moment, once I get clear I'll see what I can do.

I'm currently without my main computer, it's in the shop after a HDD failure, waiting to hear back from tech if I lost anything I didn't have backed up. Whee. Hoped to have word today, will bug them tomorrow.

Anyways, I'm not as good about keeping up on my email with my phone, I see people have been asking me about an update. Lemme try and get settled back in and I'll try and see what the status of the list is looking like. Using my wife's laptop at the moment.

As I've told me who'd messaged me recently I've been very busy with a big project at work and just haven't had much hobby time lately. I think this is the first time I've logged into Pinside in a couple months. It gets like this sometimes for me, ebb and flow.

Doing a run takes a certain amount of time just to take care of everyone and the packaging etc, so I've just not had the bandwidth to do it right. Don't give up, I haven't forgotten.

Better to just message me directly now, I've already contacted the list and I might miss you if you add yourself to it now.

Hey, so I'm still in stupid computer land, but I'm on a backup machine now at least and catching up on email etc. If you've messaged me about anything I haven't replied that's why, just been kind of a tech nightmare this last month+

Anyways, not your problem, but that's why I've been a little hard to reach. I'm stable now.

So here's the good news, my printer just reached out to me to see if I needed anything and that's the motivation I need to make a run happen. I'm gonna email my list right this moment. If you're not interested anymore not a problem, I know it's been a wait, but look for my email.

I'll go through responses this weekend, but just FYI for the people asking if they can get 2, yes, no problem at all. I can combine shipping for them.

I've gone through all the emails and marked people on my sheet, I'll send an update to everyone at some point, but if you didn't get a personal reply from me you can assume you're good to go.

I edited the message above with the google form link, don't use that anymore, just message me directly. If you use the form I might not notice you getting added to it at this point since I've already started marking it up.

If one of these emails looks like it's yours know that I'm about to drop you from this order because you haven't responded to either of my requests!

shadow-dropped-emails (resized).png

Putting the order in now with my printer. I'm getting a few extras to cover any latecomers. So if you're one of the people who didn't email me back, or you're a new order, it's first come first served with with what I have left, just shoot me a message.

UPS scheduled to deliver prints to me today. Will email the list after I've inspected and made sure we're good to go, but I doubt there will be any problems.

I do have extras, so if anyone wants one "shipping now" just shoot me a message.

Everything checked out, as expected, but always still a relief to open the boxes and find everything as it should be.

Everyone on my list should have an email with the info, check your inbox.

I have four sets left unclaimed.

IMG_3242 (resized).jpg

One set left. If anyone drops out I'll update here, I have half the orders paid for so far.

Had someone drop out, the Shadow they were buying already came with my set. Not the first time I've had someone ask if they could bow out for that reason lol. No stress, I have an extra package for whenever someone comes along wanting it though.

Unless something falls through everything is claimed now.

No idea when/if such a thing will happen, really a matter of public interest.

Hey, sorry I haven't been around Pinside much lately. To be honest I kinda got bummed out on the constant negative energy in a lot of threads and been on a bit of a break. Still around, just not keeping so much of a regular eye on things.

Thanks to the folks who messaged me to say I might want to check the thread.

Yeah, that dude has been ripping me off for years. I can't be fussed to worry about it, he's in Brazil, I don't even have a Facebook account anymore. Wasting my time trying to stop someone in another country from selling bootlegs seems pointless. I assume the quality sucks, but I dunno.

Anyways, is what it is, but if you buy from anyone not me it's a bootleg, I don't give them to anyone else to sell. And obviously the quality will likely not be the high end printing process I use, but will also be a second generation scan or low resolution. Buyer beware and all that.

As far as another run goes, I can look into. I always say "this one is final" now, because it always feels like it will be. But if somehow there's enough interest I can try and make it happen.

I usually try for 10. tbh I gotta figure out the printing situation, my guy who did it all for me has left the company and I think my printing costs are going to go up but a lot because I don't have the inside connect anymore.

All of you who've had my translites before know how nice they light up, that saturated super rich color comes from the RGB laser printing process, but it's not cheap. I basically got the employee discount before, but that's done now. Was a good run, appreciate my guy a lot, but yeah, no more insider to care care of me.

Okay, looks like I gotta figure this out. And when I said costs going up by a lot I don't have an exact figure yet, but when I last looked into it without my hookup the jump was in the $30-40 range. Just for some context. I'll dig into it more to really sort it out, just wanted to give a heads up that if the price goes up that's why.

Yeah, you're not wrong, just wanted to be up front about it.

Hey, I see people posting here, sorry I'm not around as much these days. On a bit of a Pinside break, just needed space from too many people arguing or culture warring and just dragging their bad vibes into what is supposed to be a place to chill out.

I haven't vanished or anything, just not checking in as often as I might have used to.

I gotta reach out to my old printer and figure out what the steps are like now to do a run without his guidance, he used to handle so much of the process for me that I'm not as confident in everything at the moment is all. Means I can't say "oh sure I can get this started in 2 weeks" like I normally would.

Okay, sorry to have gone dark again, just took our eldest to his first year of college, been sort of a crazy last month. Just haven't had the mental bandwidth to really think about pinball with everything going on. But he's settled now, classes started, everything going well and I'm coming up for air.

I gotta get this sorted for all of you, so I'm in contact with my old printer and he's going to help me figure out the order. Let's get this done!

If such a thing exists it would definitely help. I feel like I've been so slow to respond I probably need to contact everyone on the list to see if they're still in. I know how it goes, someone is going to say "thanks I sold the game last week" lol.

I appreciate the assist, but if the list doesn't already exist I can just handle it. Maybe people are already messaging you, just don't want to leave anyone out or create a bunch of work for you tracking people down.

For anyone who wants to be in on this run, I've put up a Google form to ask for your email and Pinside name:

https://forms.gle/pxdbxKweVKRx3jyf9

If you've already sent PachHerrera your info feel free to sign up there still. I'll double check anything they send me against that list. I'll try and get the link out to anyone who's asked me about it too for folks who miss reading this too.

I'll work on a final price. As I said my costs are going up, it was $200 shipped in the US before, I expect to be able to keep it under $250, see what I can do. I'll give everyone a final cost before I place the order, that will be your last chance to back out of committing for any reason.

Lemme know if you have questions, otherwise all you need to do is sign up at that link. I'll give people a little time to sign up, and then update again when it looks like signups have stopped.