I actually ripped the audio from the 1966 movie as well as all 3 seasons of the TV series into mp3 files. I've been listening to them in my car during my commute. Whenever I hear a good quote I write the episode number and time in a little notebook. There were a lot more subtle jokes than I remembered as a kid. The writers on the show were pretty clever.

I got all my replacement clear and white inserts. It was a busy weekend so I didn't get a chance to replace the old inserts with the new yet.

Since the old inserts now have a varathane clear coat over them I'm hoping they aren't too difficult to remove. I could sand everything back down to the wood then remove them but then I'll just have to re-sand again once the new inserts are glued in. So I'll see if I can get the old ones out first just by using a heat gun. If they are too stuck, then Ill sand it all down again.

I thought I'd have more flexibility if I made the insert lettering separate from the overlay. Using that method I was able to try a few different approaches with the inserts. If I made them part of the overlay then I'd have to reprint the entire overlay if I wanted to change anything.

A disadvantage with having the text as part of the overlay is that my clear overlay can't print white. So If I want colored text on the insert, I need to put white on the insert that aligns perfectly with the colored text on the overlay to they lay on top of each other perfectly. I was worried that this precise alignment would be too hard to achieve. So text on a clear overlay should be black unless you have white mask on your playfield. Many of my inserts were dark so black text would have been very hard to see. So i was able to use white water slide decals to make white bordered text that I though look better than just black text. If my inserts were clear or white than plain black text would have been OK.

That being said I have since decided to print the insert text as part of my overlay. When I installed the overlay I thought the text looked a little "hazy". even though I used an overlay with clear areas for the inserts it wasn't 100% clear and I didn't like how it looked.

Also, my first overlay had some alignment issues so I decided to redo it so the second one will have insert text as part of it. Since I was re-doing it I now had the chance to replace all my dark inserts with clear or white ones. This allows me to use black text and also allows me to have any color I want for the insert via a colored LED's. Changing all this is adding some more work but I think i like this approach better.

Also wanted to point out that Varathane does yellow after it dries. For my first overlay I painted my playfield white. Then applied my waterslide decals to the inserts then put clear Varathane down to seal in the decals, then applied the overlay. When I removed the overlay it took off the top layer of Varathane in some areas (mostly around inserts). In the pic below you can see the change in color between the white paint only and white paint with Varanthane on top of it. I don't thinks its noticeable when the entire playfield is uniformly covered. Plus after the overlay is applied it would be even less noticeable. But based on this I'm going to try min wax polycrylic instead of
Varathane for my next attempt.

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I'm gluing the new clear and white inserts in today. Its a lot of tedious work removing the old inserts and getting all the old glue out. using a dremmel tool with a mini sand paper drum helps clear out the holes. I also need to tweak the shape of each insert by sanding them a little as they are all not a perfect fit.

I'll be going on vacation with the family for two weeks so the inserts will have plenty of time to dry but no new updates for a while. As part of our trip we'll have two days in San Francisco. I'm hoping we can squeeze in time for a quick visit to the pacific pinball museum.

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Only if adding extra stuff (shaker, shocker, blinders, custom lighting, etc) goes beyond what I can do via pinduino type controllers and the pinsound board. I think I can get everything working using those mods with the existing board set.

I might do this in 2 phases. Phase1 would be a retheme with a few simple tings added. Phase 2 could be replace the board set with PROC or mission and add more customization like LCD replacing the current display for example.

Wouldn't you still need to mask off the insert area to keep paint out of the hole?

I also wanted the playfield to be very flat so after I glue the inserts in then I sand the entire playfield super smooth then paint.

Did you sand the clear after it dried or did it self level enough on its own?

Just back from my 2 week vacation yesterday. Has a great time with the family but its good to be home. I tried to stay disconnected so I'm just getting caught up with pinside now and it it looks like a Batman 66 edition is actually happening from Stern.

I saw the Stern expo party flier which showed a VIP meet and greet with Adam West. It said to ask your distributor for details so I called one and it appears you need to pre-order a Batman 66 premium machine from Stern to get a ticket to the meet and greet. Unfortunately there is currently no info on the machine so that makes it difficult to be comfortable with a pre-order.

Rumors are all over the place on this one. Some say its just a re-skin of a Stern Batman Dark Knight with traditional DMD, others says its a whole new layout with a color LCD. If it is a new layout, with color LCD, video clips, and custom speech by Adam or Burt I'm seriously tempted to jump into this one. If the art package and video clips are similar to what was used on the slot machine I think it will look great

And if they use Chris Franchi for the playfield or translite art then it would be a real home run. Chris has done a lot of Batman art in the past and is the artist for the DVD cover of the new Batman 66 animated film. He has a nice description of the design of the DVD cover art on his Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/Metaluna-5-Media-169657579716029/

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So the big question is what happens if I really like the new Stern version and decide to buy it.

Do I continue with my Batman re-theme and own 2 Batman 66 machines?
Do I skip the re-theme and just restore my playfield back to a Diner via a new overlay?
Do I re-theme the Diner into something else?

I already had an alternate idea for a re-theme in mind before settling on Batman (if you look at my pinside avatar you can probably guess what it is). If I change my re-theme idea I would would have to start over with new art elements but since I already have my inserts mapped it wouldn't take as long as the first time.

Decision, decisions. I guess I just need to sit tight and wait to see what the Stern version looks and plays like.

Someone earlier asked for the full playfield art. Here's what I came up with. Most of the art is from the Batman 66' comic.

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That would be pinsider betelgeuse. You can check out his excellent Flash Gordon to Ghostbusters retheme via these threads:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/first-look-ghostbusters-custom
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbusters-custom-pinball-official-video
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbusters-custom-pinball-inside-look

His thread was also an inspiration to try my own. I saw a few of his posts on the various Ghostbusters threads and saw he ordered a Ghostbusters premium. He has since canceled due to what I assume are playfield concerns. Not sure if he'll re-order it once Stern solves their problem.

A big difference between me and betelgeuse is that he finished his re-theme a few years before the stern version came out. I should ask him if would have continued with his theme if Stern Ghostbusters came out while he was in the overlay design stage of his version or if he would have choosen another theme instead.

Another problem is I don't have a lot of room in the basement so two Batman 66 pins would be a bit much. I like to keep as much variety as I can in my small space.

It certainly would. Dr Zin, Lizard men, The Pterodactyl, all great stuff.

I was wondering though if an EM machine would be a better fit for Jonny though?
That was on my shortlist for when Batman is done.

Also a huge fan of the modern take on Jonny, The Venture Bros.
I love the episode where they paid homage to the giant walking eye from Jonny Quest.
The benefits of a walking eye are many and clear.

Hmmmm..... Maybe a Jonny Quest EM and a companion Venture Bros solid state? Sorta fits.the shows since Venture Bros is a more modern funny take of the older classic Jonny Quest.

I think my decision depends what the new stern machine is like. If it's different layout than DK with a color LCD that would sway me to get one a lot more than just a simple response skin of DK with DMD.

If i decide to buy it then I won't want two 66 batman machines. If i don't buy it then I think I'll continue as planned.

Rick and morty was on my retheme shortlist as well.

I was thinking about using police force for a while because I know about its Batman history. The reason I didn't was because I couldn't use the pinsound board with it. Changing the audio mix is a lot easier with pinsound so I decided to limit my choices to pinsound supported machines. Plus I think the layout of Diner fit my theme integration better and i think it's a better game than police force (sorry police force fans).

Still waiting to find out what stern does with their version of Batman 66. If the art looks good I'll be very tempted to get it. If the art is good but they don't use the classic voices or music I can always change those via pinball browser.

An advantage of the stern version over mine version would be the display. I still haven't figured out how to hack the text in the sys11c display. In the stern version it will have either a DMD or LCD which will be full of Batman 66 goodness.

A lot of the "gadgets" I was thinking about adding to my retheme ( blinders covering flippers, disabling flippers, elec shock to lock down bar, bat computer with vid clips, etc could also be put into the stern version if I wanted to as well.

Hoping stern release some more info soon so I can decide which way to go. The anticipation is killing me.

Diner cup would also be a nice fit for the flying cocoon lair of the monarch.

like this

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