Hard tops are an amazing product. You are always too hard on them though. Blackout is a dirt cheap game. Abundant but cheap. They are rolling out titles that are more likely to have collectors willing to drop money into restoring. Yes, you and I love Blackout and want to see it get the Hardtop love but more expensive/popular titles like Pinbot, High Speed, Black Knight and SoF are more likely to have fans that are willing to drop the money and effort into the restore. Idk about down there but the titles I mentioned are all about 3k cdn. A blackout goes for $1,800cdn if it is great and doesnt need a Hardtop. I can get one for 1k to restore. It's a business move. Your patience will pay off. I've been assured more than once that Blackout IS happening......eventually.

But of course the problem is that I've got a disassembled pin sitting there waiting because "it is happening"..on the one hand that isn't their problem BUT it was supposed to be here 6 months ago.

I've been sitting on this disassembled project for over a year because "it is happening"...that's not cool.

Do they have a licensing problem? OK, thanks for letting me know...I'll put it together now.
Are they just not getting to it because they don't personally own one and they still need the art? Ok, I'll put mine together now.
Everything is all set to go but we are installing new machines and it'll be out in Q4 2019...I'll wait and wait and wait...

It isn't a state secret. When? I understand that they have "day jobs" and that this is a sideline.
I'm not even asking for a daily or weekly update.

I'm just asking not to be treated like a mushroom (meaning they keep us in the dark and shovel shit on us).
I understand that it is a lower end pin but it too has fans.
Firepower and Mata Hari are lower end pins too.
Collectors will spend to have a nice Blackout.

They've been communicative whenever I've had an inquiry. Sounds like you jumped the gun on a project that the desired parts weren't ready for yet and now you are getting a little overly invested in the grief its caused you being the fault of Outside Edge. They didnt make an official announcement or anything. They tried to give give your (and my) inquiry the best answer they could at the time. If its causing you anger I say drive the sucker up to the border. I'll meet you for coffee and pinball and take her off your hands
I've been fortunate the other way where I'm still looking to replace my Blackout so I'm glad there isnt a Hardtop out yet and only us true Blackout fans are looking at them.

Hell, maybe there is something up here you are looking for. I could pick something up for you along the way and bring it along.
I'm in Hamilton ,ON. Border seems about halfway from here to Kalamazoo

Edit: cheap titles obviously. Not looking for any customs drama. Pins umder 2k(cdn) dont seem to be an issue.

The issue is that I bought a pin that was disassembled because it was the pin that I wanted the most and it was the only one available after 9 months of waiting. THEN, rather than just cleaning it and putting it back together and playing it for the last 13 months I listened to them when they said "It'll be out in the 4th quarter of 2019" so I sent out the boards and bought a bunch of parts and have done a fair amount of work on it...it is just still disassembled and waiting for the damn hardtop.

I owned a business for 15 years. The trick to having a lasting business is underpromise and overdeliver.

These guys simply aren't doing anything.
You ask them a question and they don't respond.
They get testy on the Hardtops thread.

The problem is that they seem to be the only game in town and they know it.

I'm not taking it personally, just like they shouldn't take my annoyance with their business practices/communication personally.
They are a monopoly and they should continue to not give a shit what those of us who will someday buy their product think.

Er wait, what?

My biggest problem is that I have limited space. I have a deal set up for the next project (assembled. Just needs some board work, which I would do anyway) and my wife is going to be testy about it given the delays that I've had getting this pin together. Not their problem but they are impacting the situation and not in a positive way.

I'd like to play some Blackout.
I've already overspent on parts--seems to be the norm with this title.
I'd like to get on with it and finally be done with it.

Will I ever buy a disassembled pin in the future? No.
Will I ever buy a partially completed project in the future? Probably not.
Buy just a playfield? Hard pass.
Buy something with cabinet problems? Likely no.

Will I try to focus on titles that will not require a hardtop in the future? Yeah, that's a no-brainer.

Any pictures of the current Playfield? Is it savable?

the issue is that the previous owner started an insert replacement (it had loose, cupped, cloudy and raised inserts). There is some sanding and touchup that needs to occur. I also need to get on the stick and get my prepared inserts inserted. I just do not want to start this and then stop and then start again. I also don't want to put it all back together and then two weeks later have the hardtop get released. As I understand it, the hardtop will solve several problems and save me a few days of work for a bit, wait to dry and cure, work a bit more, wait, blah, blah, blah.

It would have been a great candidate for Kruzman if the previous owner hadn't sanded it.

With what I've spent so far, I'd like to continue to do the pin the right way, not just half-ass it for now with the idea that I do more later...tearing everything apart. Again.

I should have just put it together a year ago. Got it running asap in "players condition" but because I needed to send out the boards and the a hard top was due "in a couple months" I didn't.
It is my fault that I didn't put it together then.
But that doesn't mean that I need to be cheerful about not having an expected hardtop release time frame. It's annoying.

Then do that.

And then assemble it and play in player's condition to work out any mech bugs, etc.

And then when the hardtop is finally released, just tear down the topside (Blackout is not complex or difficult, you can tear it down in less than an hour!), loosen the sling and target mechs, etc... and go about the Hardtop install as you would if you had it today. There's no real need to dismantle the bottom side, or the boards, or cabinet, or anything else. Therefore no need to wait on the hardtop for those.

So just go ahead and get it running! What's really stopping you? The only time you'd be truly out is top side reassembly and disassembly, but that's only 2 or 3 hours tops: a small price to pay if it means you can enjoy the game over however many more weeks or months it takes for OE to get their act together. They only just now released Pinbot, so Blackout is not the only delayed one... and Pinbot was far more potentially lucrative.

Besides, what if you wait for the hardtop to put it all back together and then discover you have to keep waiting even more because the boards still have a problem, or you're missing X parts, or some other issue you could have figured out meanwhile beforehand?

I say this as someone who also just serviced the boards, replaced all the triangle inserts, and leveled the round ones in his own game in the past few weeks, not for perfection but just to get the game prepped and playable to enjoy while we all wait.

The one thing that I do know is that the boards are solid now.
Tested for a couple of days in my tech guy's Blackout.

I wasnt joking if you want to meet up

I'm so upside down on this pin I need to play it for a year at least before anything like that happens.
And even then of the two I have, this is my favorite.

But as I said, it is a race against the clock...I need this pin up and running by June because that is when my Meteor guy shows up.

I'm still seriously bumming about that hardtop too. They did say it was next up... back when... when I've asked I get silence. Mine is a great player... but really wanted to up the playfield with a hardtop to deal with the planking.

Yes...you are. Give up now........

So does anyone in my area have a Blackout they are done with? I'm looking to replace my first pin. I WAS looking for QC and that would still he great but with this new found time on my hands I would look at a project as well. Willing to ship within Canada if its the right Blackout for me. Willing to drive most if Ontario and a bit of Quebec. Havent done the border purchase thing as of yet.

The the post above, clearly just messing with you

http://www.outsideedgeproducts.com/
city-lights-blackout_orig (resized).png

ss-pinball

Oh the teaser...

Now that we have the teaser, does anyone have any idea it'll be?

Based on what I've heard, any day now. Within the next week tops
Now I just need to find a damned machine. Covid has kind of dried the used market
I grabbed a Black Knight to work on in the meantime but I'd much rather have a Blackout again. I'm a scifi nerd and it was my first pin.

Enjoy mine, didn't think I would at first. If I'm playing and don't make Blackout by the last ball the start button gets mashed again.

20200421_100610 (resized).jpg

Kayso...general question...pristine cabinets or do you leave the scuffs and scars?

Only time I do repaints is badly trashed, otherwise light touchups

Hi, Blackout fan's and first time forum poster here!! Just chiming in to say I love the soft wewewewewewewewewewew sound this machine makes! Cheers Blackout fan's!

Just wrapping an original Blackout board set and noticed something odd about the speech board. Mine has 3 ROM's on it for the speech. This one which I think is from a slightly earlier game has 4 speech ROM's installed. So far it all sounds the same.

How many speech ROM's does your game have?

Blackout ROM file I have has 1 sound ROM and 3 Voice ROMs

That's what I have in my game. This has 1 sound ROM and 4 voice ROM's on the other board. Maybe a couple ROM's were smaller so it takes up an extra ROM to hold all the speech on earlier games. So far I can't hear any difference.

Hmm, interesting. The voice ROMS are 4K and doesn't look like there are jumper settings for bigger or smaller ROMS unless someone physically modified the board and changed the addressing on the sockets.

The other option is if the 4th ROM socket is populated with an extra ROM or a junk ROM, it wouldn't change a thing. The CPU would never access it since the program isn't looking for a ROM there.

Do all 4 ROMs look the same? Can you read any numbers off the ROMs?

Would be interesting to read the contents of those 4 ROMs to see whats there.

Just saw on FB

F5D6F450-60BD-48BA-ADE6-8AE54FDF3EF8 (resized).jpeg

Has anyone installed the reproduction backglass in their game? How is the colour accuracy? I know my cpr Black Knight backglass is noticeably different than the original. A lot more blues and less blacks than the original. Not a big deal on Black Knight (moslty the horse) but it could be with Blackouts space theme.

I never had original backglass, so I couldn't give you a comparison. Mine has LEDs, and there are a few sockets needing replaced still..

IMG_20191122_212905_01 (resized).jpg

IMG_20191122_215721_01 (resized).jpg

Obviously pictures can be deceiving but I would say there are some definite colour palette differences. Most noticeably the blues and greys imo. Nothing bad, just different.
Overall, you are happy with the quality?

Screenshot_20200521-133448_Chrome (resized).jpg

Screenshot_20200521-133548_Gallery (resized).jpg

The reds also seem more orangey in the repro

The original is also brighter tones of yellow. Look at the lighting on his back from the explosion. The repro hardly shows this.

*whoever makes these
Place dont take my not picking as critisism. Most original backglasses are garbage so.a repro available is a blessing.

How is the mirror finish?

I see a Grand lizard in the back ground.

The mirror finish is good

I am happy with it... I tried to a few different colors in the backglass LED to make it pop a little more, and I am going to get around to relooking it after I replace the sockets that are toasted.

The only thing that has always bothered me is the actual Blackout script. I don't know if the original the same, but mine feels off somehow.. like the letters are to chunky..

Still haven't found a replacement for my Blackout
Just thought I'd share this thought Id had recently,...
There were 8 days between SoF final colour correct to release date.
Today is 13 days since final colour correct to Blackout.
I'd bet we see something beautiful rolling out any day now

Look what was posted today! And in case you haven’t figured it out it was me doing the prototype with Outside Edge! It is gorgeous!!!

101C69E7-EDEE-4A85-BC82-4C518FCD68CC (resized).png

World's biggest coincidence that today is trending as Blackout Tuesday? Unintentional I would hope.

You had to post this in 2 threads? Don't try to stir up something

Take it how you want man but all I meant was it is genuinely a huge coincidence and that I am obviously not going to take away from what is going on because I'm excited about a pinball mod. I dont see how I'm stirring anything up. Stand down and play pinball. I've been one of the ones most excited to see a Blackout hardtop. Its.been my avatar since day one.

Can someone help me out? I'm putting a blackout back together, and I have a wire guide that I can't find a place for. I've included pics of the rest of the pf.

20200603_120305 (resized).jpg

20200603_120311 (resized).jpg

20200603_120315 (resized).jpg

Maybe to the right of the right most lane guide on the toplanes?

Yep, to the right of the last lane.

guide (resized).jpg

Thanks!

I'm replacing the bumper caps with these: https://www.pinballlife.com/britecaps-evo-pop-bumper-lighting.html

I used blue posts. I'm leaning towards blue for the caps, too. Thoughts?

Please dont take my comment personally but you asked
YUCK
those caps are terrible looking man. Dont do it.

Blackout, like all games of that era, are not brightly lit - put those Blue LED caps in there and you may need to turn them waaaaay down to keep from overpowering the rest of the game.

They might be fine turned as low as they can go and the pop feature might be coolish....
I would suggest red as they wont be as bright. play around with it - nothings permanent.

Post pics if you put some in.

I going with blue for now. I'll post some video next week once I install them.