Well, if there is some chemical process that changes the white to cream on some playfields, then I suppose it is possible that my playfield was white in 1982 and changed to cream by the time I bought it in 1984. All I know is that I have an original playfield that has been cream for a long time.

When I got it, it was pretty badly worn and had a thick piece of mylar covering just the area between the slingshots. I removed that mylar, did quite a bit of touch-up to various worn areas, and then installed the full thin mylar sheet (which I had to order from Bally through Betson). The mylar'd area has held up quite well over time, but the areas not covered have gotten worse.

Eventually I will do either a swap or a hardtop (probably a swap), but that's a project for the future.

Some of you guys are letting Gene confuse you.

At the same time that EBD was being made, Fender made their 25th Anniversary Stratocaster in a special edition Porsche Silver paint.

(get it, 25th anniversary is the "silver anniversary")

Even though they all left the factory 40 years ago in a bright silver, genuine Porsche paint - they have now turned a disgusting gold/green. Even if kept in a case for 4 decades, they look like they have 100 years of nicotine stains.

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So nubies in the guitar collecting hobby will say they got a "Golden Anniversary Strat", or argue that "They must have shipped them that color, my dad died right after he bought it, and it's been in the closet the entire time!!!!"

But everyone who was around in 1979 remembers that they indeed were originally bright silver.

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The paint simply has aged badly, Fender did not make a bunch of green or gold Strats for their big milestone.....

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Okay so mine is not a Gene pf, no registration grid. I put it in in the early 90s. I'm still kinda confused about the whole white vs. cream thing. Is it supposed to apply to the entirety of white on the playfield? I thought mine was cream on some art (under plastics, the top arch, some other places) and pure white on other art like the pool balls. But now I think maybe I was kidding myself even after comparing photos of spots side by side on my monitor, and actually the whole damn thing is essentially the same white, and no cream.

That reminds me of the Brunswick bicentennial pool balls. I bought 5 sets. Never used them. Stored in the original boxes in the shipping master carton in a dark closet. 25 years later I dug them out. The white parts on all the balls had turned a cream color.

LTG : )

LOL

I've got a bicentennial proof coin set encased in plastic.

Even though it's been in the original presentation slip case all these years, the plastic has turned amber.

Looks like total shlt

An NOS PF from this time period almost always needs to be restored. For example, inserts can be loose and they almost always have lots of other issues despite being NOS. I purchased an NOS Paragon PF years ago for 1k and had Kruzman restore it for another $700. The work he did on the NOS was intense...well worth the money. I ended up selling that and picked up a CPR Paragon PF that I waited almost a decade for It is awesome...currently hanging on my wall.

Cpr for sure. Everyone except Pinside experts will be amazed with a flat, bright, smooth Cpr playfield.

The digital print playfields are below the quality of the silkscreen units.

Quality has been traded off for availability.

For a point of comparison: An actual Bally Night Rider playfield and its WHITE, even after all this time. Cracked, faded a little but still white.

My Flash Gordon is clearly NOT WHITE, its a light, light cream and much darker/yellow in the areas not covered with posts and ramps due to sun exposure..

The simple answer I can think of is rather than do a separate layer for light cream it was the initial color not white.

Maybe it was discontinued for the issues we are seeing now, Bally tried all sorts of things even plastic playfields.

The IPB playfield looks really goofy, way to dark in the light areas.

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Here's the biggest flaw on my CPR Gold ES, contamination/debris under the silkscreen. It's like a bulge trying to poke through. I love what they do, but I'll stick with non-Gold and expect imperfections vs getting this on a Gold.

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Heh, they musta made pinball plastics back then outta the same stuff. I still have the original saucer lane ball guide in my EBD (cuz the repro of that plastic was a piece of crap and was chipping). It's yellowed but it is mostly covered with another plastic so doesn't bother me.
This thread is beginning to look like it could just be cut and pasted into the "EBD Owners and Restoration" thread, it would fit.

The one thing that yellowed the most over time was the Butyrate plastic sets.

Oh now you tell me haha. This thread made me go immediately to cpr where I discovered they had a sole meteor playfield in stock so I bought that, new backglass and new plastics. The price for all three as a bundle was not bad.

4 different manufacturers used to do the playfields for Bally back then.

So one of them got a bad batch(es) of ink.

It happens.

Same thing with guitars, cars and some Williams playfields.

But it was not the intended color. If it was, then we would see the Pantone color code for "custard puke" on the first layer screen

No one denies that people own gold 25th anniversary guitars, but it was certainly not Fender's intention.

Isn't that what I've been saying all along...some original playfields were white, and some were cream?

Maybe it was one playfield manufacturer that did cream, maybe it was just one particular playfield batch - but some were white and some were not - and they were all "original" (not reproductions, IPB or otherwise).

As for what color was actually intended, I have no idea. Maybe the cream was an intentional experiment, maybe it was a mistake somewhere.

I'm agreeing with you that there are custard playfields out there.

They were white when new (or they would have been rescreened), and simply used defective ink.

The NOS will need a topcoat of clear and will need all the cupped inserts filled and leveled. Without a new topcoat, the NOS will wear and chip rather quickly, and the cupped inserts will divert the ball path.

The CPR will give you a much more durable playing surface, flat inserts, and of course the intended colors when the game was originally produced.

I have a CPR Star Trek playfield that doesn't even have the right color inserts so don't share your enthusiasm for the vendor in question.

You should have returned it if it bothered you.

I've got OEM playfields from Williams with the wrong inserts installed that I've posted pictures of. I'm sure Williams did not care, anything to keep the line moving, lol.

Part of a 5 pin package, not going to blow up the deal for a detail on a single pin.

Just pointing out they make mistakes and not infailable. By any stretch.

Depends on the current condition of the NOS, how much the inserts are cupped, how much play this playfield already has on it and how much it will be played in home use, assuming it will be. Again mine's been played in house for 20+ years, no wear or chipping except very slight wearing on the very outer edge of the keyline art or whatever they call the black ring on two or three of the inserts. No ball tracks or chipping. On the other hand NOSs are twice as old now, and there are lots of pics of original EBDs that lived the routed arcade life that look like somebody took a power sander to them because it's a killer game and they got so much play.

He who has never made a mistake among pinballers, let him cast the first stone at the backglass.

Agree.
Williams also did sample contracting to wannabe playfield screeners.
I ended up with a bad Comet playfield... The engineers at Williams
told me about sample processes to potential contractors.
Luckily that company was not chosen.

Yes, my original EBD playfield has the 70K and Extra Ball inserts swapped. The guys at the factory either didn't notice, or figured nobody would really care.

Not an acceptable answer when providing goods or services.

It's hilarious that you are butthurt about a product that you bought, knowing it was "defective" (second hand yet).

It would be 100x more hilarious if you were crying about the 1979 Bally Star Trek, because everyone in the hobby knows that there were at least 4 different factory variations in the saucer inserts: Yellow BALLY, White BALLY, Red Special, and White Special

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Was there ever a good Comet playfield???

"Hey boss, what should we do with all this chalk? Ya want me to make some ink for Williams? That Neil is a sonobitch"

Ahem.

Not sure why you continue to make excuses for a vendor well known for providing product of uneven quality.

Compare to the picture you just posted.

Edit: This is a pointless discussion. You attack me on one example I have pointed out. I have purchased several sets of plastics, a playfield or two and backglasses from CPR and none of them have been the same quality as the original pieces. None.

Your attacks on my character will not change that a wit.

It is nice someone makes replacement parts, would be nicer if they stepped up the quality of them to of at least OEM.

Done here.

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Those are the variations that generally go with the "White Special" on the Saucer playfields.

Did you want CPR to make 4 separate versions, lol ???

If your butthole is still puckering over it, send it to me and I will install any color insert you want in about 2 minutes.

Sadly, looking over the new playfields by the two vendors...
A loss of fine detail is getting more dissolved from the original OEM playfield.

What are you talking about??

No one is attacking you.

I even offered to modify your playfield into the version you believed to be the correct one.

Back in 2011, most of the original films were yet undiscovered in Gene's mess.

So reproduction playfields, plastics and backglasses were just color matched by eye vs the Pantone books.

4 different OEM vendors and 40 years of aging, means the orange on your NOS Lec-Smith Sorcerer may not match my NOS Churchill Sorcerer.

My early NOS early Xenon may have 2 additional inserts, although your NOS late Xenon has 3 additional GI lamp holes - neither is "correct", LOL.

-

Now that most of the original films are being unearthed by PPS, we have the actual original artist's Pantone color numbers, right on each layer of the film.

So that super deep Pantone "Royal Cobalt" blue may look way too saturated compared to your 40 year old original - but it is absolutely the correct color spec'ed by the original artist.

Yeah, soon all the digital reproductions will just be grainy junk that does not stick to the substrate. And all the fun colors like that super hot fuchsia on Silver Ball Mania will just be bla pink....