I'm pretty sure there was another thread out there doing this, but just felt like I may as well share. I've been working on putting LEDs in all my games (I'm neutral on the look overall, but feel like reducing heat is worth it.) I figured it couldn't hurt to take some pictures of different types of bulbs in GI, and I had my Fish Tales opened up already, so thought I may as well use that. Hopefully this helps someone!

1. standard bulbs (left) vs. Cointaker warm white Retros (right)
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2. Cointaker warm white Frosted (left) vs. Cointaker warm white Retros (right)
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3. Cointaker cool white Supers (left) vs. Cointaker warm white Retros (right) 0710131916.jpg

Observations:
-Any LED is going to be brighter than a standard bulb.
-Retros and Frosted both seem to disperse light pretty well, and provide more light spread out over at least as great an area as standard.
-Retros and frosted are VERY similar in terms of amount of light and area of dispersement. Retros may be slightly brighter, but frosted are substantially less expensive.
-Supers seem to not throw light in as many directions; looking at the slingshot plastic, you can see dark areas where they don't illuminate very well.
-Largely personal preference, but GI (at least for games of this era) looks best in warm white.

My personal opinion:
Retro > Frosted > standard bulbs > Supers

Cost be damned, retro is the nicest, but Frosted is by far the best bang-for-the-buck.

Use your imagination!

They were lost in (cyber) space.

Most of the differences are rather subtle; I added some conclusions to the first post.

Yeah, and the evenness of how the light is dispersed really makes the retros and frosted better. For GI, the supers kinda look like ass, in comparison.

I've got a Gottlieb Totem ('79, Solid State, but very similar look to an EM.) The retros look great in inserts, but frosted are perfectly sufficient. Retros above the playfield keep the original look of the game and improve brightness enough to be well worth it, in my mind.

Burningman, I'll do something similar with Space Shuttle soon - I've already got some pictures of different LEDs in the inserts of that one, and will do the same with the GI in a bit.

Whoa, good call on that! I'd totally overlooked those, and am kicking myself for that now. It looks like those are only available under the GI section (which I'd passed up while looking at the other type-specific sections.) Next time I order from Cointaker, I'll snag some of those.