Time it does take. I put in an uncounted number of hours (estimated 300-500hrs over two+ years) drawing Medusa at 6400% zoom (11 color layers counting black, by far the most detail and hardest), and even more on Flash Gordon before that. If memory serves, when the films were found to be unusable, I think Stu was going to draw Paragon, he's much faster than me, so it should be well in hand (if not already done).

-Jim

PS And yes Paragon is an excellent game. I'm waiting on a field too for mine. I do like play on some other early Bally's better though. In order Fathom, Flash Gordon, Paragon/Centaur/Medusa (3 way tie)

Four color process backglass vs spot playfield (or spot color glass) are two completely different animals. Reproductions of the former will always be inferior copies of the original (the Xerox effect) whereas the latter (spot color artwork) can be as good or in the case of CPR better_ than original. This is due to the fact that spot colors can be traced exactly and trapped properly. Errors in the original art can even be fixed (and there are many small errors especially in trapping and key lines). The four color process (think many tiny dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black like a magazine image is made) will always suffer from generational loss as the dots making up the original art are themselves an analog of the original painting used for the backglass and the process cannot be reversed to get a copy as good as the first one was from the original art. Still a reproduced backglass by CPR is far better than a beat peeling scratched glass or no glass at all.

Yes I remember our exchanges. I hope you enjoy your Medusa field. Long story, but mine is still in the process of being swapped (but it is underway). I can't wait to play it soon.

Undeniably, the one on the left is clearly the glass I would use, no doubt. That is the original, and from the picture looks to be in near perfect shape. My comment on a repro being better than a peeling, blistered, scratched or otherwise missing original is still relevant. With such a perfect original, one should never consider the repro when it comes to 4 color backglasses.

Now on to the color, which is clearly one of the biggest problem people have had with the repros. There is no doubt that the repros have big issues with color. The saturation is miles off (as are some of the colors on certain glasses). I can only offer that CPR knows this and thinks they have a solution that will work better for the future. Clearly the early runs/attempts had significant issues, and my understanding is those arose from several sources. One had something to do with the hole size of the screens used and how that affected the colors. Another may have been the ink (I don't have the real specific details, though they were explained to me once or twice).

I will state however my own personal belief again. When it comes to playfield and plastic reproductions that are spot color pieces, I have very few if any reservations on quality and would jump at using repros in my machines. I don't personally feel the same way about backglass repros and have avoided them if I have an acceptable original.