The product I’m suggesting is a silicone sleeve made specifically for LED strips. Though honestly it might be easier to buy new pre-sleeved LEDs and just replace them for home users. They’re clearly very standard strips, it’s an easy solder job.

I don’t mean to sound critical, but exposed LED strips look very homebrew and low rent to my eye. I know it’s easy to say “add a couple bucks to the BOM” but if I were Spooky I’d seriously look into the silicone. The end look is really lovely, think Tron fiber optics instead of bare bulbs and exposed copper strips.

Do a search for “LED neon flex” to see examples of what I’m talking about. Here’s a sign I made for my garage using it, look at this glow versus hot spotted lights.

Anyways just offering a solution, home buyers can certainly do it themselves. Easier than the Tron ramp mod so many of us have done.

52305294-E70D-454A-9E2C-B1BC1E3E5B63 (resized).jpeg

I’m a big Halloween fan and think the pin looks amazing. Really smart artist choice!

Don’t want my only contribution to this thread to sound negative. Congrats Spooky!

No worries, just wanted to make sure it was clear so people could look it up if they cared. Here, since we're still on the topic I'll save people time, this is an example:

https://www.superlightingled.com/164ftroll-513mm-120-top-emitting-antiglare-silicone-sleeve-flexible-led-neon-tube-for-10mm-led-light-strips-p-4092.html

You need to look for "top emitting" like that one because the strips bend perpendicular to the LEDs to wrap around the wood. A lot of the ones on the market, like the ones I used for my sign, are "side emitting", because they're meant for the LEDs to be bent into shapes like letters, so parallel to the LEDs.

Good info! I figured they weren't WS2812 because it looked like they were 4 wire strips. APA-102C is a two wire protocol so checks out. Those are going to be more responsive than WS2812. And more expensive, so Spooky definitely didn't "cheap out" on the lighting there.

This is great. Bowen is a big asset, I'm sure he's being a great mentor.

But I feel like I want to say one thing: Spooky is a family company. They've always been that way. They don't always do things the way I would, I don't agree with every decision Charlie makes. It's his company though, not mine! And he's clearly shown that his way works.

And you know what? Bug doing the rules is f—ing great, and if people don't like it then maybe just pause for a moment before you start banging on your keyboard. Just think for a second about what you want to say, and who's reading it.

Who here has been around a while? Who's watched this family go from passionate enthusiasts to a success story that sells out their runs in hours? How could you not be stoked for Bug to be doing the rules for a game? Imagine sending him a message through time telling him he'd be doing this 7 years ago.

We can nitpick the small stuff, like Exposed LED Gate, and do the usual backseat driving on this and that. But it would be cool to see more people happy for Bug instead of worrying he's going to somehow screw it all up. I'm sure Charlie is enormously proud of him, and he should be.

My two cent rant.

Congrats, you're an old fogey now.

Just like every generation before you reached old fogey status, and complained about the kids and their music. It's utterly normal to hold up the culture—be it music or movies or anime or whatever else—of your teenage years as the pinnacle. It's what formed your tastes for the most part. There's a reason nostalgia is so powerful of a tool. It sells a lot of pinball machines!

I used to really champion the idea of original themes being something pinball needed. I've basically given up on the idea. It's clear that even the boutique makers like Spooky are better off with licenses. I might not like it, but you can't argue with the results.

I give Spooky a lot of credit for doing Rick and Morty, that wasn't a nostalgia play. And you know what? A lot of people here had never watched it, tried it because of the pin, and had a great time. Because being "new" isn't the same as being "shite".

Just remember, any year or era of music that you love had a ton of garbage come out then too. It's just all been forgotten about, tossed in history's dust bin. Only the stuff with staying power remains.

And in 20 years someone will look back on Demon Slayer the way you look back on Ninja Scroll.

The cycle continues.

You seem to want this:

bad-spin.gif

But that's not what a pinball looks like when moving. The reflections don't spin, they stay stable while the ball spins, which you really don't see. Like so:

How-a-Pinball-Machine-Works-in-Slow-Motion.gif

I mean no offense, but what they did is actually paying attention to the details if you want to get pedantic about it.

If you don't care for the look that's cool, but it's accurate!

There was talk of it 5 years ago. I'm glad it didn't get the Jetsons treatment. I don't mean this in a rude way, just being honest, it's a theme that deserves a better game than that.

Sure, it makes sense. It's accurate, smooth spheres don't shimmer, but it looks a little funny. The more I watch it the less it bothers me, but I get the response.

The difference, in my mind at least, is you could say something like "it would be cool if the ball could have something that added a little more illusion of spin" instead of "this looks rushed, they should have spent 30 seconds in After Effects, I hope they pay more attention to detail". Or, just wait until you see more, it's only a teaser after all.

But one is a personal preference and a polite criticism/request (we're all allowed those), the other kinda implies that the people who made it are lazy.

It's a real bummer, as a creator, to show something and have people immediately find personal complaints to imply you're lazy and not good at your job. I'm trying to be more considerate of people's feelings, not just because I've been on the other side of it myself, but because I've talked to pinball creators who feel like shit when Pinside dumps on them in personal ways. They read what gets said here. Even the people at Stern you never see, not just the companies brave enough to hang in the lion's den like Spooky.

I won't write an essay on this topic, but I've talked to multiple people at Stern at length about this, face-to-face and on the phone. People who have been in pinballs decades+, and they told me that it wears down their spirit when something you're passionate about comes with people who make constant personal remarks.

I can personally attest that being "thick skinned" only goes so far when there's a deluge of people who can't just be critical of your work, but also need to attack your character, your work ethic, and how much you care. Calling you lazy etc.

Whether it's Spooky or someone else, just be mindful that this is a small community, and the people you're talking about will quite likely see, or hear about, your words. If you wouldn't say it to their face—not hiding behind the anonymity of your keyboard—consider if it's the right way to say it.

Nah, Ben has said it's a good theme several times. In this very thread!

Violent_Night-279974021-large (resized).jpg

The original is an illustrated story about a board game that comes to life, enveloping the players in their world. The author/illustrator Chris Van Allsburg is really fantastic, I'm a big fan. Gorgeous, often black and white, drawings. Worth looking up if that's your thing.

4EjrbYxgNLTKrhUl8Syd-_3tblXdyVxeEqSkPSzrqa8 (resized).jpg

There never was a board game, but after the movie brought hype to the name someone did actually make one.

theres-a-name-ive-not-heard-in-many-years.gif

You should 100% do this. The "making of" videos Stern puts out are some of their best marketing imo.

Comet (resized).png

Another wrinkle is the older the movie the more likely the license stuff is murky simply because the contracts back then weren't written with the idea that an actor might appear in another medium besides the film. With Alien we weren't allowed to use any British actors because they had differently written contracts that covered their appearance rights differently. This was the late 70s, the concept that a video game or pinball might be made with an actor on a screen just wasn't on the radar.

I forget who the actor in question was now, but it meant that if they were in the background of a scene we couldn't use it, because their likeness wasn't cleared. Or maybe we cropped them out of something. It's been too long to recall, but that's the kind of thing nobody thinks about until you end up dealing with it.

Another thing that's changed is the voice acting rules with unions etc. I'm not an expert on this part, it's only been explained to me, but as I understand it the minimum rates are such that something like STTNG could realistically never happen now. Just be too wildly expensive to get all the screen actors to do custom callouts like they did then for some base rate + giving them a game.

This is such a great theme, but I'd only want it from true fans of the show who were passionate about the idea. It's the kind of thing that you gotta get the tone right, if you're not really into it and just using all the assets it could come out pretty disappointing.