See what we can do about that eventually.

It's just not practical to get a license for the small runs I do for Pinside, so it's just gonna be grey area. If they send me a cease and desist or something then so be it. The artwork will all be original though, not using anything from posters or movies or anything like that. It's no different from The Shadow in that regard. I don't sell these anywhere else, I only do them for the community, I'm not really worried about it.

Assuming what I do appeals to people won't be a problem to get light kits done, Gio has already told me he wants to do one for it.

Oh I'm doing the Enterprise, no question, I'm just not going to steal anyone else's art for it, I'll do my own from scratch. To me there's a big difference between just ripping off a copyrighted image, copying and pasting some movie still (which even in HD would be pretty low rez for a translite print) or a poster or whatever, and doing my own high rez original art without asking for Paramount's permission to do it first.

No licensing department wants to talk to some guy about doing a relative handful of pinball translites for an enthusiast forum, either I do it under the radar or it doesn't happen.

Honestly I'm not worried about it, I doubt anyone will know or care, it's just Pinside, I don't sell them anywhere else.

I don't dislike my Premium translite, but it honestly doesn't do a lot for me, I'm not super stoked on the actor's faces, especially when they're sort of weirdly crammed in at different sizes with little dinky ships over them. Still working out my design, but it's gotta feature the ship, and not people, and it has to meet my quality standards. If anyone else likes it, then great! That's one thing that's nice about designing for a machine I own, as long as I make myself happy it's worth doing.

Definitely will do apron cards, but I think I want new apron decals too. I get why there's an epilepsy warning on there, but personally I don't want it on my home game, rather have some artwork. I could look at what it would take to do coin reject labels.

Pinbits protectors are the only "must haves" IMHO.

I just pushed mine down, with a little pressure it moved fine, no muss no fuss. I didn't want to pause my Rappin' 4-Tay to watch your video though, so maybe that's all you said too.

I can try and remember to take a pic, but it's just a black box over the whole emblem, so just imagine a strip of black plastic and you're pretty much there. I kinda want to see how necessary the box really is, might be a less intrusive way to do it. No question it works though.

IMHO they don't really play all that similar or feel that much the same, especially with STTNG being a wide body. But if you want an honest opinion from a Star Trek owner don't buy it until the new code drops. If I was telling a friend who had to buy *right now* none of this be patient stuff? Get Metallica, it's the better game currently. The Karl Urban update could put them on more even footing. But better to wait and see at this stage.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun right now. But for a small collection where you're gonna be playing it a lot? It could use more, it can feel a little grindy.

They're more red than that pic though, it's a tough color to photograph since it's a bit of a metallic candy red. It's way nicer in person for sure.

Star Trek is a ton of fun. Some people are a little put off by the current state of things, 18 modes is a lot, and they're all fairly similar, so it could use some variety and tweaking. They're working on the big code update, who knows how long it will be, maybe save your money while they tinker with it, and then you can be set to buy it after the new code drops if they do a good job. Which I fully expect they will, but you never know!

In the meantime mine isn't going anywhere, I can wait for the code.

You can get a HUO, there are owners now who are swerving in the game of code chicken and can't wait it out. Hey, their loss your gain.

I personally love the upgrades my Premium has over the Pro, but they really do play pretty much the same.

Sloooooowly. Keep getting distracted! Cough cough painting Sparky.

This is the sad truth, I own Star Trek and don't own Metallica (yet). But painting a Sparky just looked like too much fun!

I think there are at least 3 different custom light boards for Helen, I didn't do a thing, people just made them. If there's demand the market will provide I guess.

I believe it is. My Premium was. No PCB.

Yes, the board comes with the shaker. Install takes maybe 25 minutes if you've never done it before, half that if you know what you're doing. It's easy. It's a great addition to the game, I recommend it. I'd miss mine for sure if I took it out.

I have the shaker, and it's cool, but all that stuff is secondary to the Premium features, and cab be added later, I wouldn't make it an issue.

I haven't regretted it once and wished I had a Pro and the extra cash.

Apparently you need to twist or shield the wires for the optos? My Premium doesn't do that so I haven't messed with it myself.

Congrats!

Yes they light the kickback. I think they're useless on the Pro now. I would assume a virtual ball save at least in the new code?

Hmm, I don't get airballs. What's your pitch?

I definitely turned down my slings. I forget where they are now, might be the 18 dug mentioned.

I personally save them. Starting Vengeance 1 isn't that big a deal, I get my hits in during single ball play, then I unload my missiles once started to drop the health so I can set up a combo for the final shot. Difference between 5 or 10 million making that combo.

Warp ramp lights are standard on Premium, yes.

I bought my shaker from my distributor when I bought the game. Shipped separately, but was easy to just make it all part of the order.

I prefer the Pinball Life Ultra Gloss:

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1325

What's important is that they're carbon core, those are the kind that won't get magnetized and mess up the gameplay.

I'd have to check to be certain, but yes, I believe Scared Stiff is 4 balls. Doesn't have magnets so any balls will work, but I use the PBL glossies in everything.

Light blocker makes a difference, I A/B'd it with and without. I'd say my warp ramp insert is about 90% as bright and even now as the playfield ones on my Premium.

I'm not personally interested in sticking another ship on my game, but that's nicely done. Candle flicker is a nice touch even though I guess you're not likely to ever really see it.

No, that's an issue with the drop target. Does the target spazz out at the beginning and register a bunch of hits on the ship?

Yup, that's the drop target. The screw on the side with the spring is pushing it off the lip just slightly, you need to either find a smaller screw head or what I did was take the screw out and run it back from the other side. Has nothing to do with the optos.

Excellent. I had the same problem, Rarehero was the one who figured out that fix, so just passing it along.

7.5 degrees is pretty steep FYI. Game is designed for 6.5.

I personally prefer my games at the pitch they're designed for, it makes the game perform as the designer intended. I know some people like to crank up the pitch, and your game your thing, but you do get some funny results sometimes.

Personally at my 6.5° I've never had a ball jump, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's why.

Just sent the file for a test print of my Star Trek (Stern) alt translite into my printer. Just wrapping up my plans for the decals and then I'm about ready to share the design and see what people think.

From what I hear I'm going to just beat the code, here's hoping that's true (not that I get mine out first, but that the code is that close!!).

I haven't shown it to anyone who makes LED light boards yet, so I don't know. If there's enough interest I'm sure someone will make one, and the design would work really well with a custom board. Several people did one for Helen, see if they're interested.

I'd actually consider buying one myself if that happens.

lol. Let me at least show it first! I just want to make sure the test print works before I reveal the design, I hate showing things that aren't done yet. Sorry to tease, I just know that I'm behind on getting this done, so I wanted to let people know it's super close and I didn't abandon it.

I'm hoping to put the translite together with a full decal package, I'm working on those now. New replacement speaker panel decal, all the apron decals including the shooter, the coin door, everything. Should make the whole thing feel stock and all tied together, like it came that way, and the print quality will be a lot higher quality than Stern's low rez line screens.

Those will need to be test printed and test fitted, why I'm trying to wrap them up. Probably have them done tomorrow.

Thanks for the enthusiasm, it's helpful to see, I just need a little more patience to get it ready.

No, just the Stern one, with a proper JJPrise Enterprise digital painting. At least the eBay STTNG translites have the right Enterprise from the show, the crappy one someone did for the Stern game just ripped off some Star Trek Online game art that isn't even the right ship, it's terrible.

I can't stand it when those kinds of details are overlooked.

I think I finished the last of the decal designs last night, redid the coin door one, wasn't happy with my first version. I'll let them marinate over the weekend, see if I need to tweak anything, and try and send to the printer for some test print action on Monday. In the home stretch on this project, hopefully I can share it soon and see what people think.

I'm hearing good things about the new Stern Star Trek code, so hopefully everyone gets excited about the game again.

FedEx should be bringing my Star Trek decal test prints on Monday. If they're good I'll announce them and the translite finally. Been a long wait for this one, been hard to be patient about not just putting the designs up, hope this is it.

If you missed it I *finally* put my Star Trek project live. Sorry for the long ass tease on this one, ended up taking longer than I planned, hopefully it was worth the wait if you were looking forward to it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-star-trek-new-original-translite-decals

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Yeah, working on the Williams/Bally games is definitely trickier, you have to take the bulb placement into account when you design if you're doing it right. When I did The Shadow I took a pic of the backbox and kept it on a layer in Photoshop so I could reference where all the bulbs were as I worked. Meant sometimes making a layout decision I wouldn't have otherwise, but moving the lights just isn't practical.

With Stern games it's just the big dumb tube, so you don't have to sweat it. Pinball Refinery is making a custom LED light board for my Star Trek translite, so the lights can match the design instead of the other way around.

I gave them one thought that they're free to ignore, but this is their area of expertise, I want to see what they do. Not their first kit after all.

I just posted a translite with a measurement grid over it in my announcement thread, so anyone who wants to try and roll their own has something to work from.

As someone who's a bit of an "actor on translites" hater even I think the STTNG translite feels pretty good. Matches the character of the show, no pun intended.

It helps that it's a painting, the Stern Star Trek photoshop job isn't bad or anything, but it's just not all that warm and human feeling to me. I wanted to do something that felt technical, all the curves and dimension of a spaceship, but with more of a hand drawn feel, no CGI modeling and overly perfect surfaces.

Maybe try this trick? https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stle-drop-target-problem-help-please#post-1867792

Though that's different than what that's generally addressing, which is the wild up and down phantom drop hits.

Hmm. But the target isn't rapidly going up and down along with it? It just doesn't drop? Because I've had the target spazzing out and giving me multiple hits, but it at least reacted. The washer trick is easy, maybe at least worth trying. My target seems to be behaving now, but I'm gonna do it anyways at some point to be safe, because it's started spazzing out randomly again before.

What I haven't tried yet but is supposed to really help is add a couple thin washers to make the lip the target sets on slightly deeper.

I've had the target fall twice, with a quick reset in between them. I really think that lip issue is the root of multiple problems.

You'd be surprised what can be hiding under dirt. A good cleaning can unearth some nice games.

Oh, I was assuming he'd already stripped those to begin cleaning and shopping.

Post progress pics! I bet you coax a good looking game out of that dirt.

There's a pic in a thread here somewhere. I need to do it too, if I dig it up I'll post it.

I know there's been some level of drama with PPS, and CPR, and PR, and everything else here lately, but I just want to say that we're damn lucky to have Kevin and Stu and the CPR team doing what they do. There are much easier ways to make a buck if you want to work that hard.

Gonna be some nice old school Star Trek pins soon!

I honestly find the Pro disappointing after being used to my Premium. I'd never downgrade. But the gameplay is super similar, so from a pure "playing" perspective you're not losing much.

Upgrade right away, there is absolutely no reason to play on old code. And yes, it's easy to do.

Enjoy!!

Meant to get that order in yesterday actually, I'll try and take care of it today. Got sidetracked helping someone repair missing art on an Iron Maiden backglass.

Just verified that you're on my list, so you're set, I'll contact everyone when they're printed.

I heard through the grapevine that the next software rev is going to try and fix that issue again. For what it's worth mine doesn't do it. Some people have reported luck with the fixes you mentioned too.

Hmm, the washers should only move the target back in space, not up. Maybe post a pic of what you did?

That does look a little thick to me too.

That's the issue the washer fix we're discussing addresses.

rai just scroll up a bit. See the washers added to the drop target? That's all you do, move the plastic just slightly away from the metal. Those washers were too thick in that pic, you just need little thin ones. Nothing else to it.

I won't lie, when I'm taking a pic of my machines and Scared Stiff is in there I wait for the title screen that's in two colors to come up.

He didn't specify. Here's what Steve Ritchie said:

I don't recommend the use of post sleeves on the mini posts in place of the rubber donuts. Sleeves have too little rebound for my tastes, and they don't belong on ST. "Says who?" Says The King! You can use sleeves, but I will laugh and jeer like the Black Knight when I see your game.

There are some great new urethane post, mini post and flipper rubbers (Super Bands) available from Marco that are super durable and provide great rebound. They are manufactured by C.U.E. led by Joe Scalleta, and come in a full range of colors and styles. I wish I knew about them and not sure they were even available before ST production; I would have specified them on all models. They show no wear at all after hundreds of fun plays in my testing.

Sorry dude, but this Trekkie purist attitude people pull on the new flicks just feels silly to me. I thought they were really enjoyable films, both of them. Thank goodness they weren't rehashes of the old Trek films. Especially the Next Gen ones, which felt like made for TV movies, just long episodes of the show.

No one can "ruin" an old movie by making a new one. The old one is still there. Watch your old earworm Khan flick any time you like. Enjoy it. Enjoy an alternate take in the new one.

I need to start offering a plain brown wrapper option, like ordering porn or sex toys or something.

THIS PACKAGE DOES NOT CONTAIN ANYTHING PINBALL RELATED.

Hmm, well I will admit to never actually ordering porn, but as for the other, I plead the 5th!

Talk to your distributor about warranty. I have that issue on my Metallica but it was out of warranty.

Good news is Star Trek is on the ColorDMD list for this year.

Their site still says "Installation for the new Stern backbox design used in Star Trek requires additional mounting hardware (not included) available from Pinbits."

I have no idea if that will change by the time the coloring is actually ready.

Should update the generic Sigma page to link to that dug.

Possibly at the end of the week, but if not by the beginning of next week. They're on their way to me now.

I'll send out the payment emails shortly.

Yes. I have them! Sitting in a box, that I haven't even had time to open yet. I'm just trying to get these Metallica hammers out the door, and then I'm going to email everyone about Star Trek being ready.

I'm just juggling too many things at once, getting the hammers out the door will free me up.

I've heard of other people having this issue, but I'm not sure what the fix is. It's not normal behavior obviously.

I definitely like it, adds some nice interaction to the art. My favorite part is how the planet glows blue when the scoop flashes.

When does it arrive? I know I said I'd try and make sure I had a translite for you.

Feel the positive vibes man, your lack of hope will be washed away.

That's just someone using Pinball Browser to change the music I assume, nothing they can do in that about callout order.

That's not the new code.

This is a good thing! That means that there's new shit that video isn't showing!

There's good news coming, everyone relax. The wait sucks, the communication sucks, but I'm feeling good about where we're headed.

No argument there. The new code is a good thing, and people will be pleased, but Stern still sucks in the entire code department. But no point in letting that ruin good news.

I like the music, I don't wish any of it was changed. It's all high energy, good pinball playing music.

The main theme from the movie is great, but I don't think it particularly works to play to personally.

Just a suggestion. You'll have a lot more luck fitting in and finding people and getting deals and all that good stuff if you put your location in your profile.

Eh, I just don't agree. I think the original theme is bad pinball music. It's great for the movie, but has too many slow passages, too much atmosphere and not enough energy for the game.

It not being in there isn't a loss for me. If I want to here that theme I own the blu rays.

I can confirm that multiple people did the dots.

Metallica has the crown to me for best dots Stern has ever done, Star Trek's are too uneven for me to really love. But they get the job done, not bad or anything. Just not awesome.

It might be time for me to leave this club, thinking I'll sell my ST Premium. I have to admit though, seeing the photos in here does make me realize I'll miss it a bit. Just not playing it though, and I need to free up a slot, I've hit max capacity.

Maybe I'll pull Helen out of my swap box and put my Star Trek translite in it instead.

Heh, thanks man. Honestly I bought the game wanting to do new art for it, so even if I let it go it was worth it. Fun project. I even beat Stern to the punch with full color speaker decals for that style backbox!

Probably ACDC Premium. Similar style of game, will keep that slot in my collection oriented that way. I like to keep things mixed up.

Thanks man. I'm pretty partial to it in a Premium too.

Someone is coming by tomorrow to look at the game, and leave a deposit if he wants it. I'm hoping there's one more software update for all you guys though, I think it still needs a little polish and love. I'm sure Dwight will take care of it if he has time.

Yeah, doesn't need new rules, and he made it kind of clear they're not really thinking in that direction anyways I thought. Just polish would be good.

Color is being worked on!

I like your style.

Welp, I'm out of the club, Star Trek was picked up today. I'll be replacing it with an ACDC Premium on Sunday.

I'm going to order a new run of translites/decals on Monday for everyone who's still on my waiting list. If you're interested you can sign up here:

http://www.aurichlawson.com/startrek/pre-order.html

I'm keeping one of my Star Trek translites to put in my swap box, so I'll still spiritually be a member!

Not in the cards. There's a reason the project was closed, and it means no going back to that brand.

Honestly I won't do anymore Stern translites from here on out, it's not a good space to work in anymore. As long as Star Trek isn't shut down I'll keep it alive, but that's the end for that.

I'll still do Stern mods, but nothing branded. And it's tough to do a translite without a brand.

Yup. But not gonna go down that road anymore. Especially with Stern selling their own branded mods now.

Heh, nope. It was just a fun project I did for people. There's a history for it in my Helen thread.

But it was hard to do without owning the game. That's why I bought Star Trek so early. Needed something to reference.

Well I can tell you that people have looked the other way on Star Trek. Not speculation, it's a fact. And I'm grateful for it, I just want to do fun stuff for people. I'm not gonna quit my day job to make pinball mods, that's for sure.

But like I said, I am done with Stern translites, or anything branded for Stern games. Just too much stress there. This is supposed to be something fun, not something that creates drama.

If I can find the time to finish this in-progress Metallica mod it's totally unbranded with the band, so nothing stressful there.

I just got my last order of my Star Trek alt translites and decals in that I'd placed with my printer before I had to shut down my project. Most of them are claimed already, but I have a small handful left of extras. Once they're gone that's the end of it, won't be printing any more to respect Stern's wishes. Shoot me a PM if you're interested, first come, first served.

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Haha thanks guys. Is what it is, I'm respecting the request.

Heh, technically the custom panel is Refinery's, I just gave them them the dimensions to work on it. A little pricey for what you get, but I'll admit it really is a nice touch. My favorite part was how the planet flashed blue whenever the left eject fired.

Well if you're not one of them I just checked, I only have 6 left, and then that's that.

This is why I sold my game before you could come play it!

I never got the Vengeance mod before I sold my machine, but I thought it was cool for sure. Everyone loves shit that lights up!

Thanks man, glad that worked for you. I think I have 4 left still, I should check. Have one to pack up actually, wasn't able to get to it today, will get it out tomorrow.

Then that'll be all she wrote.

No worries, these are just the extras I had from the last run. Once they're gone that will be the end of it, but I'll just hold onto them until people want them, no rush or anything.