Update March 2015: Might still have stock available, PM me if you're interested.

Here's my Shadow translite package, which includes a brand new professionally printed translite design, a new OEM style speaker panel back printed on PETG plastic, and matching instruction/free play cards:

shadow-package.jpg

Cost: $175, shipping included in the US (outside the US add $30, so $205, sorry but turns out this is a little pricey to ship international!) I ship Priority, both in the US and international. Flat package, nothing rolled up.

Just PM me if you want a set. Thanks for looking.

Edit: Moving the long winded story to this post so the opening post can be clearer for people new to the thread.

The Shadow is an incredible game, with a great classic theme, that is unfortunately saddled with a license-choked translite, and overly strong ties to the mediocre movie. Regardless of what you even think of Baldwin, it's not Lamont Cranston pinball, it's the damn Shadow, why in the world is he stuck in the background while that mug is up front?

Unfortunately I've yet to see a Shadow alternate translite I liked, or that wasn't low quality (just my opinion). I really wanted to take a stab at doing a design that would do the game itself justice. I've thought about it for months, and finally just committed myself to the time it would take (quite a bit it turns out!). I had the following goals in mind as I set out to design it:

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1) Ditch the supporting cast, and get The Shadow up front and center. I want the guy with the scarf and cape and guns, forget anyone else.

2) Move away from the movie, and more towards the comic books and pulp novel covers. Art deco, noir, pulp comic book style. Like I said, it really is a classic theme, and The Shadow is a great character, just needs to focus on his roots a bit more.

3) Make the translite feel like it better matched the playfield style. The Shadow with the buildings rising into the distance. The blues and purples and saturated colors. The long red scarf. No overwrought 3D shiney logo, something flat like the comics.

4) I knew I had to redesign the speaker panel too, or it would never work. Had to be a full package, instruction/free play cards too.

5) The quality had to be solid. Original 300 dpi artwork, no corny blown-up, pixelated photoshops of movie posters or anything that was grabbed from a Google image search. Real backlight film, so it won't wash out when backlit. Sadly also needed to leave Bally logo off, don't want Rick from Planetary feeling like I'm stepping on his toes.

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I feel like I hit my goals pretty well. Everyone has different taste, I'm really hoping some people dig it and want it on their machine, but if you don't that's cool too, and thanks for looking!

Now that the design is finished I feel like I can reveal it, sorry it's taken so long for the people who've asked me about it! I like to tweak details for a while before I'm happy with things and ready to share. The next step is to order a test print on the backlight film, make sure the quality is there, and that all my measurements are correct etc.

To solve making the speaker panel holes I've had a template laser cut out of aluminum. It will allow consistent, precise cuts for the speaker and DMD holes. The plan is to layer a sheet of mylar over the print to give it the DMD 'window' like the original. (Edit: Scratch that plan, going full OEM style printing on the back of PETG with a white ink backing layer!)

Once I have that I'll post photos. I'm confident it will come out well, this isn't the first time I've done something like this and if there's something not right I'll fix it before production. My day job is as a creative director, I've got an eye for detail and a bit of an obsessive streak to boot. Plus I want this on my own Shadow, so it better come out nice!

Ask anyone I just sent my Tommy prop mods to (a side project that piggybacked on the laser cutting for this!) I'm prompt and responsive.

After all that blabbing here are the designs. Click to see them larger and higher quality.

The translite and speaker panel:
Translite-Plus-Speakers-188.jpg

The instruction/free play cards:
Instruction-Cards.jpg

Wow, I posted this way too late last night (was 1:30am or so when I put it up in a fit of caffeine induced night owlishness), woke up to a lot of great responses in my inbox and this thread. Thanks!

To address some of the questions:

- I'll try and figure out the international shipping. Willing to do it, just don't know how expensive it might be yet. I'll contact anyone who needs it with a number, and you can decided if you're still in or not.

- Will this be too dark? My feeling is no, I've worked with backlit designs for arcade marquees, and I'm hoping it's going to work right, and just feel rich and not dim. I'll document the final look though.

- The lighting in the backboard is a tricky problem of course. It's hard to design around a pattern that was built specifically for something else. What I did was took a photo of the bare bulbs, mapped them, and kept a layer in Photoshop showing their positions relative to the art. It's not perfect, but I tried to position things to work with them where I could, the Shadow logo at the bottom is over some lights for instance. I'll take photos of the test print in the dark so I can show how it lights.

- Speaking of the test print, now that there's clearly so much interest in this (thanks a lot!) I'm going to order the test print today. Once I have it I'll take photos of the quality, up close, backlit, etc, and people can use that as a final call for deciding if you still want in. At that point I'll finalize the list for the print run, no money just a commitment after seeing how it really looks, and order the prints.

- I'm going to sort through my inbox and this thread and make a list of people who want in, and I'll post it up in that second post I reserved up top so you can clearly see if you're on the list or not. Seems easiest for everyone that way, and if you want off I'll just edit it and remove your name.

Some mockups of what this looks like together as a package (all Photoshop to be clear, not real prints yet) click to enlarge:

Cabinet-Mockup.jpg

And another, sorry, did a weird double post, click to enlarge:

Eva-Playing.jpg

Buy my translite and your machine will be worth $10k by Christmas!

Sorry, missed this question. Sure, so long as you return it in like-new condition I'll take it back. I'm not a retail store, this is just a side hobby for the love of it, but I'll do the best I can to make anyone who deals with me comfortable. I'll take a lot of photos of the test print so that it's hopefully really clear what you'll get. I'm not putting you on the pre-order list unless you let me know you're interested after that answer, so let me know.

Edit: BTW - I'm upvoting people who are ordering to keep track that I've marked them off since I can see the green upvote when I go back through the thread, don't think I'm not grateful for any other comments!

I've updated the second post in this thread with the pre-order list so people can clearly see that I've got them marked down. I'll leave pre-ordering open until I get the test print in, then I'll post all the photos of it and contact everyone for a final green light before I order the final prints.

Hmm. I had one or two people ask about just the speaker panel, and it really wasn't that easy to do so I told them no, just because of how I'm going to order it and break it down. But if there's a group that really wants it I might be able to figure it out as a separate thing.

I'm going to ponder, right now my focus is the people who want the whole package, but there does seem to be enough demand for it that I should figure it out for you all. I think I'd wait until after the first full translite run. It honestly never occurred to me that people would want just the speaker panel, but I guess it makes sense, the stock one is really the worst part of the whole design.

I'll take some HDR shots of it lit or something. It can be hard to properly photograph backlit things so they look like they do in real life, but with some fiddling I'm sure I'll manage. I'm not a photographer or anything, but I have a tripod and a good DSLR.

Yeah, makes sense! I was so focused on the fact that I didn't care for any of the alternates that I didn't really factor them into my thinking. Well like I said, gonna focus on the full package first, but it sounds like I really do need to figure out how I'd handle just the speaker panel.

Thanks Greg, I'll take constructive criticism from you.

I was aiming for a calm center with the scarf leading the eye around counter-clockwise through the elements, the blimps, the moon, Shadow's face, the logo etc. Bet I'd see that if I payed for an eye tracking heat map!

You're right, it's center-heavy, which can be lazy design 101 but I think it makes sense in this composition. Maybe if I had more elements in the background I wanted to focus on, but I was really adamant that this one be about just the Shadow.

The other challenge is keeping the backbox lights in mind. I tried to not let them handcuff me overmuch, it's hard to design around them, but for better or for worse the main light clustering is very center-focused.

Heh, that font is standing in for the Bally logo, which I'd really like to use for one of those Free Plays (they look good together) but in the interests of not stepping on Planetary's rights I obviously didn't want to go there. Tried to keep this one free and clear of any issues that would get Robin a takedown email.

Keeping an offline list. I tried to keep everything legit and above board, but you're right and I hear you! I would of course respect any requests from Robin to pull this thread or the images, we've spoken about it already and agreed if we kept the Bally logo and any official Bally/Williams assets out of it we'd probably be okay, but like you said, you never know.

THE CLOUDED MIND SEES NOTHING, CONCENTRATE, USE YOUR MIND.