So exciting that you're getting your first pin!

The LED strips that we sell at Comet Pinball come with three ways of connecting them: a wedge socket, a bayonet socket, or alligator clips. If you use the sockets, you'd take out a GI bulb from somewhere on your machine, replace it with one of the aforementioned connections, and then connect the strip to it. It's very easy. No soldering required. If you used alligator clips, you would clip them to the two lugs of a GI socket from the bottom.

If you want the strip to do what the GI does then connect the strip to a GI socket. If you want it to do what a particular insert does, you can connect it to that insert.

The longest we have is 50 SMD strips...which are 20 inches long, so it wouldn't quite run the length of the machine. http://www.cometpinball.com/category-s/1871.htm

The have adhesive backing so you can just stick them where you want them.

There aren't many ways to go wrong using our stuff, though if you add too many lights you can overload the GI circuit, which would blow a fuse. Then you just replace the fuse. Not a big deal. If you were adding multiple 50SMD strips, it'd be better to keep them on separate circuits...usually the GI for games is made up of several different strands, each with its own fuse.

All of this said, the issue with attaching strips to the side of your game is that they will almost certainly make it impossible to lift up the playfield. Pinstadium uses magnets to attach the lighting strips. You need to remove them whenever you want to lift up the game. If you used Comet strips, you'll have this same issue but worse...since you'll have affixed them to the side of the cabinet and now have to peel them off to get inside.

You might want to check out this thread, which has lots of suggestions for DIY solutions that try to replicate Pinstadium: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/poor-mans-stadium-lighting

I'm about to go to bed, but let me know if you have other questions. Happy to help, but I think to do this right, you need magnetic strips, and you also need some sort of short cover that blocks the strips from a direct line of sight to your eye. Another consideration is that newer machines (with upper playfields, ramps, etc) have a much deeper side rail area, which allows you to put the strips higher up...casting the light further. Blackout will have a much shallower wall, so you will not get the same spread of light that you would with newer games.

Thanks for asking @swillie. I'm not familiar enough with Blackout to know exactly what is going on with the saucer...is it just a wood dish that the ball sits in? Or is it some sort of translucent plastic that would allow light to pass through?

If it's the latter, then all you would need is a socket, a connector, and the bulb of your choosing.

Empty Socket: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/mtxsocket.htm (with bracket). You can screw this into the bottom of the playfield right next to the saucer, in a position that will let you insert a bulb without getting in the way of any of the other mechs. You wouldn't need to drill a hole...just use a small screw, something like a 3/8 inch #6 hex screw. If you don't have one, put a note with your order and we can throw one in for free. (They just arrived but I haven't listed them for sale yet).

Since different games have different thicknesses of playfield, to be extra safe you might want to take out one of the existing screws on the bottom of your playfield and compare length just to be sure you're not using something longer than what's already being used.

Bulb: You'll want some kind of flex bulb: http://www.cometpinball.com/category-s/1883.htm Probably just a 1SMD. The RGB color changing have their own page. (I usually prefer slow color changing).

Connector: If you want the light to be on when the GI is on, then you'll want to hook up the socket to the GI. If you want the bulb to turn on only when a particular insert is lit, you'll want to hook it up to that insert.

In either case, your options are the same. One of the cleanest ways is to use a quick connect: http://www.cometpinball.com/MATRIX-1-SMD-5050-FLEX-6-3V-QUICK-CONNECT-p/mtx1smdflex.htm

You'd take out the bulb you want to connect to, and put the quick connect in its place. You'll see that extra wire coming off and you can just connect the empty socket you screwed in earlier. They just snap together, no soldering or anything.

You can also use something here: http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/wirepack.htm The wedge and bayonet connectors would work just like the quick connect above...except they don't have their own bulb. Alligator clips can just clip to the lugs of whichever socket you're trying to connect to...and you can leave the existing bulb in place.

If the blank socket and the existing socket you're connecting to are more than 2 or so inches apart, you might want some extra wire, which comes in different lengths: http://www.cometpinball.com/MATRIX-Wires-p/mtxgender.htm

That may have sounded like a lot, put it's really simple once you've done it once. No soldering required, everything just snaps together like legos. Your cost should be around $2-$4, depending on what you get.

That help?

Nice work! Looks awesome. Really appreciate that you took the time to post pics. Thanks again!