Glass question

[DorothyMacaw]

 Hi

 My ultimate goal is to make my current S2000 Vision into a Pink Panther Vision. I'm not doing this with the idea of resale, I just really like the game and don't care if it's a 'factory' or not.

 I expect the hardest part of the conversion to be the glass. It seems from previous posts that Express Imaging was the 'go to' place for slot glass until IGT decided to threaten them.

 What was so special about E.I.? Aren't there a dozen other places that can do that sort of thing? Is the glass special. Is the paint special? Is the procedure special? I notice on one of my pieces of glass, that it is kind of a plastic decal, is that the secret?

 Or is that E.I. had all the scans for the glass?

 Too many questions - I know. ..Sorry.

 - Dorothy

[stayouttadabunker]

I'm sure that there are many other places that can do the same thing.
All you'd have to do is show them a set of strips you'd like made and
they can tell you right off whether they can do it or not.
However, they don't really want to because of the copyright issues involved.

My guess, and only an assumption, EI may of had a few contracts to make
a few and had access to the originals?
I have no idea.
It was also known that their strips weren't exacts...the shades of colors were
sometimes different as well as different logo sizing's.
They looked good but were not obviously exactly like the originals.
If I had their equipment, I bet I could have done the same thing.
Also, it gets really costly having someone sit in front of a photo-shopping
program trying to get these things right if they don't have the original specs.
You're paying someones time and labor to make them so it's not at all cost effective
to have a single set of strips made by any printing shop.

The best way to do what you want to do is purchase a set of strips from a vendor.
If you have photo shopping/printing skills then ask someone that has a set (But doesn't want to sell)
if they'd let you photocopy their set and print out your own.
It would be up to you at that point on how much detail, time and money you want
to put into it to come up with the best set of strips for your own machine.

I still think for the time being, be patient and I'm sure you'll see a decent
set of strips pop up on fleabay or craiglist for a halfway decent price.

[DorothyMacaw]

Whoops!!

I thought E.I. did glass not the reel strips ?

I have a nice set of repro reel strips.

 - Dorothy

[brichter]

I'm not sure E.I. is still in that business... may want to do a search, something about copyright infringement.

[Brianzz]

Yeah, it was copyright infringement, IGT sent the swat team of attorneys over with raid jackets, rappelling into windows from black helicopters hovering overhead 

Evidently EI didn't know about the 40% difference rule or something 

They did make some great hard to find glass that you couldn't otherwise get, although most of it wasn't an exact match, something was better than nothing. And they were great to work with us with the group buys, just wish it hadn't been screwed up like it was, thanks IGT, you screw everyone over and still don't sell to the home market.... Now the impossible to find glass and reel strips are going to remain impossible to find.

[jay]

Frank from Casino Glass is usually a one stop shop for anything. He is not cheap but he often has what you need. I would also check in with April and several of the other vendors on our banner page. Not all of them are that active on the site.

There is nothing special about the glass. The mylar is printed then affixed to the glass. Trying to do some of this at home is difficult because even good color laser printers don't print white and atypically there is alot of white on the pay glass.
The next issue is that the mylar is affixed to the inside of the glass so the adhesive (I assume spray adhesivie) is sprayed and the image is bonded face down. A good number of adhesives eat the ink so I am not sure exactly what they use. Not sure if its special ink or special adhesive or both.

The next issue is gettting access to a good quality picture of the orginal glass. I have tried scanning a piece of glass on a high end color scanner and it does not come out well at all. Wherever light shines through comes out black. When you get into some of the themes like 10xpay that have some reflective properties or others that are supposed to be semi-transparent they are difficult. I am sure EI or whomever spent a fair bit of time photoshopping their images and then a lot of tiral and error to get it right.

[reho33]

I think that Sunkist Graphics only does "clone" games like "Happy Oranges" that would play like a Double Diamond. I know on the other site that a person did a full custom on a pachislo with the Family Guy theme but total cost was 600 dollars or above because of the time involved. So I guess you have to hunt around and get the pieces one by one if you want it bad enough. Or you could just enjoy the knockoff theme.

[DorothyMacaw]

I am beginning to get a much better of what happened between E.I. and IGT. It is a pitty though. The 'I dream Of Jeannie' belly glass that is currently in my machine is a E.I. product. The colors are a little off, not horrid, just a bit, but regardless it looks really nice.

Thanks Jay for explaining exactly how the glass is made. I thought it might be painted and then sealed. The printed mylar is exactly how it's done, now that I look at it closer.

 - Dorothy

[stayouttadabunker]

...and I thought you were talkin' 'bout strips...
Oh well...