General Opinion of Blacklights in Your Arcade?

hssreddragon

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As we've been slowly building up our arcade collection over the past few months and considering things for the renovation coming up in the spring I've been concerned about the feasibility of black lights in the finished area. Our plans have always been to lay down a black light carpet with several lights from one end to the other.

The problem I see coming up is this; As we continue to fix marquee and various other lights on each of these cabinets the effectiveness of black lighting in the area seems to dissipate greatly. For people that have used black lighting what have you done to combat this? I realize we have white walls and concrete floor right now which isn't helping matters much but when you're running cabs light Outrunners (w/ 9 marquee bulbs) and such is black lighting even worth the extra costs? Are you running lower wattage bulbs to counteract the problem? I've stuck a few portable black lights in the room just to test the effect but the only thing I really notice is a haze rather than the standard glow you see with no lights on at all. Just curious before we throw down a bunch of money on the carpeting and lighting. Any opinions are appreciated! Thanks!
 
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You need to paint the walls, ceiling, and floor a dark color in order to get the maximum effect from blacklights. Even standard upright video games will cast off enough light in a brightly painted room to negate most of the pop from blacklight reactive carpet.
 
As we've been slowly building up our arcade collection over the past few months and considering things for the renovation coming up in the spring I've been concerned about the feasibility of black lights in the finished area. Our plans have always been to lay down a black light carpet with several lights from one end to the other.

The problem I see coming up is this; As we continue to fix marquee and various other lights on each of these cabinets the effectiveness of black lighting in the area seems to dissipate greatly. For people that have used black lighting what have you done to combat this? I realize we have white walls and concrete floor right now which isn't helping matters much but when you're running cabs light Outrunners (w/ 9 marquee blubs) and such is black lighting even worth the extra costs? Are you running lower wattage bulbs to counteract the problem? I've stuck a few portable black lights in the room just to test the effect but the only thing I really notice is a haze rather than the standard glow you see with no lights on at all. Just curious before we throw down a bunch of money on the carpeting and lighting. Any opinions are appreciated! Thanks!

Just do a search for 'Luna City' or 'Peter Hirschburg'. Or 'zfcamaro', or 'Killerkades', or a ton of other guys who have done this same thing successfully.
 
You need to paint the walls, ceiling, and floor a dark color in order to get the maximum effect from blacklights. Even standard upright video games will cast off enough light in a brightly painted room to negate most of the pop from blacklight reactive carpet.

I was hoping this would count towards it. Of course since we're nowhere near the painting phase yet I wasn't sure how much it would actually count towards making them more effective.

And yea, I've seen a lot of Luna City footage but most of it revolves around the games and not so much on the construction techniques used to create it. When you have games like Outrunners shining like the surface of the sun compared to say Joust or Dig Dug it seems hard to believe black lights can overcome that.
 
I painted my walls dark blue so that I could get the best effect from the black light chips in my arcade flooring.

Yes, all the games being on does lessen the effect slightly. But I was pretty strategic about where I hung my black lights. They cast the maximum rays directly down on the main walkway of the arcade, overpowering all the CRT and marqeuee glow.

Coin lights are a non-issue, IMHO.

IMG_2318.jpg
 
I went through the same thing. I was concerned with under lighting and loosing the effect to monitors and marquees. I looked at pics and asked questions but never got a good answer. It all seemed a bit seat of the pants. I ended up punting and doing what I thought was best based on space and shape of my ceiling. I have some ducting and the like that cause for an un-even "flow". The room is "L" shaped with bulk of the ducting running down the inner side of the long leg. Overall mine came up well save that along the long leg of the room I centered the lights from wall to the bulge of the duct. I should have had them farther from the wall, closer to the bulge. At the width of my room a game ends up somewhat close to the light so if the game does not have much of a overhang you get a line on the monitor. I used a piece of black vinyl tape on the tube to make a blinder..problem solved. At the end of the room I put in 2 fixtures (space opens up) which turned out to be a bit overpowering. Again, I put on a blinder to tone it down.

You mentioned the haze. If you start to see a haze turn off the light! When I get in that mode I get a headache. My thought is your pupil dilates due to the darkness, more of black light enters the eye, and its wave length causes some discomfort at that level. With all of my games on I have never had a problem. I, as have guest, been in the game room for hours at a time. Now, If I am testing something, I make sure to leave on a source of white light.

Its also worth mention that the flooring and the like looks out of this world with no other light. To get the same effect in a fully lit arcade I could only image how much lighting would be required. In other words, I would not expect to reach the same level of reaction as you do in a BL only test.
 
I have not had black light carpet, but have had blacklights in the arcade along with the white blacklights in the games for marquee lights and I loved the effect of both...
 
Games being on certainly reduces the effect of blacklights, but I doubt in real world usage of your gameroom that you'll care much. The carpet still pops plenty for my taste. IMO it's a good balance because when I turn off all the games and only have the blacklights on, it makes people look awful.

You can always reduce the marquee light output with electrical tape on the bulb or spray painting the bulb. I've thought about doing that, but honestly it hasn't bothered me enough to go to the trouble.
 
I have 12 48" 40W blacklight bulbs, plus a few 24" bulbs to fill in some gaps that were shadowed by games. This does a really good job of covering the entire arcade (you can see pics/video of my arcade here: http://www.projectvb.com/arcade/ ). Some of the monitors and marquees were too bright, so I adjusted the monitors, and used static cling window tint to dim the marquees.

DogP
 
On a side note since you mentioned it... we're all using LED bulbs now, correct? Lowest possible power usage and lowest possible heat...
 
I painted my walls dark blue so that I could get the best effect from the black light chips in my arcade flooring.

Yes, all the games being on does lessen the effect slightly. But I was pretty strategic about where I hung my black lights. They cast the maximum rays directly down on the main walkway of the arcade, overpowering all the CRT and marqeuee glow.

Coin lights are a non-issue, IMHO.

IMG_2318.jpg

Interesting. That floor looks pretty neat! Does that surface get as slippery as it looks?


I went through the same thing. I was concerned with under lighting and loosing the effect to monitors and marquees. I looked at pics and asked questions but never got a good answer. It all seemed a bit seat of the pants. I ended up punting and doing what I thought was best based on space and shape of my ceiling. I have some ducting and the like that cause for an un-even "flow". The room is "L" shaped with bulk of the ducting running down the inner side of the long leg. Overall mine came up well save that along the long leg of the room I centered the lights from wall to the bulge of the duct. I should have had them farther from the wall, closer to the bulge. At the width of my room a game ends up somewhat close to the light so if the game does not have much of a overhang you get a line on the monitor. I used a piece of black vinyl tape on the tube to make a blinder..problem solved. At the end of the room I put in 2 fixtures (space opens up) which turned out to be a bit overpowering. Again, I put on a blinder to tone it down.

You mentioned the haze. If you start to see a haze turn off the light! When I get in that mode I get a headache. My thought is your pupil dilates due to the darkness, more of black light enters the eye, and its wave length causes some discomfort at that level. With all of my games on I have never had a problem. I, as have guest, been in the game room for hours at a time. Now, If I am testing something, I make sure to leave on a source of white light.

Its also worth mention that the flooring and the like looks out of this world with no other light. To get the same effect in a fully lit arcade I could only image how much lighting would be required. In other words, I would not expect to reach the same level of reaction as you do in a BL only test.

The haze happens generally when I have all the arcade machines turned on. It's looks like a purple fog in the room. Not sure if I can capture it on camera or not.

As for placement, I was planning to put them down the walkways on each side of the arcade for maximum effect. I want to put a second set of regular lights in the same area for when I'm doing maintenance and such on seperate light switch. Just debating on how many and how far apart at this point for the right intensity with the machines on.

I have 12 48" 40W blacklight bulbs, plus a few 24" bulbs to fill in some gaps that were shadowed by games. This does a really good job of covering the entire arcade (you can see pics/video of my arcade here: http://www.projectvb.com/arcade/ ). Some of the monitors and marquees were too bright, so I adjusted the monitors, and used static cling window tint to dim the marquees.

DogP

Really nice setup! I can't tell what your Atari sign is made of but it reminds me of the old felt posters from the 80's. I've been looking for good ones for the arcade because they used to be great under black lights but they are pretty few and far between these days.

I think in our case since we're talking a 14'W x 23'L so I may be able to get away with 6 of those 48" bulbs with maybe a few smaller ones in corners and such.


On a side note since you mentioned it... we're all using LED bulbs now, correct? Lowest possible power usage and lowest possible heat...

Definitely switching as much over to LEDs where possible but it's going to require a lot of fixture changing before I can get anywhere near 100% converted.
 
Lighting

Our game room is small (10x18') and I have only 3 24" black lights with 1 incandescent BL. The effect is pretty decent with the games on. I do nt have black light carpet (yet) but the posters, games, clothing, etc. glow very nicely. If you turn on some neon or the tv the do get washed out but the marquees don't affect it too much. I do have dark blue walls and one small window with lockout curtains.

I put 3 duplex outlets in the ceiling and plugged one 24" light into them. That way I can add 3 more as time/money allows. Mine run down the center of the walkway. I also have blue LED rope lights on a dimmer around the perimeter. On low these add a nice effect and don't affect the backlight. When I need a bit more light I can crank this up.

Check blacklight.com for the Atari poster, others, lighting, and more. Not the cheapest but you can start there and then search around.
 
I have not had black light carpet, but have had blacklights in the arcade along with the white blacklights in the games for marquee lights and I loved the effect of both...

What are white blacklights?

I tried to use some of the party blachlights, the reg bulbs not the tubes, and used two of them and even with all the light off and the games off they did nothing. One also seems a ot brighter then the other.
 
I tried to use some of the party blachlights, the reg bulbs not the tubes, and used two of them and even with all the light off and the games off they did nothing. One also seems a ot brighter then the other.

If you're referring to the kind they sell at the Spirit Halloween stores every year I've tried those before too and they don't seem to work like true black lights. The ones that do seem to work for the normal screw-in type bulbs are the CFL versions of those lights.
 
What are white blacklights?

Basically a white blacklight bulb. Still gives the glowing "blacklight" effect, but with a whiter cast of light vs a dark/purplish normal BL bulb.

White blacklights are what games like Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Warlords UR use for their backlit displays.
 
If you're referring to the kind they sell at the Spirit Halloween stores every year I've tried those before too and they don't seem to work like true black lights. The ones that do seem to work for the normal screw-in type bulbs are the CFL versions of those lights.

Thats what I am talking about. I was to cheep to buy the cfl ones, one of them cast about the same as two of the other.
 
Basically a white blacklight bulb. Still gives the glowing "blacklight" effect, but with a whiter cast of light vs a dark/purplish normal BL bulb.

White blacklights are what games like Asteroids Deluxe, Battlezone, Warlords UR use for their backlit displays.

I have never seen one of those. I am guessing you have to order them somewhere. I do have two light boxes that have marquees on the front and tried to but a black light behind them but it did nothing. Do the white ones give off some black light effect? What do they look like behind a reg marquee?
 
Thats what I am talking about. I was to cheep to buy the cfl ones, one of them cast about the same as two of the other.

Yep but then again so are the full length tubes compared to standard tubes...We bought the cheaper ones and all they seem to do is give a purple tint to the room. They don't have the glow effect at all it seems. While they may be "black lights" in terms of color I believe it's a bit of misleading advertising to call them black lights in the sense we think of them.
 
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