Xenon Playfield questions

sblair

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I'm restoring a Xenon I picked up last year at an auction. I've got some questions as I know some of the parts are not original on it and missing.

First off, the entire playfield is a mylar overlay. It looks great, but I assumed it was not original as no Xenon I've ever seen is like that. But I ran across several references to this: http://cgi.ebay.com/Xenon-Proto-Typ...781?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item415a364305 and am now thinking it might actually have been original.

Has anyone actually seen a Xenon that had the mylar playfield as factory?

Also, I'm looking for any high res photos people have of their Xenon playfield with the plastics covers off. In particular I want to see placement of the colored lamp sleeves to determine what colors should be where... as well as well as some of the post and standoff types and placement.

Here's a link to my gallery with pics of my Xenon as I was tearing the playfield down. Would really like some similar pics of someone elses with the plastic playfield pieces off so I can see lamp sleeve and post/standoff details. http://www.litespeeddesign.com/gallery/v/Games+For+Sale/WipeOut-Xenon+016.JPG.html

Of course if anyone can spot the issues from looking at my Xenon pics, let me know.

Thanks.
Scott
 
I've shopped/restored a couple of Xenons, and remember seeing those overlays for sale a few years back - your pictures match that overlay, so highly doubtful that's factory mylar.

I didn't like them because your translucent inserts lost all their color (green/red/orange), although some folks talked about cutting holes in that area of the mylar so the original inserts could be seen.

Better than a completely trashed playfield, assuming the overlay was installed properly; the pictures you posted seem to indicate somebody did a decent job, but I'd check everything to make sure all the inserts wear lined up properly, as that was a common problem. Even when you'd perfectly align the bottom, the top may be off because of the design of the overlay, for example.

I think the colored lamp sleeves were all the same color (red if memory serves)- but they commonly fade to pink/clear with time/heat. Personally, I think blue looks much better, and most of the ones I see these days have blue lamp sleeves, or simply blue lamps/LED's in those areas - looks very nice.

Pinball Resource has both red & blue: http://www.pbresource.com/lampcov.html

It's a pretty game when cleaned up, and has good sound, but one that I found got boring fairly quickly personally.

Brent
 
Thanks Brent.

What I've seen on mine is there are some of the lamps behind the left and right side targets that are the hard red sleeves. Most of the other lights have the blue condoms over them instead.

I'm curious what looks the best: lamp condoms, colored lamps, or hard plastic sleeves from pbresource? Have you had experience trying different ones?

I've also spent most of the afternoon looking online for the replacement rollover buttons at the 4 at the very top. Someone replaced 2 of them with philips screws. You can see best here: http://www.litespeeddesign.com/gall...peOut-Xenon+019.JPG.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

Any idea where to find these?

Thanks.
Scott
 
Scott,

I went with colored bulbs for the last one I did - looked MUCH better than the colored sleeves. Alternatively, you have LED's, but the colored bulbs are cheap enough. I think I ended up with about 10 blue ones strategically placed around mainly the upper playfield; much more and the playfield got too dark.

As for those rollovers; there are other games that used them, and would agree with checking with PB Resource - not sure how those would have gotten broken! Steve @ PB Resource also has the colored bulbs for $3 a box (red, blue, etc.).

Brent
 
Thanks Brent, that was the kind of feedback I was hoping for on the lamps. The colored sleeves are a lot more expensive and with there being more options now I wasn't sure if they would look better than the colored bulbs or not.

I don't want to do LED as they give off a very different characteristic of light and they don't fit for the time period.

Thanks.
Scott
 
If it means anything, I went with clear bulbs and I colored the glass with the appropriate sharpie color. I've owned one of Brent's Xenons for a couple of years now and the color hasn't faded since my initial install. It is a dirt cheap option instead of the sleeves or colored LEDs.
 
My Xenon has full mylar. I don't know if it's factory or not.

I went with a combo some LEDS, some colored incandescents and I kept the tubes behind the drop targets because without them you don't get the bitchen round lighted area lighting the numbers of the plastics above the drop targets.

Here is a couple shots of my Xenon:

XENON_ARTSY4.jpg


XENON_ARTSY3.jpg


XENON_ARTSY5.jpg


XENON_COMPARISON2.jpg


XENON_COMPARISON1.jpg
 
Saw a heavily modified Xenon at the Texas Pinball Festival - LED's for the "infinity lights" in the head look quite sharp, and had the colors mixed (red/blue) the same as Frizzle has - nice effect! For whatever reason, I'd not considered modifying the color of those lamps, but it really looks nice.
 
Saw a heavily modified Xenon at the Texas Pinball Festival - LED's for the "infinity lights" in the head look quite sharp, and had the colors mixed (red/blue) the same as Frizzle has - nice effect! For whatever reason, I'd not considered modifying the color of those lamps, but it really looks nice.

I tried the LED's in the head but i preferred the slower on/off of the incandescent lamps rather than the instant on/off of the LED. (Note: I actually use LED's in the "circle" in the middle of the backglass... they look great there)

Same with the lamps behind the drop targets...
 
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