Archived from groups: rec.games.pinball (
More info?)
"Natty" <oldefortpub@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1128030193.968843.255660
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> Not sure of the exact terminology, but my pinball machine artwork in
> the backbox is just a piece of paper with art on it. Is this what
> people say is so valuable, like hundreds of dollars? Is this a
> translite? Or is the art supposed to be painted on the glass or
> something. Just curious, it looks good as it is AFAIK.
> Thanks.
If it's on paper, there's only one name for it: FAKE*.
A translite is a clear piece of plastic that has had the artwork printed
onto it. It normally is held in place with pieces of plastic that run
around the perhiperal of a clear piece of glass.
A backglass (by way of comparison) is when you print the art directly
onto the _glass_. Colors tend to be more vibrant, and mirroring is also
possible.
Translites are semi-valueable; since they're printed on plastic they were
cheaper to manufacture and easier to store and ship. Hence, more of them
are around.
Backglasses are valuable. They're a bitch to store and a ROYAL bitch to
ship, which means that a lot of them were destroyed due to X and Y along
the years.
Some games had their artwork available in both forms. I _believe_
Eaarthshaker is one of them, but I'm not 100% positive on that. Most
games had either/or.
* There is only one case where this is not true... Sometimes companies
will make an 'engineering' sample and print it out on paper while they're
waiting for the plastic ones to come in. For example, I have the "paper
print" of T3's backglass. But these are literally ONE OFF copies, so
there's essentially zero chance yours is one of these.
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