Fire! Silkscreened Playfield 31-1002-556 (New Repro)

The FIRE playfield does warrant some production notes, as it was one of the stranger playfields to tackle, for CPR to date. Our first discovery was that this playfield has at least two (maybe more) distinct versions - mostly defined by the art layout as the quickest identifier. Many FIRE playfields out there are printed with black (or near-black) substituted for the chocolate brown. This is most apparent in the flipper/lanes areas (surrounding the golden leaves), as well as the upper playfield areas heading into the orbit and right up the middle. Some playfields are a dark dark brown - so dark it looks black... and others are true black.

With the undeniable theme of FIRE being based on brown (just look at the cabinet and apron), we chose the Brown design as the preferred version of the playfield. There were also distinct differences in the upper right (top of shooter lane) artwork, and we opted to follow the design of the "group of 3" and "group of 2" switch rollovers, rather than (5) individual openings.

Many of the factory FIRE playfields out there have the burning buildings as turquiose-peach-blue, but we opted for the much more contrasting turquoise-peach-violet layout. We're not sure if the factory "blue" building is simply color-shifted violet, or if it was truly a gaffe in color mixing one of the runs. Regardless, we feel the violet (three distinct building colors that are different) is better.

On the physical design front, FIRE features two large hidden thick plastic windows - permanently embedded into the gameboard, and seamlessly ground down as part of the continuous wood surface - so the artwork flawlessly covers over them without gap or removal. Unlike Haunted House or Black Hole, or any other playfield with a routed window opening - these windows weren't installed as something that is tweaked and leveled via little foam rests and Allen-keys. These had to be inlaid like giant flushmount panels, and they had to be perfectly level with the wood surface to match flatness. We found the design of the smaller FIRE logo window to be extremely poor (a rectangular window behind an emblem-shaped piece of artwork) and thought it was ugly that when the lights came on, you see a rectangular glow behind the logo. We designed a custom-cut window that scaled exactly to the size and shape of the FIRE logo, and now the logo illuminates exactly in the shape it should.

Lastly, the FIRE playfield involved a strange hidden under-layer (printed even underneath the white base) that we've never performed before. It acts similar to the lightblock layer on the back of a backglass. An extra-opaque black enamel layer that shapes/eliminates the light from underneath insert graphics, the ladder shot logo, and of course the burning building flames & windows. They also used it for the "secret multiplier windows" where 2X 3X 4X etc. are not revealed until illuminated. We found that the Williams blocking layer was quite weak, and when illuminated you could still see the shapes of the insert(s) or embedded windows. We printed using a super-opaque enamel, and our reproduction lightblock layer is 2X to 3X lightfast, as compared to factory. This makes the contrast of those playfield features much much more impressive, and shaped as the designers intended. We even added our own lightblock underlay to the "flaming arrows" - so when they light up they are shaped as the artwork - instead of the factory look of "three sided arrows lighting up underneath flame-shaped arrow artwork". Now those flame-shapes are improved bigtime

Fire! Silkscreened Playfield 31-1002-556 and are SILKSCREENED.

NOTE: The supplier for this playfield was CLASSIC PLAYFIELDS (CANADA)

NOTE: PLAYFIELD ASSURANCE OPTION!

Playfields are shipped to us from our major suppliers as firsts. As with original playfields each playfield has its own anomalies which for the vast majority are insignificant. For the absolute perfectionists, PPS offers a Playfield Inspection service. Without the service, the playfield will be shipped as it was shipped to us, and any concerns would be addressed by the customer with the supplier directly. Note that very minor issues which are/were in most playfield are a matter of fact with playfields (slight insert inclusions, minor dust particles in clear, woodgrain patterns in shooter lanes, very slight art and/or silkscreen registration, etc. These are all considered normal anomalies in a playfield. Also note that we demand and expect high quality playfields from our suppliers, it's just that each customer's needs and expectations vary.

To meet that need for some customers we will provide at additional charge:

a) We will offer multiple choices IF we have multiple open playfields available for this title

b) We will open the supplier wrapped playfield

c) We will inspect for normal and any abnormal defects

d) We will highlight for the customer what we find

e) We will take pictures and send to the customer

f) We will wait for customer �approval� before sending out playfield