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Exploring The BEST Pinball Machine Glass Options Available

Cary Hardy·video·27m 18s·analyzed·Apr 23, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Aftermarket glass comparison: premium options beat standard, but price matters more than quality differences.

Summary

Cary Hardy compares four pinball machine glass options—standard Stern glass, Voodoo, Multimorphic Pin Glass Plus, and Barrels of Fun Infinity Glass—through direct side-by-side testing on his Jurassic Park Pro machine. All three aftermarket options significantly outperform standard glass in reducing reflections and improving clarity, but Hardy finds minimal practical differences between the three premium options, making price the primary deciding factor for buyers.

Key Claims

  • All three aftermarket glass options (Voodoo, Pin Glass Plus, Infinity Glass) significantly reduce reflections compared to standard Stern glass

    high confidence · Direct visual comparison testing with overhead lighting, played multiple times with different lighting configurations

  • Pin Glass Plus has a beveled edge around all sides, reducing breakage risk and improving fit into glass channels

    high confidence · Hardy explicitly notes and demonstrates the beveled edge on Pin Glass Plus compared to other options

  • Pin Glass Plus was more difficult to clean than Voodoo or Infinity Glass despite achieving the same visual result

    medium confidence · Hardy's subjective observation during cleaning, not independently verified

  • There are no significant visual differences between the three aftermarket glass options that would justify price premiums beyond $50

    medium confidence · Hardy's conclusion after extensive side-by-side comparison, but acknowledged as opinion subject to disagreement

  • Spooky Pinball has recently released their own premium glass option, which Hardy expects to be better than standard but does not have for testing

    medium confidence · Hardy mentions this as 'foreshadowing' and apologizes for not including it, indicating recent/forthcoming release

Notable Quotes

  • “This already looks a hell of a lot better than the standard glass. As much as I would love to tell you that there is no difference, I would be lying.”

    Cary Hardy@ 6:19 — Hardy's immediate reaction to Voodoo glass performance, setting expectation for quality difference

  • “I don't see any kind of drastic difference between the three alternatives. Nothing that is just, Wow, can you see the difference between this and that? And if there are differences, they're so minute, the only thing that I care about now is the price.”

    Cary Hardy@ 25:42 — Core conclusion: price becomes primary decision factor once baseline quality threshold is met

  • “Anything's better than your damn standard glass that you're going to be getting. It's all a matter of what kind of money are you looking to spend on a sheet of glass.”

    Cary Hardy@ 26:04 — Final recommendation emphasizing value proposition of premium options over standard

  • “I have always used just standard glass I've never upgraded to the alternatives. But now that I have experienced it, I saw firsthand at Texas Pinball Festival, and that already like, wow, that changed my mind.”

    Cary Hardy@ 25:17 — Hardy's personal conversion from skeptic to believer in aftermarket glass, motivated by experience at tournament venue

  • “The way I look at it, anything's better than your damn standard glass... It's all a matter of what kind of money are you looking to spend on a sheet of glass.”

    Cary Hardy@ 26:04 — Summarizes philosophy: premium glass is worthwhile but differentiation between options doesn't justify large price gaps

Entities

Cary HardypersonStern PinballcompanyVoodoo GlassproductMultimorphiccompanyPin Glass PlusproductBarrels of FuncompanyInfinity GlassproductSpooky PinballcompanyJurassic Park Progame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Texas Pinball Festival serving as venue for hands-on experience with premium components, influencing collector purchasing decisions

    medium · Hardy explicitly credits Texas Pinball Festival experience as catalyst for reconsidering premium glass option investment

  • $

    market_signal: Premium glass market segment exists with multiple competing products at varying price points; differentiation between premium options is minimal, suggesting market consolidation around price/value rather than feature distinction

    medium · Hardy's conclusion that three aftermarket options are visually indistinguishable but all superior to standard; recommendation to buy based on price rather than specific product characteristics

  • ?

    product_strategy: Aftermarket glass options (Voodoo, Pin Glass Plus, Infinity Glass) represent meaningful quality upgrade from standard Stern glass in reducing reflections and improving playfield visibility

    high · Direct side-by-side comparison demonstrates clear visual improvement across multiple lighting conditions; Hardy's personal conversion from non-user to adopter after Texas Pinball Festival experience

  • ?

    technology_signal: Anti-reflective glass technology becoming standard expectation in premium pinball aftermarket, with Spooky Pinball recently entering market with own premium glass option

    medium · Spooky Pinball's recent glass release mentioned as imminent competitor; Hardy apologizes for not including it in testing, indicating recent/ongoing product launch

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.082

0:00
This video is brought to you by my awesome Patreon supporters. Their monthly donations are what purchased the glass that you will be seeing in this video.
0:12
What's up guys and welcome back to the channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So if that sounds interesting to you then hit that subscribe button down below. And in this video I'm going to be going over four different options of glass for your pinball machine. The first option is obviously going to be the standard glass that you would receive on like a Stern Pro or even the premium model. Then we're going to have Voodoo, also Multimorphics Pin Glass Plus, and of course the new barrels of fun Infinity Glass. Now I apologize to Spooky Pinball, but you literally just released your version of like this type of glass. but if I was a betting man it's probably gonna be better than standard which is what we're about to go over we call that foreshadowing so let's just cut to the footage of me going through all the sheets of glass on my Jurassic Park Pro and I'll see you at the end all right let's begin this experimentation with my Jurassic Park Pro I will be starting out with stern standard glass to give you a baseline like what you're going to get if you were to get a pinball machine with just your regular standard glass. Now I need to turn off the pin stadiums because that is not going to give us the baseline because these actually help when it comes to you know reflections off the glass and everything and to give you the full experimentation of this we will turn on the overhead light which gives us that thing right there which is what a lot of people don't want to see if they play with lights above their machine. So that's really going to be our baseline to see if that is diminished at all with the other sheets of glass that we have going down the row. But first of all let's get some spray white on here get as clean as we possibly can and get us a baseline. All right That glass has been cleaned. Let's start the game up so we have full GI going. Penn Stadiums are turned off so this is our baseline. And let's get some shots around the area that you would typically see when playing. So we can see a little bit of reflection from the screen right here in the center. That's something to take note of. see that on the other sheets of glass.
Foo Fighters
game
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Jasonperson
Iron Maidengame
PIN Stadiumproduct
Patreoncompany
2:54
Looks like we're getting a little bit of a, no, a little bit of screen reflection down here. But mainly definitely we're getting it right there from my point of view. Down here, I guess you can see me a little bit in the reflection. Alright, let's turn on the light now. So big ol' spotlight right there above us. Now with the light above us, you don't really see the center portion as well. But depending on how you stand and where the light's at, you can pretty much have that entire center area covered up where your flipper's at. So that is what standard looks like.
4:05
And then let's turn the pin stadiums on to give you an idea of what it looks like with the pin stadiums. All right, pin stadiums are on. And this is not a video advertising for pin lights or pin stadiums. But this just kind of shows you the difference also when you have alternative lighting underneath your glass. Just to give you a visual. and you still get that right there. So now let's turn the light back off.
4:38
And do we still get... Okay, I'm trying to see... Now with the alternative lighting underneath the glass, I'm not seeing the center reflection display up there onto the glass. So that's definitely different.
5:05
Trying to get you guys all kinds of viewpoints to see if that glass is cleaner or more transparent than any other ones.
5:25
all right so there is our baseline right there so let's go on to the next sheet of glass all right so up next we're gonna be doing the voodoo trying to make sure we get this cleaned on both sides all right this is voodoo coming in now guys I'm not gonna lie this already looks a hell of a lot better than the standard glass. As much as I would love to tell you that there is no difference, I would be lying. This looks pretty damn good. Now this is also with the alternative lighting, but this looks pretty damn good. I almost feel like I could reach in and grab my slingshot area So let see what we got when it comes to reflections when I turn on the overhead light so let do that real quick all right do we still have it yes but it definitely is diminished and that may be diminished because of the Penn Stadiums going, but definitely not as prominent on that.
7:22
So let's turn off the Penn Stadiums now. All right. Penn Stadiums are off. Do we still have the reflection up in this area? honestly not really and the only kind of reflection i'm seeing with my eyes maybe not on the camera is just due to how shiny my play field is i'm seeing it off the play field not the glass so let's give this a look over so you guys can see what this looks like with this is voodoo just to say that again make sure you know which glass we are dealing with right here definitely a step up a big step up from your standard sheet of glass so that looks really good all right let's move on to the next glass which is going to be pin glass plus from p3 multimorphic let's open this up now and see what we got going on i can already see i'm gonna have to clean this damn thing off due to the paper that it's wrapped in there's just powder i can see going everywhere like cardboard dust there is some etching to signify that it's a pen glass plus up here in the corner I don't recall seeing any kind of etching or anything on the voodoo glass I could be mistaken okay something i will comment on is that we have a beveled edge all the way around this that is nice i don't know if i'm going to be able to get that on camera but we're going to try i don't know if i'm able to get this thing to focus on this or not guys it's like it doesn't want to focus on the edge of the glass a little bit right there but it's got a beveled edge all around the sides of the glass and you're like well what difference is that going to make well two reasons one it should slide in to the glass channels easier and two it's less likely to break when setting it on the ground on the edges you don't have any hard corners so it just lowers your chances of breaking this damn thing so all right so but as you might be able to see maybe i don't know if you can see it or not there's some pin glass plus etching right here on the corner all right let's get her wiped down and put her in the game
10:44
As far as sliding in wise, I didn't feel much of a difference honestly with the beveled edges compared to what Voodoo had. So it's still pretty darn snug. I'm seeing some wiping smears right here so let me get another all right I'll tell you one thing so far, when it comes to wiping this thing down, it doesn't seem to be as forgiving as the Voodoo Glass. I'm not sure of what I'm seeing. Okay, yeah, okay.
11:57
I thought they were scratches in the glass. But it's just harder to clean it looks like. I mean, I didn't have to put much effort into the Voodoo.
12:22
I just kind of like went over it and it cleaned up whereas with this one I feel like I'm having to go over with a fine-tooth comb and yet I'm still seeing some micro okay I want to be as fair as I possibly can on this guys all right so that looks good all right let's get this thing on camera all right so at looking at it just like any other glass that I've had on here so far this looks right there up with a voodoo it's nice and clean I feel like I can reach in and grab the slingshots. When it comes to reflections off the glass, it looks like the same thing as well. What I'm seeing reflections on is actually my play field and not the glass itself.
13:27
All right, and as far as the light overhead, that where we at on that Let me turn the lights off and here we are with the lights off
13:44
Again, definitely better than your standard glass. All right, let's turn off the Penn Stadiums to see what kind of a difference those make.
14:03
all right standard GI only with the pin glass plus and again I'm seeing the reflection right here a lot more since I turned off the alternative lighting right here but it looks like most of that is like I said coming from the actual play field itself not the glass all right let's turn on the overhead light with the Penn Stadium turned off and there is the overhead light.
15:06
Oh man I think that's actually the same. it's like i can't get the light because it's like right above the camera right there if i want to say standard lighting this is the one that i was getting on the standard and we'll confirm later on but if i move forward then yeah there's the other reflection of it right there above the camera all right let's move on to the barrels of fun infinity glass all right how do they got this in here it looks like we've got some cushion at the top can i slide it out looks like they made this thing snug all right so it's not going to slide out we're going to have to open it from the top it looks like
16:26
All right, we are in like a dirty shirt. Get that right there, push that to the side, and then we're going to clean it. Doesn't look like we have a beveled edge on any of this so far. I don't even know if we've got any etching to signify where this came from.
17:38
Tell you what, that came clean pretty damn easy, I'll tell you that much for sure. Let's get this turned around.
17:52
All right, that came clean pretty easy. Let's get it in the game. All right, so as far as how easy each of these glass have slid into the channel, no difference. They all feel the same.
18:23
And so far, they all kind of look the same, too. Let's start out with all lights off, Penn Stadium's off, just standard GI going on right here.
18:37
And like I said, not going to lie, it kind of looks the same. I'm also not going to lie. I kind of wonder if I'm seeing more of my back glass right here than the other ones. But again, it's coming off the play field, not the glass.
19:04
I mean, I got the camera in the perspective of a player, so I'll let you be the judge on what this looks like.
19:16
Alright, so let's turn on the overhead light. So every sheet of glass so far has had that, and I'm pretty sure even the Voodoo had the very brighter version with the camera. I just never moved it up that far. I'll put the Voodoo in there just to confirm for you guys. But, all right, so that's what it looks like with the overhead light.
20:12
All right, let's turn the alternative lighting on. All right, now we have the Penn Stadium turned on.
20:25
Still get that reflection down there but as far as just your basic like looking in here and playing it looks damn good So far, the other three glass alternatives are better than the standard. Easily. Easy. But I'm not seeing a drastic difference between the other three. I'm not seeing a clear, a clear winner kind of thing. They all seem to do the same damn thing. And for all we know guys, they're all coming from the same manufacturer and state the same exact thing as all the other sheets of glass manufacturers. maybe they're all cut from the same cloth.
21:17
But it's easy winner over standard glass. No debate. Easy win. And I'll put the Voodoo in here one more time.
21:29
I've got to take it out of the box again, just to confirm that. And then I'm going to put the standard back on again, so you can see the difference in that as well. But it looks like there's just nothing there. I mean, another note to make is that the Pen Glass Plus seemed a little more difficult to clean. I don't know why, but this one and Voodoo cleaned pretty easy. Whereas, for whatever reason, it seemed like I had to struggle a little bit harder to get the Pen Glass Plus to be clean. all right standard is back in guys and i can tell a huge difference just by that right there and this is with the alternative lighting on but you got that one i move a little further forward and you got the other one right there look how prominent that thing is and from my vision it just looks like it's a lot bigger from up here as well i mean like yeah but the further i get away from it you can see that thing is just huge drastic reduction on the alternative glass compared to what we get with your standard so this is just standard glass again just to give you an idea to see if you see any kind of differences and again this is with the alternate lights on and let's turn those off now. Alright, just using the games GI right now. Let me look at that. Thing is massive right there. Nowhere near as clear. The other glasses I feel like I can reach in and grab stuff, whereas with standard glass not so much. Let's turn off the overhead light. Oh yeah, I'm seeing lights flickering up here from what we're seeing up there. It's bouncing off there and coming back down here. I'm seeing, yeah, definitely can tell the difference between standard and the other three. But the other three, no. I think it all comes down to, for me, price. But they all look to be just a hell of a lot better than your standard glass. Okay, so what I've done is that I've taken the standard glass out of my Jurassic Park and out of my Foo Fighters. And I now have the Pen Glass Plus in here and the Infinity Glass in my Foo Fighters and I'm telling you right now it looks so much better with non standard glass. This looks so much better.
24:21
I can't stress that enough. So I'm going to have some spare standard sheets. The Voodoo Glass, I borrowed that from my buddy Jason. I've got to return that back to him tomorrow because his Iron Maiden currently doesn't have a glass now. But I wanted to utilize that as a comparison. So look, this is going to be obviously opinions of my own. And I'm willing to bet you're going to see people in the comment section down below that disagree with me and are holding strong and fast on a particular glass that I have put on a machine and they're going to have their reasons trust me it'll be in the comment section down below because there's people out there that are strong advocates for voodoo or all the other ones out there so from my perspective on this i have now been converted into a believer when it comes to all the other glasses that are non-standard glass i have always used just standard glass i've never upgraded to the alternatives. But now that I have experienced it, I saw firsthand at Texas Pinball Festival, and that already like, wow, that changed my mind, at least on the Pin Glass Plus. And now that I've experienced Voodoo, as well as Barrels of Fun's Infinity Glass, I don't see any kind of drastic difference between the three alternatives. Nothing that is just, Wow, can you see the difference between this and that? And if there are differences, they're so minute, the only thing that I care about now is the price. That's right, capitalism for the win on this one, guys. So the way I look at it, anything's better than your damn standard glass that you're going to be getting. It's all a matter of what kind of money are you looking to spend on a sheet of glass. Look at your options. I'll put links in the description down below on all the options that I have provided and you can decide for yourself How much money you want to spend? Because I've got the infinity glass on foo and I've got pin glass plus on my Jurassic Park and just walking by my games Now it's an obvious difference between standard and the alternatives, but as far as alternative to alternative
26:42
nothing drastic enough that would be significant on a $50 increase or more or anything like that. No. I highly recommend that you guys stick with whatever is the best bang for your buck and then we'll let the companies start deciding what they want to charge. So there you have it guys. Let me know what you think about the glass in the comment section down below and of course if you're a strong advocate for one of these particular glasses back here then I'm sure I'll hear your comments as well. Stay tuned guys. More Your stuff is on the way.