Nice work so far
As for the bulb length.. its a very odd size. Your best plan is to replace the lamp
assembly with a modern width unit. That is what I did. The bulbs I found were all
for 24", and would not quite fit into the smaller factory assembly.
Sadly, the lamp assembly I choose doesnt seem to want to fire the bulb up all the time. Make sure to get a good quality lamp assembly.
I tried the f20t12-bl White Blacklight bulb, and thought it was way too bright.
I then changed it to use a full sized Black Backlight bulb tube... and even that seemed
a little bright.. but much much better.
(Im going from Memory of the original machine from when I was 6 or 7 yrs old... as well as my personal artistic viewpoint/opinion of what I remember and or should look like)
I suppose if you were on-location, with lots of ambient lighting/sun, you would
might need the extra light of a WBL bulb. This may have prompted a change from
the original design, to a new spec due to complaints.
I prefer the dark night look. IMOP The sky should look blackened, not yellow/green (which happens when lit up with White BL bulb). The blue/green backdrop
art should blend in well, without standing out too much. Much like viewing things
at night would be.
I believe there may have been a few revisions to the machines.. because Ive
seen machines which had blue light blubs in a screw-in socket assemblies.
So, chalk this up to personal opinion... but I wanted to warn you.. because I
feel Ive wasted $20+ dollars on a bulb that I will never use for this game.