ColorDMD Tales of the Arabian Nights

[Captain B. Zarre]

http://shop.colordmd.com/colordmd-r...-tales-of-the-arabian-nights-pinball-machine/

 

[Kolchak357]

Looks very cool.
Those color DMDs are worth every penny. I've seen a few in person and they are very impressive.

 

[DanBradford]

I've not bought one yet (actually that's a lie, my on site MB has apparently earned herself one) but the thing I like about them is that they're apparently now interchangeable between all the machines that have been done. So if you buy one for your STTNG and happen to also have a WH2O then it will also work in that.

They're about £350 in the uk I think. How much in the States?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

They're $400 in the US. Pricey, but I've seen them in both "Sigma" (single-color) and multi-color modes and they're worth it. My TZ has one in black-and-white like the TV series and it makes the standard orange look flat-out wrong.

 

[Bowflex]

I don't get why stern still has single color dmd's.

 

[Shaneus]

I was playing a No Fear the other day, and if any game needs colour it's that one. The dots on it aren't inherently bad, but any kind of detail is lost in the mush of similarly-shaded orange dots. I reckon it'd shine with a colour DMD reworking.

I wonder if there's a way to play emulated tables on PC with some kind of a colour DMD plugin?

 

[Worf]

The single color DMD comes from the fact that they're basically fancy neon displays. It's a nice high contrast bright display that generally works well and is very simple to operate.

The Color DMD guys "cheat" and use a regular LCD panel you might find in your laptop (or an UltraPin) and emulate the dot effects there. The contrast is lower, but the graphics are oh-so-nice. It's harder to drive, costs more money and all that stuff.

Using a regular computer monitor as a display is an option, but it ends up being an inventory problem as everyone knows the model numbers change practically daily, and for a platform that's supposed to last years, well, buying new monitors makes for inventory hell. And cheap monitors can easily fail after a few months of rough use, so they'd want to invest in commercial quality panels that have availabilities in the decade but also cost a helluva lot more money. And parts like this can easily drive the cost of the machine up $1000.

 

[jaredmorgs]

The newer STERN tables run sigma LED arrays for DMDs. All red dots. You can see the very feint lines between each panel block. I'm surprised that on LE machines, Color DMD isn't "The Standard".

 

[Mayuh]

For an alternative: I just tried the DMD extender for the first time. It's some sort of DIY kit, that requires a raspberry, a standard 15” laptop panel and a LVDS converter (for the inputs).
Best thing is, that you can freely define each of the standard four Williams shades completely different. Or, like for a TZ in b/w. Or 16 for Sterns.

I installed it on my fish tales, as the DMD is close to outgas completely. I went with yellow, orange, green and black. Looks pretty amazing, but will of course never replace a real color DMD but was only like €190, which is close to what a new DMD would cost

Initially I wanted to install it on my WCS94, yet I have to get the electricity stable first. It looks awesome in there: http://youtu.be/zVPHcI2Cqyg

 

[Worf]

The newer STERN tables run sigma LED arrays for DMDs. All red dots. You can see the very feint lines between each panel block. I'm surprised that on LE machines, Color DMD isn't "The Standard".

LIke I said, ColorDMD uses a LCD screen. LED displays aren't really multicolor - the ones with red/green/blue LED arrays are expensive (and big), and while red/green ones are cheaper, but you only get red/green/yellow as the final color.

So it's either go with LCDs (and ColorDMDs aren't cheap because of all the circuitry involved - the panels themselves aren't that cheap especially if you need them in small quantities and to be around a long time.

 

[RagingBull888]

I had the chance to see a ColorDMD on a TAF machine and a MM machine at the Louisville Arcade Expo. It really stood out on the MM machine with all the fancy animations. I would really be interested in seeing an Attack from Mars machine with it.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

This is the current list of ColorDMD machines:

Addams Family
Attack from Mars
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Medieval Madness
Monster Bash
Scared Stiff
Star Trek The Next Generation
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Theatre of Magic
Whitewater

 

[jaredmorgs]

LIke I said, ColorDMD uses a LCD screen. LED displays aren't really multicolor - the ones with red/green/blue LED arrays are expensive (and big), and while red/green ones are cheaper, but you only get red/green/yellow as the final color.

So it's either go with LCDs (and ColorDMDs aren't cheap because of all the circuitry involved - the panels themselves aren't that cheap especially if you need them in small quantities and to be around a long time.

Yeah, fair enough.

Also, if STERN takes as long as they do to update critically deficient game code, imagine how much time it would take them to roll out patches if the dots had to be programmed in colour.

 

[shutyertrap]

The ColorDMD guys are in my pinball league. Actually the guy that runs the league! As such, I've seen all their displays as the guys have them put into their pins at most of the houses we visit. It's a very time consuming process. I was told that it takes the same amount of time to do the first 90% of coding as it does that final 10%.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

BUMP:

Fish Tales is confirmed as the next Color DMD release - and it looks beautiful! https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/color-dmd-fishtales

 

[Shaneus]

Oh damn, can't wait to have a look! Shame Pinside is blocked at work, but that's a good game for them to work on.

Now I want them to do RBION. I think that could be a fun one.

 

[Bowflex]

Fish tales is such an ideal choice with all the colored fishes and such. Look forward to seeing that one.

 

[Shaneus]

The ColorDMD guys are in my pinball league. Actually the guy that runs the league! As such, I've seen all their displays as the guys have them put into their pins at most of the houses we visit. It's a very time consuming process. I was told that it takes the same amount of time to do the first 90% of coding as it does that final 10%.

Huh, I only just noticed this. Chances are, I would've seen one of them when they did their talk in Texas. A lot of exciting stuff coming up for them and their product.

I'm debating whether to volunteer my time and $400US (plus whatever astronomical shipping to get it to Australia) to get one for Ripley's and work on the colours. Would be a fun project, but yeah... pricey as hell.