DotMation disclaimer?

[Captain B. Zarre]

So I noticed on several 1992 Williams titles one of the displays during the attract mode (usually after the title of the game has been shown) says "in DotMation" and has many titles flipping to reveal the word DotMation. What I'm confused about is why some titles have this little ident and some don't. The titles I have noticed it on are:
- Creature from the Black Lagoon
- Doctor WHO
- Bram Stoker's Dracula

I was wondering why these tables were picked. Whitewater was released during the period after CFTBL and it never had any mention of DotMation anywhere, nor did Black Rose. What I have noticed with the three games though is that they all have things coming out of the table: the hologram in CFTBL, the Time Expander in DW, and the trail for the Mist in BSD. Could this be what Williams was referring to or not?

 

[stevevt]

I'm pretty sure DotMation is just what Bally Williams called their dot matrix technology during the period of the games in question. It doesn't really have a special meaning, but it definitely refers to the dot matrix display and not any other part of the game design.

 

[superballs]

It could also be a tongue in cheek reference to Technicolor or something as all three are movie/TV based

 

[netizen]

Williams Dotmation is a line of their DMD slot machines. Perhaps the animators slipped in some adverts for then subtly, like all the DOHO tags in the 90s era games too.

You get into the cross over games like Safe Cracker which is, by williams classifications, a pinball themed slot machine because it pays out.

 

[Mark W**a]

I thought it was because of special animation or digitized images in the dmd, that may have used a special engine to create. Not because of the dot matrix technology itself.

I could be wrong. But Dracula has some pretty amazing DMD display effects, and Creature has very detailed pictures, whereas White Water and Black Rose use stick figures and less impressive animations.

I could be wrong, of course, that's just my guess.

 

[Shaneus]

I don't think the animation of Wet Willy announcing "Welcome to Wet Willy's!" when you complete all the rafts is any less impressive than, say, Move Your Car. Pretty sure DotMation is just a thing whoever was programming the dots did to have a bit of fun with the game.

Fake edit: Now I think of it, Creech has that digitised animation of the girl being kidnapped. I've not seen much of BSD's animations, but I have a feeling they have similar things going on. If that's the case... then I think we know what DotMation is

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

From what can see, "DotMation" was just the idea that you could do these animations on the dot-matrix display. In 1991 and 1992, dot-matrix displays on pinball machines were still new, and it was a big step up from the alphanumeric displays. Most of the buyers of pinball machines were also operators intending to put them in arcades to make a profit with little to no interest in them as games (hence why the flyers were always full of bad puns about earning profits). "DotMation," then, was used as an incentive to convince these operators to buy these machines because there's something amazing and cutting edge about the graphics in them that would supposedly draw interest of passers-by. It may have also been used to try to gain an advantage over competing pinball machine companies, which would of course not have "DotMation." (I think the only significant competition Bally-Williams had at that time was Gottlieb, but business is war, and all is fair in love and war.)

It's exactly the same as all of the other buzz words used to describe graphics, especially in video gaming, in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. The most famous of these is "blast processing" used to describe the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog games, which ultimately meant nothing at all. It was simply used to make the Genesis (AKA Mega Drive) sound more impressive, that it has some sort of graphical feature the Super Nintendo did not.

 

[jaredmorgs]

I don't think the animation of Wet Willy announcing "Welcome to Wet Willy's!" when you complete all the rafts is any less impressive than, say, Move Your Car. Pretty sure DotMation is just a thing whoever was programming the dots did to have a bit of fun with the game.

Fake edit: Now I think of it, Creech has that digitised animation of the girl being kidnapped. I've not seen much of BSD's animations, but I have a feeling they have similar things going on. If that's the case... then I think we know what DotMation is

Riffing on this, Dr Who also features DotMation.

The only things I can think of is the somewhat "enhanced" animation where the TARDIS fly away from Gallifrey, and the ball start animations.

If anyone is bored enough, feel free to compile a video reel of all DotMation animations and post here for great dotty justice.

 

[Espy]

Sounds to me like another marketing technology. Remember Blast Processing? The Mega Drive was advertised a crazy amount. Turns out Blast Processing wasn't referring to any technology in particular, just some cool words marketing had come up with.

 

[Shaneus]

Hmm... I'm sticking with digitised characters. Like I said earlier, I know for sure that Creech has one when FILM is lit and the girl is kidnapped, but I can't verify any of the others. I might get the VP tables of Dr. Who and BSD and have a quick play/let the attract mode run.

Edit: Wait, didn't Dr. Who have digitised photos of the doctors at the start?

I have a hunch that if a game like Iron Man or Batman was made in the 90s, DMD animations would be considered "DotMation" because of things like this.

 

[netizen]

Did you all think I was making **** up about the slot machines?
http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/wmsslot.htm

 

[Shaneus]

Not at all, but I think it's more likely that they trademarked the term just for the hell of it, released some slot machine games that had DMDs and figured they might as well use the name. I doubt Creech and Dr. Who are referencing gambling machines specifically.

 

[Mark W**a]

It's exactly the same as all of the other buzz words used to describe graphics, especially in video gaming, in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. The most famous of these is "blast processing" used to describe the 16-bit Sonic the Hedgehog games, which ultimately meant nothing at all. It was simply used to make the Genesis (AKA Mega Drive) sound more impressive, that it has some sort of graphical feature the Super Nintendo did not.

The CPU in the Genesis/Megadrive is over twice as fast as the CPU that drives the SNES.

It's a Motorola 68000 clocked at 7.67 MHz vs 3.58Mhz SNES CPU.

So Sega's "blast processing" marketing was based in truth. They took an advantage their system had over the competion, and played it up in marketing.

You wouldn't see a comercial in the 90s that said "Sega has 7.67Mhz, Nintendont!" Kids would just be like "huh".

Nintendo did something similar with the "Play it Loud" campaign, which emphasized the more advanced sound of Super NES.

 

[Timelord]

The CPU in the Genesis/Megadrive is over twice as fast as the CPU that drives the SNES.

It's a Motorola 68000 clocked at 7.67 MHz vs 3.58Mhz SNES CPU.

So Sega's "blast processing" marketing was based in truth. They took an advantage their system had over the competion, and played it up in marketing.

You wouldn't see a comercial in the 90s that said "Sega has 7.67Mhz, Nintendont!" Kids would just be like "huh".

Nintendo did something similar with the "Play it Loud" campaign, which emphasized the more advanced sound of Super NES.

The Sega's 68000 was faster than the SNES's 6508 in more than clock speed. It was also a much more mature CPU capable of addressing more memory natively without address shifting. It was, in fact, a much faster processor in every way.

Timelord ...

 

[Shaneus]

Dat parallax. Hnnngh.