Next ColorDMD...

[mwong168]

White Water and Twilight Zone

See it at the Texas Pinball Festival!

ColorDMD is excited to announce that we will be previewing a multicolor replacement display for White Water pinball machines at the Texas Pinball Festival on March 15-17. The display will be available for play in the Elevation Games booth along with the full ColorDMD lineup including Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, The Addams Family, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Special thanks to Marc Oradat for making this happen!

This marks ColorDMD's fifth muticolor display since the company's first product release in April, 2012. Randy Perlow will present a seminar at 7:30pm Saturday, March 16 which will highlight the company's products, technology, and evolution. Randy will also discuss how games are colored and give a glimpse into the company's future direction. We hope you can join us!

ColorDMD also unveils New SIGMA Display Platform!

ColorDMD is excited to announce that we will be previewing our new advanced SIGMA display platform at the Texas Pinball Festival on March 15-17. Unlike previous products, SIGMA is non-game-specifc and builds upon ColorDMD's customizable single-color display capability to make best use of the high definition LCD platform.

SIGMA introduces advanced image upscaling algorithms to eliminate grid lines between dots, smooth diagonal lines, and brighten the overall display. SIGMA also introduces new capabilities like CRT scan-line emulation for games like Twilight Zone to provide an enriched player experience like no other! SIGMA is the only pinball display on the planet that provides capabilities to customize your display by choosing from among 49 different color hues and different diplay effects like classic dots, HD interpolation, and scan lines!

The SIGMA display will be available for play in the Elevation Games booth along with the full ColorDMD lineup including Attack From Mars, Medieval Madness, The Addams Family, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Special thanks to Marc Oradat for making this happen!

Randy Perlow will present a seminar at 7:30pm Saturday, March 16 which will highlight the company's products, technology, and evolution. Randy will also discuss how games are colored and give a glimpse into the company's future direction. We hope you can join us!

 

[DRANO]

scanline vs dots could be very cool!

 

[Vengeance]

It's funny I was all gung ho for getting this for my ST:TNG and then it came out and I was like $400 for a color DMD, meh, I could get a EM for that.

I like what they are doing and I do think it looks cool, but I'm just not on the band wagon enough that I want to actually buy one. Maybe if my DMD dies on one of these games and the choices are New DMD for $200 or Color DMD for $400 I might be more inclined to go the color route.

 

[Menace]

Adam just hit on what we've all been discussing about this product. I'm in for a wh20 and TZ when they are available. This way I put two nice DMD's into my parts bin for a rainy day.

I'm also thinking the TZ shouldn't be as much $$ as the others because from what I'm lead to believe it's just going to be "black and white". If this is the case it's just their new SIGMA platform and no colorization work will be required.

D

 

[Vengeance]

I've already got a DMD or 2 sitting spare in my parts bin, but also with enough games, it would be easy enough if a DMD died on any game to take the DMD out of ST:TNG or any other color compatible machine and put that DMD in the busted DMD machine.

Safer as well IMO rather then having to worry about storing it for extended periods of time.

 

[REVOLUTION]

It'll be interesting to see where they go with this Sigma platform re. pricing. Sounds like they're headed towards you buying the basic unit and then paying for the code for your game, OR living with the unit as-is and going the single colour route. This is really the way it should be, IMO. I'm just curious how they're going to handle the licenses for those games you want full colour on (ie. you buy the chip to put in it). It would HAVE to be a chip.. if it's a USB key update, then I'm betting it won't be long before that code is pirated.

Anyway Phoebe was running a Sigma prototype in her Creech at Expo, as a solid green. Looked good!

As plasma is now obsolete, the future of DMD replacements is in a strange state of limbo/flux. Right now I think the cheapest option for a LED DMD replacement is ~$300. For an extra $100, I'd definitely go the ColorDMD route.

 

[Chris Bardon]

If I had to go with a replacement, I'd definitely look at the colorDMD options, and now that they actually have displays for games that I own, it's good to know they're around. Still, not sure if I'll spend 400 bucks on one, but I'd like to see Whitewater and TZ in action. TZ in B&W could be cool, as could some selected colour in there (for LITZ maybe?)

 

[mwong168]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1YeH3R-eBD8[/youtube]

You can get a glimpse of TZ ColorDMD on the right there too

 

[mwong168]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pkeCxy_fTlU[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zZDwBFrDPYA[/youtube]

 

[jooky]

The TZ black and white looks pretty cool! Not sure if its $400+shipping cool... Hopefully these come down in price over time.

 

[mwong168]

The TZ black and white looks pretty cool! Not sure if its $400+shipping cool... Hopefully these come down in price over time.

Not sure if you had a chance to check out the DMD Extender thread here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=409 or else you can also go to the creator David's homepage here: http://www.drpinball.co.uk

He is currently working on an editor so you can basically colorize any of your games using his interface board and a Rasperry Pi. The break down of costs looks promising and less then a ColorDMD at $400 and even a single color xPin display. I think the only variable cost here would be the LCD monitor with HDMI and if it would easily fit in the place of the standard DMD is in the head. Rasperry Pi can be had for as low as $35 plus taxes and shipping or else if you want to walk into a place like Sayal they sell them for $55-60.

Hopefully this project takes off so more people will start using the editor to colorize their games and share with everyone.

 

[SquidVicious]

The TZ black and white looks pretty cool! Not sure if its $400+shipping cool... Hopefully these come down in price over time.

Not sure if you had a chance to check out the DMD Extender thread here: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=409 or else you can also go to the creator David's homepage here: http://www.drpinball.co.uk

He is currently working on an editor so you can basically colorize any of your games using his interface board and a Rasperry Pi. The break down of costs looks promising and less then a ColorDMD at $400 and even a single color xPin display. I think the only variable cost here would be the LCD monitor with HDMI and if it would easily fit in the place of the standard DMD is in the head. Rasperry Pi can be had for as low as $35 plus taxes and shipping or else if you want to walk into a place like Sayal they sell them for $55-60.

Hopefully this project takes off so more people will start using the editor to colorize their games and share with everyone.

The colorDMD guys have mentioned releasing their editor to the public at a couple of their seminars but that was 18 months ago so maybe it isn't happening ... this alternative sounds interesting.

 

[DRANO]

I like the scanline effect on TZ

Now bring on IJ!!!

 

[mwong168]

The colorDMD guys have mentioned releasing their editor to the public at a couple of their seminars but that was 18 months ago so maybe it isn't happening ... this alternative sounds interesting.

Interesting post by Randy from ColorDMD in the DMDextender thread in regards to patents and rights:

Since the question was raised... as described on our website, the ColorDMD invention is the subject of a pending US patent.

It's based on work I initiated in July 2009 and have spent several years improving upon, reducing to practice, and converting to a viable product that I could contribute, support, and share with the pinball community.

While I'm impressed with David's initiative and work with the Rasberry Pi, I confess to being a little concerned that the posted RgbDmd video demonstrates several of the ideas I disclosed in the patent application, and presented in seminars over the last few years.

I hope that the effort and investment made to invent the ColorDMD and get it to where it is today are considered by others as this new project progresses, and its scope and direction become more clear.

Randy

 

[mwong168]

Some news from ColorDMD regarding their May production release:

New and previously sold ColorDMD displays will be capable of using the new SIGMA upscaling features.

The SIGMA ROM, demonstrated earlier this year on Twilight Zone (Texas Pinball Festival) and Fish Tales (Midwest Gaming Classic) is a single-color ROM that allows customer selection from 49 different colors and 3 different display effects (classic dots, high-definition upscaling, and scan lines). SIGMA will be the default shipping configuration for new ColorDMD displays and available from our website for firmware updates to existing displays.

The SIGMA ROM currently supports WPC/WPC95 platforms.

New and previously sold ColorDMD displays will be capable of firmware conversions using our supported library of multicolor ROMs subject to the following limitations.

ColorDMD displays sold prior to October 2012 (Rev 1.2 controller boards) do not support the THING lamp interface added for Addams Family and cannot be used to illuminate the THING lamps.

ColorDMD Displays LLC may revise or improve its hardware platform at any time, and provides no representation, guarantee, or warranty that future products and/or features will be supported by current or prior display systems.

Unlocked SIGMA and multicolor ROMs will be free to download and install from our website.