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FS PIN2DMD replacement colour LED DMDs - regular size, small DE displays - large SEGA displays

Dino Z.

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Apr 3, 2015
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As far as I remember it's all done. However because there was not enough free space in the binary to add all the colour changes, you have to make a choice between crosses or tombstones in Grave Marker multiball. I'm not even sure how many people are aware that there is a setting in the game that allows you to switch between them. Apparently this was put in for those people/cultures that might be upset or offended by the crosses.

The person that did the colour work provides 2 different macros that can be applied when you want to add colour. You just have to chose between the crosses or tombstones scenes being coloured and then load that binary into your game. Both scenes will still work depending on your settings but one won't have colour.

Hope that makes sense (probably not). It really is one of the nicer colourizations out there...
 

Monkeybug

Active Member
Nov 14, 2012
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Stouffville, ON
What percentage of the Metallica conversion is complete? Thanks.

Seems 100% to me. Dino did mention something about having to choose between either the cross or tombstone colour files since they both can't fit in memory at once. A few of the colour combinations are questionable but overall, for the cost, its great.
 
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pinballjah

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Jan 25, 2017
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Seems 100% to me. Dino did mention something about having to choose between either the cross or tombstone colour files since they both can't fit in memory at once. A few of the colour combinations are questionable but overall, for the cost, its a great.
Thanks, good to know. I think this will be an excellent game for colour conversion. Lots of great graphics.
 

mwong168

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Easy as 1...
IMG_20200513_235158.jpg
2...
IMG_20200513_234310.jpg
3...
IMG_20200513_233405.jpg

Also have one in my Medieval Madness from before too.

IMG_20200513_233355.jpg

Thanks again Dino for the displays, NetzZWerg and Slipfishi for spending countless hours colorizing all these games.

If anyone needs a used plasma DMD with no gassing or lines out let me know as I have 4 for sale right now ;)
 
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Perry L

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Mar 17, 2016
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In the hills Mono
Hey Dino I just installed the DMD set up in my Getaway HS2 and wow does it ever look awesome. Took only a few minutes to install with the wire harness you make up and is the best mod you can do to make a older game pop. Thanks again and I’ll be back for more.
 

Dino Z.

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Apr 3, 2015
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Awesome Perry! Glad you are happy with it. I believe there might be a couple of scenes that won't be full colour. Apparently the video mode has something like 56,000 combinations of scenes so the author decided at the moment that's not the best place to spend his next 10 years of colouring! :D

Thanks again!
 

Fifty

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Apr 22, 2014
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Looking forward to getting mine! Was watching the video on YouTube to keep myself excited. However, I noticed this? Has this been corrected in the latest version? If not, is this something I can fix in the editor? Has anyone used the editor? I can't unsee the dirt/noise in this colour version.

Screen Shot 2020-05-19 at 8.41.14 PM.png
 

Dino Z.

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The firmware and editor software is constantly evolving. The developers are always tweaking and adding more features to make it easier for people to do the colouring. It is very complicated and time consuming to do this work. I started goofing around with the editor and Judge Dredd. I spent many hours and managed to colour some of the basic scenes in the attract mode of the game. Colouring animations are brutal. Still, it looks better than the monochrome but it's far from perfect.

The best you can hope for is that the original artist goes back and leverages the new features to make things look better. I know that slippifishi offers his work up for free so it's hard to complain when you realize that these guys are putting in hundreds of hours to do this stuff. You can always reach out to him and see if he can do anything with it.

As part of the activation of each display, you are entitled to use the editor. I can send you the key file for it based on the license number of your display. Unfortunately, unless you get the entire project file, you can't just fix a few of the images you don't like. You'd have to do the whole thing. My suggestion is get it installed and running and then see what you think.

This stuff came out of the virtual pin community. People are doing this as part of the hobby and it's really hard to compare to a company like ColorDMD when it's their sole business. The flip side is that you can buy 3 pin2dmd displays for around the same price of one ColorDMD... ;)
 

Fifty

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Apr 22, 2014
605
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Ottawa, Ontario
The firmware and editor software is constantly evolving. The developers are always tweaking and adding more features to make it easier for people to do the colouring. It is very complicated and time consuming to do this work. I started goofing around with the editor and Judge Dredd. I spent many hours and managed to colour some of the basic scenes in the attract mode of the game. Colouring animations are brutal. Still, it looks better than the monochrome but it's far from perfect.

The best you can hope for is that the original artist goes back and leverages the new features to make things look better. I know that slippifishi offers his work up for free so it's hard to complain when you realize that these guys are putting in hundreds of hours to do this stuff. You can always reach out to him and see if he can do anything with it.

As part of the activation of each display, you are entitled to use the editor. I can send you the key file for it based on the license number of your display. Unfortunately, unless you get the entire project file, you can't just fix a few of the images you don't like. You'd have to do the whole thing. My suggestion is get it installed and running and then see what you think.

This stuff came out of the virtual pin community. People are doing this as part of the hobby and it's really hard to compare to a company like ColorDMD when it's their sole business. The flip side is that you can buy 3 pin2dmd displays for around the same price of one ColorDMD... ;)
Hmm... I watched the tutorial on YouTube. This is actually the kind of thing I enjoy doing. I'm very particular, and it would be cool just to experiment. I'll definitely hit you up for the key file later. It looks like this is the type of thing you can just do at a desk too. The PIN2DMD wouldn't have to be in the actual game as long as power is provided.
 

roar

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Oct 22, 2015
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Hmm... I watched the tutorial on YouTube. This is actually the kind of thing I enjoy doing. I'm very particular, and it would be cool just to experiment. I'll definitely hit you up for the key file later. It looks like this is the type of thing you can just do at a desk too. The PIN2DMD wouldn't have to be in the actual game as long as power is provided.

That's correct you can do the whole thing at your desk, no PIN2DMD required at all. You can actually install Visual Pinball and test through that without having to update your PIN2DMD and play the physical game. I believe the latest version of VPX also gives you the ability to move the ball around manually so you can trigger scenes and see if play out. Dino made it further than I did with the editor, it takes a bit to wrap your head around what you're trying to do to colourize things, with palettes and masks and all. I haven't found a tutorial that really landed with me on how to get things moving.
 

KO Amps

Member
Nov 12, 2017
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It is pretty painful to learn. I still suck and have to re-do things often when they don't work. The one tutorial Martin did is pretty good just to get your head around how it works

What to do in certain animation situations is another story. I'm still picking away at the WCS94 colorization, won't be completely done for a while.
 

Fifty

Active Member
Apr 22, 2014
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Ottawa, Ontario
It is pretty painful to learn. I still suck and have to re-do things often when they don't work. The one tutorial Martin did is pretty good just to get your head around how it works

What to do in certain animation situations is another story. I'm still picking away at the WCS94 colorization, won't be completely done for a while.
This is the video I started watching. I got up to masks and got a bit lost, but basically understood what he was doing. The mask works like a key in broadcast so I just need to wrap my head around that. The software is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. It could use a human factors touch for sure.

Static screens seem to be pretty simple, it's the animations that are the headache for obvious reasons.
 

mwong168

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Got two more pin2dmd displays from Dino :)

IMG_20200603_214459.jpg

IMG_20200603_214437.jpg

White Water is really well done and those who have one should put one in theirs too.
 
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Netropolis

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Aug 15, 2018
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twitter.com
I had never heard of these! I only stumbled upon this thread via a DMD for sale thread here on PINREV!
I doubt the title I need will ever be made but I will throw this out there - Hurricane! The pin everyone loves to hate!
I would buy one! In fact if I BOUGHT one without colour files... what exactly would be displayed?
 

mwong168

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I had never heard of these! I only stumbled upon this thread via a DMD for sale thread here on PINREV!
I doubt the title I need will ever be made but I will throw this out there - Hurricane! The pin everyone loves to hate!
I would buy one! In fact if I BOUGHT one without colour files... what exactly would be displayed?

There are basic 4 color palettes for most games that will be an improvement over your existing orange display. Otherwise with this display you can pick one mono color like all red, all blue, all green... etc.

Either way Dino's pin2dmd at $250cdn is way cheaper than a new plasma dmd which $230usd for Vishay or $300usd for Cherry plus shipping. If your current DMD has lines out or gassing out I have some used plasma DMDs for sale too.
 
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roar

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Oct 22, 2015
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Agreed these are a great option for replacing old displays... I think I'm going to toss one in my nice new GOT with a "gold" palette just to see what it looks like over the standard red... I don't see GOT every getting colourized on PIN2DMD as there is no VP version of it.
 
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Dino Z.

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Apr 3, 2015
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I doubt the title I need will ever be made but I will throw this out there - Hurricane! The pin everyone loves to hate!
I would buy one!

What would be cool is if you colourized it yourself. If you buy a display, it comes activated but I could send you your key file if you like which then allows you to used the pin2dmd editor to do the colour. I have a Party Zone and the graphics are fairly simple. Just for fun, I might try doing the colour for it.
 

roar

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Oct 22, 2015
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I dropped one of Dino's PIN2DMD's into my newly acquired GOT, set it to the yellow pallete, cranked it up a couple of notches on the brightness scale and it looks pretty good... next stop is to pick up some standoffs and a piece of tinted plexi and I think it'll look killer. Thanks Dino, awesome product at an awesome price.


Excuse the one handed play... made a couple of shots on house stark though, I'm impressed :)
 
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