ColorDMD's next game is Ghostbusters

[mwong168]

COLORDMD AIN'T AFRAID OF ITS 80TH GAME!

ColorDMD is excited to announce Ghostbusters as the 80th title to be supported by the ColorDMD multicolor pinball display platform! Ghostbusters will debut this week at both Chicago Pinball Expo and the Houston Pinball and Arcade Expo!

It's hard to believe a full year has past since we first teased "We Came, We Saw, We Kicked [Star Trek's] Ass!" At that point Ghostbusters work was in progress and though we knew we had some time to go, we didn't fully appreciate the depth and detail Stern packed into the Ghostbusters animations. Where Star Trek was technically difficult, Ghostbusters runs DEEP!

Similar to Star Trek, Ghostbusters took a team effort with ColorDMD's Chris Enright taking the lead, early development by Mark Jarzewiak, and Randy providing additional help where needed. Further enhancements were made to the coloring engine to manage the dynamic colorized text that appears across Ghostbusters twelve main modes and wizard modes, along with structural changes to the processor to aid future development.

Many of the techniques developed to complete Star Trek came in especially useful for coloring Ghostbusters' abundant incorporation of 3D-rendered animation sequences. We Got One! In fact we got a lot! Slimer, Gozer, Stay-Puft and the rest of the grim grinning ghosts are here in full-color, awaiting capture and relocation to a nearby storage facility. Call Now! We're ready to believe you.

The ColorDMD for Ghostbusters pinball machines shares the same easy-to-install hardware platform as previous ColorDMD releases. All displays ship with the factory installed SIGMA ROM that supports WPC, WPC95, SAM, Whitestar, and SPIKE platforms. Multicolor operation is enabled through download and installation of a game-specific color ROM file, available from our site. ROMs can be changed at any time, allowing use with any of our supported titles.

Displays are shipping now from our store site or through our distributors. The color ROM for Star Trek pinball machines will debut at Chicago Expo and the Houston Arcade Expo this week and is targeted for public release by Friday, October 19!

For more information, please visit us at www.colordmd.com.

 

[Chris Bardon]

That looks like a nice job. Still a damn shame that these things are that expensive, but it's at the point where I think I could do them in most/all my DMD games. Just need to spend a ton of cash to do so. Other than the free shipping on 3 displays, do they tend to do show discounts?

 

[Rascal]

Oh man, why do these things have to be so expensive. I want one for every pin I have but having a hard time justifying spending $6-700 each. Wish there was a reasonable priced Canadian dealer selling color DMD's for pins, I have the GB prem and this would be awesome addition.

 

[mwong168]

We've received a number of emails asking about what's needed to shift a display that was purchased for another game to Ghostbusters.

LCD displays require a newer mounting bracket (this is the same bracket we have sold since IMVE release), a clear display shield to replace the red one that shipped from the factory, a set of hex standoffs to mount the display behind the threaded posts on the speaker panel, and a SAM/WS cable installation kit.

LED displays require only the clear display shield and SAM/WS cable installation kit.

EASY
For easiest installation we recommend using a display with a newer Chroma controller board. These boards only require 12V which is readily available for the power supply board in the lower right corner of the backbox. A small SPIKE adapter cable, available from the ACCESSORIES page of our store site, wires 12V to a 3-pin molex connector (similar to the power source connector near the coin door on older Stern games). Any ColorDMD SAM/WS cable can plug into the 3-pin molex to provide 12V to the display.

HARDER
For older displays with a Rev 1.2 or 1.3x board, you will need a way to obtain 5V from the game along with 12V. The easiest and safest way to do this (but also expensive) is to purchase a SPIKE DC/DC converter from Pinball Life that converts 48V to 12V and 5V and outputs both voltages on a single 3-pin molex connector. If the display is an early model you may need a new mounting bracket.

The easiest way to tell is to make sure the bracket has
(1) wide mounting tabs for Stern games
(2) the screws in the side of the bracket should be at the top and near the center of the bracket
If the screws are at the top and bottom edges of the bracket, you will need a new bracket

HARDEST
If you have an older display and don't want to drop the coin for the Pinball Life converter, you can rig your own AC/DC or DC/DC converter to provide 12V and 5V. A few words of caution here since you could easily damage your game!
(1) Make sure the DC outputs share a common ground with the rest of the game! There are signals that cross from the CPU to the ColorDMD. If the grounds are not common you could cause damage to one or both of the boards.
(2) DON'T CROSS THE STREAMS! The easiest way to damage an older ColorDMD board is to cross 12V and 5V. If you wire 12V to the 5V port on the ColorDMD, YOU WILL DAMAGE THE COLORDMD BOARD!

Looking at the ColorDMD power cable it must be wired as follows:
1 GRAY +5V
2 BLACK Ground
3 GRAY/YELLOW +12V
4 KEY

Hope this helps but please be very careful. If you're not electronically minded, your safest bet is to purchase a new Ghostbusters display which includes the newer Chroma board and ColorDMD SPIKE adapter cable.

 

[roar]

Tommy @ Nitro is selling them but after taxes and shipping I didn't find the savings significant enough to persuade me from making my own SmartDMD. In the end however I wish I would have put out the couple extra bucks and just ponied up for the ColorDMD. Randy from ColorDMD has posted numerous times that there are no sales on the product, no black friday deals, nothing of the sort, same price all the time. The savings on shipping is the best you can do if you buy three. He is a businessman at the end of the day and has always been responsive to my messages over on Pinside so who knows what he would say if you offered to buy a bunch... I'm guessing it would depend what a bunch was... 10? 20? 50+? Who knows . Great product though, just got one in the TWD I bought and I love it.

 

[Rascal]

I love my TWD and it is just screaming for Color DMD. I'm jealous.

 

[mwong168]