EXACTLY. The LE backglass from last year is TERRIBLE, and the game isn't "King Pin" it's "Kingpin". They supposedly have access to the original artist, so why not let him do the LE one? Dave Christensen's style simply doesn't match this game's existing art AT ALL.

AWESOME ORIGINAL BACKGLASS
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SAD Dave Christensen LE backglass that doesn't match the existing style at ALL. Wrong "King Pin" naming carried to the proto LE cabinet art.
kingpin-le (resized).jpg

I would like an LE that's an upgrade, not a downgrade. Put Dave's on the standard instead and watch the sales of the LE versions with original art blow up.

Awesome, but not $28 worth of awesome.

Depends on if you have the LE or not, apparently.

Oh, it's real. The cabinet art prototype is better than the backglass, but still a BAD fit for this game. Does not fit AT ALL. I mean, the NAME isn't even right. Put this crap on the SuperLE and give us some LE art with the original awesome artist (that's already involved with this project anyway!)

Concept-LE-Sideart (resized).jpg

UGH, I really hope they're not going to roll with the lazy Laptop-style LCD and just and an ultra-letterboxed DMD image in it with tons of black dead space top and bottom like in this picture. That looks TERRIBLE. This is another step towards half-assing the remake, and the reason I'd be happier if CGC did it like AfMr LE instead.

From conversations I've had, it sounds like this is the plan for the screen as of now. Hopefully enough people say it sucks that they reconsider half-assing it.

Christ, if you'd spend half as much time asking where I was told that as you do flying off the handle, you'd have this little nugget I was told straight from the horse's mouth:

"Hopefully that keeps the purists happy that want to play the original version along with people who like the newer sterns and spooky games with LCDs on them."

Stern and Spooky LCD format is not compatible with DMD aspect ratios. No mention of ColorDMDs or CGC's colorized LCDs as a reference point (which would be more valid), just Spooky and Stern square LCDs, which is not the road this should travel if it's a faithful recreation using emulation. If they're going the "inspired by" route, say that instead and be done with it. Manage expectations.

I want to be wrong, so please if you know that a screen with the correct DMD aspect ratio and size will be used, feel free to correct me.

I'm *GUESSING* that's the idea, but it's a bad one. The giant widescreen AfMr LE screen proved that they can do everything they need to do with a standard DMD aspect ratio with a larger screen. Plenty of real-estate to make new animations in a giant DMD form factor. Using a square LCD screen for a DMD game is lazy engineering, the DMD part will be very small with huge black areas top and bottom. I hope they abandon that idea if that is their intent.

Examples?

That'd be great, except that once it's to engineering sample IT'S TOO LATE and we're stuck with it. Speaking up when it's early enough to change is a much better course of action. It's called feedback, and it does result in better outcomes.

Not listening? On the stream at TPF they literally JUST said that was the screen they were looking at using. Literally.

THEN they backed off and said things can change because they're iterating rapidly.

Which confirms that FEEDBACK is important to get the best outcome for the screen, because what they're "looking at using" is TERRIBLE.

For what it's worth, they said in the stream they don't anticipate any problems with licensing.

On Bally/Williams scale with almost 3000 for full production, okay. I think they said they'd make 30 of these Kingpin a month if they do it themselves and don't use a manufacturer. Somehow I don't think they'll be changing something as major as the screen and its aspect ratio by the time they get to engineering samples, especially if they're going "dual mode" (old and new "HD" game with new dots).

Also they were talking about the art being too dark and "fixing" it, but with LED backlighting, I think it could be illuminated better without too much change. The existing art is GREAT. Very dynamic.

I didn't mean to imply that you did - bad comma placement. You were talking about dark art, I was suggesting LED lighting might fix it. Re-reading, that's obviously bad sentence construction. I was just saying that the incandescent lighting in an original does a poor job of lighting the backglass, and perhaps using LED lighting for the backglass in the remake would be enough to bring out the detail that's in the shadows of the original.

It would be AWESOME if Stan (or someone adjacent) would take a picture of the original painting so we can see what you're talking about.

Yes, but that's a sliver of like 2" at the bottom of the otherwise appropriately-sized and aspect-ratio LCD.

I just wish they had gone with a traditional DMD shape rather than a smaller rectangular DMD shape on a square LCD for Kingpin. I was super-excited it was being re-done, but that one thing makes it a no-buy for me because the aesthetic is bad.

Yeah, that's it. You got me. How'd you get so smart?

Once it was clear that they were emulating the DMD on a big square LCD I lost interest. Do it well or don't do it. You can get color DMD format LED and LCD panels made.

I hate the way they're handling the display on this re-do.

Yeah, I'd love to have a CGC-style remake with the widescreen color DMD form factor and re-done hi-res art. I wasn't a fan of the direction CM was going with the laptop screens on their attempt.

CGC would be my choice. Ultra-wide color DMD with redrawn hi-res dots in the correct format. That "emulated DMD on an LCD" approach CM was doing sucked, to be blunt. I prefer Kingpin over BBB, so seeing that it may be getting done, and potentially in the original format, is great news.

Has "someone else" contacted you yet?

Seems like a pretty basic street level pin with maybe a ramp at the back from the leaked pic, and there's a lot of other pins to genuinely be excited about already. Available Pindrenalin is already mostly expended in the pin community. It will take a lot for it to overcome inertia and break through.

I'm interested to see the high-res pics, though.