Aurora, IL
This looks awesome!
(Topic ID: 4074)
Quoted from PinWiz17:This looks awesome!
Absolutely awesome. But, I think you will really need a glare guard now..
Hotness... Problem is, the ROMs would have to be re-programmed to support color. Still pretty cool though!
I wonder how would it know how to color code the data to the display without being re-programmed somehow. Does the display simply send an on/off signal for each lamp or is there actual brightness values sent as well? I guess if there's a varying brightness you could translate that to a different color but I'm still not sure how that would know how to make a martian green vs. the score white. Regardless, it really looks fantastic on that AFM.
The built in DMD controller probably has to be loaded with whichever game you want to use it on. I would imagine it would be as easy as using a Thumb drive like current Sterns use. It's not like DMD programs are very large. The hardest part for them would likely be getting the video code (and rights) for all the post 1991 pins. Just hope it's not too expensive compared to a standard DMD. I would buy one but only after my current one went bad.
Auckland
Yes! Yes! This is the future.... 
I hope this becomes available soon at a reasonable price for all my DMD pins. The ultimate Mod!
Quoted from jarjarisgod:Hotness... Problem is, the ROMs would have to be re-programmed to support color. Still pretty cool though!
... You think !!! The rom send-s the signal,, the Color DMD should do the Rest.. Marco told me about this DMD 6-mth's ago.. And the cost will be close to $ 400.00, if i Rem- correct..
HOLY SHIT! YOWZA YOWZA YOWZA! WANT! WANT! WANT!
*settling down a bit*
I think the old ROM info would still work, it would be easy to add support for the 16-monochrome-shades DMDs work off of now. Perhaps there would be a header byte to indicate which format is currently being decoded? Or the speed of transmission could be the trigger.
Interesting. But it still could be done.
I wonder if they're using 4-byte codes for each pixel (RGBI), 256 shades for red, blue, and green, with the I being the intensity value.
It's hard enough to find out how regular DMDs are programmed...
That is the greatest. But is AFM the only color DMD available at the moment?
I posted this up on FacePlant and got a number of responses. One that made a lot of sense was whether or not this technology was too late in the face of dirt-cheap color LCDs. STTNG was mentioned a few times as a likely candidate for this upgrade, too.
LaughingOtter what color LCDs are you talking about? Has this technology already been done? And I also wonder how the color comes into the picture (excuse the pun), considering the information wasn't originally there in the DMD ROMs. I'm assuming manually colorized copies of each possible frame are stored in the display's ROMs and are loaded and matched with corresponding frames received from the DMD controller in real time.
Medieval Multicolored Madness anyone? 
Edit: Wow, I just noticed in the second half of the video that this is a full color LCD, not a standard 128x32 dot matrix display. This means graphics can also be viewed as smoothened pixels instead of round dots! Amazing!
Quoted from Crash:Edit: Wow, I just noticed in the second half of the video that this is a full color LCD, not a standard 128x32 dot matrix display. This means graphics can also be viewed as smoothened pixels instead of round dots! Amazing!
Interesting. If you watch it full screen and in HD on Youtube, you can really see what you are talking about:
Quoted from Crash:This means graphics can also be viewed as smoothened pixels instead of round dots! Amazing!
Well it IS 2011! 
...And I am STILL waiting for my flying car and personal robot!
Lousy Jetsons...
Quoted from NimblePin:Well it IS 2011! [
And I am STILL waiting for my flying car and personal robot!
Lousy Jetsons...
It'll ruin ya Nimble
Quoted from Loupie:I wonder why they picked AFM to show off this new product.
I would think because AFM has some good DMD animations and it is quickly growing into one of the more popular pins out there.
Quoted from Loupie:I wonder why they picked AFM to show off this new product.
Maybe it's the guy's favorite pin and/or lent itself well to colorization?
Quoted from pinbob:or lent itself well to colorization?
Yeah, I am sure it was the animations from AFM that they chose to push the "I WANT IT NOW!!!" button.
MM or TOTAN would be awesome with the 'Game Boy Color' upgrades...
Did I mention that it was 2011!??
10 years later
Huge Congrats to Randy and Chris (and Doug too!) for 10 Years of ColorDMD and 119 supported games! From AFM through KISS, what an impressive bunch of work it’s been.
Congrats to all the people who put in the hard work to colorize games; especially those in the earlier days before the tools got really good. Congrats to all of the pinball owners who gave new life to their old games with the most amazing ‘mod’ in pinball.
Thrilled to have been a part of it myself. Working on coloring games was easily the most fun ‘work’ I’ve ever done.
Outstanding, gentlemen! Simply outstanding!
Quoted from epthegeek:Huge Congrats to Randy and Chris (and Doug too!) for 10 Years of ColorDMD and 119 supported games! From AFM through KISS, what an impressive bunch of work it’s been.
Congrats to all the people who put in the hard work to colorize games; especially those in the earlier days before the tools got really good. Congrats to all of the pinball owners who gave new life to their old games with the most amazing ‘mod’ in pinball.
Thrilled to have been a part of it myself. Working on coloring games was easily the most fun ‘work’ I’ve ever done.
Outstanding, gentlemen! Simply outstanding!
Wow…
Can’t believe it’s been 10 years.
It’s an honor to be part of the ColorDMD team.
Hopefully 10+ more years!
1 week later
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