So far in the comparison, I like the colordmd girls better but the smart dmd car better. Personally, Im going for metallica so I have some time to choose. So far I've seen colordmd on a few games but I'd love to see mikes version too up close. Gotta love having options. The ability to tinker weighs with me

This choice may be best summarized by the old joke about the two Bulls on a hill, my best advice would be to wait a bit and see them both in action, but man, it's tempting to get one now (I'm sort of leaning towards smartdmd) if metallica is done by PAGG I'm hoping they'll have one on display there.

I'm sure everyone would like that but then there's a two edge sword, of for some reason they can't be done with something by the advertised date people will complain.

Oh and quick, someone get the guy that published that white paper into helping organize a colorization crew

Sorry but that's not the case. I asked mike directly about this and he said the pallete could be customized but the frame could not. He mentioned that his code was locked. Aurich is correct. Ask mike

Agreed, and personally always fine with delays in ventures like this as it usually means a better product but I can see how it could keep people from wanting to lock themselves into a written date.

For metallica it sound alike Mike wants to be done soon, colordmd may be longer out there. Not sure of other upcoming titles where the two companies have an overlap

Sounds amazing, might have to pm you for more details

Or we could just leave it as it and not nitpick

Aurich has been fair with this thread from the beginning. From an outsider that is highly interested in this for metallica and is reading through these various dmd threads here's what it looks like so far (at least to me)

a) theres a lot of confusion about just how editable the coloring is with smartdmd / pmd (or whatever people want us to call it) it's been mentioned a few times but we continue to see it misinterpreted at least once on every page.

b) both options look like they'll be great, and they should cater to two different crowds. but we really wont know what to think until we get to see them side by side. (I'm wondering how many people will pick up one version then sell and pick up the other version at some point)

c) smartdmd should be great, but it doesn't need so many people stirring things up. I read through these threads and keep seeing aurich have to defend himself... for creating a thread that is helping promote both options. for the record, mike has been amazing with communication and I havent seen him stirring anything up. there's room for both platforms and for both camps of people. coke and pepsi, cats and dogs, apple and android, ect ect...

d) colorizing pinball dmd artwork is hardwork, so I'd like to just say thanks to all the people out there that are sacrificing time to make kick ass images for all of us to enjoy.

e) please do it faster (joke)

I'd be highly interested in playing with the software but it could use a proper fprum of its own to show people how to use it, and set up threads for various games.

Personally I was for colordmd until I saw smart dmd editing, then I was highlyrics interested until I saw that it couldn't do exactly what I thought, I'm still interested in it as I do love to tinker with my own stuff but again, it's not like there's a lot of documentation that's out there to demonstrate how to make your own coloring create you own pallette's and do your own room version (aat keast that I've seen yet) I've download the pinball browser but am waiting on my metallica machine to get here so I can play with downloading code ect ect

I could also see someone like me getting a colordmd then getting a smartdmd, customizing it to what I want and then swapping the colordmd to another game down the road.

yeah I've seen a few of those, again it would be great if there was a separate forum with structure to layout how to do this, maybe some vids ect ect so that anyone that wanted to do so wouldn't have to rebuild the whole thing just to do something a bit different, or if someone wanted to start a project they could start a thread for that theme and list what they want to do and get some guidance for it and then build their own. all of this is based on similar experience of what it was like when the iphone first came out. and it was a lot of fun. (re Metallica I'll need for my machine to arrive before I can start lol...) my post about getting one and then getting smartdmd to work with was more of having one for reference.

as an idea what the total amount of time on average to color your own game? mostly curious...

and now to get back on topic, with both of these for ACDC now I'm hoping we get to see several videos soon of gameplay out in the wild using both versions.

actually what Mike did was HUGE, now if we can set up a space to share and help each other create and modify for color, there is a real possibility of seeing some big growth in this side of color customization.

Mike, many thanks for being so kind.

the way I see it we can now have the ability to tweak and adjust as people want. someone have an idea? we can offer ways to help, chip in to get it looking good, post it here (or elsewhere for review) and maybe someone lend a hand or give notes on how to give it the old spit and polish then share it.

later if someone else wants to add something to the sauce they can and just name it a new revision.

but at the end of the day, either option for people will result in a great looking display that owners will enjoy for years to come. having played MB and TOTAN in color I was instantly drawn in and really enjoyed the detailing. Well worth the investment imo

On the flip side Id gladly contribute to the artists, and am I missing something aren't we still buying the colored rom file? It's just now editable correct?

If it costs an artist their time I'm all for chipping in to thank them likewise if I can help lend a hand I will

Ah yes I did read that I'd still pay for it once it's done, only fair imo

I don't find aurich's posts to be based per se, if anything it feels like he's wanting to get people to speak up and show some vids or order info for mikes system. I thunk we just have to wait to see those reach people and then hopefully we'll get a chance to make better comparisons. In meantime I'd keep an open mind and hopefully we will get a chance to see direct comparisons at some of the upcoming pinball shows

I thought there was a lot of positive items being discussed (full disclosure, I haven't gone back to read the revised first post) I think the inky concern anyone had left here was the shading at this point which means we're just waiting to see how the two compare out in real life. As someone sitting and waiting I know that's what I'm interested in. At the price point I don't care about saving a few bucks, I do care about how the display will look and how well the coloring has been done.

Looking forward to seeing people who get these in and only care about their own game who will weigh in on thoughts after owning it a bit, also hoping to compare these at a show

Not sure why anyone feels the need to pick apart aurich's post in some sort of defense, it doesn't work, as a potential consumer I don't want to read a bunch of argumentative bs, to those people pulling thus crap, please stop. You do more damage than help and frankly, Mike is doing well on his own, just let people get the product, enjoy it and post up. Then people can make a informed decision .

The last thing I want to read through is a Xbox vrs. Playstation type of thread I'd rather see companion of images and pros to each system, we have those now minus customer videos from both companies.

Until we get to see that there won't be any new constructive content to the thread.

Honestly, PMD and Smartdmd folks your not doing mike any favors. Your coming off as douchie. I don't know what your stake is in this, but please, just stop. Instead of personal attacks on people making thread topics why not just take the higher ground and post up something positive for the PMD, I don't get it, mikes system was running high just a few weeks ago, aside from a few concerns (which mike has mostly addressed) this should be a great time to show the product and get some positive vibes. This isn't helping it.

That being said, there was a comment from the colordmd folks as well that felt low too. I'm not sure if there's some falling out between the two camps but the average person doesn't care. They just want a good product that does what it's advertised to do.

Persoanlly I really do hope we can let all the bs drop and just get to looking at what each product does and how enjoyed table they are (free from attacks on members here)

So to sum up right now

PBM dmd for acdc and met will be DIY (as of now) but cheaper, with free color files and are editable correct? (I'm choosing to ignore all the other stuff and bring the topic back on point)