In post #1 it says it is targeted for Friday.

Installed it first thing this morning and I was correct, it's even better in person that the video preview or the TX stream. I'm really impressed with how good many of the nearly undecipherable video scenes now look. Thank you again Eric for all your hard work on this, the game and it's fans sorely needed this!!

Still haven't decided if I prefer Dots, XL or HiRes yet, don't normally like Scan so I haven't even tried that one yet. I use HiRes is all my other games.

I like how he hinted that Transformers is in need of color.

I'm pretty much opposite of you BobUKcat...I have been playing around with the different settings, and so far I have mine on Scan...but that is pretty much what I prefer on all my other ColorDMDs.I haven't really tried Hi Res yet...I've been busy watching/ I mean playing Spidey with the colorDMD... The DOTs and Dots XL don't do much for me... If I wanted dots I could go back to the plain old orange ones. (or in Spidey's case red)

Phoebe

v

1. Contrast set to 2

2. Backlight set to 5 or 4

3. Display set to HiRes

This is my personal preference so far. Try it out and tell me what you think.

I set mine to that...looks a little clearer than Scan...will leave it there for awhile and see.
Phoebe

Wow now that is impressive! Awesome work man well done!

All of my scores have been terrible because I keep looking at the DMD too much! I need a really good player to come over and put it through it's paces while I watch the display. In my limited testing this evening I'm back to liking HiRes again, but I turn my backlight down more because I think it looks better that way - in fact I think I learned that from your AFM a couple years ago!

Is there a wrong way to install the upgraded memory IC chip to the board? The chip has 4 legs in each side so how do you know which side goes to which pads or does it matter?

I took the plunge!I was considering buying a vault edition spidey and then the color dmd announcement hit and pulled the trigger!I got the last one from game exchange,Should be here next week!Awesome game no matter which version plus color dmd now!No Brainer!Awesome!

There is usually a little half circle looking mark on one end that needs to be matched up with the old chip.

I finally got the ROM installed today. The colors really have been selected to go well with the game, even the translite since there is some yellow text that seems to match the translite to my eye.

SM is probably the game that most benefits from ColorDMD just to give the game a boost on the display which was the weakest aspect of the game. I am not saying it is the best ColorDMD art but just that the upgrade gives the game the visual boost it needed more than most. Well done epthegeek.

My opinion is that SCAN, HIRES, DOTS and DOTSXL are all good choices for this game depending on your preference. I am going with SCAN for a while. I really like the textured look SCAN gives on most games.

Yes, it most certainly matters! Pin #1 is marked with a circle indented in the chip, match that to where the old one is as well as where the board is marked ( I think) for pin #1.

That is GREAT news!!!...thanks for the review....I actually use scan in all my others, so super excited for this one!!!

After several games, I lowered the contrast & backlighting some more and switched to dots. HiRes colors look smeared over time.

Got the email in_stock_(resized).png

Thanks for the update! I did not get the email but I just ordered mine.

Might want to check your spam box and possibly whitelist ColorDMD -- mail definitely went out. Alternately, if you're a Facebook user, Randy always posts this kind of thing on Facebook as well, so if you added ColorDMD there, that would be another way to get the info.

Thanks you were right it was in my Promotions email box. Everything ordered so all is well!

Just got mine and installed tonight...looks great!!!...I'm still a scan guy, and lowering the backlight and contrast a bit worked great!!!...seeing scenes I've never noticed before....great work....

Just installed mine yesterday and am overall very pleased with the product, installation instructions, and software updating process. The software does a very good job of emulating a traditional DMD. The only improvement that the company could make is shipping the latest firmware with the unit. Since the units were just released I'm not sure why the firmware couldn't be pre-loaded onto the displays, but this is a minor nit because the update process was super-easy. Well done, ColorDMD!

It's just a guess, but I imagine that they have 100 of them all boxed up and ready to ship. When someone orders one, they just make sure to grab a Stern, WPC, or whatever and slap a label on it. If you own a ColorDMD, you need to be familiar with the update process. As you mentioned, it's super easy.

That was tried at the beginning when ColorDMD began to ship displays. Who knows...if it had been preloaded, you could have changed your mind by the time that it had arrived and put it in another game. When you do put it in a different game, your screen will not display any animations when I had encountered when I swap between games. So putting it in a different game than was it was programmed for, someone may think there is an issue with the display.

Out of town for 10 days, but will definitely post a vid when I get back....great job as always!!!...mark

What board revision do you have?

I just got a local guy to install it for me. There is a little dot on the IC chip that makes orientation simple, just match with the old one. Don't know the board revision I had, but chip is in and game looks great in color.

Glad it worked out for you. There should be a label on the board showing 1.3b if it is the latest or 1.3a if it was the older revision.

I think I found a small bug in the coloring on the match sequence. In one frame where spider-man falls unconscious, he goes gray and then returns to red. I tried to make an animated GIF to show this off; we'll see if this animation works....
Animation1.gif

here is the bad frame:
Image4.png

Thoughts? EP?

btw - not complaining, just trying to help; this coloring job is fantastic!

I saw this on my game yesterday as well. I checked all the match captures I have and they all color correctly in the editor -- so I guess I'll have to do some new captures and see what I can come up with.

Totally makes sense. I'm a software guy and wasn't thinking about the hardware manufacturing part. Again, it's an impressive product in that it's configurable, easy to install, and just simply works as advertised. There are a couple of scenes that are kind of difficult to make out, but that's a function of the scenes selected by Stern and the port to dots. The price tag for the purchase was especially palatable for me since I have a T2 with the original display that was dying...I move the Spider-Man display to T2 when I installed the ColorDMD. Keep up the good work.

You guys rock! I'll load this up tonight.

My SM has an older 2.1 rom, do I need to get a new one for the Color DMD to work?

You can update the ROM to the latest version 2.61 from Stern's site for free. You just need a Flash drive:

http://www.sternpinball.com/game-code#

Instructions on how to do the update:

http://www.sternpinball.com/upload/downloads/sb164.pdf

Thanks, I appreciate the fast response. I'll do that now.

2.61 is noticeably better than 2.1. You'll love it.

I've installed 5 color DMD's no problem, but for some reason I just can't get this thing to accept the code on SM. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

it goes blank when i do that. Does that mean the file didn't transfer properly from the USB?

sent, thank you for taking a look.

Question, i have three stern machines and two Bally/Williams. Do all of these use the same display? And can you add the new led display in any machine or just the CV? I have an IJ, SM, Tron, POTC and CFTBL dying for some color.
Can I just order any LED or LCD screen to fit any of my machines?

I think the mounting kit and power cable is different for different manufacturers but the actual electronics are the same. Also the ROMs for LCD are different then the ones for LED (Chroma) and they are keeping the number of releases for LED low for the time being to avoid support issues while the hardware is still new and being worked out. So, theoretically you could put the LED version in some of those other games but it would only run Sigma (single color) mode.

Just got color DMD for Christmas.
But it refuses to load the USB code.
I have tried 4 different sticks
Reformatted 2 of them and double and triple checked the file name of colordmd.rom
After I hold the button down for 5 seconds the display goes black but no transfer of info takes place on any USB stick.
I can play the game fine in single color mode.
What gives?
I also saw to check for revision 1.3B but I can't find any revision number on my board other then A1.
Here is a photo of my install.
No idea why file won't transfer over.

IMG_3321 (resized).JPG

Make sure the file name does not have a (1) or some other number at the end of it.