Collect whatever you like.

Crazy, right?

Because MET > GOTG and AS still

Because games like ACDC, MET, and SM are awesome and they do not come at the same price. ACDC Luci is $500 less then a NIB IMDN premium.

there is only 5 games you can buy NIB with DMD, one you wouldn't really touch, two are remakes of previous stern games.

What?

The game happens on the playfield.

OMG

Because there are games out there older than 3 years that are fun to play

LCD is way nicer than DMD if done right, but I wouldn't call it a "new experience". My F-14 is a lot of fun and it has only a score display. As stated above, "The game happens on the playfield".

No need for LCD when pinball is fun.........who has time to look up anyway??

Here is a revelation.
LCDs did not "revolutionalize" pinball.
In fact in many ways it made it worse because it has been attempted to remove physical aspects of pinball that made it successful in the first place. Tradition has allowed pinball to revive (not just survive), not based on technology but design of the game moving a little steel ball.
It also lowers the bar in a world where everyone seems to appreciate good backglass artwork, replacing it with an arcade game bezel. Not much to see on a black hole of a monitor when a game is off or does not work.

The same argument has been attempted with every scoring development display in pinball history. DMDs did not cause alpha numerics to be obsolete, or digital displays from score reels. The games and features were the core fundamentals. More features improved the designs, not the displays themselves.

I could care less about the screen as long as it's done properly. I'll take artfully constructed colored dots over the majority of the LCD stuff any day of the week. It sounds like all the major manufacturers are investing in experienced UI and motion graphics designers, so I'm sure over time things will get more polished. JJP has of course totally nailed this already... but their price puts them out of reach of the majority in this hobby. Personally I'd be happy to just have some more thought put into typography across the board.

I honestly don’t care. I like the lcd screen better but it really doesn’t affect my purchasing decision that much. Like 27dnast says, it’s about how it plays.

There's are really top notch. After a really weak Aerosmith I thought, I think SW is done very well. It has a lot of the shiz from the movies going around so it makes sense...of course it's a lot easier to edit clips from a flick than making everything from scratch. Maiden looks like it could go either way and probably isn't all finished, so we shall see.

Because games that are FUN are fun regardless of the screen used to display them, I’ll still buy a Funhouse over most newer Sterns, which I do not find fun. GOTG for example. Breaks my heart, but Ghostbusters for example.

On the other hand, buy LCD games! They will make the games I want to buy cheaper

Yeah man totally agree. SW is great. If it’s a licensed theme, and you have quality clip assets... take a less is more approach with the interface. I’d rather have a simple legible font than 10 freeware typefaces with terrible default kerning. At the end of the day, it’s pinball and I don’t care about the screen, but please just try and keep things simple and not look like an animated PowerPoint presentation as you figure this LCD stuff out.

Also the Maiden PF art, rules, and overall layout looks so fooking good they could set things in comic sans and I’d still be in.

But yeah, please don’t do that if you’re listening Stern.

Oh I'm all for it. Good enough for Creepshow, good enough for this!
Agreed on Maiden needing font help.

I played Guardians for the first time today and the LCD just seemed to play movie clips that I never payed attention to. Game is too fast to be watching videos. Had a helluva time blowing up Circus Voltaire though.

I think it’s just kind of stupid to use a logo as the main font. Cheapens the logo and gets way redundant. So glad SW just used a sans serif font instead of extrpolating the logo for everything.

The only lcd presentation I have liked is dialed in. It flows nicely. AS is ok

Other games just remind me of tacky slot machines. With the clips and art style.

I still like playing them but the stern dmd offerings are better games currently.

I watched solid state games replace em games. My friends and I avoided the old games, the gottliebs and played Williams and Bally. It was fast and it did make em obsolete. I think dmd made alphanumeric obsolete as well. Will the same happen now with lvd. Maybe I think it might be a good thing 1993 was the best year for pinball production as operators bought in droves to replace outdated games.

I don't look much at the backbox. For us flailers, this game is hard enough just trying to keep the ball in play. I've heard the display has changed.

My first NiB was GotG pro. Sorry, but what an awful game. Learned my lesson - no NIB, old B/W ‘B titles’ are my best bang for buck

I think LCDs can add a lot to pinball if done correctly but it's mostly in generating mood and much of this can wear off quickly especially for home use. More than 99% of pinball is found on the playfield and there is just no getting away from that core principle. For example, the LCD in TH was done very well but it's the gameplay that people ultimately judge the game on. People don't even mention the LCD when they praise TNA.

But now that LCDs are common, there is a downside that the industry is just coming to grips with: it places a tremendous burden on companies to do it correctly now. When done correctly it looks great but when thrown together by programmers at the last minute it can actually take away from the overall package. It eats up an increasingly larger part of the dev budget compared to what it adds to the total experience so in the end I'm not sure it it's a clear win for this artform overall.

All things considered, maybe Iron Maiden would have been better just having killer Eddie dots with same quality as MET?

I guess I should throw out my DMD’s then, TZ, Shadown, RS. Even worse, that awful Funhouse with alphanumeric displays... (Sarcasm)

The only thing that is critical for the display to show is the score...the rest is just eye candy. Honestly I could do without the large LCD displays on the newer games.

During league this week, 4 of us were playing AS. We commented, while someone else was playing, that the displays on these new games are huge but none of us could read the scores...they were so little and the font is weird.

You could put EM score reels in these games and I'd be happy.

And then!

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LCD is here to stay. No doubt about it. I have kids (elementary to high school) at my home every week. They immediately gravitate to Hobbit and Star Wars even though LOTR is right there in the middle. They even give my virtual cabinet more play time. Why? The displays, animations, and movie clips immediately grab their attention. Even the excellent color DMD and superior "world under glass" of LOTR can't compare to the giant JJP Hobbit LCD. There is a difference between the casual player, the seasoned pinball player/collector, and the average non-pinball person. The average person and youth will pick the game with the LCD based on superior appearance even though the game experience may not match. I think once the programmers catch up to the technology, the LCD could be a great thing. But it will take a little time and creativity. JJP is obviously leading the pack and Stern is hit and miss at the moment. I think Spooky's ACNC looks to be a fantastic use of the LCD as an "interactive comic book" style. There is definitely potential to use the LCD to open up pinball to a deeper experience. Interesting to see the experimentation and choices going on right now. Elwin in his interview with Coast to Coast said he wanted the LCD in Iron Maiden to be used like a DMD, with simpler animations and looping background videos. Compare that to the world building that JJP did with Dialed In. I think the integration will and should be driven by the themes. But just as DMD "looks" superior to alpha numeric, LCD "looks" superior to DMD....he times, they are a changing!

Lcd offers something extra and not better.
I like extra things, so lets stick to lcd.

This is why I like how TNA gave you both the LCD and separate LED score displays for all 4 players. This is the way to go IMO.
** I like the way Heighway's Alien slapped it right on the playfield where you're looking, and left the back box LCD as an option.

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Agreed! I wish more games would have that.