ha I doubt that...I mean shit I sure hope so though.

No it won't. It's just a score display. What's on the playfield is what makes a game cool. Look at SW. Look at MM. One has a castle, trolls, catapult, great art, great rules and humor. The other has some screens on it.

People aren't impressed by screens. They're impressed by innovative mechanical fun features.

The "DMD generation" wasn't popular for its screen. It was about the gameplay, designs, features, audio packages, and rules.

The time will say
And next year Stern gone have 4 new games with LCD
Stern seem to have other than LCD to give
software of the last 2 games is very impressive

The software is currently very divisive ...none of it lives up to the Classic DMD area games. Aside from that, we haven't seen an LCD Stern game that has the perfect combination of art/theme/sound/design/code/fun yet.

1. Batman - Niche theme, good art, insane price, clunky design, prototype code.

2. Aerosmith - Meh theme, great art, Prem/LE no one seems to care about, functional yet genetic code.

3. Star Wars - desirable theme, bad art, chess-math mess code.

There are still DMD Spike games with unfinished code (GB, Kiss, etc)

Eventually they'll get the combination right - but a pinball machine's desirability is based on what that one machine has to offer. Classic games are classic for a reason - they've earned their reputation and stood the test of time. If Stern makes ONE good LCD-screened game - that's not gonna change people's affection for the classic games. Pinball is inherently retro - new screens will never make pinball fans dislike classic titles.

Besides, ColorDMD has already 'saved' the older games in that respect anyways. Full color awesome retro dots are aging very gracefully, the animations just get better, you notice things you didn't even know were there in just orange (or red, but I find the older games have more hidden secrets).

Not ruined, but I would be concerned if the LCD animations and programming take over the playfield. That hasn't happened on the Hobbit, or Aerosmith, but I sort of feel like it did on Batman, and on Star Wars.a Little bit.

DI I need to play more... Houdini i don't think is too distracting either, hope to play that soon in the next couple months!!

Forget the theme I just talk of animation on LCD and lot of thing to do with software and give a chance it's only the first code with AS and it have very funny final SW have lot thing to do and it"s one of the faster game I ever seen
Please don't compare the game play of AS or SW with Getaway, Shadow, RS, RFM, DW, WW, BSD, AF on your line up, those games was funny few year past but for my part these kind of game is over simple compare the new LCD generation
Rest of your game is OK

Jeez this guys loves his comedy

I agree, that second list of games is so much better, comparing them just makes the modern titles look bad.

Considering the price of early SS machines keeps going up, I'm fairly confident people still value them even though they don't have LCD screens.

sound guy says:

The LCD on the backglass is a much better dynamic billboard for the game than dots could ever be. But not much more useful to the player than dots except that useful info like score and game status can be on static screen locations instead of swapping all the time.

LCD screens on the playfield are an ongoing experiment based on size and location. At least on the playfield they have a chance to be seen by the player while the player is tracking the ball. But this is a new skill and it will take a while to get used to it. The presentation of information for the player on the playfield in HiRes is something we are still figuring out. Aurich, Kelly, Joe and Brian's design for Alien is a good step in that direction and you can see the playfield screen without losing the ball.

Finally - every HiRez LCD screen in the game impacts the development cost/time significantly. It is not clear if the current business model can support the development of three streams of unique, attractive, synchronized HiRez information. Developing Dialed In was expensive. The Dialed In phone screen is placed where the player can see it and use the instructions that are strategically placed.

Using HiDef screens placed where the player can utilize their output can provide an improved sense of how to use the mechanical device that a pinball is thus expanding the game. What to shoot, when, how much progress. If we do it right the player can learn on the fly instead of needing to watch Bowen tutorials. HiRes LCD screen properly deployed have the potential to enhance pinball in the same way that Eugene and Larry did when they figured out what the computer was useful for in pinball.

Have we had that Flash / Space Shuttle moment with LCD screen yet? I don't think so but we are making some attractive progress.

sound guy off
ddt