Here is basement lights off, just Comet LEDs ( some 2SMD and some 4SMD in GI ) , extra spotlight on slings and trough light.

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Is playfield lighting meant to illuminate every square inch in blinding LED brightness or do pinball designers choose what to highlight? Insert lights and features are meant to stand out when lit no? Glws

That looks awesome! I chose to go with Pinstadium as it was easier for me than adding spots and trough lighting. Also I keep them always on, meaning they do not follow the GI circuitry. This allows me to track the ball better when the game uses the entire GI to flash on and off. That contrast always gets to me. Something I wish Data East games never did.

Interesting question / discussion point. I think designers have to work under the constraints of where GI can / traditionally was feasible. They started using some spotlights to highlight certain features in the 90s (good trivia question, what game had the first spotlights from the factory? I don't know the answer.) but would they have done things differently if things like lighted star posts or faceted LEDs or even rail lighting similar to Pin Stadium were available to them? Probably at least in some instances I think but of course cost would always be a major limiting factor as well. WOZ has quite a few spots but is still very, very dark. It also doesn't really help that most of us converted all our incandescent games from 44s to 47s to reduce heat and power draw on the GI circuits, though moving to brighter LEDs can reverse that in many games.

Yeah, I get it. I have a Sopranos and it is notorious for flashing the GI. It's a really fatiguing game to play for long periods. Would definitely benefit from some always on lighting.

The more I responses I read from the OP, the more he sounds like this guy....
This verbal diarrhea is a joke...

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that is fixed with aftermarket board and is AWESOME!!

The fact that you will knock 100 bucks right off the top should show people just how much mark up there is on these...
This last thread was locked for the same reasons this one should: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/thanks-scott-pinstadium/page/3

I am very impressed you get $400 a kit. That is a colordmd or 2 shaker motor kits or 2 toppers or pinsound kit or a couple sheets of invisiglass or 2 powder coated trim packages or 4 powder coated packages if you provide the hardware.

Good for you, make that money. You obviously work hard and one thing I have learned over the years is #hardworkpaysoff.

Word salad, no offense. Are games designed with the intension of having a strip of bright LEDs in a strip along the edge illuminating eveything and eliminating nuance and shading? Wondering why Stern etc haven’t done this since LED strip lighting is pennies in bulk.

Good podcast with Kaneda.

I think I'm most impressed with how the vendor doesn't resort to returning personal attacks or sarcastic comments.

Unfortunately that's not a given in today's society... even more so with online interactions.

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I've got an idea for a new product.

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Most consumer products are marked up a huge percentage. There's more than just product material costs involved when running a business and being profitable. If you think they're making too much money, why dont you develop a product and start your own business to sell them at a lower price point

This stupid on both sides. If you don't like the product, vote with your wallet, stop bumping the thread, and there will eventually be nothing to market.

OP, you are letting your ego override your business sense. Marketing is one thing, and trolling is another, and this is a small community. For every bit of true marketing you think you are doing, you are also shooting yourself in the foot with this silly game.

He missed the joke.

Ya. check out some of the videos for his product top notch CG graphics high production value. vary nice.... but claims he cant take a before and after picture accurately....hummm...

his response prediction... Thankyou we put a lot of work into those I'm glad you like them... that reminds me of a story when I was a boy....fill in the blank. vary smooth.. : )

Nevermind

just wear a spotlight headband. you can take it to any machine. even on location!

MJR

What happened to the other Pinstadium thread?

Kinda funny how the people complaining that Scott posts so much to bump his thread, continue to respond after every post to complain about it...hence bumping the thread. It's the circle of life, LOL!

As for extra illumination of the playfield, I'm all for it just to highlight all the great artwork across the entire playfield, like on my MMr for example. I love being able to see all the details clearly and I only have that game set to about 50% brightness. On my ST it's set to 100% and it feels almost like a hyper-reality. To me it really represents the crystal white lighting of the new look Enterprise bridge in the JJA movies. It's such a perfect fit IMO. The extra "light show" of the Orion's Belt flashers on both my MMr and ST just make the game feel that much more alive. If I play with them off, it just feels so bland now. I don't even find it distracting, because I am always able to keep track of the ball with a well lit playfield.

Regardless if you think a particular game needs it, I'm glad to have the option. It's added another dimension to my games. It's made me play and enjoy my MMr so much more than I used to. That's invaluable to me. It only sucks that some people can't see the value in it, even if they don't like it themselves.

Keep posting away Scott. Some of us enjoy your presence here.

This post wins Pinside today.

$400. Color DMD keep your eyes off the playfield.
$400 Topper look at before you play.
$300 Anti-Reflection glass, and
$400 PinStadium. Keep your eyes on ball and reduce glare.
I choose 1 of these products but I don't go on the other forums to say they are over priced. It's your cash buy what your wife will let you get.

Scott, while I'm not personally interested in your product I do commend your hardwork and ability to smile while people dump all over you. The product isn't for them, but they're bored shit stirrers. Best of luck

People will watch a single Twitch stream of JP and buy a $7500+ toy without plunging a single ball, but it's "too expensive" to buy a $200-$400 strand of lights off all the pictures and videos Scott provides?

I get it, different people put different levels of priorities on different things, but I don't think this is about "cost before purchase." To me, the reason why people buy them after seeing them is they are mentally checking the box, verifying that "Yep, they sure are bright like in those videos. Glad I saw it for myself - now I'll buy it!" Again, I didn't need to see ColorDMD in a live environment. I saw the product on their videos and said "Yep! Buying that!" 22 times or so now.

How about this video bookmarked at the exact time I pan over GOT Pro in a dark room with only the games on?

That is a raw and completely unedited video. Look at the sheer amount of light from anywhere there is an LED. How would GOT Pro possibly benefit with PinStadium? Why would I make a $200 minimum purchase when Stern provided more light than I know what to do with?

Yes, I agree on this - all of it. Yes, I do believe there are a few (and I really do mean a "few") that could benefit from this product, but the vast majority of games can be lit up with $80 of LEDs done right. I will absolutely agree with you regarding how he takes criticism and doesn't get personal. In fact, I admire it. It's one of the reasons I carefully worded my initial response lastnight. He is very respectful when addressing people, and I want to make sure I do the same for him. It's what we should all strive for in this world. Note I never used the word "your" or "you" in that post. It kept things neutral. It didn't put anyone in the defensive. It showed that neither Scott or I were verbally aggressive in a personal way towards each other, and in fact, he was quite respectful back to me both in terms of my military service (TY btw, Scott) as well as complimenting my collection as it stood in those photos. While I may not endorse PinStadium for my own collection, I certainly respect him as a person after that response from him to me.

To be 100% clear, I have seen PinStadium at TPF 2018 and 2019. Yes, there's no doubt about it - they produce more light than the US electric grid on max settings. It's just too much for me, and I certainly don't need to spend $200+ per game when I can get warm-white frosted 1-LEDs at $0.80/per bulb and get my game bright enough to see the ball all the time. The only game I would consider adding some (read 4 to 5 LEDs on a strip) would be TAF - particularly near the Thing box/Swap and the back orbital. I certainly don't need two strips of LEDs the length of the PF to do that for me. And then on top of that (and this is where I may be naive with how PinStadiums work), what about modes that set the mood - particularly start of regular MB on TAF. We all know how it starts: a slow buildup from bottom to top of all the insert lights and flashers until it's "Showtime!!" - do the PinStadium lights follow that light pattern or do they all just stay on the whole time the mode is building up, or do you hook them up to the GI so they don't come on at all until the MB begins with all 3 balls now on the table? Because that kind of ambience and mood-building is essential to me, and the vibe I've gotten from Pinside is "PinStadium lights are ALWAYS on...rawr rawr rawr rawr!!!" so....I'm straight up asking here, does PinStadium take away from those kinds of situations?

For me it was really making my streams a lot better. And I got used to them. All those intense flasher effects? Completely muted with Pinstadium. New code allows you to control all that much better so that’s moot.

But honestly after I had them on my GOT for the better part of a year and took them off, it’s was super drastic as I was used to them.

Everyone’s different. Someone may see these as a necessity, others just a way to take the light show of their game to the next level. Most will have no use for them. And that’s okay.

Completely up to you. In certain games especially with the crazy flasher hookups he has now, some light shows in modern games are absolutely crazy in a good way if you’re into that kind of stuff. The extra ball sequences on BK SOR and Munsters comes to mind as recent examples.

I certainly appreciate your responses. My whole "bone to pick" goes back to the camera/video settings, and I feel we (you and I, Erik) know where we stand on this, and hey, it's ok for us to have different opinions/stalemate. In the end, it's only pinball : ).

I'll be missing Pincinnati ...again...due to this deployment....maybe Nov 2020 ...: (.

Anyways, enough from me. I feel I've made my piece of mind on this subject known, and now back to lurker mode I go on this thread ; ).

Bummer man. Be safe.

This is why he is the best; A single message pushed forward again & again.
He already looked at your machine, said Pinstadiums are not needed, and then told you how dark your super bright machine was; I mean it's equal parts insanity & greatness. His replies literally make no sense, and they don't really have to cause you just give up.

I never really posted in this thread because I usually stay out of mod makers threads; I only came back in here because he stirred the pot again with spamming the market, which was like the original spamming every thread that started the whole thing. Anyway, I'll let everyone get back.

You can’t compare color DMD to these other gimmicks. Come on now. Do you know how long it takes to program each title?? Puh-lease

At least on my games(MMr and ST) I have only ever felt that they have added to the stock effects. For example on MMr, when the extra ball is lit after the second castle, normally everything is off except for the EB insert at the Merlin Scoop. With Pin Stadium, it flashes a deep red along with the insert, which IMO REALLY enhances that effect. Likewise when you start a Multiball Madness(hopefully with more than one going into it), when the lights indicate which shots are jackpots, the Pin Stadiums alternately go dark to highlight jackpots while the Orion flashes the appropriate color if associated with a particular shot. You can see the effect in my video below. First, @T=2:25, you can see the EB effect, and second, @T=3:36, you can see the Multiball Madness effect. I have to say it looks way better in person and not quite as harsh as in the video.

Personally, I think the Orion's Belt included in the Fusion is kind of a no-brainer for the discounted bundle. It adds so much more than just a simple strip of lights to provide extra playfield illumination. I admit, when first looking at the product, I really didn't quite grok what it was meant to do, or how it worked. But after having installed them and playing around with which flashers I wanted to hook into for each game, it is really quite awesome. I just love the light show. I also have the interactive backbox LED board that goes along with Aurich's trans art on my ST and now combined with Pin Stadiums, well let's just say I'm glad I'm not seizure prone, lol. But man I just love the visceral feel of it all. Playing ST is like stepping into a space battle anyway, and now even more so.

#PinStadium4Life

MANY of the A/B posts in this thread were taken by customers (not Scott!). It's a fact that pinball manufacturers have been skimping on GI lighting. For folks that enjoy playing in a dark room, Pinstadiums are a solution to poor GI and glare. I've also heard from some operators that Pinstadium lighting helps attract players...MANY location pins are poorly lit. I don't plan on purchasing more, but I'm happy with the ones I own. Almost all of them are on recent Stern games that arguably lack proper lighting.

I'm shocked by how many folks like to harass Scott. I wish our POTUS had the thick skin that Scott has!

Lol, sure you can. If anything is more of a gimmick it's ColorDMD. Doesn't matter how long it takes to code and that's also dismissing how much time Scott has probably put into PS and continued work on Hovers/Blur. I have ColorDMD on my ST and color upgrade on MMr, and it's great and all, but I rarely look at the DMD while playing. Out of all the tons of other mods I've done to my machines, that is the one that I have felt is the most gimmicky. It's ALL f'ing gimmicky though. This is pinball for cripe's sake!

Dude, ST does not need extra lighting. I have owned 2, a pro and a premium. The premium has one of the best light shows ever created in the history of pinball. My old game room lighting was terribly dark and my pro and premium looked fantastic with factory lighting.

Dude, I never said it "needed" it. That doesn't mean that it can't benefit from it. That's such a close-minded pov. I'm not telling anyone that they've gotta do it or they're missing something if they don't. It's a personal preference. I can still play with it turned off with a touch of a button if I want to. But I don't. I don't think I'm missing a thing from the stock light show at all. I owned the machine for 5 years before putting Pin Stadiums in.

Honestly, I think the best use of Pinstadium is for streamers. Anyone who streams should buy them, fashion their own, or mount a ton of bright lights to their streaming rig.

The rainbow effect is mildly distracting (very distracting on some games), but it is a huge improvement to stream quality in general. I liked that Pinburgh had them (the overhead glare was frustrating though). Watching videos made a few years ago before lighting was prioritized are hard to go back to now, similar to videos shot in 30fps vs 60fps

Scott, I ordered 2 sets of pinstadium hovers back on July 11. They haven't shipped yet. If I order 2 more sets of the hovers can I have them combined with the first order (to save on shipping) or would I be leap frogging too many people?