pinball lcd display free sample

Whilst being at the very forefront of pinball machine design, one question that many customers remain curious about is"what are LCD Pinball screen?" or"What"s special about an LCD pinball screen?".LCD screens are now a widely implemented display method for new pinball machines to show their scores and information, and have largely replaced DMD technology in pinball machines.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a type of display that began life for very simple applications like calculators, digital watches and children"s toys like the Tamagotchi, and then later more widely in televisions. The screens for these kinds of application were usually a dull green/grey colour, with actual display elements showing up in black when active. Without getting too technical, an LCD display works by electrifying different parts of the display in such a way that it excites liquid crystals inside the display (hence the name), causing them to block light, in turn making parts of the display appear black to the naked eye.

A big change came in the 90s when LCD technology was updated allowing a LCD to display images in colour, and the resolutions of said displays increased to allow the display of a high definition image. This allowed the technology to become widely used in computer monitors, and eventually televisions, where this technology is still widely used today.

Whilst LCD screens have been around for many years and have been widely used in high definition televisions, it was only relatively recently that liquid crystal displays began to be widely used in pinball machines as a method of displaying scores instead of the industry standard dot matrix display (DMD). The first game that prominently featured an LCD display in place of a DMD was Jersey Jack"s 2013 game The Wizard of Oz (pictured), which featured a beautiful 26 inch high definition display. There was more real estate to display information, the display was colourful, and it made the game truly stand out amongst anything else seen at the time.

The difference between a DMD and an LCD display was starkly apparent. Instead of redrawn scenes that had to be compressed to fit on a DMD, pinball machines could now just use the original movie scenes directly without any compromise in quality. This standard was eventually widely adopted in different ways by the other pinball manufacturers at different times and in different ways.

Other companies didn"t adopt LCD screens into their pinball designs straight away. In fact, STERN Pinball (the world"s current largest pinball manufacturer) stuck with using DMD technology as late as 2016 before introducing LCD screens into their pinball machines as standard, beginning with their release of Batman 66. Prior to this, Heighway Pinball opted to implement LCD technology into their games from the start, but with a twist - building the display into the middle of the playfield itself as standard (and an additional one in the backbox if required for spectators). This innovation allowed players to never take their eyes away from the playfield whilst in the middle of a game.

LCD technology has been getting other uses too as additional playfield features, like the airlock screen on Heighway Pinball"s Alien, and the small screen above the target bank in Star Wars by STERN Pinball.

LCD screens have changed the way pinball machines have displayed information to players, and look to be the new standard in pinball machine hardware, unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon. If you want to learn anything else about LCD pinball machines, please get in touch with us on 0800 622 6464, or 01454 413 636.

CHICAGO, IL– October 21, 2021 – Stern Pinball, Inc., announced the availability of the Insider Connected upgrade kit, giving players and operators the ability to connect all LCD commercial Stern pinball machines to the world of Insider Connected.

Insider Connected is the greatest advance to pinball in decades, enhancing and extending player engagement with games across both home and commercial environments. It also presents professional operators with a robust set of tools to drive location play, build player loyalty, analyze performance, make adjustments remotely and maintain the machines.

These upgrade kits are easy to install and we will soon share an instructional video to show how easy it is to install, set up, and connect any Stern Spike® 2 LCD game with these upgrade kits.

Registration for Insider Connected is now available at insider.sternpinball.com/.  Players can register at a connected game by scanning a QR code or at the Stern Pinball website. Once a player registers, they are issued a unique QR Code that can be used to identify that player at any connected Stern pinball machine anywhere in the world. When a player logs into the machine, they can track progress, earn new game specific achievements, engage with the player community, and participate in promotions and Challenge Quests.

Challenge Quests can be issued by operators to drive play at their locations and build player loyalty or by Stern Pinball to highlight a game title or engage the community. When players complete quests, they receive loyalty rewards.

“Insider Connected will transform how players interact with pinball machines.  Operators will benefit greatly from new tools to drive play and maintain games,” said Gary Stern, Chairman and CEO of Stern Pinball, Inc.

Stern Pinball, Inc. is a global lifestyle brand based on the iconic and outrageously fun modern American game of pinball.  Headquartered minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in the heart of North America, the company creates, designs, engineers, manufactures, markets, and distributes a full line of technologically advanced terrestrial and digital pinball games, parts, accessories, and merchandise.  Stern Pinball serves digital, consumer, commercial, and corporate markets around the globe.

Recent Stern Pinball titles include Godzilla, The Mandalorian, Led Zeppelin, Avengers: Infinity Quest, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stranger Things, Elvira’s House of Horrors, Jurassic Park, Black Knight: Sword of Rage, The Munsters, The Beatles, Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Aerosmith, Ghostbusters, KISS, Metallica, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Star Trek, AC/DC, Batman, and Spider-Man.  A broad range of players enjoy Stern Pinball’s games from professional pinball players who compete in high-stakes competitions around the globe to novice players who are discovering the allure of the silver ball for the first time.  To join the fun and learn more, please visit www.sternpinball.com.

From Jersey Jack to Stern, from John Popadiuk to MarsaPlay, everyone is putting an LCD panel in the backbox to replace the trusty dot matrix display and pass information back to the player. Even the ColorDMD dot-matrix replacement display system uses an LCD panel to convey the scores and show the new multi-colour animations.

In all these cases though, the LCD is a purely passive device - displaying information about, but not truly interacting with, what"s happening on the playfield.

But what if that changed? What if the LCD panel no longer merely reflected what was happening on the playfield, but became a physical part of that playfield? And what if the game could track the ball as it traveled over the LCD, and react accordingly? What possibilities would that open up for genuine interaction?

A little over two years ago, Pinball News brought you news of a new pinball control system called P-ROC from PinballControllers.com. You"ve probably heard of it by now.

The control board interfaces with the original hardware from WPC, WPC-95, Stern Whitestar and SAM-based machines, but passes control of that hardware over to a PC, where designers can decide exactly how the switches, lamps, solenoids and displays work, based around their own vision for the game.

But P-ROC was originally created with a different intention in mind - the creation of a brand new type of pinball machine, featuring some highly innovative ideas.

You may have seen Koen and Barry of Dutch Pinball and their Bride of Pinbot which uses P-ROC to add a dot matrix display and a whole new set of rules, sounds and animations to overcome some of the shortcomings of the original code.

PinballControllers.com also made available a power supply providing 70V and 24V outputs for driving high-power and low-power solenoids, motors and flasher lamps. Add in a control PC - either as a stand-alone unit or an embedded device such as an Arduino - and you"re well on your way to creating your first home-built pinball machine.

You can imagine playfield artwork being displayed on the monitor indicating the available shots, which changes dynamically when those shots are made. Or a Rolling Stones-style moving target, or perhaps an entire virtual sub-playfield. Or mini-game modes being played in conjunction with the display.

The video above also shows how the physical targets on the playfield can interact with the action on the LCD screen, in this case firing a red laser to help blow up the rocks.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the P3 machine is the fact that the entire system runs using the same P-ROC and driver boards which have been available for a year. The only changes are in the software which now provides additional support for the ball tracking and the LCD screen displays.

To find out how it all works, Pinball News spoke exclusively with Gerry Stellenberg of PinballControllers.com whose concept the P3 machine was, and who has written the new software.

Gerry:You"re right, and it"s been a fun ride so far! For the most part the P-ROC has remained a developer"s product, and that"s understandable given the effort involved in developing custom pinball software. That said, some of our customers are pinball hobbyists, and others are pinball professionals, or aspiring ones.

I continue to have high hopes for the future of the P-ROC, including having it designed in by large volume pinball machine manufacturers, but I also really enjoy some aspects of having a relatively small customer base. Specifically, I love having the opportunity to work with each and every customer who needs or wants my help with their project. The "A-ha!" moment, when a customer realizes just how much they can accomplish with the P-ROC and how easily they can accomplish it, continues to be quite rewarding each and every time it happens.

A lot has changed since you published the original P-ROC article. We"ve added new products and new P-ROC features to provide a more comprehensive solution for custom pinball machine designers. Also, with help from Les Pitt and Brandon Nuss, I finally got around to building that custom machine I wanted to build!

It"s obviously fun to see what others are able to accomplish with our products, especially others as talented as the Dutch Pinball and Pinnovating guys. Their projects also generate a great deal of excitement in the general pinball community as they give people hope that they"ll one day be able to add additional functionality to their machines. I share that excitement and continue to hope that some of these projects will eventually be made available to everybody.

When P-ROC first began, it was probably largely seen as a way to re-program existing games, but then you introduced the PinballControllers.com driver boards as well. Why did you make them and what do they do?

With the PDBs (PinballControllers.com Driver Boards), I once again set out to design a system for my custom machine, but this time I started by considering how they might also be used by others.

The machine is feature complete now, and we"re using a P-ROC and 5 PDBs to drive 60 coils/magnets/flashers and a bunch of LEDs. Try doing that with another pinball control system!

The P3 is a remarkable machine in several ways and you describe it as "taking pinball to the next dimension". Could you explain what you mean by that?

Gerry:It"s no secret that pinball hasn"t changed much in a quite a while. The current trend appears to be replacing the DMD with an LCD, and while that makes it possible to display more interesting graphics and animations, it doesn"t do anything to change the physical playing experience. Even Pinball 2000, ignoring the fact that it didn"t remain in production very long, didn"t change gameplay much. Sure, the projected images made it look like the player was shooting at virtual objects rather than physical ones, but again that was only a visual change. The actual shots were the same ramps, loops, stand-up targets, etc. as those on other games.

In the P3, we kept all of the elements that we believe make existing games fun and which combine to define pinball (ramps, loops, standups, drop targets, etc.), and then we added an entire new dimension to gameplay.

First, we put an LCD in what we think is the perfect location for a display in a pinball machine... in the center of the playfield, right where a player is usually looking.

Then we implemented some technology to track the exact location of the ball as it moves across the LCD. This allows us to make the ball interact with virtual objects anywhere on the playfield, and it creates an infinite number of shot angles. For instance, if the virtual target you"re supposed to hit moves down to the bottom of the LCD, you might have to aim towards the opposite slingshot or even up the opposite inlane to hit it. This introduces a whole new level of risk versus reward for the player to consider.

As exciting as the introduction of the playfield LCD and ball tracking is, we didn"t stop there! Next we added a row of custom wall targets just beyond the LCD. These targets serve multiple purposes.

We also made a lot of visual enhancements to improve the playing experience by providing more information and more variability than has been previously available. For instance, we added RGB LEDs to each wall target. In addition to displaying beautiful lighting effects, we can also use different wall colors or different color patterns on the wall to represent different game states or target status. For instance, in our "Walls" demo mode, the color of each wall indicates how many times it needs to be hit. Each time the ball hits a wall target, the target changes color. After enough hits, the target goes dark and drops, allowing the ball to pass.

Gerry:My original plan for the machine included the LCD and ball tracking technology, and those were the main drivers for much of the functionality on the P-ROC. In fact, we"re still shipping the same P-ROC today that we started shipping on day 1. This means that every P-ROC customer has the hardware necessary to control a machine as complex as the P3.

I"ve implemented all of the P3 software so far, so blame any bugs you find on me! The pyprocgame pinball software framework that Adam Preble and I created (pyprocgame.pindev.org) serves as the foundation, and I"ve added the rest of the functionality on top of that.

The LCD panel is the most obvious new feature in the P3 machine. When coupled with the ball tracking capabilities, the possibilities are huge. What ideas do you have (or have been suggested to you) for utilising that?

Now that I"ve implemented a few demo modes, I"m hoping to spend some time developing interesting ways of using virtual targets and interactive graphical effects to enhance a full pinball game, where the traditional targets (ramps, loops, stand-ups, etc) are just as important as the virtual ones. There are so many things that can be done; the difficulty is picking one and implementing it.

Of those items, only the slingshots look different to the ones found on traditional pinball machines, and the reason we invented new slingshots is not because of the ball tracking. Rather, as you can see, the LCD is located below the slingshots. For some reason, the first two times we drilled holes through the LCD to mount traditional slingshots, the LCD stopped working. So we came up with a new plan, which was to redesign the slingshots and somehow float them above the playfield.

Not only are the slingshots floating above the surface of the playfield, but they are also mostly transparent. Not being able to see the graphical objects on the LCD would pretty much defeat its purpose!

Gerry: The tracking resolution is currently configured for the diameter of the ball. That means we can track a ball pretty much anywhere over the LCD and have the location pinpointed with an error less than the size of the ball. The difficulty with this relatively coarse spacing is that it"s difficult to smoothly track the ball as it moves off in various directions.

While it would be challenging, I can think of a couple of ways to extend the coverage over the entire playfield, but I don"t see much value in doing it. My goal was to have the LCD covered since that"s where the ball interacts with virtual objects.

Honestly, I"ve only played around with multi-ball tracking for a few hours so far. It"s amazing how time consuming it is to build a complex pinball machine by hand from scratch! I was able to get it to track two balls for a little while before my simple algorithm got confused, and I have some ideas on how to improve the algorithm to resolve the confusion.

Pinball players are notoriously wary of any video elements which are introduced into the mechanical game. Do you think the LCD display can be incorporated in such a way that it adds to the pinball aspect of the game and doesn"t just move it towards becoming another video game?

Gerry:Yes, absolutely. Personally, I enjoy playing pinball a lot more than playing video games. The physical nature of the machine and the randomness that the ball provides is what keeps me playing.

For those who refuse to accept the virtual interactions as enhancements, it"s worth pointing out that the P3 has all of the traditional features people know and love about pinball. In fact, even without the virtual interactions, I believe the P3 has more shots for the player to hit than most existing pinball machines. Also, the shots on the upper playfield are actually software configurable and can be changed from game to game.

For the most part, pinball software just receives switch events and decides what to do with them. Generally speaking, those switch events tell software where the ball is on the playfield. In traditional games, there"s a relatively small number of switches and therefore a relatively small number of locations at which software can detect a ball.

The wall targets confine the limits of the ball"s movement and keep it within the tracked area around the LCD. When the targets are up, does that change the nature of the gameplay much?

Gerry: We"ve pretty well kept the machine a secret until now, at least in its current form. Now that we"ve unveiled it to the public, we"re interested in getting feedback from everybody, including other pinball manufacturers and general hobbyists.

I believe we"ve introduced a lot of technology that could help take pinball and an interested pinball manufacturer to the next level. I also think we"ve implemented things in such a way that we might bring some broader interest back to pinball.

That said, I think this machine has the potential to succeed in the market, and I"m pretty well determined to make that happen. If that requires me to expand PinballControllers.com or to start a new company to manufacture the machine, I"ll seriously consider doing that.

Gerry: Not right now. I"ll be updating some posts about it on our forums at www.pinballcontrollers.com/forum and likely discussing it some more there. If and when we get closer to bringing it to market, we"ll create a dedicated page for it.

The animation features the great and powerful Oz nervously reassuring us everything is alright as one, then two, and finally three pinballs break their way out of the Emerald City as multiball begins.

JJP describes how these sequences will be displayed thus: "These animations will be shown on the 26" Wells Gardner commercial LCD monitor in the backbox and will be accompanied by custom speech, custom music and sounds over the booming stereo sound system of the game. They are designed to entertain onlookers, instruct the player and amuse everyone. If you like this one, all we can say is "you ain"t seen nothing yet" as John-Paul is cooking up some great treats in his studio."

Annoyed by the reflection of the DMD or LCD on the glass of your pinball machine? This adhesive privacy film sticks easily to your display to eliminate the glare. We"re pro-lighting, but anti-glare, and this guards you from glare, if you will. Check out the videos below for a nice visual and installation instructions.

Our DMD filter is a great addition to any game with a bright reflection from the DMD onto the playfield glass. A video showing this installed on a modern Stern with an LCD:

By using the DMD Extender sold by Dr Pinball (http://www.drpinball.co.uk/), I replaced my DMD in JP with an LCD. The LCD is a 15.6" with a resolution of 1920x1080. It is driven by a relatively cheap LCD controller purchased on eBay that takes inputs in the form of HDMI, VGA, DVI, and an optional header for Composite and some others. The DMD Extender utilizes the Rasberry Pi and can output the DMD signal to either HDMI or Composite.

-LCD Controller - about $30 to $50 from various eBay sources, but it has to be one that is compatible and hopefully has the correct connectors and wiring for your LCD.

The LCD fits in Jurassic Park with a minimally invasive change to the DMD Panel. Along the back of the panel there is a lip that extends over where the DMD is installed. The LCD is much taller than the DMD so the lip has to be cut back in order for the LCD to be able to sit inside the DMD Panel. Otherwise you may be able to get it to work without doing this and have the LCD mounted further back, but there isn"t a lot of wiggle room in my setup once the backbox is closed.

The stock DMD panel has a metal plate/bracket that sits behind the DMD and the DMD Controller board mounts to this. The LCD is just narrow enough to fit between the outer holes for this bracket, so if you take the spacer out, you can screw the bracket in over the LCD and it will secure it in place. You can then mount the DMD Controller board and the LCD controller board on the back. I also made one of the wiring opening on the plate a bit wider to allow room for the LCD wires which ended up being a bit off from where the DMD wires went through it before.

My DMD Panel was missing the clips that keep it secure when installed. I made some L brackets out of aluminum that I use to keep it in place. I can rotate my brackets towards the center for easy panel removal. I"m not sure how the stock clips work and how easy they would be with this LCD installation.

The DMD Extender gets 12v from the game itself. I didn"t go so far as to power the LCD with the same 12v, and instead opted for a dedicated 12v power supply that currently plugs into the service outlet. I will end up wiring this into the AC line for the game so that it turns on/off with the power switch for the cabinet. It probably would work fine on the game"s 12v line, but I just don"t want to push it too hard when there"s a relatively simple work-around.

The software with the DMD extender allows you to choose the position on the screen where the image needs to be displayed and a you can also bring the edges in or out as needed so that you can adjust it to where all dots are viewable from the DMD window. You can also choose the colors for each of the 4 shades of dots that are displayed on the DMD. With some trial and error I got a color scheme together that I think works very well in JP.

Since the LCD is bigger than the window and sits a bit further back than the DMD did, I used two layers of thick black insulation foam tape as a blocker around the edges of the window. I need to make some adjustments to it since, as you may see in the pictures, the bottom foam is coming up too far and blocking some of the dots.

The Pixelcade™ software includes thousands of marquee designs painstakingly remastered in 8-bit form covering the majority of popular emulators and MAME games. If the selected game does not have a corresponding LED marquee design, then a generic emulator marquee (ie, atari2600, mame, nes, etc.) will be displayed or scrolling text. To create your own LED marquee designs, author a 64×32 (1 Panel Installation) or 128×32 (2 Panel Installation) PNG or GIF animation in your favorite image editor like Photoshop. High contrast colors and preferably a black background look best on the LEDs. And if you can, please do share your creations with the community on the

The original ColorDMD LCD display uses a high-resolution, low-voltage, LCD screen to provide a full color replacement for the game"s original screen. All displays support six different rendering modes including high-resolution upscaling to fill the space between the dots. The LCD provides excellent uniformity of dot size and spacing, regardless of intensity.

I’ve now owned the AtGames Legends Pinball (or ALP) for a full year and I am very pleased with my experience with it during that time. If you’re curious what I like about it, please see here. There have been a number of great expansion options made available during that time. Back when I received the machine on 3/26/2021, there were very few accessories available. That has changed!

You won’t need to expand your Legends Pinball to enjoy playing all the exciting Zaccaria and TAITO virtual pinball tables (volumes are sold separately, however). The base machine is great as-is. Though, since my initial purchase, I’ve added the Arcade Control Panel, BitPixel HV, well over a hundred Zaccaria and TAITO tables and have connected a PC for playing VPX, Future Pinball and Pinball FX3. If you’re also interested in learning more about your expansion options with the Legends Pinball, a great place to start is the Legends Pinball Modding Series which will step you through many of these.

The video to the right was my early experience with the Legends Pinball machine. If you’re new to the ALP/virtual pinball, I’d recommend checking it out (clicking the thumbnail will open the video in a separate tab, you won’t lose your place here). As you may know, a full-size dedicated pinball machine can cost upwards of $5,000-$15,000. While they are typically beautifully designed, they are expensive, play one game, prone to repairs and take up quite a bit of room. However, the ALP is priced currently around the $750 (USD) range. Space is definitely a concern for me and why I’ve never owned a real pinball machine, as well as the cost. Not everyone has this problem, for space/price-constrained individuals having one (or more) real pinball machines may not be practical.

The AtGames Legends Pinball (ALP) isn’t small but isn’t quite a full-size pinball machine either, slightly larger than 3/4 scale. It is a Virtual Pinball machine which uses a 32″ LCD display (running at 1080p / 60fps), mounted in a vertical orientation to simulate an actual pinball machine. It also provides haptic feedback which mimics the vibrations you would feel from a real machine, for the most part. There is also a 15.6″ display for the back glass which contains the scoreboard, simulated DMD (Dot Matrix Display) and additional artwork. There is also a 1st party option called the VIBS board (or Video Input Backglass Switchboard) which will allow you to utilize the backglass when playing pinball games from a PC utilizing both ALP monitors and controls. If you’re interested in setting up Zen Studios FX3 on your PC connected to the ALP, see here. Interested in playing Visual Pinball X (VPX) or Future Pinball (FP), check out this guide.

There is a lot to like with the ALP, such as the inclusion of a USB 3.0 (storage) + 2.0 port (OTG/Storage), Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Bluetooth which will allow you to add more games to the machine. There is an input for HDMI to connect other devices, such as a PC and allow playing tables that aren’t native to the machine. Essentially, this means you’ll be able to play hundreds or perhaps thousands of pinball tables on the ALP!

The 22 Gottlieb tables that are pre-installed are ok tables and they play well with some minor issues. I then installed Vol 1-5 of the Zaccaria Pinball tables as well as the TAITO Vol 1-3 and these look/play much betteroverall. For example, with the Zaccaria tables, the balls look like they are rolling across the table, the lighting effects (shadows) look more realistic and the game play seems more accurate than the pre-installed tables.

Given what I know now, would I buy the machine again? Yes, I definitelywould! In the future, I hope to see more tables. Perhaps some from Zen Studios if AtGames is able to work out such an arrangement. I think if they were able to accomplish this, AtGames would make a massive splash in the consumer-oriented virtual pinball machine market. Titles such as Star Wars, Marvel and others would make the ALP an absolute no-brainer. But even if that doesn’t happen natively, it’s already possible. With PinUP Popper Baller Installer and a PC connected to the ALP, you can add well over a thousand community-created pinball tables. Even with the tables currently available native on the ALP, it’s the best overall value for those who love virtual pinball and don’t have the space/budget for an original pinball table or multiple competing options. After all, it’s expandable!

The following are my reasons for picking the AtGames Legends Pinball over competing options or building my own (more on that below). This isn’t meant to be a complete list, just my thought-process on what made sense to me. I thought it might be helpful for anyone else considering this machine.

Back glass Display– Other options I was considering have artwork that looks nice on the back glass, but it’s static and won’t change from game-to-game. The ALP includes a 15.6″ LCD back glass, while it doesn’t fill the entire back glass, it does change from game-to-game and something I personally wanted in a vpin. A DMD (Dot-matrix display) option would also have been nice, but wasn’t a huge omission (perhaps a future mod?)

Ease of use/setup – A couple years ago I set out to build my own vpin. I started with an older laptop that had a cracked display and a 48″ HD TV for the playfield. It was going fine, until I played the first game I had setup on it (KISS). The laptop GPU was severely underpowered, lots of frame skipping and shortly after my monitor bit the dust. I wasn’t going to spend another $1000 for a dedicated PC and monitor. I decided to wait until a viable commercial solution presented itself and was easy to use. I was up and running on the ALP within a few minutes of assembling the machine. That is exactly what I was looking for. I love to tinker and mod, but I also appreciate a smooth out-of-box experience.

If you’re interested in adding a PC to your machine, play arcade games, additional Pinball tables or still have questions, theModding Series Season 1 Guide is a great place to start. It will step you through the process.

If you’re already familiar with the AtGames Legends Pinball (ALP) and just want to get started with Pinball FX3, Visual Pinball X (VPX) or Future Pinball (FP), click on one of the images below to go directly to the respective guide for each.

Magnetic Cup Holder – This may not be perfect for every type of cup, but for a bottle of your favorite malt beverage, works just fine! It’s cheap and you can easily swap it from the left/right side of your pinball table or buy two and have one on each leg. I recommend leaving the magnet cover on, it helps slow any slipping as you insert your drink. Easy to setup and works just fine!

AtGames Legends virtual pinball review: The better pre-built choice… mostly – Excellent article by Sam Machkovech. He even mentions Wagner’s TechTalk about 1/3 of the way.

If you’re considering the AtGames Legends Pinball, always a good idea to get opinions from others. Here are some videos from fellow content creators that I recommend watching (don’t forget to subscribe to their channels) :

Use the same key to open the bottom section of the main unit. Locate the two loose cables (one for the speaker, the other a flat ribbon for the display). Attach both of these cables as shown in the video.

For details on all the latest available Gaming Packs (Arcade and Pinball), Flash Drive X Setup, Code Redemption, Installing/Uninstalling games, check out the Legends Gaming Guide.

Getting Around – Use the D-Pad (4 way controller) on the bottom top panel to navigate the user interface. There are options at the very top as well as in the main display area. When you find the option/table/game/setting you want, press the Play (green) button to select the option.

Favorites List – You can create a favorites list of all your favorite pinball tables by first selecting the table (don’t launch it, just browse to the table and press the Play/Select button). On the bottom, you’ll see Favorites – press the Forward nudge (white up-arrow button) to toggle Add/Remove of the table to your favorites list. Go back to the main table selection and press the menu button. Using the D-Pad/Joystick move down to the Favoritesoption and press the Play/Select button. Now you’ll only see your favorite tables (if nothing is there, you didn’t add a table to the Favorites list). This will not work with BYOG/AddOn tables, but great for pinball tables.

How to Update the Firmware – On the top tab bar, go to Settings → Version (x.y.z) and press the Play/Select button. If no update exists, press the Play/Select Button to exit. Otherwise, select the Download option. Once complete, select the Update option (this may take ~10+ min. to apply the firmware update). The machine will restart and display the status on the backglass.

The Legends Pinball will also allow adding your own classic vertical Arcade games to the machine using a USB Thumb Stick. That is, you can play games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga, 1943 and thousands of others directly on your ALP! I’ve been testing this feature and it works well –for the most part. I’m finding that the included d-pad doesn’t always move the way it should. Sometimes when I press d-pad –> right, it doesn’t register. Doesn’t matter now, I’ve replaced it with the Arcade control panel (see above). However, if you notice the same please comment in the video above and let me know.

The 22 built-in games are pretty good, really enjoying Gottlieb’s Haunted House and Black Hole. However, I must admit the Zaccaria & TAITO tables are the best overall pinball experience. The game-play is more realistic vs. the included Gottlieb tables. I’m hopeful in the future that AtGames is able to improve on the built-in tables through a firmware update.

Cloud Pinball is Virtual Pinball Games (Virtual Pinball X or “VPX” and Future Pinball) streamed over the internet to your ALP. Use the ALP flipper and nudge buttons and the down position on the d-pad (or Joystick) to launch the ball.

The BitPixel HV is the pinball equivalent of the popular BitPixel for the AtGames Legends Ultimate arcade machine. The Legends BitPixel HV fits easily above the Legends Pinball backglass. It also includes wall-mounts if you prefer to mount it that way. The BitPixel HV only requires a power input and USB cable which attaches to the USB 2.0 port on the ALP. It can display both animated or static marquees and additional content with the PixelcadeX application.

The installation of the BitPixel HV to the ALP is very easy. There are two cables to connect, the USB-A cable from the BitPixel to the Legends Pinball and the Power Supply. You then remove the two top screws from the front of the ALP, slide HV over the top of the backbox and re-install the screws. Then navigate to AppStoreX and install PixelcadeX. After launching PixelcadeX, when you navigate to the Pinball Tables, ArcadeNet or CoinOpsX, the artwork will appear on the HV.

In my opinion, the BitPixel HV is a great accessory for the Legends Pinball. I would like to see the ability to use it as a real DMD in the future, but it is planned from what I understand. Check out the video review above for more insight into this product.

Does the BitPixel HV work as a DMD with pinball FX3 or VPX? Yes it does! For more information on the BitPixel HV setup for Pinball FX3, see here. Visual Pinball details will be coming in the future, in the meantime please see the Pixelcade website for Visual Pinball setup instructions.

Can the BitPixel HV work as a DMD? The ability to display animated artwork, scoring information or game status requires modifications to the pinball table code itself. This is planned later down the road for the AtGames-provided pinball tables and currently operates as a topper. However, it can function as a real DMD for Pinball FX3/VPX tables (see FX3/VPX answer above for links).

The VIBS (Video Input Backglass Switchboard – code name “Rachael”) board allows you to connect your FX3/ VPX / Future Pinball or other Pinball engine-enabled external PC tables to the Legends Pinball. It allows utilizing the Legends Pinball large dual-screen display (including the back-glass) and pinball controls with your PC. With the addition of the VIBS board, you can display relevant content on the back-glass LCD display by connecting an HDMI cable from the VIBS board to a secondary HDMI port on your PC.

Flashing Color Cycling / No Display in backglass– After installation, I see cycling colors or a black screen on my backglass when I switch to the PC signal. What is wrong?

On the Display Settings screen that appears, click the Detectbutton. This should reconnect windows to your additional display if windows has lost connection.

After connecting the USB 3.0→ HDMI Adapter (above) into an available USB port, I then connected the HDMI-A from the adapter to the VIBS HDMI backglass input – Windows recognized the new HDMI Adapter. I then positioned the new display (the backglass) to the right of the playfield display within Windows Display Settings (make sure display 1&2 are lined up perfectly, playfield on the left/backglass on the right). Next, I copied some backglass artwork to [Your Steam installation directory]\steamapps\common\Pinball FX3\data\steam (using instructions found here).

Through some trial-error, these are the settings that worked for me within the Zen FX3 Cabinet mode options (backglass in Display Settings set to 1920×1080 scale 100%) :

No display on the backglass – Ensure all cables are properly seated and the HDMI from the VIBS board is connected to an HDMI port on the PC. Also, make sure that you pressed the button connected to the VIBS PCB to toggle from the ALP to the VIBS HDMI Input.

No sound when using FX3/VPX or Future Pinball (OTG)– click the speaker icon in the lower-right of the taskbar in Windows. Make sure it’s set to output audio to the primary HDMI output (your backglass). Once set properly, the audio should play through just fine.

I received the retail version of the Arcade Control Panel for the AtGames Legends Pinball and overall, I’m impressed. Aside from the bottom protective cover (not visible once installed), it is a quality product. The buttons are good, but my personal preference would to have them slightly concave (they are flat). The low-profile 8-way Joystick works well and the trackball is most impressive. Check out the video to the right if you’d like to see how to install it and some game play.

This section will discuss 3rd Party expansion options for your Legends Pinball machine. To be clear, the options in this section are not provided/sold/endorsed by AtGames.

With the ALP, you can not only play a great selection of Pinball tables directly on the machine, but you can expand to a near-infinite number of games by connecting a PC to your ALP. The following guides will help you get started :

CoinOpsX Exciters Too Loud – (from a WTT channel subscriber) when I launch the CoinOpsX app, the exciters turn way back up and vibrate through the roof. It is so powerful that it sounds like the tiny woofers on them are about to burst. I don’t want to damage my pinball machine, so I’m holding off playing CoinOpsX even with an external controller. I was wondering if you knew how to turn down, or disable/turn off the exciters altogether, when using the CoinOpsX app on the Legends Pinball?

2021-05-29 – Added Table Code Redemption instructions. Added 1st Party Expansion section. Added start to ArcadeNetsection. Added start to Cloud Pinball section. Added start to PC-based Pinball section. Adjusted some sections for a more logical flow.

Or check out this HUGE series from our friend Steve of The Pinball Room who"s spent more than a year building and recording videos as part of his How to Make a Pinball Machine series.

If you want to build your own pinball machine, that"s called "homebrew" pinball. Some people literally build everything from scratch (the cabinet, the art, the mechanics), while other people buy components and assemble them themselves. If you want to build your own pinball machine from scratch, you"ll need a control system (such as the FAST Pinball Modern Platform) and you"ll need some software to run your machine (such as the free and open source Mission Pinball Framework.)

Check out our Docs to learn more. If you buy a FAST Pinball modern controller, you can join our Slack community where over 100 pinball makers from around the world hang out, chat, and exchange pinball building tips.

The FAST Pinball Retro Platform controllers are drop-in replacements for existing Bally/Williams System 11, WPC-89, and WPC-95 pinball machines. They allow you (or your customers) to run the original classic game code (fully licensed, runs off our board) while also using the FAST Retro controller to modernize the interface to the classic hardware. Whether you want to write a new game just for yourself, or take a conversion kit into production, the FAST Retro Platform is for you!

since it"s hard to "know" what the machine is doing at any moment. (Workaround including sniffing the lamp matrix, driver outputs, audio bus, or display bus.) But since the FAST Retro platform emulates the original pinball hardware, it has full access to the inner workings and state of the machine.

Making pinball is hard! FAST Pinball can do more than provide a modern, protected, cost-effective hardware platform for your machine. We can also provide integrated software support (with commercial support for the Mission Pinball Framework), as well as support for host PC selection and OS hardening.

We can also help you during your design phase! (Actually, we"d prefer it!) You focus on your operations and building the pinball machine of your dreams. We"ll do your electrical and platform engineering (including preparing for UL, FCC, and CE certifications if you want) and ensure you end up with a design that"s safe, efficient, and manufacturable.

Checkpoint is a 1991 pinball machine released by Data East. It featured the first dot matrix display (DMD) ever incorporated into a pinball game. For Checkpoint, Data East used a "half-height" DMD. By way of comparison, Williams later produced machines with standard DMDs that were twice the height. Checkpoint also features video mode minigames on its display.

The game features an ignition key to start the game, an auto plunger, a shaker motor that let the table rumble like a racing car and a Porsche Carrera theme with a spinning wheel in the backbox and an image of Neuschwanstein Castle in the background of the backglass.Checkpoint is one of the few pinball machines designed by DataEast that was not exclusively linked to a film or television show in this period.

Before the DMDs, pinball machines displayed their scores on spinning reels and, later on simple digital displays.UK’s game room specialist, wrote that the introduction of DMDs propelled pinball into its golden age, asserting that the games released in the 1990s were among the best ever made.

According to Beresford, after the video game boom and crash the interest in pinball games revived. Pinball table designers, he said, were now able to tell an actual story that gave pinball machines a more lively feel and personality. In his view, the combination of physical ball movement on a well designed playfield with the new effects took pinball to a whole new level.

DMDs on pinball machines are plasma displays, not LEDs that would be much dimmer. They consists of an individually addressable dot grid rectangular array, capable of displaying text and graphics by energizing selected dots. These displays usually use Neon gas, which glows orange when ionized by a high voltage electric current pass through the segment.

Other display innovations on pinball machines include pinball video game hybrids like Gottlieb"s Caveman and Bally"s Bally"s Granny and the Gators in 1984Dakar from manufacturer Mr. Game in 1988CGA color monitors in Williams" Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Revenge from Mars (1999) that utilize a Pepper"s Ghost technique to reflect the monitor display onto a specially-designed semi-transparent glass inside the head of the machine and above the playfield.

MarsaPlay in Spain manufactured a remake of Inder"s original Canasta titled New Canasta, with an LCD screen in the backbox in 2010.LCDs in the back box of US pinball tables were released with Custom pinball modifications include the use of ColorDMD

In 2015, the new British pinball manufacturer Heighway Pinball released the racing themed pinball machine Full Throttle. The game has its LCD screen for scores, info & animations located in the playfield surface at player’s eye view.

This month, Stern Pinball is launching their anxiously awaited connectivity initiative, called Insider Connec­ted. For players, the system brings new ways to interact with the factory’s pinball machines across a variety of environments with new entertainment and engagement features. For operators, Stern says it’s got a robust toolset designed to drive location play and manage every aspect of the machine operation.

Insider Connected goes live starting this month; the full scope of features will be rolled out over the next year. From September on, the system will be standard on all games that roll off Stern’s production lines, including new manufacture of those using their Spike 2 control system (which includes all of Stern’s LCD pinballs). Older Spike 2 pins can join the world of Insider Connected with a simple retrofit kit that will be sold through the companies dealer network and online through the Stern Store.

Looking back, it was my experience as the executive producer of an XBOX and PlayStation development team, back when Microsoft and Sony were launching XBOX Live and PSN, that influenced my thinking. Connecting those games transformed the way we play and interact. When I started thinking about connecting pinball machines, the direction was clear to me.

The magic of making a system like this work is knowing precisely who is playing the game. That was my first challenge, given that it’s a pinball machine and the player doesn’t typically “log in.” Knowing who the player is allows the system to track their specific progress in a game and reward them in a variety of ways. It also opens the door for methods that can create events, driving people to engage with the games in new ways.

We now have a whole suite of tools that allows us to create new games within the system to focus attention on a particular title. And, of course, operators get very similar tools they can use to drive loyalty at their locations, mine the data in their games, analyze trends, adjust the pinballs and help maintain them.

Insider Connected is accessed by scanning the QR code on the pinball’s arch. Players create an account using an email address and password and then can log in anywhere, accessing a unique QR code that identifies them (see photo below).

It starts with a player using his phone to scan a QR code printed on a game. This will take them right to the sign-up page where they create a free Insider Connected account. They can also sign up on the Stern Pinball website using an email address and a password. Once they have an account, they can log in from anywhere and access a unique QR code that identifies them.

This QR code can be accessed via the Insider Connected web app or it can be printed on a card. Players can also carry an image of it around on their phones for even quicker access. The code can be used at any connected Stern pinball game anywhere in the world whether that’s at the local arcade bar, movie theater lobby arcade, pizza parlor, friend’s house…anywhere.

The pinball machines each have a QR reader built into the bottom arch and a Wi-Fi dongle. Once the game reads the Insider Connected code, it recognizes that player instantly. After that, all sorts of magic can happen. Here’s what I mean…

All of the connected pinball machines have several achievement systems built in, the first being a game-specific process that awards badges based on the player’s progression within each title. Think of these “achievements” as a new rule set layered on top of the existing one. The cool thing is that because the achievements are game-specific, they are carefully woven into the existing sets of rules for each game.

An example of this is adding time goals to defeating a particular foe or completing a series of game objectives in a certain way. To spice things up, if a player completes these play goals at a pinball on location, they earn a “verified” version of the achievement. This is because doing so means the player did it on a pinball machine with the glass on!

Logged in and ready! Above, the game’s LCD screen shows that the player has been recognized and is ready to go as “player 1.” At right, the player’s profile page on the website showing the tracked achievements collected, experience points and so on.

The forums will provide players with game-specific discussion environments and closer direct access to the world of Stern Pinball, including its game designers, developers and engineers.

We will have special awards, which are random drops of cool stuff. These might be physical things like a t-shirt, collectible action figures or other goodies from our universe. Down the road, we will have giveaways like discounts at the Stern Store or tickets to drawings for all kinds of things, even pinball machines.

The operator version of the system is called Insider Connected Pro and it will have a distinctly different user interface and naturally, it will focus on pro tools for operating pinball machines. It allows operators to address their customers directly and present them with incentives to engage with the games and the location. For example, an operator can issue “Challenge Quests” to the community. If a player chooses to take on those challenges and complete them, the operator can reward the player directly.

Insider Connected has been in development for several years, and we imagine that no matter how much thought we’ve put into it, we will have to adjust and refine as players and operators begin to interact with it. We are committed to making it a useful tool to drive location play and provide players with an ever-evolving set of new game features and mini-games for the pinball machines.