A DMD (short for Dot Matrix Display) is a part of a pinball machine which is used to show information to the player during their game like their score, active modes, animations or other information relevant to the game.
Dot Matrix Display History
When pinball machines entered the Solid State era, all pinball displays utilised segmented alphanumeric displays to display scores digitally (having replaced mechanical score reels that had been used for decades). Whilst this was serviceable for games of the time, they did have limitations as to what could be shown, especially towards the end of the 80s and early 90s when pinball machines began to become more complex with rules and speech. Even the later displays were only capable of displaying letters and numbers, and some very limited animations. Games such as Funhouse, Bride of Pinbot and Mousin’ Around are all from around this time.
In 1991 however, Data East pioneered an innovation that would change pinball forever – The first ever dot matrix display, found in their racing themed game ‘Checkpoint’. For the first time ever, a pinball display could display more than simple alphanumeric text, and display animations and tailored messages and graphical cues.
Despite this revolutionary change, the first truly ‘industry standard’ DMD was introduced in 1991 with Williams’ Terminator 2. The new display was taller, and could display larger and more complete graphics. In fact, this format of display was so revolutionary, it stayed with pinball machines for over 20 years, even into the late 2010s. In fact, the last generally available release featuring a dot matrix display was in 2016, for STERN Pinball’s Ghostbusters.
Innovations on Dot Matrix Displays
Throughout the years, there have been a number of ideas for innovations for DMD technology. SEGA for example for a few machines made the DMD even bigger at twice the height of the then-established standard size.
The most popular innovation in recent years however is the very popular Colour DMD aftermarket modification. This mode replaces the standard display made up of individual dots, and replaces it with a colour screen capable to displaying the same information, but in colour!
Many pinball enthusiasts today upgrade their machines with these colour displays, and even today new technology is adapting more and more games to make them conversion ready.
DMDs revolutionised pinball, and most of the machines most fondly remembered by pinball players come from the DMD era of machines. If you wish to discover more about DMD technology, feel free to call our showroom team on 0800 622 6464 or 01454 413 636.