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.
What is an LCD Display?
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.
When were LCD screens introduced to pinball?
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.
How have other companies implemented LCD technology into pinball machines?
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.
