Transforming a 30-Year-Old Pinball Machine Display Into Full Color
Transforming a 30-Year-Old Pinball Machine Display Into Full Color
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure originally uses a single color plasma dot matrix display. It's time to replace it with a ColorDMD, transforming the game’s animations from a single color into full RGB. If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to convert a classic DMD pinball machine to full color, this covers the process from the original display removal to the finished result. IMPORTANT!!!! ColorDMD doesn’t clearly state on their site that the USB drive needs to use an MBR partition table, not GUID/GPT. If it’s formatted as GUID, the system may not recognize the drive at all. I’d recommend confirming the drive is MBR and creating a small 4–8 GB FAT32 partition to maximize compatibility. If your USB fails this is 99% probably why. 🌐 Website 🛒 Displays 💾 Firmware / Support 📡 Twitch 📺 YouTube 📷 Instagram 📘 Facebook 👕 Apparel
Kineticist’s take
DIY color DMD installation guide for vintage pinball machines.
Synopsis
A detailed walkthrough of installing an aftermarket color DMD (Dot Matrix Display) in a 30-year-old Indiana Jones pinball machine, replacing the original plasma display. The video demonstrates the technical installation process, highlights the benefits of color DMD upgrades (reduced electrical noise, visual enhancement), and discusses pricing and build quality of the Color DMD product.
Highlights
- Original plasma displays in pinball machines run at 60-100 volts, which can tax internal power systems and cause electrical noise/magnetic interference with speakers.
- Color DMD displays cost around $450 on average.
- Indiana Jones is a Mark Richie game and one of the creator's favorite pinball machines.
- ColorDMD displays maintain the original look and style of plasma displays while adding color capability.
- The artifact mod on Indiana Jones prevents fitting an LCD version of the color display, requiring the LED version instead.
Entities
- Fishtails· game
- Indiana Jones· game
- Dirtypool Pinball· person
- Steve Richie· person
- Color DMD· product