So I blogged about this idea 5-1/2 years ago:
http://homebrewpinball.blogspot.com/2014/04/ben-heck-eliminate-bulbs.html
Well someone in Germany is working on a homebrew project and they are actually doing it! (and it works with glass on). check out this video:
https://diode.zone/videos/watch/dd039de1-e8e2-47c9-b761-6ca2092eb717
So a few things why this is amazing now that I see a proof of concept:
1. This makes a playfield VERY adaptable. I mean imagine you're doing a movie theme, say goonies. Well you could have the art be the jeep chase at the beginning of the movie, then the art changes to the attic looking for the chest, then it becomes the fratelli house, then it becomes the pipes, then it becomes the organ, etc. etc. Everyone complains how there's only so much playfield real estate, well that same real estate can morph into many layouts.
2. This potentially eliminates the need for art.. I mean if you're going to do everything white to get the best contrast (I assume a grey color like a movie screen is ideal), then you don't have to paint the playfield, you don't have to make custom art plastics.. You cut your playfield, cut your plastics, and all artwork is updated with code.
3. Potentially NO GI lighting or insert lighting. Imagine that, saving on all those bulb sockets, all that wiring, not having to carve out insert pockets, not worrying about inserts popping up overtime as the wood expands. One projector mounted above covers it all.
The ONLY drawback I see here is I suppose if the bulb burns out in the projector, the whole game sorta falls apart, but honestly lamps are getting better and it's not like you can't have a spare. Also I would imagine the projector has to be fairly rigidly mounted, and if this did go commercial there would have to be some sort of alignment by the user (like when you used to have to do alignment on light gun arcade games). You would probably have some sort of image with a dot in each corner representing a corner of the playfield, and you'd have to adjust the mount/zoom to make sure each dot is aligned into some mark on the playfield to ensure your image was centered correctly.
I hope this is not the last pinball we see doing this, it has a lot of potential.
http://homebrewpinball.blogspot.com/2014/04/ben-heck-eliminate-bulbs.html
Well someone in Germany is working on a homebrew project and they are actually doing it! (and it works with glass on). check out this video:
https://diode.zone/videos/watch/dd039de1-e8e2-47c9-b761-6ca2092eb717
So a few things why this is amazing now that I see a proof of concept:
1. This makes a playfield VERY adaptable. I mean imagine you're doing a movie theme, say goonies. Well you could have the art be the jeep chase at the beginning of the movie, then the art changes to the attic looking for the chest, then it becomes the fratelli house, then it becomes the pipes, then it becomes the organ, etc. etc. Everyone complains how there's only so much playfield real estate, well that same real estate can morph into many layouts.
2. This potentially eliminates the need for art.. I mean if you're going to do everything white to get the best contrast (I assume a grey color like a movie screen is ideal), then you don't have to paint the playfield, you don't have to make custom art plastics.. You cut your playfield, cut your plastics, and all artwork is updated with code.
3. Potentially NO GI lighting or insert lighting. Imagine that, saving on all those bulb sockets, all that wiring, not having to carve out insert pockets, not worrying about inserts popping up overtime as the wood expands. One projector mounted above covers it all.
The ONLY drawback I see here is I suppose if the bulb burns out in the projector, the whole game sorta falls apart, but honestly lamps are getting better and it's not like you can't have a spare. Also I would imagine the projector has to be fairly rigidly mounted, and if this did go commercial there would have to be some sort of alignment by the user (like when you used to have to do alignment on light gun arcade games). You would probably have some sort of image with a dot in each corner representing a corner of the playfield, and you'd have to adjust the mount/zoom to make sure each dot is aligned into some mark on the playfield to ensure your image was centered correctly.
I hope this is not the last pinball we see doing this, it has a lot of potential.
