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@TechConnectify Is it weird I often wonder with old contraptions like these how much energy the bulbs use and if using LEDs would cut a significant amount of power draw from the unit?
~ben@SHODAN swapping in LEDs is pretty common depending on the era of the game!
@ben @SHODAN I could go on quite the rant about this...
I had to remove LEDs from Theatre of Magic because they drive me nuts. Games from its era drive the lamps in a matrix, pulsing half of lamps with the positive AC cycle and the other half with the negative cycle. This dramatically saves on wiring.
LEDs make that painfully visible, and it's even worse when the game does dimming effects (which it does all the time). Plus, the LEDs saved about 50 watts on a machine that uses 200 just to be on
@ben @SHODAN The thing is, the lamps in those games are long-life lamps. They were meant to be in arcades powered on for 16 hours a day (and maybe even 24/7). But, they darken with age and should be replaced perhaps yearly.
For so many reasons, LED swaps on games from that era just drive me up the wall. I want it to look like it did from the factory!
hackbyte Antifa (friendica) 13HB1@TechConnectify @ben @SHODAN Well, there are ways to get led replacements which act like the originals....
It's just .... not cheap and i actually don't know a vendor who sells ready to use ones...
@hackbyte @ben @SHODAN I honestly don't see them ever becoming widely available or reasonably priced.
I think it's safe to say that I'm in a minority who finds the instant-on nature of the LEDs to ruin any benefit. In fact, I imagine many people /like/ that. It can make the game feel more modern.
But that's exactly the opposite of what I'm goin' for.
slae 🍥@TechConnectify the charm is incandescents are something that cant be denied.
Chicago Gaming's several remakes of Bally/Williams games including Monster Bash and Cactus Canyon all have LEDs, but they feature incandescent emulation, and you can even set the speed of how long they take to fully turn on and off which is pretty dang swell.
@TechConnectify @ben @SHODAN I actually would have to refer way up to Curious Marc and Ken Shirrif for one of the few people probably implementing "accurate looking" LED replacements for some IBM computer/mainframe front panel bulbs..... uhm ;)
@ben @TechConnectify @SHODAN (which probably might not even be true..... but i know someone out of this broad circle got trougth the effort to restore a meaningful mainframe interface panel including a meaningful emulation of light bulbs .. including "fast calculation" half on states and stuff...... mhh.. ;))
Henk Langeveld@hackbyte @ben @TechConnectify @SHODAN
Hmmm, could that be an option for our ancient copy of Dark Tower?
ink and yarn@TechConnectify @hackbyte @ben @SHODAN There's a Williams Taxi here in my living room and I completely agree with you. I want it to look and feel like playing pinball in 1988. (That playfeel currently includes annoyingly random floppy flippers that we can't seem to diagnose/fix.)