Trevor Kist

Apps · 2026

Run-DMD Simulator

A pinball dot-matrix display simulator: 68 machines' animations plus live clock and scores, on the way to real hardware.

Run-DMD simulator playing a Medieval Madness animation on a 128 by 32 dot matrix
Read Trevor’s narration

Pinball machines from the nineties had these hundred twenty-eight by thirty-two dot matrix displays with some of the best pixel animation ever made. I wanted one on my wall that also told the time and the score of the game. Run DMD is a Python renderer and scene director. It pulls animation clips from sixty-eight machines, Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Twilight Zone, and mixes in live scenes for the clock and baseball and football scores, then streams the frames to a browser preview. The simulator runs. The real LED panel is next.

  • 68machines catalogued
  • 128 × 32pixel framebuffer
  • Liveclock and scores

The starting point

Pinball machines from the nineties had 128 by 32 dot-matrix displays with some of the best pixel animation ever made. I wanted one on the wall that also told the time and the score of the game.

What I built

A Python renderer and scene director composites animation clips from 68 machines, Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Twilight Zone, Tron, Ghostbusters, with live scenes for the clock and MLB and NFL scores into a 128 by 32 framebuffer, streamed to a browser preview. The clips were extracted from an original display ROM with a catalog of frame offsets. The driver is split from the renderer so the same frames can go to a HUB08 LED panel.

Current state

The simulator runs. The panel is next.