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« on: July 21, 2016, 04:04:55 PM »
I got the diffusers installed on my game yesterday. My expectations were pretty low for these but now that they are install I'm impressed. It's a great improvement to the insert lighting. My only real disappointment with MMR has been the inserts. The surface mount LEDs used on the light board are way too bright and do not spread the light like the LEDs w/domes. Even if there wasn't an issue with the ink on the inserts they would still be difficult to read. Also, in a dark room the lights from the inserts are overpowering and caused hot spots. When your eyes adjust to the light coming from the LED they'll miss the details of the darker areas of the playfield. I've seen this same issue on other games were LEDs are too bright. The diffusers fix this problem. They help to spread the light evenly and made the text on my game more legible. I know the original has clear inserts but the murkiness of the clear coat gave the inserts a more frosted look and spread the light better. In my opinion MM was originally designed to take this into account. The best thing about the diffusers is they make MMR look more like the original and other games from this era. In some ways I think it looks slightly better than the original because they are located below the inserts. The ridges and patterns in the inserts appear more crisp this way.
It's sad they didn't include the diffusers on all games. If you don't have them they are worth picking up. The install was a bit tedious but with some patients it's manageable. It ended up being much easier than I anticipated. I'm happy they made this fix available.