Assistance with monitor selection

[bhays]

Greetings.  I am planning my first cabinet project and have been reading all I can find to educate myself.  I must admit that my head is swimming on the subject of monitor selection.  I have done quite a bit of homework, but I wanted to call upon those with much more knowledge as to the direction I should go.  I have a pretty strong tech background having founded an ISP back in the day and run a couple of technology companies, but I am a full time attorney at this point and really don't have the time I would like to heavily research for the project.

I am wanting to build a very general purpose system.  I recognize there will be compromises involved in that approach, but I want to be able to play a broad spectrum of games on the cabinet and have all of them look pretty good.  I will say that what I have seen of MAME on a standard pc monitor just won't cut it... have to achieve something better than that.  Here are sort of the criteria:

Cost:  I am not looking to do this on a shoestring, but really don't have to have THE BEST hardware available.. Did plan on purchasing an ArcadeVGA if needed
Format:  LCD or CRT is fine as it will be installed in the cabinet.. (sort of liking the idea of a showcase format with a pretty big monitor, though)
Size:  I want to go big enough to play vertical format games such as Galaga close to their original size, but would probably prefer to mount the monitor horizontal
Fav Games:  Asteroids is my #1 and I understand nothing will look like the original and be flexible, also a fan of Galaga, Tetris, Robotron..Area 51
Versatility:  I want to be able to run mame and daphne as well as all of the available console emu's
Guns:  I really would like to be able to add a gun for games like Area 51 so want to make sure my selection can support that.

So, what would you suggest?  I am looking at a used MAME cabinet on CL that I might get for parts more or less.  I don't like the actual cabinet, but the price may be right and the ipac4, ArcadeVGA and a 25" arcade monitor purchased new is included.. I don't know the model number yet but it's a Sharp Image... does this make sense for me?

Thanks for any and all help.  I really am willing to do my own research and learn, but want to get the project going and don't need to become an expert at this point if I can select the right hardware for the job.

[boardjunkie]

A std arcade monitor will be the best choice. Since most arcade games were just std res, that covers the bulk of the bases. Keep in mind, vector games will look terrible.....there's just no way around it. Vector games look acceptable on a PC monitor tho.

Prob'ly the best option is a horiz mounted 25" arcade monitor. Vert games will have enough screen area to look ok.