would a 22" widescreen flat monitor work?

[LASmith132]

for an arcade monitor? or do you think that would be too small ?

Looking to play all sorts of games from pac man to area 51 shooter.

[eds1275]

depends on how big your cabinet is. Build it around that size monitor and it will look fine. I don't think a 4-player or pedestal/podium type cab would work but then again, some of the people on here do wonders with much less.

[AGarv]

IMO a 22" 16:9 aspect monitor is probably not going to make you happy.  The viewable area for horizontal games will be about that of a 19" CRT monitor (which is close to a 17" 4:3 LCD in viewable size), and vertical games will be comically small.  If you use a 4:3 21" monitor, you will have about 44% more viewable area for horizontal games (not as big as a 25" CRT, but pretty close) than with a 22" 16:9 aspect monitor.

You can get a 20"-21" 4:3 LCD monitor with a very nice IPS or PVA panel off of ebay for $100 shipped if you look carefully. The monitor will have a much larger usable area for retro games, fit a standard bezel, probably have a nicer panel with better viewing angles, and will overall look much nicer/authentic in the cabinet. 

Heck you can get a 17-19" 4:3 LCD with a nice panel for less than $50 shipped (I picked up a 17" 4:3 NEC with an S-IPS panel for $45), and it is also going to be much nicer for retro gaming. Given how important the monitor is to your cabinet, spending less than the cost of a U360 joystick on a nice screen is worth it IMO!

[P-chan]

you could always build something like this and set your 22" on top :

http://www.amazon.com/Xtension-Arcade-Pedestal-Cabinet-X-Arcade-Tankstick/dp/B003Y9YJBK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1338571734&sr=8-4



I wanted to go way bigger, so I built my pedestal to sit about 4 feet away from the wall on which I have mounted a 40" LCD which will rotate 90 degrees for vertical games.

Either way, you will run into trouble with "Area 51" style shooting games on an LCD, if I remember correctly.