Cabinet Depth

[Ren Hoek]

Has anyone used a newer model computer monitor (flat panel - a few inches deep) to reduce the depth of the cabinet?  It seems like a valid solution to people who need to save space or for ease of transportation.  It wouldn't compromise the design of a 'classic' cabinet design too much would it?  Would the lack of weight due to such a monitor compromise the force of button mashing on the control panel (ie. cabinet would not have enough weight on the back half to deal with the weight on the front end)?  Any ways around this if this is a problem?  

[hooded_paladin]

there's no way anyone's gonna tip over a cabinet (even with a flatscreen) by button mashing alone, but if you're talking a 12" deep cab, your control panel had better be the "inside" style that classic cabs have rather than an overhanging one, because that might topple a skinny machine.  BUT putting a flatscreen inside a normal-sized cabinet wouldn't hurt, because those can already balance and take weight on the control panel without the monitor.

Most people use either TVs, arcade monitors or big VGA ones.  LCD screens do not support lightguns, and aren't as authentic looking as TVs and arcade monitors or as wide-angle-viewable as the other three.  (If you have a wraparound control panel, the view angle of the side players could get quite large indeed.)

[u_rebelscum]

Two things in addition to what hooded_paladin said:

I like the old-school look of the rounded arcade screen (vs the flatness of the flat-panels).  Opinion, but I think a few others here feel the same.

Flat-panels are not as good at displaying different resolutions as CRTs; LCD's and Plasmas have a single "best resolution" with all the rest looking bad.  Not very import with mame's stretching (which is way better than any LCD's stretching), but an important point even if you aren't going to play mame on it.

[Ren Hoek]

I know this may now be a monitor question, but not all thin flat panel computer monitors are LCD (it appeared in the replies that perhaps you guys believed I meant LCD).  Are the other flat panel monitors (not LCD) suitable for MAME?

[pointdablame]

what other flat panel, few inch deep monitors do you mean? There are flat tubed CRT monitors, but the are certainly not a few inches deep. The same goes for flat tubed TV's.  The only other flat panels I can think of are plasmas, and I doubt very much that anyone is going to drop 5k+ to make a 42" widescreen cabinet.

I agree that LCD's just aren't as good an option for MAME, but you really threw me off with "other types" of flat panels.... what do you mean?

[Radical]

Couple notes on LCD's:

Although they are getting better, they tend to update slower than a CRT.  With a lot of graphics motion on screen they look terrible.   I think most arcade game would look OK though.

They are way sharper than even a PC CRT and way, way sharper than an arcade CRT.  IMHO the old arcade games look really bad on a sharp monitor (even with the fake software tricks).

Those things may not bother you.  If they don't then it might make a really light and thin solution.

[papaschtroumpf]

I though about doing this myself because I have limited space, but I was having problems running so ggames in MAME with an LCD, the picture would be halfway off the screen for example. Maybe there are ways to address this, but I never had those problems on my CRT.

[Minwah]

Most LCD displays nowadays have the best resolution at 1024x768 or higher...

If you play games on your PC monitor stretched at this res, then that'll probably be OK for you, but if not I'd seriously recommend you try it out first.  I personally think those LCD screens look awful unless running at the correct res (eg 1024x768).  I also dislike hwstretch, which is very similar looking to LCD's stretching.