LCD Monitor, tinted or clear glass?

[chucklepie]

Hello,
Been reading various forum entries and searching the web but most articles regarding tinting seem to be using arcade monitors or CRT.

I'm using an LCD. Should I get tinted or clear glass? I've a feeling greylite 14 is too dark for my needs though so if people recommend it I'll probably just get a lighter smoked grey.

thanks.

[mytymaus007]

not sure the darkness of mine but i love it tint all the way. Depends on your lcd how brite it is my lcd is kick ass brite! Where you going to buy it from do they show the difference in shades. I would buy another one the one i have cam with my cabinet which was a custom cab that was gutted.

[RandyT]

The problem with most LCD screens is that the brighter you make the display, the more washed out the blacks become.  This has the effect of negating a lot of the positive effects of the dark glass.

You'll probably want something with a higher transmission for LCD use.

[Mental]

The dark grey does look good with LCD. It hides pretty much everything under it except the actual display image. However, direct sunlight will give you some pretty bad glare and make it very hard to see the screen. This is probably also true in other bright environments like offices, etc.

If light is an issue, get the lighter grey. It still looks very nice. You need to take extra care with your bezel and such, since obviously you can see through it the glass easier, and it will show more flaws, if any.

You also want to factor in how it will fit into your design. For example, you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time and money on finishing some exotic wood and then hide it with the dark grey.

[LeedsFan]

It's really personal choice, just try both and go with what you like. For my DK and Defender bartops I used tinted plexi under clear plexi with the bezel sandwiched in between. It looks fine. For my Star Wars though I stuck to clear plexi simply because it's a vector game. The default setting for vector games in Mame are terrible, but with tweaking they can come out to look really nice. Still not as nice as a real vector monitor of course. But that's why I stuck with clear plexi, so that the graphics looked as bright and clear as possible for that particular game.

[chucklepie]

Cheers. I bought 4mm tempered safety glass with a medium grey tint. For the 660mm by 600mm size it only cost £20 (£15 for non-tempered) and it's even cheaper for clear, so if I don't like it I'll just replace it.

I took my galaxy tab 7 to the glass place and stuck it behind the glass. It kind of dulls the brightness and mutes the range of colour but it looked good and I'm hoping in a darker environment it'll be even better.

I'm at the stage where I've got my control panel ready (660mm x 330mm - 25inx13in) and I've got my control panel layout (2 player 6 button layout from slagcoin) just got to decide whether to squeeze a trackball in or not as it's tight and I don't want it to look too cluttered.

[LeedsFan]

I'm at the stage where I've got my control panel ready (660mm x 330mm - 25inx13in) and I've got my control panel layout (2 player 6 button layout from slagcoin) just got to decide whether to squeeze a trackball in or not as it's tight and I don't want it to look too cluttered.

How many trackball games are there that you want to play? And I mean... really want to play? Like it's a must?  Because you'll probably find that playing Marble Madness seems like a really good idea, but in practice you'll play a couple of times and just go back to your all time faves. If one of your all time faves is a trackball games then fair do's, go for it. Been there, done that, cramming in all the controls you can. I'd be tempted to add a spinner rather than a TB, as it takes up so much less space. All depends on what YOU want to play.

[chucklepie]

I know what you're saying. There's only centipede, marble madness and a few others so on paper it looks like a trackball is a no-winner but then you look at screenshots of marble madness and see how beautiful it looks..... Though tbh, I think it's because 6 years ago I had it in my head I wanted a trackball and it's stuck. Today though I think I'd get more mileage out of the ultimarc gun.

Here's some pictures, I'll not duplicate a thread.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122792.msg1309469.html#msg1309469

[nemo1966]

Cheers. I bought 4mm tempered safety glass with a medium grey tint. For the 660mm by 600mm size it only cost £20 (£15 for non-tempered) and it's even cheaper for clear, so if I don't like it I'll just replace it.

I took my galaxy tab 7 to the glass place and stuck it behind the glass. It kind of dulls the brightness and mutes the range of colour but it looked good and I'm hoping in a darker environment it'll be even better.

I'm at the stage where I've got my control panel ready (660mm x 330mm - 25inx13in) and I've got my control panel layout (2 player 6 button layout from slagcoin) just got to decide whether to squeeze a trackball in or not as it's tight and I don't want it to look too cluttered.

Where did you get the glass from?

thanks

[chucklepie]

Just a local glass place, you know the ones who sell windows and stuff. Just look in yellow pages online for wherever you live.

[TGov]

I am putting in a trackball just for Crystal Castles!   Great game.  I also enjoy Centipede as well, but CC is where it is at! 

[wp34]

I was surprised how much I enjoyed being able to play Golden Tee at home once I had a trackball.  I have never played it much in the wild but it is quite fun and relaxing at home.

[Mysterioii]

I know what you're saying. There's only centipede, marble madness and a few others so on paper it looks like a trackball is a no-winner but then you look at screenshots of marble madness and see how beautiful it looks..... Though tbh, I think it's because 6 years ago I had it in my head I wanted a trackball and it's stuck. Today though I think I'd get more mileage out of the ultimarc gun.

Here's some pictures, I'll not duplicate a thread.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,122792.msg1309469.html#msg1309469

Well, you have games like marble madness, centipede, millipede, missile command...   golf games, bowling games... there's some shuffleboard game I forget the name of, but we played that quite a bit.  But, remember you can also use a trackball for shooting games if you don't have a light gun (or don't keep one hooked up).  Or if you have ONE lightgun, a friend could be using the trackball as player 2.  Zombie Raid on a trackball wasn't too bad really.  Also, I use the trackball as the mouse when I exit out to windows to configure the PC or look something up on the web etc.

A trackball is a must for me.

[chucklepie]

I guess it'll double as a mouse as well if I need some quick access rather than opening my drawer for the mouse in windows.

Which is better for location from practice - above the player buttons/joysticks or below?

Using the ipac (I'm thinking of ordering the mini-pac) would it be possible to double up the wires for mouse 1/2 and two buttons on the CP having to add more buttons to the control panel or is this a daft idea? I know you can have a shift option and I was planning on using player 1 start as the shift button to enable pause/exit/reset without having to add those buttons

[MTPPC]

35% Light transmission is what I recommend. I used 20% on both my ms. pac-mame and pinball backglass and I think it's a little too dark:

[thaddeussmith]

i re-used my neo-geo's smoked glass with the LCD replacement and like it enough to not bother cutting new clear glass.