worth building two mame cabs: 19in vertical & 25 in horizontal?

[TJCOMBO]

I built a 25 in horitzontal mame cabinet that I love. Now I am thinking of getting something more true to the original for certain games with a 19 in vertical mame cabinet.  25 in horizontal PacMan and Dig Dug just doesn't cut it from what I remember, but then again, it's been years. Anyone do two MAME cabinets for vertical and horizontal games and feel like it was worth it?

[MTPPC]

I have a 25" horizontal monitor in my ms. Pac-mame. It works pretty good for vertical games:

[wp34]

I ended up going with one of each.  I don't think it is strictly necessary but I played quite a bit of Ms Pac Man on a dedicated a few years ago and decided I really liked the feel of the smaller vertical cabinet for those classic games.  There is something about looking down at a vertical monitor versus starting straight ahead at a horizontal that I prefer for the "classics". 

[TJCOMBO]

Cool good to know! Maybe when I have funds soon (and space), I could do this too.

[paigeoliver]

You might actually want to consider a 25" vertical cabinet. Many classic vertical titles are quite impressive on larger screens.

[TJCOMBO]

Will it fill the entire screen and run at 100% emulation?  I'll def consider that.

Reason I ask, is I am having trouble getting the games to run at 100% with a small tolerance for error emulation speed with my tri-sync monitor.  I am using GroovyMame but it is only capable of refreshing with vsync and getting it to run at 80% for games like pacman and galaga in horizontal orientation.  Triple buffer works, but the frame rate is not correct and the games look jittery.  Just wondering how to go about running it correctly for a 25in horizontal for now - if it is possible with the current setup.

Thanks

[TJCOMBO]

I have a 25" horizontal monitor in my ms. Pac-mame. It works pretty good for vertical games:

Nice!  Looks like you a missing a button or two.

[yotsuya]

I did both. No regrets!

[brad808]

I also contemplated getting a second cab..... that was many cabs ago

[MTPPC]

Nice!  Looks like you a missing a button or two.

The first picture was from when I was just fitting the 25" monitor. I wired the player 1 button to button 2 and the player 2 button to button 3. So the result is trackball + 4 way + 3 buttons.

[ahofle]

If I had to do it all over again, and I had access to both 25" and 19" arcade monitors I would do exactly what you describe (19 for vertical cabinet and 25 for horizontal).  I have a 27" multisync that can display vertical games at native resolution and am pretty happy with it, but last year I got a 3 sided cocktail cabinet with a 19" arcade monitor and I can't believe how great everything looks, especially the vertical games.  I tend to not play them on the upright now.

[paigeoliver]

Honestly you could build yourself about 10 different mame cabinet with different monitor orientations and control panels before it started getting stupid.

[Hogie1418]

To me, it sounds like your just getting the building bug again :-).

But honestly heres my question,
What would be your reasoning for building a dedicated vertical?

If my calculations are correct you would only be gaining .2 inches by going from a 25" horizontal to a 19" vertical for vertical games.
 
So if you are not doing it to try to increase the size of the vertical game then why would someone?

[yotsuya]

Good question, Hogie. In my case, it was to use a dedicated 4-way stick with vertical classics.

[paigeoliver]

If the 25" cabinet is running a CGA monitor then the vertical games are running at a scaled down resolution.

To me, it sounds like your just getting the building bug again :-).

But honestly heres my question,
What would be your reasoning for building a dedicated vertical?

If my calculations are correct you would only be gaining .2 inches by going from a 25" horizontal to a 19" vertical for vertical games.
 
So if you are not doing it to try to increase the size of the vertical game then why would someone?

[sharpfork]

You might actually want to consider a 25" vertical cabinet. Many classic vertical titles are quite impressive on larger screens.

Agreed.  I have a 25" vertical and a 27" horizontal and I am very happy with the combination.

[markc74]

Gotta agree with the 2 cabs idea if you have the space for it. After my Terminus cab died an undignified death in the shed I built a quick vertical cab and love it - it just feels better playing vert games on a cab designed for it - also they don't need to be anywhere near as big and don't need too many controls.  Here's mine which is only 155cm x 52cm x 66cm.



I'm going to building another 25" horizontal cab in spring and I'm definitely planning on keeping both.

[mgb]

After my Terminus cab died an undignified death in the shed I built a quick vertical cab and love it

Terminus has died? I'm sorry to hear that. That was a great looking cab.

if i had the room for two cabs I would definitely have both a vert and horiz cab. Personally I like the idea of 3 cabs, one horiz, one shmup vert with 8 ways and one vert for dedicated 4way.
I never much cared for vert games on a horiz screen. I went the opposite way and installed a 27 inch vertical as most of my favorites are vertical games and I can still play horizontals on it.

[markc74]

Unfortunately yes - in making Terminus I neglected to fix the shed roof which meant when I had to store it to make way for a new baby it got badly water damaged.  Managed to save all the electronics and controls which will be used in the new and improved cabinet I have planned - as well as a nice new marquee monitor and servo controls...

/end of thread hijack


In my mind there are three main advantages to dedicated vertical cabs

1. Size - they don't need to be anywhere near as big as a do-it-all-horizontal cab
2. Controls - you can focus on just what you need which makes it nicer to use. 1 4-8 way switchable stick, 3 buttons and a trackball and you've got 99% of the good stuff covered
3. Screen res - I never managed to get the 'taller' games that run at 288 pixels to look very good on a horizontal cab as it was always cropping the top/bottom of the screen unless you scaled it (sacrilege!)

If you have the space and time to do it. Defo. You won't be sorry!

[Gaaargh]

Definitely worth doing!

My 1st cab was an upright with a 15" horizontal in it. (later upped to 17"), the 1st time I played Arkanoid on the 19" vertical in my cocktail I was blown away.

I figure I can get a 21" or 22" in my upright before I run out of space, and am gathering plans for making a vewlix with a 32" widescreen.

Thumbs up for purpose-built cabs.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I did both. No regrets!

+1
I have both 2.  It's awesome.

D

[yotsuya]

My dream setup will add an 8-way vertical, a flight game cab, a gun cab, a sit-down racer, and a horizontal cocktail.

[Eldritch1969]

I have a Japanese candy cab, Sammy Atomiswave, which is very nice for horizontal games, but definitely not good for vertical shooters (my favourites). As it is really hard to turn the monitor, I've in the process of building myself a vertical shooter bartop (called Space Wars).

And the few times I have played on it to try my Mala and Mame setups were definitely great !

I have only a 15 in monitor, but with a scanline generator like the T-SLG, it looks really amazing !

So your choice of a dedicated arcade machine for vertical playing is more than valid, sir 

[Malenko]

not to toot my own horn, especially since I dont have the cabinet anymore, but I put a 32" CRT in a KI2 cab veritcally.

Pacman is huge


horizontal games have about a 25" screen size:


and 2 monitor games looks pretty freaking neat: