Bartop Monitor Size: How small is too small?

[lustreking]

I have an old laptop that I'm thinking about using in a bartop machine.  With a stripped version of XP it boots very quickly and runs the type of games that I want.  It does, however, only have a 14" screen.  I've been using it for a couple days with a standalone control panel, and I think it will work, but will I be disappointed later that I didn't build it with a bigger monitor?  I only plan on it being a 1 player bartop.

[nitrogen_widget]

I've seen arcade cabinets based on 7" & 9" android tablets and even smaller.
I probably wouldn't want to use one though.

Is it a widescreen 14" or 4:3?
if 4:3 then as long as it fits the cabinet (no giant cabinet with tiny monitor & giant bezel) then as long as it's big enough for YOU, then I don't see a problem.

[yotsuya]

Either design your bartop around the size of the screen, or use the VGA out on the laptop to shoot video out to a larger screen you can probably get for $20 on Craigslist.

[Ken Layton]

The smallest commercial countertop monitor I've seen was 9" in a Merit "Pit Boss" game.

[JDFan]

I built a small mini bartop with a 7" DVD player screen (pic posted below)and a plug and play game that gets plenty of use -- though the screen is a bit small so I'd say a 14 or 15" screen should be fine especially for a single player setup - just be sure to design the build around the screen size so you don't keep looking at it and wondering if you could shove a bigger screen in there later !! If it is build to dimensions. I also have a larger bartop setup with MAME that uses an old 15" monitor and the screen is perfectly fine for a single player Robotron bartop ( I down scaled another build to fit the smaller 15" screen )

[DeLuSioNal29]

I have two 15" 4:3 CRTs that I plan on using for a future Bartop build and I think it will look great.  14" isn't that much smaller.  I say go for it!

D

[lustreking]

Thanks for the input everyone!  I think that I'll give it a go with the laptop.  I have just about everything that I need to build it except the wood.  I know that it would be cheap to get a larger lcd, but I'd worry about feature creep.  If I got the larger monitor, I'd be tempted to make a two player cp and get a different encoder, another joystick, and more buttons.  Now that I have a 2 player, maybe I want a more powerful computer in there... You see how it goes

This build is basically just testing the water to see if it would get enough use to justify building a full size cabinet at some point.

[nitrogen_widget]

I have a couple of older laptops that are really just too slow to with all but the most lightweight linux distro's.
Maybe turning a few of them into bartops for the kids would be a cool idea.

I never really thought about doing that before so i'll be watching this thread.

[lamprey]

I think you'll be fine with a 14".  That having been said, if you want other people to see what you are doing, then I'd think that is really pushing the limits. I have a mini that I built using a 10" netbook and I like it a lot. Nice and portable, but totally playable.

pic for reference: