Couple of Newbie Questions

[liamb2001]

Im looking to build an arcade machine with my son and have a few questions (which with no answers are putting it off) i would really appreciate some answers on as im not having much look finding the answers online.

Question 1: The Screen;
I know in an ideal situation a CRT is best but im trying to keep the cost down so was thinking about a 1080p 27 Acer borderless screen. I was originally going to go for a dell  24"2407 ultrasharp but i would rather something larger.
I am completley open to suggestions if people have them as i know 4:3 us the preferred option as long it fits with my budget and or can be aquired easily used if possible.

Question 2: T Moulding
I am struggling to make sense getting a t molding bit for my 15mm MDF. As im based in the UK ive read posts saying its best ordering from the US but i just cant figure out which parts i would definitley order for 15mm MDF. Be great if someone could direct me to a website where i could order both parts of the bit that would fit the 15mm side perfectly for my router.

Questions 3: The Machine
Ive been told a pc is a better choice that Rasberry pi, specifically a dell i3 or above with 4gb ram and 1gb graphics card. Can anyone point me in the direciton of a good model eg optiflex # they have had used.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

thanks

[BadMouth]

Question 1: The Screen;
I know in an ideal situation a CRT is best but im trying to keep the cost down so was thinking about a 1080p 27 Acer borderless screen. I was originally going to go for a dell  24"2407 ultrasharp but i would rather something larger.
I am completley open to suggestions if people have them as i know 4:3 us the preferred option as long it fits with my budget and or can be aquired easily used if possible.

I'm only going to address this one.  I have a 1080p 27" monitor in my cab and I like it.
The unstretched 4:3 image ends up being around 22" diagonally, which is a good size.

The vertical games will be a bit smaller, but better than they would be on a 24" widescreen.
Mine rotates, so I have the big screen both ways. 
The extra room needed to do that also makes the cab awful wide.

[liamb2001]

Thanks for your input dude.

Can i ask your opinion then...is a cheap TN 27" panel going to be ok ? what do you have ?

Also i take it a monitor is better than a TV as an option ? as it will turn on when the arcade / pc turns on wont it ?

[Nephasth]

1. CRT or GTFO
2. The bit isn't designed for the thickness of wood you're using. It's designed to cut a certain width slot. You adjust the slot placement with your router. Get a bit that will cut the size of slot for the barbs of the tmolding you order.
3. Any cheap/free PC.

[harveybirdman]

What games do you expect to run?  I am pretty happy with this system, it won't do Gauntlet Legends at 100% but it's playable.  It was about 120 bucks to the door.  Only thing I wish it had was a bigger hard drive.  And I'm not using this for PC games or any of the newer arcade hardware emulators so.../

Dell OptiPlex 3010 PC Desktop. Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz CPU. 4GB RAM, 160GB HDD. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

[liamb2001]

N64 and arcade games mostly, is Gauntless legends one of the more demaning games ? itll a large amount of varying arcade games and mario kart 64, goldeneye and super mario mostly as well as genesis and snes games.

As for the bit, so what do i need to buy parts wise then ?

Thanks

 

What games do you expect to run?  I am pretty happy with this system, it won't do Gauntlet Legends at 100% but it's playable.  It was about 120 bucks to the door.  Only thing I wish it had was a bigger hard drive.  And I'm not using this for PC games or any of the newer arcade hardware emulators so.../

Dell OptiPlex 3010 PC Desktop. Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz CPU. 4GB RAM, 160GB HDD. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

[Nephasth]

N64...

 

[liamb2001]

[gdonovan]

N64 and arcade games mostly, is Gauntless legends one of the more demaning games ?

I can answer that, in a limited way.

I'm a collector of 3dfx Interactive hardware so to some degree have wandered into Arcade related items powered by 3dfx hardware.

Games like Gauntlet Legends, WAR, Road Burners, Blitz, Mace the Dark Age, Rush and several others are 3D polygon based games that were powered by 3dfx hardware running 3dfx's glide API.

Emulators typically run these games utilizing only the 2D core of your graphics card and main CPU and even though modern graphics have come a long way its still not very good compared to running on native 3dfx hardware.

Hope this has been some minor help.

I have been tinkering around with running these titles with MAME and have come to the conclusion that I'm going to keep an arcade cabinet around so I can continue to enjoy them as they were intended. I just can't get a decent frame rate or image quality going with a burly PC running a fairly new stout graphics card even in multi processor mode.

Gary

[Mike A]

You are wasting your time building an arcade machine to play N64 games. They were not designed for arcade controls.

[Titchgamer]

^ what he said.

[liamb2001]

to be honest i have no interest in playing n64 games at all ! I want to play gauntlet, streefighter 2, r-type etc but my (never playing the arcades) wasnt up for me taking up the space and cost of building one until i said it was possible to play n64 games as she loved mario kart...i thought it was possible, but if not im really not concerned to be honest i just need to make sure a 27 LCD 1080p monitor is going to be ok and need help with the t moulding (which i cant seem to get any answers on) and im going to go ahead and book all the parts.

[liamb2001]

ive never even heard of half these 3dfx arcade games to be honest and didnt know the arcade games had adopted the use of them. That said i bough the very first orchid rightous and loved it....a huge step in GPU and gaming at the time

Regarding the CRT, a friend of mine has built a bartop with an 22 LCD (using scanlines) and his dad has a CRT based 25 phillips tv. I was originally going to try and source an old sony 27" CRT tv but im swaying towards a lcd now as im hoping to make the arcade machine slim...i may be swayed if enough reasoning for the CRT can be given to be honest but from what ive seen of LCD they can still look great.

[gdonovan]

ive never even heard of half these 3dfx arcade games to be honest and didnt know the arcade games had adopted the use of them. That said i bough the very first orchid rightous and loved it....a huge step in GPU and gaming at the time

Regarding the CRT, a friend of mine has built a bartop with an 22 LCD (using scanlines) and his dad has a CRT based 25 phillips tv. I was originally going to try and source an old sony 27" CRT tv but im swaying towards a lcd now as im hoping to make the arcade machine slim...i may be swayed if enough reasoning for the CRT can be given to be honest but from what ive seen of LCD they can still look great.

Some 3df arcade info here on my site: http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_arcade.htm

Not all inclusive! There were dozen of games running 3dfx Arcade hardware.

I just picked up a 27" AOC widescreen from Walmart today for my Blitz cabinet, seems to work good! $149 bucks.

Gary

[liamb2001]

thanks for that gary appreciate it

Monitor looks great im looking at this one myself http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-K272HL-ZeroFrame-27-inch-LED-Monitor-Full-HD-1080p-4ms-HDMI-DVI-/112145574663?hash=item1a1c65ab07:g:eOgAAOSwLnBX6-Nv

[Titchgamer]

If you just want to play mario kart thats doable as the controls are pretty basic.

But you can forget goldeneye etc lol

[liamb2001]

i think the wife would be fine with that

Yeah golden eye never did seem to emulate very well it was only around a year ago or so i tried it !

[Titchgamer]

Yeah the biggest problem with the N64 and most consoles since is the adoption of multiple movement controls. I.e 2x joysticks or similar.
Those type of games just dont work well with arcade controls and are much better played with controllers or Keyboard & Mouse.

Plus you need better hardware!!

Theres actually a community made goldeneye game but its online multiplayer only I think.

Always preferred Perfect Dark though TBH

[keilmillerjr]

You can get a crt tv for $5 from a thrift store, or for free off craigslist. It doesn't get any cheaper than free, and after buying a can with arcade crt, I realized that people have obsessed over thin depth and forgot how wonderful crts are. I'll never go back to retro games on an LCD again. Even with shaders, they still dont match.

[keilmillerjr]

to be honest i have no interest in playing n64 games at all ! I want to play gauntlet, streefighter 2, r-type etc but my (never playing the arcades) wasnt up for me taking up the space and cost of building one until i said it was possible to play n64 games as she loved mario kart...i thought it was possible, but if not im really not concerned to be honest i just need to make sure a 27 LCD 1080p monitor is going to be ok and need help with the t moulding (which i cant seem to get any answers on) and im going to go ahead and book all the parts.

Maybe your better off finding a really nice crt and hacking a wii. It's a champ at Mario kart with those wii controllers, and you could build a fight stick for emulators. Outputs 240p natively. Smaller and easier package keeps everyone happy too. I use a 27" Trinitron as my family tv. Going to pick up a converter after xmas to hook up my Apple TV. Wife isn't getting too happy about all my VHS tapes.  It I can get them for 5 cents so wtf, right? And they look good on a crt unlike watching a tape on a high def LCD.

[paigeoliver]

There isn't a single game worth playing on the N64 that will play properly with arcade controls.

21" Viewsonics and similar high end CRTs were very common and most of them are still around, check your local craigslist equivalent and ask around to see if anyone still has their old monitor.

Don't listen to anyone telling you to use a game console, that is the wrong way.

[keilmillerjr]

There isn't a single game worth playing on the N64 that will play properly with arcade controls.

21" Viewsonics and similar high end CRTs were very common and most of them are still around, check your local craigslist equivalent and ask around to see if anyone still has their old monitor.

Don't listen to anyone telling you to use a game console, that is the wrong way.

Wants to play mario kart, a console game. Wants to emulate n64, a console. Wants to emulate arcade games. Two out of the three wants can be done very well on a single game console with ease. Mame isn’t perfect on the wii, but it does output 240p. I think thats a better option than building an arcade cabinet and standing next to it trying to play mario kart.

[liamb2001]

Thanks for the comments, im looking at crt screens as we speak.

as i said console games arent a priority im more after a close authentic feeling arcade machine. Ive had a wii running emus before tbh but i think i may buy another for livimg room tv to please the wife !

So pc power will will an i3, 4gb and 1gb gpu be powerful enough ?

[keilmillerjr]

Thanks for the comments, im looking at crt screens as we speak.

as i said console games arent a priority im more after a close authentic feeling arcade machine. Ive had a wii running emus before tbh but i think i may buy another for livimg room tv to please the wife !

So pc power will will an i3, 4gb and 1gb gpu be powerful enough ?

Those specs is exactly what I have. It's fine. You can get an older socket i3 and possibly save some money.

[liamb2001]

Great good to hear!!

I appreciate that mate thanks