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| Project: My first cabinet - Mid 90s and before! [Complete] |
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| minorhero:
Hello folks! I remember being in Ocean City, Maryland in the 90s on vacation at my grandmother's house and walking to an arcade off Ocean Ave, or saving up my money so I could blow 5 dollars in quarters in an afternoon at the Bethany Boardwalk arcade. I have a LOT of nostalgia for that time and would very much like to recreate a small part of that in my garage. To that end, I want to make a full size cabinet that would be able to play games from the mid 90s and earlier. Here are my assets: 1) I am actually pretty decent at woodworking already. I have nearly a full shop of woodworking tools that I use as a hobbyist to build furniture. The actual physical cabinet construction holds no mystery for me. Working with polycarbonate and decals are a different story, but we will get there in time. 2) I am beginner level 'ok' at photoshop and have a subscription to that program which I primarily use to edit photographs these days, but as a kid, I did a lot of typesetting and layout at my father's Copy Shop. So I think I should be able to make my own artwork. 3) I have made lightsabers in the past (very different hobby, but some overlap with needing to solder things and wire up circuit boards). 4) I still have every computer I have owned going back 25 years in my father's barn. So the pc should be 'free'. 5) For displays I currently have the following to choose from stored in my father's barn: a) 17 inch crt computer monitor b) 32 inch crt television (later generation - its gigantic) c) 22 inch LCD computer monitor (specifically Samsung LS22PTNSF https://icecat.biz/us/p/samsung/ls22ptnsf-zx/computer+monitors-ls22ptnsf-11071198.html) Alternatively, I can buy whatever I can find. A search through facebook marketplace and craigslist however has not shown me any crt monitors larger then 17 inches within a reasonable driving distance. I have seen a few old tvs in various sizes nearby. I am willing to buy a new monitor if that's the best option as well. Soooooo my first question that I could really really use some opinions on is, what monitor should I buy? Should I get a new flatscreen monitor? Is one of the options I already have a good choice? What I want to play is basically games from the SNES era and before. Ideally, that would include lightguns, but it doesn't have to if that is impossible. This will be a 2 player cabinet when it's all said and done. Thoughts? Thank you for any help! |
| PL1:
Welcome to the forums. ;D Sounds like you have a decent starting idea for what you're hoping to build vs. trying to build the "one cab to play them all" that some people try for, but nobody has ever succeeded at. To refine your ideas, you may want to check out the FAQ, especially the design process described in the What type of build meets my needs? section. http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ Take your time as you work through the design process. - It will help you figure things out in a logical, orderly fashion and call attention to some of the "unknown unknowns" you'll inevitably run into in this hobby. - You may want to consider starting with a standalone control panel so you can test out different controls, monitors, and/or layouts (Slagcoin FTW) before you commit to a full cab build. Scott |
| Xiaou2:
All LCD's have issues with pixel change timings, which leads to slight blurring effects. This problem goes beyond mere Hz refresh rates. LCDs also often suffer from bad color accuracy problems, viewing angle issues, and poor blacks... depending on the Era / model. Some of the very late model Wide-Screen CRT's have delays... due to slow visual processing circuit-boards. So, IMO, the best option is a mid era CRT TV. Svideo input at minimal. Component inputs may be easiest. Composite tends to be too washed out. Since most Arcade machines run at Standard res. 320x240... and mid-era TVs can often do 720p (or higher, depending on model, and your video cards scaler) you will not have any issues with running most 90s era machines. Another great feature about CRTs, is that they can run all sorts of Resolutions, without any problems, and they scale well, without strange artifacts that occur from LCD scaling. LCDs tend to be locked to 60 hz, which can be a problem for certain arcade games that have slightly different timing, like Mortal Kombat (I believe). I believe that poor sync will cause some audio stuttering issues. |
| minorhero:
--- Quote from: PL1 on October 09, 2023, 08:21:12 pm ---Welcome to the forums. ;D Sounds like you have a decent starting idea for what you're hoping to build vs. trying to build the "one cab to play them all" that some people try for, but nobody has ever succeeded at. To refine your ideas, you may want to check out the FAQ, especially the design process described in the What type of build meets my needs? section. http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/FAQ Take your time as you work through the design process. - It will help you figure things out in a logical, orderly fashion and call attention to some of the "unknown unknowns" you'll inevitably run into in this hobby. - You may want to consider starting with a standalone control panel so you can test out different controls, monitors, and/or layouts (Slagcoin FTW) before you commit to a full cab build. Scott --- End quote --- Thank you! the links were very helpful. I didn't realize the joysticks were going to be so determinative before going through those sections. I also really like the idea of doing mockup controls before committing to one specific design. I had been wondering how I was going to make the controls work perfectly on my first try, and clearly the answer is... not to, but to try a bunch of times till I get it right :P Right now, I am probably looking at IL Eurojoysticks because the definite focus will be on nes and snes era games rather then the 70s arcade games. Plus this is first and foremost a nostalgia machine and from what I have read so far, those were likely what I was playing on in the 90s (or rather the modern equivalent). --- Quote from: Xiaou2 on October 10, 2023, 06:44:55 am ---All LCD's have issues with pixel change timings, which leads to slight blurring effects. This problem goes beyond mere Hz refresh rates. LCDs also often suffer from bad color accuracy problems, viewing angle issues, and poor blacks... depending on the Era / model. Some of the very late model Wide-Screen CRT's have delays... due to slow visual processing circuit-boards. So, IMO, the best option is a mid era CRT TV. Svideo input at minimal. Component inputs may be easiest. Composite tends to be too washed out. Since most Arcade machines run at Standard res. 320x240... and mid-era TVs can often do 720p (or higher, depending on model, and your video cards scaler) you will not have any issues with running most 90s era machines. Another great feature about CRTs, is that they can run all sorts of Resolutions, without any problems, and they scale well, without strange artifacts that occur from LCD scaling. LCDs tend to be locked to 60 hz, which can be a problem for certain arcade games that have slightly different timing, like Mortal Kombat (I believe). I believe that poor sync will cause some audio stuttering issues. --- End quote --- Yeah, I'm coming to the realization I am going to need to buy something to be happy. I am going to drive down to my parents barn today and pickup some of my old computers and possibly a monitor while I am there. I can load software and test things out on that and see how it will look. Meanwhile LCD monitors have really come a long way in a few years. Last night I saw a 27 inch monitor that has 1ms response time, 180hz, and g-sync/freesync for 150 dollars. Sooo I might need to look into what something like that can do as well and compare it. |
| Xiaou2:
Its not the MS response times that matters. Its the fact that it takes a certain amount of time for a pixel to change from One color, to another. I believe its called "Persistence". As such, an LCD will never be Faster and Cleaner, than an CRT based display. Various companies have created different Tricks to help with these various issues. Some are better than others. But when you play a fast action / fast scrolling game... things tend to be revealed pretty quickly. |
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