Help with Arcade Monitor cocktail project!

[napx42]

Howdy,

I'm in the process of retrofitting an old cocktail table with a MAME system. My original intent was to run DOS with ArcadeOS as a front-end but I'd much rather run Linux or even Windows, as to allow better remote administration (ftp, vnc or whatever for maint).

My question is, how do I get any of this stuff to display on an arcade monitor? I know if I'm using DOS, ArcadeOS can adjust the vga card output accordingly (I'm using a jpac as the physical interface), but I'm a little more confused about the possibility of displaying XMame or some Windows-based front-end on such a low-frequency device... Any suggestions?

Ideally, I'd also like to be able to run movies and such from this system (think of it as a dedicated "entertainment pc" :-), running another lineout to my tv and stereo system.. but games come first! Just trying to get a feel for how possible this is...

Thanks in advance for any responses,

...nap

[x-wing]

If you choose to run Windows on an arcade monitor, you've just severely limited your choice in video cards to either a Blade3D or G400.  The old Vsyncmame page also had a tsr for some SIS chipset video cards, but that page isn't up anymore.

When you do run Windows on an arcade monitor, you will notice some flickering because arcade monitors normally don't support interlacing (MAME games look awesome, tho).

I've used a J-PAC w/ an arcade monitor and it worked great with DOS MAME and ArcadeOS.  I never tried Windows on it because I didn't have a compatible video card.