Arcade Monitor size

[Warborg]

I am in the planning stages of building a cabinet currently, but am undecided as to what I want to do as far as a display.  I was originally thinking a TV, but now am leaning toward an SVGA monitor...  I know the disadvantages, like games can be a little blockier and whatnot, but at the same time will be easier to deal with the Windows interface, etc.  I have a spare 17" monitor at home that's not doing too much, might end up using that...

My question is this:  The original Street Fighter 2 cabinets, and Dragon's Lair, what size displays did they have?  Is there somewhere I can go to locate this sort of information for myself in the future?

[Davestar]

I believe they were 19", but I very probably could be wrong.  Typical sizes were 19" and 25".  The best place I know to check is http://www.klov.com/. They typically have this type of stuff.
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Dave

[CD_Vision]

If you played on a dedicated Street Fighter 2 (The official Capcom cabinet, not a conversion), then you were playing on a 25".

[Warborg]

Hmm...  Ok, thanks...  I wanted something that would rival the size of the arcades, but at this point I am just working on this as a budget project just for fun, and spending a few hundred on a bigger display just isn't in the cards...  So, I guess I'll just use the 17" I have right now, and then build the cabinet to where it'll accept a larger display down the road...

[MameFan]

Remember: Arcade tubes (and TVs) are measured by visible space corner to corner..  

Computer tubes are measured as the core tube width, not visible.

Therefore a 17" computer monitor may really only be 15.3 to 16.1" viewable... Not 19".


Grated most arcades never had their monitors so acurately adjusted that the image filled the screen exactly 19" but it was at worst, 18" in most cases.

You need at least a 20" Computer monitor with 19" vieable to mimic the size of an arcade monitor.


Also: Due to the hardware stretching and softening of images, you dont always have to deal with block SVGA displays... Yes, its NOT the same as the arcade, but I've noticed with newer video cards and newer mame builds that they've improved the drawing so that it doesn't look so "comically" harsh as they used to.

[Howard_Casto]

For the record the orignal, street fighter 2 cabinet had a 19 inch display.  It was so popular that all of the proceeding versions were upgraded for 25 inch monitors, including the second batch of original sf2 machines.  I'm not completely positive on this, but I'm pretty sure.

Now Super Sf2, the first on thier cps2 system was only available in 25 inch, as were all new cps2 machines.  

Ok my little tidbit of history.. not really relevant.  

Btw, why don't you just use a tv for a display?  It's the best of both worlds... easy to setup and it looks like an arcade monitor.  And you can get a super nice 25/27 inch for what you are going to pay for a 20 inch computer monitor.  With the new artwork support in mame, big screen size is a must so you can display the bezels and still have a big playfield.  Also all of the street fighters and newer games are best suited for a 25 inch display, which would set you back a whole lot in a vga or an arcade monitor.    

[SNAAAKE]

i am 100% about the sf2 machine had 19" monitor..but again just like mamefan said,need atleast 20" or 21" pc monitor to match things up.

[Warborg]

Yeah, I'm aware of the measuring differences between a monitor and a TV...  I remember the nightmares of trying to get people to understand that when I used to work as a tech in a computer store...  

As for why not use a 25" TV in the cabinet...  As I said, I actually have a 17" SVGA just chillin right now doing nothing, so I figured on possibly using it for right now, and just building the cabinet to accomidate a 25" TV down the road when I have access to one (as I am just not in a position to just run out and buy one at this point for a 'budget' project)...  Of course, if I use a monitor instead of a TV, I can use the Act-Labs gun on it too...  

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah, I'm aware of the measuring differences between a monitor and a TV...  I remember the nightmares of trying to get people to understand that when I used to work as a tech in a computer store...  

As for why not use a 25" TV in the cabinet...  As I said, I actually have a 17" SVGA just chillin right now doing nothing, so I figured on possibly using it for right now, and just building the cabinet to accomidate a 25" TV down the road when I have access to one (as I am just not in a position to just run out and buy one at this point for a 'budget' project)...  Of course, if I use a monitor instead of a TV, I can use the Act-Labs gun on it too...  

Act labs is currently working on a tv version of their guns, and until we get our hands on a gun to play with we can't confirm that the gun's won't work on a tv anyway.(With a bit of tweaking of course)  The Act-labs guys don't seem to want to try anything for the heck of it, so that will be our job once they ship.  I have a sneaking suspicion that with a bit of hacking I can get the actlabs gun to work on a tv, but we'll see.