Pivoting monitor for -rr and -rl switches in mame

[Jim H]

First post

I've built myself some controls, if interested see the pic here:

http://users.aber.ac.uk/jqh1/arcade/1.jpg

Since I mostly play games that're taller than they are wide (pacman et al) and this is a TFT monitor, it sesems a good idea to get a pivot stand for it.

Problem is, all pivot stands I've had in the past have been TERRIBLE - an awkward, stiff pivot which takes some wrestling and then suddenly gives way, moving 15 degrees more than you intended.

Does anyone know of a good stand? For a quick game I should be able to switch between portrait/landscape in about a second, the pivot should be smooth and click into place at 90 degree intervals.

Or could one be made...?

Ps, I'm in the UK, but can import from elsewhere if it's the only way.

Jim

[Tiger-Heli]

First post

I've built myself some controls, if interested see the pic here:

http://users.aber.ac.uk/jqh1/arcade/1.jpg

Since I mostly play games that're taller than they are wide (pacman et al) and this is a TFT monitor, it sesems a good idea to get a pivot stand for it.

Problem is, all pivot stands I've had in the past have been TERRIBLE - an awkward, stiff pivot which takes some wrestling and then suddenly gives way, moving 15 degrees more than you intended.

Does anyone know of a good stand? For a quick game I should be able to switch between portrait/landscape in about a second, the pivot should be smooth and click into place at 90 degree intervals.

Or could one be made...?

Ps, I'm in the UK, but can import from elsewhere if it's the only way.

Jim

No personal experience with this, so I'll think "outside the box" a little bit.

I'm not sure why the monitor stands need to be as complex as they are, maybe because of glare issues?  Anyway - heres what I am thinking-

Most picture frames can be stood either vertically or horizontally and flipped to either orientation.

What if you built a wooden (plywood) block the width and height of your monitor with wedges so it could stand either vertical or horizontal.  Then remove you monitor stand and velcro the monitor to the wooden base.

It might not work, but it should be reversible and should cost less than $10 to test out.

[Jim H]

Not a bad idea. The bottom of my monitor stands about 15cm (6 inches for you USAians) off the desk (stand plus old, thick geek book). But I could always have a six inch high block and put the 'picture frame' on top of that.

Painted to match the cp, would even look pretty nice. If I'm going to keep it I can screw the frame arangement into the panel via the standard VESA mounting.

I've just run [1]:

xmame -rr puckman

In terms of screen space the difference is huge!

[1] this is xmame, the exact switches etc might not be the same as in dos/mame32