Questions on Widescreen LCDs and Game Benchmarks

[Dai Shan]

First, I apologize if I'm repeating old threads. I've searched, but couldn't find answers to all of my questions.

I want to build an arcade area in my apartment. I don't have the ability to woodwork or the money to buy a really nice pre-fab unit. What I'd like to do is setup a bar table w/ a Slik Stik on it, and mount a widescreen Dell 21" or 24" monitor on a swing-arm VESA mount to maximize space.

My questions are:

1) Are there any technical issues/annoyances w/ getting a frontend to run games both vertically and horizontally? Ex. I'd like to double-click "Galaga", rotate the swing-arm vertically and play. Likewise to double-click "Mortal Kombat", twist it horizontally, and play. I'd rather not have to bother with settings everytime I switch a game.

2) Visually, I understand old games (ie: Galaga) might not look *exactly* like they would on a CRT, but honestly will I have any drastic issues in visual quality by going LCD?

3) Scaling and Resolution. Is there anything special I need to know in order to keep the aspect ratio accurate when I go vertical for Galaga or horizontal for Mortal Kombat?

4) Size. Do you think a 21" or 24" widescreen LCD monitor? Any issues with going either way?

5) FPS. I built a Mini-ITX case a few years back that I thought would cut all my arcade needs. However I REALLY would love to be able to play Mortal Kombat and 90's fighting cames (like the Marvel/Capcom ones) without lag, and the Mini-ITX 1GHz board doesn't cut it. So if I build a new computer just for MAME, what CPU/RAM specs do you guys use to get fluid gameplay on those older, yet more demanding games?

I think that about covers it. Anyone taking the time to read and help me, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

[Aurich]

Why widescreen? Something like a Dell 2001FP would be much better, 98% of arcade games are for 4:3 (or 3:4 when rotated) monitors. You can set the rotation of games individually within MAME itself, and those setting will stick, doesn't matter what FR you use. There may be some automatic settings in some FE, but regardless what you want is very doable one way or another.

[Dai Shan]

Ok, I did some fiddling w/ MAME32 settings and I see what screwed up my thinking. Normally, games like Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga require a regular TV screen to be rotated! Something anyone semi-familiar w/ MAME is probably rolling their eyes reading. When I rotated it anti-clockwise (why does MAME32 not say counterclockwise? *shrug*) it looked fine. Do it by default, it squished it so I could play on a normal TV, but made it much smaller by comparison.

So anyone else reading this can throw out my widescreen garbage. I'm just going to get a regular 4:3 LCD and make sure the VESA mount can rotate

Still, answers to the rest would be extremely helpful.