Cropping off PlayChoice 10 instruction screen

[QuixoteQuest]

Found an old thread from a few years ago that went unresolved. Is there any way to run PlayChoice-10 games with the instructions screen turned off? Or, to run the game with an overscan so only the game area of the screen shows up? Since my monitor is horizontal, I'd like to maximize the play area if possible; my kids like the PC-10 games.

[leapinlew]

as an option...

consider installing a NES emulator on your cabinet as well.

[NickG]

If your video card software supports it (most ATI cards do), in Windows you can enable pan-and-scan desktop modes.  This effectively makes the desktop area larger than the display when you select a greater resolution.  Then you can run the game in a window and pan to where only the  action screen is visible.  You should be able to stretch the window to the full size of the display.
  If you have a later Radeon series card, and the latest version of Catalyst the pan and scan options should be in a dropdown box under Display Options/Display Management Options/"For displays of limited resolution capabilities"
You can lower the maximum resolution of your monitor under Monitor Properties #/Attributes/"Monitor Attributes"  untick "use EDID..."  or whatever and then set it to a lower resolution.  You may only need to do this part if you are using a high-res display and your vid card does not support one that is twice as large.

[NickG]

Nevermind, that is no longer necessary.  Mame supports dual screen.  Set your number of displays to two via your frontend.  The action screen defaults to the first display YMMV
You may have to enable dual monitors or have a dual monitor video card for this to work , but you should not have to plug them both in.  It would be very neat to have the status/instruction screen as a topper or something, though.

[squirrellydw]

as an option...

consider installing a NES emulator on your cabinet as well.

what one do you suggest, and this will play the playchoice games with out the instructions right?

[QuixoteQuest]

as an option...

consider installing a NES emulator on your cabinet as well.

what one do you suggest, and this will play the playchoice games with out the instructions right?

A NES emulator will play the old NES roms, which are pretty much the equivalent of the PlayChoice-10 system. Since I haven't used a NES emu, I don't know which is best. But I do know it uses original NES roms instead of the PC-10 roms.

[Mr. Do]

Found an old thread from a few years ago that went unresolved. Is there any way to run PlayChoice-10 games with the instructions screen turned off? Or, to run the game with an overscan so only the game area of the screen shows up? Since my monitor is horizontal, I'd like to maximize the play area if possible; my kids like the PC-10 games.

[TAB]
"Video Options"
"Screen 0 Standard (4:3)"

Do it once, and it's saved in the game's CFG file. 

Rinse and repeat for the rest.

[Howard_Casto]

There's also an optional bios you can use which allows you to use only one screen.  I think the new dual screen stuff screwed it up though.  (You still have to specify the one monitor for each game like with the standard bios, only you aren't missing anything.)

[sphetr2]

as an option...

consider installing a NES emulator on your cabinet as well.

what one do you suggest, and this will play the playchoice games with out the instructions right?

You need NES roms as stated above. I would suggest FCE Ultra as an emulator.

[Congui]

Hi there.

Other option (like I did)  is to download a special mame32 build that lets config. the display mode:    http://mame32fx.altervista.org.
(It can be run like any normal commandline mame version from the frontend).

In order to config the display you have to enter each game individually: TAB --> Display -->

Hope this helps,
Congui

[Howard_Casto]

Hi there.

Other option (like I did)  is to download a special mame32 build that lets config. the display mode:    http://mame32fx.altervista.org.
(It can be run like any normal commandline mame version from the frontend).

In order to config the display you have to enter each game individually: TAB --> Display -->

Hope this helps,
Congui

LOL

It might be a special build man, but that feature is in plain old mame.  It was mentioned twice in this very thread.