LCD display for marquee, anyone ever done that?

[Lectoid]

Has anyone ever thought about having a custom LCD sign made and making that a marquee.

Think about it, you could have it display whatever game you are playing at that moment. Or display anything for that matter, scores, lives, etc.

[Lectoid]

I should note, I don't mean the monochrome LCD displays people use on their cabinets. I am talking about like if you took an LCD TV and cut the top and bottom off (yes I know that's not possible). Full color display.

[Lectoid]

I just measured my 14.1" laptop screen and it's 7.5 inches high by 12 inches wide. If you just stuck two of these side by side, you'd have an average marquee size.

Interesting. Other than that, I am not finding anyone that will make custom LCD monitors.

[ChadTower]

Haven't seen it, mostly because as you mentioned, they don't come in a reasonable shape for a traditional marquee.  People have used BetaBrites, I believe.

[moriartyds]

Possibly a cheap option is to take one of those digital picture frames.  Load it up w/ screenshots from games and put it on slideshow mode.  You can then surround it on the sides with regular marquee material (to accomodate the size difference).

It'd probably look like ass, but it's doable.

[ChadTower]

They're pretty much just 4x6 or 5x7, though... nothing like what someone would use for a marquee. 

[SavannahLion]

I could swear that I posted this already. Hhmm..

In the Examples section, there's a few cabs that use LED sign marquees. I think it looks like crap, but whatever.  

I had the exact same thought myself. I was at a casino when I noticed that some of the rotating marquees were actually very wide low/medium resolution LCD screens. I figure 10" tall and 4' wide. I Googled around a bit and found a promising manufacturer (didn't keep the link though) that produces LCD signage in different sizes. The smallest being like a large Marquee. It's mad money though, about a two or three thousand for the most basic.

[(+_+)]

Haven't seen it, mostly because as you mentioned, they don't come in a reasonable shape for a traditional marquee.  People have used BetaBrites, I believe.

Ditto, unless of course you camoflouge the fact that an LCD would be too high by framing it in somehow. You can decase it (which can be done because I've done it), frame it somehow and display your marquee within the framed area only. May have potential. Love to see it if you go that route.

[ChadTower]

Why bother with that route, though?  Your cabinet would still have to have the marquee area big enough to house the whole thing, and at that point, you're wasting LCD real estate.  I'd say if you're going to use a larger LCD, just redesign the cab to accommodate it nontraditionally.

[GAtekwriter]

One possibility is hacking the JuiceBox... that little toy LCD screen for kids.

Here's an instructable.com link and I know I've seen other links where people have taken these apart to create their own displays... might be possible.

http://www.instructables.com/id/E1MF1CGOQLEXCFFOXD/

Jim

[ChadTower]

Hrm... very small screen for the price, but you'd be able to do more than with an LCD pictureframe.

[GAtekwriter]

I'm guessing you'd need to have 6 or 7 of these, side-to-side, to make one marquee sized display.  At $70 each, that would be a high-priced solution but I imagine it could be done.

Jim

[Dervacumen]

I Googled around a bit and found a promising manufacturer (didn't keep the link though) that produces LCD signage in different sizes. The smallest being like a large Marquee. It's mad money though, about a two or three thousand for the most basic.

Did the same thing a couple years ago and when I saw the price range I decided on a $13.00 pre-printed generic one from mamemarquees.com.

[ark_ader]

Why bother with that?

Have your marquees on a roller like a blind and have it scroll to the chosen game you are playing (obviously your options are limited) but maybe some trigger like mamehook which can drive a small motor or the like.  I'm sure some of you coders out there can bang something to gether pretty quickly.

Its very do'able.

So lets see who does it first!!!

[NickG]

I have been brainstorming on changeable marquee options for a long time now and ended up getting two 15" lcds yesterday to mount flat and vertically in the back of my upright "Arcade Paradise 2" - shaped cabinet.  I tried a few things last night but I can't seem to get the optics corrected in the small space above my main crt.  I think I may have to use an LCD for my main monitor as well, just so I can have a fixed stretched image the shape of the marquee.  It has been a nightmare trying to research for examples of other DIY projects like this.  Google mostly comes up with patents, not so much consumer products. 

I had thought about the banner/tape method with stepper motors.  Then, alternatively, of a system for multi-game selection via the marquee itself.
Instead of the marquee changing mechanically via the game selection, one could manually roll or replace the marquee, which could be identified by Reactivision fiducial (using a camera) or via a barcodes setup.  Then this identification could be sent to an app to launch that specific game.

If anyone knows how to magnify the image and refix the viewing angle like a rear projection TV please post or PM me to help me find proper optics.

[vrf]

What if one were to integrate a small LCD into a larger marquee design, like on one side? It would take a pretty clever design, but if you got the colors and integration right, it could work well. Maybe the marquee theme could be a generic "arcade classics" kind of thing... and then the LCD area would be used for more specific artwork from the original cabinets.

[SavannahLion]

Have your marquees on a roller like a blind and have it scroll to the chosen game you are playing (obviously your options are limited) but maybe some trigger like mamehook which can drive a small motor or the like.  I'm sure some of you coders out there can bang something to gether pretty quickly.

Dude... This is the 21st century. Go build a Steam Punk cab if you want to do that.

[NickG]

What if one were to integrate a small LCD into a larger marquee design, like on one side? It would take a pretty clever design, but if you got the colors and integration right, it could work well. Maybe the marquee theme could be a generic "arcade classics" kind of thing... and then the LCD area would be used for more specific artwork from the original cabinets.

That's like my "Plan B" for mine.  A big "Now Playing" Neo-Geo style Marquee (with the LCD as the mini-marquee).  Going to try to make sure I can use the touch screen if I do it that way.

[ChadTower]

I'd say a more realistic use at this point would be a small one next to or embedded in the CP that displays relevant info as a game loads... control scheme, hi scores, etc.

[NickG]

Sometimes you have to think outside the CP...         

[ChadTower]

You also have to use technology reasonably available... there just aren't LCDs that really fit the traditional marquee shape yet.

[SavannahLion]

I'd say a more realistic use at this point would be a small one next to or embedded in the CP that displays relevant info as a game loads... control scheme, hi scores, etc.

That's probably what this guy was planning on doing with his panel. 

[steveh]

what is the standard markee size?

come to think of it.. the best way to do what your thinking about doing would be with a cheep projector, from behind.  you could then have it whatever size you wanted... i dunno how bright it would actually be tho,

[ChadTower]

You'd never get a reasonable focus of beam for something like that.

[shorthair]

I thought of this some months ago but with the idea of digital paper. Not here yet, but should be. Could use it for side art, etc.

[ChadTower]

Before that I thought of using a tiny Jenny McCarthy from 1995. 

[shardian]

I keep waiting for someone else to post it, but noone did so here is McCoy's Varsity Club machine:


It uses a dual monitor setup, and technically the top monitor acts as an interactive marquee.

[shardian]

You'd never get a reasonable focus of beam for something like that.

Sure you could do that with a tv projection lens and a small scale lcd, but the resolution, contrast, etc would be horrible.

[ChadTower]

That's pretty much what I meant.  You'd end up with something like a viewmaster projector quality.

[ark_ader]

Ok how about a PS1 LCD with a magnifier, angled so it fills a rectangle sized marquee area.

It might be blurry but its an idea.

[shardian]

Ok how about a PS1 LCD with a magnifier, angled so it fills a rectangle sized marquee area.

It might be blurry but its an idea.

If you are gonna do that, just use a widescreen pc lcd.

[NickG]

Using an lcd with only a magnifier lens get the image large enough , but only from a viewing angle of near 90° from the magnifier.  At other viewing angles,  The image is shifted to the side and/or distorted.  The image must be both magnified and re-diverged and diffused at the viewable marquee surface.  What type(s) of lense(s) ar required at this point? 

[shardian]

Using an lcd with only a magnifier lens get the image large enough , but only from a viewing angle of near 90° from the magnifier.  At other viewing angles,  The image is shifted to the side and/or distorted.  The image must be both magnified and re-diverged and diffused at the viewable marquee surface.  What type(s) of lense(s) ar required at this point? 

You can pick up a page size fresnel lens at an office supply store for around $8 to play around with.

[NickG]

I have two A-size page magnifier size fresnels from inside an old broken Barcodata2100 LC projector.  I was messing around with them the other day; I tried to magnify with the first and diverge with the second but I could not seem to make that work.  (I will try again later and use the fresnel only for the front screen and perhaps magnify by other means.) 
After I saw this thread , I became excited about the idea again, and shoved my little olympus VP-1 into the speaker area of my cabinet.  using a broken hand mirror and the mirror out of my old broken projector I was able to project a good mockup of a marquee onto some plain white biology paper cut up in the marquee area.  It's maybe a start, but I stilll have to hold the mirror out further than the back of the cabinet.  Back and forth I think I need to recover approximately one meter if all components are to fit inside the cabinet.  With this setup the throw length is too great for only one or two reflections.  Here are some caps of my quick and sloppy projector marquee experiments:

Yesterday I was manually holding two mirrors up to reflect the second desktop image to the marquee.  I was able to get fairly close to the cabinet but I had keystoning.

Today I prepared (somewhat) a marquee image and just set it as my desktop.  Then I held just one mirror up (a bit further out.)  Little to no keystoning this time.
I want to try using two vertical mirrors but I am not sure if the image can be reflected back and forth in this manner without doubling up upon itself in such a small space.  Also, I am mostly certain that I can not compensate for the throw length with the current projector lense...
In case anyone can not deduce, the dark vertical lines in the marquee are from the overlaps in the paper sheets I had slopped up there.

Edit:  I was thinking about this again this morning.  Is is all so simple now.  Going to plan F.  I have to shotgun two projectors inside the cabinet; side-by-side.  The two projected images will only need to be half as wide as the single projection I have tried before.  Therefore the throw length can be shorter and maybe I can fit everything into the cabinet.  The composite (stitched) image will still be the full size of the marquee.  I am thinking about buying another identical projector just to try this out in the cabinet, and building my own custom projector later to reduce the heat, noise and power requirement.  Then I can use the off-the-shelf projectors for movie night.

[Flack]

My first thought was, why not use two or three flat panel monitors and arrange them like a Dragon's Lair marquee?

[ChadTower]

Doesn't address the lack of an LCD in that rectangular shape.  Can't have three if you can't have one.

[tommy]

I'm sure you could get a good size screen and cover up the parts of the screen you don't need and make it fit a normal size marquee opening, as long as you can move the image to where you want it on the screen.

[brandon]

Doesn't address the lack of an LCD in that rectangular shape.  Can't have three if you can't have one.

wouldn't 3 in a row make a rectangular shape?   The 4:3 aspect ratio times 3 would be be 12:3.  IOW, 4 to 1 which is much skinnier than most marquees I think.  The problem is the spaces between then monitors.. 

[vintagegamer]

Maybe I'm showing my age here, but when I brought my Ms Pac and Asteroids machines home, I was so proud of the fact that not only were both marquees in tact, but they both lit up and looked great.  That part of the machine is one of the foundations of the unit in my book, since you were always looking for that familiar marquee of your favorite game in a foreign arcade (back in the day).

I wouldn't think of tearing them out to replace them with anything else.   Now, if I had a machine that was missing the light hardware and/or the marquee, maybe I'd consider something like this- 

[ChadTower]

wouldn't 3 in a row make a rectangular shape?   The 4:3 aspect ratio times 3 would be be 12:3.  IOW, 4 to 1 which is much skinnier than most marquees I think.  The problem is the spaces between then monitors.. 

It would, yes, but then you have to feed synced split images to three different monitors... and even a decased monitor has housing that would introduce gaps between the three screens.

Tommy, your suggestion was mentioned above... you'd have to do that in a nontraditional shaped cab to fit the screen.