Is having VGA res ability really necessary?

[Rob L]

Ok I am having a ---smurfette--- of a time trying to find/decide on a display for my arcade cab as I want to get a multi-sync monitor to handle all the different resolutions but it seems every arcade monitor that does this has some issues. WGs are supposedly junk, Betson has no real CDN distributor and seem to have PQ issues with their model, the Billabs model costs more than I want to pay (I'm looking at around 1k CDN for it when all is said and done) for something that may break and cost me $$$ to be repairing it seeing as I would have to order it from the U.S....my search has been frustrating.

I am thinking of getting the Nieman Display 27" tri-sync and as I understand it is analog so will not auto-switch like the digitals. Because of that I am thinking that IF I get it I would just run it in cga/ega mode and then when Nieman gets their digital multi-sync out upgrade to it.

How important is having vga ability to change to on the fly? Basically, how many games use that res and would running a vga res game at cga or ega res look bad?

Or, would it bet better to just run everything at VGA res?

The way I see it (and I'm a noob) is that if the majority of games run at CGA or even ega resolution that it is better to just have the monitor set for that and whatever games i may have running at vga can just be output at the lower res and I can deal with it. I realize my front end won't look as nice at cga/ega res but big deal...it is merely there to select a game.

I do want a decent amount of "accuracy" with the games but I would rather have a quality product that I can easily get fixed and give up some accuracy (I can accept not being a full on purist) than having a POS that will break on me and I'd be out more $$$ to get it fixed.

So please, can someone maybe offer me some advice here? Is VGA really that important to have or would cga (and ega since it can easily switch between the two) be good enough? Just what MAME games run at VGA res?

Thanks to anyone who offers me some help here.

[bluevolume]

I am going through this exact thought process myself.  I've already started my project with a case that has a 25" k7000 monitor, but I'm debating buying another cabinet that has a d9200 (pretty sure) in it.

My current setup is using Mame32 just for ease, but there are tons of games that either don't display correctly or at all.  A few, like Mortal Kombat and Ms. PacMan actually, that display prefectly, everything else is either off the screen or way too small and not centered.

[ahofle]

Just curious, what PQ issues have you read about with the Betson?  I have one and it's great except for some minor 'squishing' around the far edges at certain resolutions.  Also, the Nieman's trisync does auto-switch, but the picture will need to be manually adjusted with pots every time, making it less than desirable for emulation.

It is true that the vast majority of arcade games runs at CGA resolution, but you have to consider that many of those are vertical games (ie CGA monitor rotated 90 degrees).  When I had my CGA monitor installed horizontally, I found it to be EXCELLENT for probably about 80-90% of games.  Vertical games of 256 lines and less looked great on it.  But I had problems with the 288 and above games (pacman, galaga, newer 320 line vertical shooters, etc) though.  You either have to turn on hardware stretching for these, have part of the top/bottom of the picture cut off, or adjust your vertical size down which leaves big black bars for the horizontal games.  Also, in case you didn't know, you can run 640x480 interlaced on any arcade monitor.  And just to clear it up, a regular CGA monitor can't switch to EGA resolutions (it has to be a multisync).

In short, if you are at all concerned about authenticity, I would either get a CGA only or multisync monitor before I would consider a VGA only one.  I'm also not sure why you are thinking the VGA monitors are more reliable than others. 

[Rob L]

Thanks for the reply ahofle.

I was going through my list of MAME games and there are only a few I think that run vertically that will be "downgraded" with what I may do and am fine with that.

I think you missed what i was saying...I do not want to run games in VGA mode (it seems with the Nieman tri-sync you have to manually  change some switch or something to go from cga/ega to vga) so I was curious if having the ability to easily switch to vga (like on the digital muti-syncs) is really that necessary.

Anyway, I decided earlier this morning that I am going to get the Nieman tri-syc because it is easier to get here and I like the way Rick runs his business meaning he offers great service and I am expecting it to be more reliable than the other models.

I figure that I will just run cga for everything for the time being and when/if he comes out with a digital multi-sync I will get that if I feel that I really do want to be running the games in their native res but who knows...maybe by that time I will not care.

Thanks again for the reply.

[ahofle]

I think you missed what i was saying...I do not want to run games in VGA mode (it seems with the Nieman tri-sync you have to manually  change some switch or something to go from cga/ega to vga) so I was curious if having the ability to easily switch to vga (like on the digital muti-syncs) is really that necessary.

My understanding is that is does switch automatically for you.  The problem is the screen geometry gets all messed up when changing modes since there is no memory (ie it's analog).  So you would have to manually adjust pots for size, position, etc every time you went from your 640x480 frontend to a 320x240 game for example.

Anyway, I decided earlier this morning that I am going to get the Nieman tri-syc because it is easier to get here and I like the way Rick runs his business meaning he offers great service and I am expecting it to be more reliable than the other models.

I figure that I will just run cga for everything for the time being and when/if he comes out with a digital multi-sync I will get that if I feel that I really do want to be running the games in their native res but who knows...maybe by that time I will not care.

Good choice.  He definitely is a good guy and I don't think you will be disappointed.  Rick did mention a while back in the monitor forum that he is thinking about coming out with a digital multisync.  I think he would basically dominate the multisync market around here if he did that. 

[Aurich]

My understanding is that is does switch automatically for you.  The problem is the screen geometry gets all messed up when changing modes since there is no memory (ie it's analog).  So you would have to manually adjust pots for size, position, etc every time you went from your 640x480 frontend to a 320x240 game for example.

Yes, this is how the Nieman monitors work (I have one in my vertical cab).

[NoOne=NBA=]

VGA is necessary for alot of PC games.
As long as you don't plan to run anything that requires VGA resolution an arcade monitor will work great.
The only arcade games that would benefit from the VGA resolution would be the vector games.

I went with a 29" VGA/SVGA from Happ because vector was more important to me than authenticity for low-res games.

[rockmes]

digital multi-sync svga max res 1024 x 768 flat screen 29inch- you wont regret it. You can use any latest graphics cards and play any mame , pc ,even use it for the internet. this is what l have and it cost me $800 AU . Monitor is a wei-ya -M2929D-62. By the way Bilabs are a distributor for wei-ya in the USA

[Spyridon]

I'm at the same point.  I've started construction and now I'm at the point where I need to pick a monitor.  I'm new at this and really confused on monitors.  Can someone recommend a monitor in the 27" range that will be utilized for mostly MAME games.  This includes both horizontal and vertical games.  I would also like to potentially play some of the newer PC games.  Any advice would be recommended.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I'm at the same point.  I've started construction and now I'm at the point where I need to pick a monitor.  I'm new at this and really confused on monitors.  Can someone recommend a monitor in the 27" range that will be utilized for mostly MAME games.  This includes both horizontal and vertical games.  I would also like to potentially play some of the newer PC games.  Any advice would be recommended.

I've got a Happ's 29" VGA/SVGA.
It will do 640x480 and 800x600.
It doesn't look completely authentic for CGA arcade games, but does a passable job.
It looks fair-good for vector games though, and will do PC games that won't go below 640x480.

[ahofle]

I'm at the same point.  I've started construction and now I'm at the point where I need to pick a monitor.  I'm new at this and really confused on monitors.  Can someone recommend a monitor in the 27" range that will be utilized for mostly MAME games.  This includes both horizontal and vertical games.  I would also like to potentially play some of the newer PC games.  Any advice would be recommended.

Definitely look into a multisync -- gives you CGA resolutions for arcade accurate raster games while still allowing you to go to 640x480 and 800x600 for newer games/PC games/vector games.  Billabs and Betson are probably the most recommended ones around here.  The is also a newer digital multisync (D9500?) from Wells Gardner, but I haven't heard too many reviews of it.