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Black Friday Sales: Who is going to try the Vertical LCD Based Arcade?
ChadTower:
--- Quote from: polaris on November 22, 2007, 10:43:38 am ---money isnt really an option in my industry, i would say for definite theyre not chosen for their cheapness.
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Not for initial purchase, but if you drop tens of thousands on displays and then have to do it again a couple years later, the budget reviewers are going to have your ass.
polaris:
that was kinda my point that plasmas continue to be used regardless of cost , but because they last and perform
bfauska:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on November 22, 2007, 01:11:20 pm ---
--- Quote from: polaris on November 22, 2007, 10:43:38 am ---money isnt really an option in my industry, i would say for definite theyre not chosen for their cheapness.
--- End quote ---
Not for initial purchase, but if you drop tens of thousands on displays and then have to do it again a couple years later, the budget reviewers are going to have your ass.
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Also working in the entertainment industry, I can vouch for polaris on this one. Trade shows and rock and roll pretty much don't care about up front cost. On the other hand they don't tend to worry too much about longevity either, usually the technology gets better before the device gets too old and they simply move on to the latest thing.
Many things cost more in the entertainment industry simply because they know you're using it in the entertainment industry. Even with that being the case, the people in charge of the money tend to live with it and move on. There simply isn't time to sit and weigh your financial choices when you have to design, build, and coordinate an event in the time you're given. The people who bear the cost in our industry are also too far removed from the numbers to know what they are paying for. When you pay for an event or trade show, you don't see itemized costs down to the level of what each video component costs. You see a much larger number that has already been inflated to accommodate the expensive technology and usually has a markup.
headkaze:
I think I could probably give you a quick rundown on what you would need to do for this.
GameEx has an attract mode where Mame is launched randomly. On our forums Bkenobi came up with the idea of generating a bezel on the fly with game information at the bottom of the screen. I really liked the idea so I made some designs and eventually wrote the code to generate the bezel.
There are two artwork formats in Mame, V1 (.art files pre Mame 0.107) and V2 (.lay files Mame 0.107+).
It's quite simple to get the bezel located where you want it. You really only need to adjust the values in the .art or .lay files to suit the screen size. Also you will need a different bezel for vertical games, but since you are talking about having a vertical screen that will mean you will have to have the graphics located either at the top, bottom or both. These are all done using the values inside the .art or .lay files. It will no doubt be more difficult to calculate these values for a non-standard screen size and getting pixel perfect sizing is likely impossible.
Attached is an archive of what my program generates in the two formats, and a screenshot. So using those as a guide it should make it easier to design a bezel to suit your needs.
twitami:
--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on November 21, 2007, 01:07:46 pm ---Btw - Id stay away from Plasmas. Ive heard that they are prone to leak
their gasses.. and eventually get nasty picture, and then die completely.
LCDs will outlast them. The only thing that seems to fail on LCDs are the
backlights. However, Ive seen people replace them. Plasmas can not
be fixed as far as I know... and if they could, Im sure it would be an
obscene cost.
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Lol , Plasma TVs do not "leak", I always loved those stories. A plasma will slowly degrade in picture quality over time, just like EVERY OTHER tv type, including all the CRTs we all grew up with. However, Plasma tvs DO have a potential for burn-in (just like CRTs did). Granted there is a lot of tech in them to help prevent it, when used with normal viewing. LCD is a better way to go, because Burn-in is really not an issue. Oh, and replacing the bulb in and LCD is pretty obscene too, most would buy a new tv, as is the American way now anyway.