Cocktail.Coffee Table Ideas

[BobA]

Collection of some expensive cocktail/coffee table cabs that might have a few interesting features.   Truthfully alot of them seem to be copies of each other but I did not look that closely yet.

Link to BornRich Article

[drventure]

I originally had designs on a coffee table that opened up and lifted, via linear actuators, to reveal a full size control panel set at the proper standing height, to play Mame games right in the living room on the big screen.

Flip a switch and it folds back to an innocuous coffee table.

I may still do it one day.

[mrclean]

I don't think I'm gonna ever own a cocktail table i'm an upright kinda guy

[drventure]

True.

I've never much liked the gaming position of a cocktail style cab.

But, to each his own

I do think that one with the slide out control panels is pretty slick, though.

[surface tension]

That's great 

The surface tension table appears 3 times in that list!

[Donkey_Kong]

That's great 

The surface tension table appears 3 times in that list!

Yea, st is all over that website.  Nice going!  That table is very nice though, wish I had that kind of talent.

[xtravbx]

I went w/ a cocktail table to save on room, and it doubles as my coffee table in my living room.

I will have both an upright and keep my cocktail, one day.

[Turnarcades]

I admit I'm not a big fan of cocktail table as I get bad-ass backache, but if I had to I'd get one from our very own st. I love both designs, but prefer the actual table design of the series 1 table, shame it's not available locally anymore.

Quick question st - how is the viewing angle on your cabs? Most LCD's I've tried suffer from ghosting or inverting when viewing them at the angle a cocktail cab requires. Any pics?

[Blanka]

When using an LCD for a coffee table you can do 2 things:
1: If you're on a budget and use a TN display, mount it UPSIDE DOWN and use the video-card driver to feed it a 180 degrees rotated desktop. TN's are much worse from below than from the top!
2: Use S-IPS or S-PVA panels, and coffee-table angles do not affect image that much.

[surface tension]

Craig

The viewing angle on these is superb. I use Samsung 178 x 178 degrees screens... but worth every penny.

As far as seeing it... you can see it in the flesh in July at Insert Coin. 

For the very early mk1s, I used to do as Blanka suggested... physically mouting upside down and flipping in software. But it was too dirty for an item at that cost and I had MAME do some funny things. Plus when it booted, everything was upside down... and that didn't look good!

[Turnarcades]

Will definitely be stopping by...

I noticed that about LCD's - why do a lot of LCD's have a problem viewing from below but not the sides or above?
I will have to try that flipping thing.

[RayB]

I don't think I'm gonna ever own a cocktail table i'm an upright kinda guy

Sitting down is for women.

[surface tension]

Will definitely be stopping by...

I noticed that about LCD's - why do a lot of LCD's have a problem viewing from below but not the sides or above?
I will have to try that flipping thing.

On standard LCDs, there's always a 'weak' angle, and when you view your monitor from your desk, it's always slightly from above... never below. So, this is where the weak angle is placed as 999 times out of 1000, it's never going to be viewed from this direction.

[CathalDublin]

I like this one