The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls

Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Leo Sump on May 20, 2002, 03:22:48 pm

Title: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Leo Sump on May 20, 2002, 03:22:48 pm
Some questions:

1) Is this the best choice out there (sub $500)?

2) Is anyone unhappy with their D9200?  Why?

3) Is there anything you wish it did or did not do?

3) If you purchased it recently, how much did you pay for it?  Any recommendations on who to speak to to get a deal  (Archive posts I've read are more than a year old)?

4) How much does it weigh (The website doesn't specify)?

5) Is it truly as easy as it sounds, plug it in and go?

6) Does it have geometry controls (ie. rotate, expand, shift, etc?)  Does the picture completely fill the screen (in horizontal games of course)?

7) Since I have absolutely no experience with electronics, what are the chances of killing myself?  Killing the monitor?

8) Any extra wisdom you would like to share?

Thank you in advance, friends!  I have already purchased $500 worth of parts so I guess I'm committed to this now!
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Dan Gendreau on May 20, 2002, 05:24:16 pm
1) is this the best choice

For me it was. Others may have different priorities, but for me the price was right, it had all the features I wanted.

2) is anyone unhappy

At first I was a bit disappointed that it only goes up to 800x600 resolution and it also has trouble with certain resolutions below 800x600, but the reason It has trouble is due more to my video card than the monitor. The monitor has a maximum scan rate 36kHz (# rows * v sync rate). If your video card tries to scan at a rate higher than 36kHz the monitor blanks out and gives you an out of sync error message.

However, with a bit of configuration (90% of the games work fine) those games that dont sync can be adjusted to a higher resolution and they work fine. AdvanceMame lets you control sync rates and resolutions to an even higher degree.

3) wish list

I wish it had linearity controls. In testing mine I found that the display is not perfectly linear near the edges, but this is super picky...

4) Weight

no clue... It takes 2 people to safely lift it. It cost me a lot to ship it freight... but it was worth it.

5) is it really easy?

Yeah, pretty much. It has a VGA connector and a power cord. Plug it in and it works, as long as you keep your system below 36kHz scan rate (ie 800x600 and 60Hz). 60Hz sounds like a really low sync rate compared to PC monitors, but I dont see any flicker.

6) geometry controls:

yes. it has a 4 button control pad and an on-screen menu that you can use to adjust:
- brightness, contrast
- H/V size and position
- Trapezoid and Pincussion
- RGB color temperature
- Degaus

Some things a PC monitor would have, but the D9200 does not have are:
rotation
parallelogram
whatever that )#) shape is called
convergence

7) chances of killing yourself

As with any really big monitor with absolutely no plastic between you and it, I would treat it like a live rattlesnake. Handle it gently and keep a safe distance from its fangs... That would be the rubber nipple on the back of the tube and the big flyback transformer it is attached to. I would not touch anything on the circuit board at all just to be safe.

The first thing I did was buy some heavy black plastic screen material (its used for cross-stitching or some ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---) from an art supply shop and attach it to the metal back frame using plastic zip ties. It covers the top, back and sides and prevents any stray fingers from getting too near the dangerous stuff when the cabinet is open.

8) Other advice.

The 29" monitor Bezel at HappControls.com is a perfect fit. For my screen I cut a piece of Lexan and the bezel to the right size for the front if my cabinet. Then I bought a plastic 1'x3' picture frame kit from the same art supply store. You know the kind. Its a cheap piece of card board with black plastic edge molding around it. That edge molding is perfect for clipping your bezel and front lexan together along the edges.


And as far as cabinet designs go, I have only three words:
 Aluminum angle Iron!

That stuff saved me so much time I never would have completed my cabinet without it.

-Dan G.
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Leo Sump on May 21, 2002, 01:12:37 am
A final question.   One of the main reasons I am considering buying this monitor is that I do not want to run DOS at all.  I am assuming that Windows runs fine on it, no?
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Dan Gendreau on May 21, 2002, 07:46:25 am
Yeah, windows runs fine.
See my other D9200 post a few lines down in the forum.

The only windows issue I ran into was the default windows color scheme is not good for big monitors in general.

The extreme contrast of white on black causes the shadow mask to warp temporarily if you leave it in windows for a while. It doesnt cause any permanent damage, but it causes weird color distorion in places where the extreme contrast was.

So basically, use a darker color scheme... Dont use anything brighter than 128,128,128 gray in your color scheme.

Some have suggested turning down the brightness and contrast alltogether, but I have never seen the problem caused by a game. They are usually darker than the windows screens overall... I would rather have a darker color scheme in windows and have bright color in the games myself...

-Dan Gendreau
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: yo on May 21, 2002, 09:22:30 am
yo dan... ;D ;D ;D

i just had  simple questions....


What OS you have?
does windows xp look JAGGY/BLOCKY on the monitor?
i have 19" eygo and i cant even use windows xp cuz it dont do 640x480....i am thinking of getting one but if it look JAGGY for $500???you know what i am talking about right?

even with scalines..my 19" eygo still looks jaggy on win xp....but works fine on win 98 and me...all smooth

and also the web site says only 640x480...now which is really true??? ??? ???

800x600 or 640x480.....

do game look smooth on 800x600?

thanks in advance for all the help.... ;D

also how much did you pay if you did not buy direct from wells..if yo bought from wells then ignore this qustion..thanks

Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Dan Gendreau on May 21, 2002, 02:09:40 pm
>What OS you have?
I use win98. XP is all hype and no performance.  :P

By "Jaggy" I assume you mean pixelated. Thats all a matter of setting up your games resolutions correctly. I cant explain it right now, but you should find an explanation of it on the net somewhere...


>and also the web site says only 640x480...now which is really true  

Youre right. The WG web site says 640x480 now, but when I bought my D9200 a year ago it said 800x600. Mine works fine in 800x600 in windows. I dont know why it says 640x480 now... Hmm.


do game look smooth on 800x600?
"Smooth" is a matter of matching up resolutions correctly. If you try to display a 640x480 game on 800x600 using hardware stretch, youre gonna get ---smurfy--- picture quality. You should try to play each game in as close to the original resolution as possible... If you want to add scanlines in software, you need at least double the original game resolution. Personally, I think scanlines are not necessary on an arcade monitor.


>also how much did you pay if you did not buy direct from wells..if yo bought from wells then ignore this qustion..thanks

I bought it from Wells. Every other distributor had a rediculous markup.

-Dan G.
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: me on May 21, 2002, 05:07:34 pm
allright thanks for all the help...might get one..from what i can see>>>you are happy with the monitor...thaks man ;D
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Rocket2600 on May 21, 2002, 08:31:40 pm
Hi Dan,
        Thanks for the great info on the Wells Gardner D9200. Lots of need-to-know info there. Any chance you could put up a web page with some screenshots? Maye some of the classic games (Pac-Man, Digdug) and some newer stuff (KOF 2000)??? Love to see the monitor in action. Thinking of picking one up in the future. Again, thanks for the great info and good luck on your project.

~Rocket2600

http://www.geocities.com/rocket26000/index.html
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Dan Gendreau on May 22, 2002, 06:30:24 am
No digital camera yet... sorry  :-/

Ill see if one of my buddies has one.

My cabinet can be completely disassembled in minutes, so it should not be a problem to take detailed pictures of how its mounted etc...

Ill post a link on the board when I get some time to do it.

-Dan G.
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: big10p on May 31, 2002, 10:27:50 am
Quote
do game look smooth on 800x600?
"Smooth" is a matter of matching up resolutions correctly. If you try to display a 640x480 game on 800x600 using hardware stretch, youre gonna get ---smurfy--- picture quality. You should try to play each game in as close to the original resolution as possible... If you want to add scanlines in software, you need at least double the original game resolution. Personally, I think scanlines are not necessary on an arcade monitor.
-Dan G.


Hi,

If you are using custom screen modes, how are you creating them? Im looking for something like the advanceMAME video utility but that works with Windows. i.e. I need to be able to set a refresh rate and centre/stretch the modes in software, not with the actual monitor controls.
Title: Re: Wells Gardner D9200 Advice Please
Post by: Lizard on June 10, 2002, 04:50:09 pm
How does it look without hardware stretch? Are there black borders; can the monitor match the original arcade resolutions? Black borders kill the experience, and hardware stretch kills the quality. Thanks in advance!