Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: GoTheBunnies on November 15, 2010, 06:29:09 pm
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Hi guys,
Due to space constraints in my cocktail cab, it would make life a lot easier if I could turn the monitor upside down.
Is there a way then to rotate the display 180 degrees - preferably from the Operating System onwards? I'm using GameEx as the front end, and could probably get either MAME or GameEx to rotate 180, but both options would create additional problems with Cocktail mode and the like. If it's possible to tell the display via Windows or similar to rotate, it would be the optimal solution. Anyone else done this?
Thanks
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Due to space constraints in my cocktail cab, it would make life a lot easier if I could turn the monitor upside down.
if you do that, you'll have to lay on the follr looking under the cocktail cab to play games ::)
easiest way would be to flip the yoke wires on the monitor, tho depending on the monitor, there may be a 2nd connector on the chassis you can plug the neckboard into, and it will flip the picture (hantarex polo monitors are like this)
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Due to space constraints in my cocktail cab, it would make life a lot easier if I could turn the monitor upside down.
if you do that, you'll have to lay on the follr looking under the cocktail cab to play games ::)
easiest way would be to flip the yoke wires on the monitor, tho depending on the monitor, there may be a 2nd connector on the chassis you can plug the neckboard into, and it will flip the picture (hantarex polo monitors are like this)
That sounds like a complicated option (I can see a stuffed-up monitor coming up......) - ok, what do yoke wires look like? (it's a Dell CRT monitor).
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Check/Update your video drivers. Many of the drivers support different screen orientations via keystrokes or settings within the driver properties. The systems where I work can be software rotated using "control", "alt", "arrow key" (I believe that they are Nvidia chipsets)... My ATI card supported it in the driver properties.
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Check/Update your video drivers. Many of the drivers support different screen orientations via keystrokes or settings within the driver properties. The systems where I work can be software rotated using "control", "alt", "arrow key" (I believe that they are Nvidia chipsets)... My ATI card supported it in the driver properties.
Thanks for that - since posting the question I've been doing some searching, and as you've suggested it seems that a lot of the video cards support this. Problem is (from memory), I think the PC I'm using has on-board graphics, and that's why I was hoping Windows had the functionality to do it.
That said, seems there may be some software packages out there that allow rotation.
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That said, seems there may be some software packages out there that allow rotation.
Search for something like that, I tried one once that worked great, but I just can't remember what it was called. :banghead: It wasn't free, just had a free trial, but I don't think it was super expensive, so could be an option.
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Doesn't work with all video cards, but the program irotate can rotate your desktop any way you want.
http://download.cnet.com/iRotate/3000-2094_4-75167661.html?tag=mncol;1 (http://download.cnet.com/iRotate/3000-2094_4-75167661.html?tag=mncol;1)
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GoToBunnies:
Take a look at iRotate 1.37 to rotate your display.
The utility program is free, works with a lot of video cards, and can be downloaded here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/iRotate.shtml
- John
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GoToBunnies:
Take a look at iRotate 1.37 to rotate your display.
The utility program is free, works with a lot of video cards, and can be downloaded here: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Video-Tweak/iRotate.shtml
- John
Thanks - I had a quick look at it, but I'm getting the impression it still needs a video card of some description, and doesn't work with just on-board video?
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I use MaLa with MAME and just use the video options in MAME and MaLa to just rotate the 90,180 and so on. Simple way for me.
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I've found iRotate a bit difficult. For a start it doesn't seem to work with some video cards. On another video card it worked but I could no longer use Direct3D and had to use Direct Draw. It definately seemed to slow the computers down a bit.
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swapping the yoke wires is a way to do it if all else fails, but if you are not comfortable soldering and playing about inside a monitor (with the 25KV on the anode and all that) then it's not for you,
(you may be able to find a TV tech to do it, if any exist where you live.... round here they are all board swappers, when a lcd/plasma screen goes down, all they do is swap the boards/modules out with new ones, if it dosent fix the fault, they write it off, half of them dont know which end of a soldering iron to hold, the other half wouldent know what a soldering iron was if it was stuck up their arrr.... :soapbox:
anyhoo, have you tried pressing CTRL ALT and an arrow key yet???
that works on all my machines, my 4 month old netbook with obviousely on board gfx, the 2 year old laptop, GF's 1 year old desktop and the mame computer which is about 4 years old,
mind, i only found out about it the other day, i way playing a game using the keyboard, ctrl and alt are fire, arrows direction, drove me mad when it seemed to randomly flip screen rotation, thought it was a bug in mame or something,
then i figured out it was the combo of those keys triggering it, very handy to know now,
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I've found iRotate a bit difficult. For a start it doesn't seem to work with some video cards. On another video card it worked but I could no longer use Direct3D and had to use Direct Draw. It definately seemed to slow the computers down a bit.
Not sure if it applies to your situtation, but I got errors with Makaron if I tried to rotate the screen after the emulator had already been launched (even if no game loaded yet). The emulator menu would work as normal until a game was loaded, then it would crash.
The solution was just to make sure the screen was rotated before launching the emu.
I tried using iRotate on an older computer with onboard video and it didn't work.
Newer mobos that have Nvidia or Radeon on board might work.
It won't cost anything but a few minutes to give it a try.
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anyhoo, have you tried pressing CTRL ALT and an arrow key yet???
Yeah, I tried that and it didn't do anything, but it comes back to the issue that the PC has on board graphics. I think my only solution to this is going to be to buy a graphics card that supports rotation.
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I'd just buy a new card. You can get a basic card for next to nothing that should support rotation (check ebay among other places).
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Be a bit wary, I think XP SP3 may have broken rotation on ati cards.
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I use MaLa with MAME and just use the video options in MAME and MaLa to just rotate the 90,180 and so on. Simple way for me.
This is what I would try first as well. It's simple.
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I use MaLa with MAME and just use the video options in MAME and MaLa to just rotate the 90,180 and so on. Simple way for me.
This is what I would try first as well. It's simple.
Simple if you use Mala - I use GameEx ???
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Be a bit wary, I think XP SP3 may have broken rotation on ati cards.
Good advice - I'm using XP SP3 - thanks
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I use MaLa with MAME and just use the video options in MAME and MaLa to just rotate the 90,180 and so on. Simple way for me.
This is what I would try first as well. It's simple.
Simple if you use Mala - I use GameEx ???
GameEx doesn't have a rotate option?
You need to switch front ends!
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I use MaLa with MAME and just use the video options in MAME and MaLa to just rotate the 90,180 and so on. Simple way for me.
This is what I would try first as well. It's simple.
Simple if you use Mala - I use GameEx ???
GameEx doesn't have a rotate option?
You need to switch front ends!
It does - 90 degress left or right (not 180). Apart from that small point, IMO it leaves the other FE's for dead.
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Honnest, all this fannying about to do it in software, it could have been done by swapping 2 wires around and sorted, the software dosent even know it's got the screen rotated, so absolutely no problems with software that fights rotation, or slows down etc.
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Honnest, all this fannying about to do it in software, it could have been done by swapping 2 wires around and sorted, the software dosent even know it's got the screen rotated, so absolutely no problems with software that fights rotation, or slows down etc.
I disagree - if there's software to do it (and there is), then why would I stuff about trying to work out which 2 wires out of the dozens in there that I have to swap?
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well, it's a choice of 4 wires at the location they are at, swap the wrong 2 and the pic will flip sideways.... if it were a hantarex arcade monitor it's even easier, you just unplug the green connector from the neck board to the main chassis, and plug it in the 2nd green connector,
of course if you did something silly like swap one vertical and one horizontal yoke wire, you'd be in trouble,
anyhoo, that's what i'd do, especialy when it's proving hard to find the software that will do this job properly. but that's just me, i'm more of a hardware kinda guy,