Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: WildcatBob on June 03, 2004, 10:03:40 pm
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Help. Looking for advice on what size of monitor to mount in my cabinet (horizontally) which will let me play vertical games. I have a limited budget, but it seems that nearly everyone is using a 25" or larger monitor to accomplish this. Has anyone used a smaller (21") monitor in this fashion and what were the results.
Thanks.
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You can do some simple calculations to determine the viewable size of a vertical game on a horizontal mounted monitor.
Remember: A^2 + B^2 = C^2, (or C = SQRT(A^2 + B^2)) and TV is 4:3 aspect ratio in horizontal, 3:4 in vertical.
Therefore on a 25" tube (C), A and B are about 20" and 15" (4:3) Therefore a vertical game is going to be 15" tall by about 11.25 (3:4) giving a diagonal of about 18.75", or that of basically a classic 19" monitor.
If you skimp and go with a 19" tube, A and B are about 15.25 and 11.25 (4:3) Threfore a vertical game is going to be 11.25" tall by about 8.5 wide (3:4) giving a diagonal of about 14" or more like a Mini/Cabaret size... too small for more people's tastes.
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Aspect ratio and size are only part of the equation. You have to consider resolution as well. No matter what tube you have, if it only has 240 visible lines most vertical games cannot be displayed. Pac-Man for example has a resolution of 288x224, so you need at least 288 visible lines to see the whole picture.
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I've had a 19" horizontal monitor in a machine using the trident+jpac combo and the results were satisfactory--Not as nice and big as a 25" but by means was I squinting to see the screen or anything. if all you can find is a 19" you won't be that disappointed.
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Ever consider rotating the 19" monitor? Most people say it isn't worth the hassle, but the vertical games are much bigger on a rotated monitor as opposed to on a horizontal. As you can see from MonitorGuru's math, a 19" monitor horizontally will only display an 11.25" x 8.5" vertical game - but if you were to rotate the monitor 90 degrees the vertical game will now be 15.25" x 11.25". Easy test is to leave you monitor horizontal and play a vertical game, then play the same game rotated 90 degrees using the "-rol" option (like "mame galaga -rol") - you'll see the big difference. Most front ends can do this automatically, or worst case you can set it up in the mame.ini to do it automatically. In my mind it is worth the setup of rotating it (added maybe 20 hours to my build).