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Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: bigbernie on December 23, 2005, 08:51:10 am

Title: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: bigbernie on December 23, 2005, 08:51:10 am

Hi, I have a standard 25" monitor that I'd like to use in a mame cabinet with a arcadevga card and was wondering how more recent (medium etc) games would look on it?

Is it "better" to go with this set up or a PC monitor?

Also, I've heard that arcadevga does not work with medium res monitors; can anyone confirm?

Thanks!

Title: Re: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: RayB on December 24, 2005, 12:14:47 am

ArcadeVGA is for Standard (CGA) res monitors.

That said, I find medium res games look pretty good! They end up interlaced. It's not as crisp as a true medium res monitor, but it has the illusion of being sharper than a regular standard game resolution.

Title: Re: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: bigbernie on December 24, 2005, 06:53:12 am

Thanks; I think that's the way I'm going to go (that is if I can get a arcade vga card as ultimarc is closed for the holidays).

Down the line I'd like to upgrade to a Wells-Gardner D9200 when money permits; I thought the Ultimarc could do more than CGA...

Title: Re: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: RayB on December 24, 2005, 10:29:55 am

Quote from: bigbernie on December 24, 2005, 06:53:12 am

Thanks; I think that's the way I'm going to go (that is if I can get a arcade vga card as ultimarc is closed for the holidays).

Down the line I'd like to upgrade to a Wells-Gardner D9200 when money permits; I thought the Ultimarc could do more than CGA...

Don't confuse the term "CGA" with what that used to mean on PCs in the 80's (where CGA was 8 colors at 320x240).

Title: Re: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: bigbernie on December 24, 2005, 02:01:25 pm

Ok, that's definately the source of my confusion!

So an arcade "standard" monitor is 336 by 240 right (close to old PC monitor CGA) 15KHz?

And a medium resolution monitor is 512 by 288 @16.5 Khz.

So why doesn't arcadevga only work with a standard monitor?

Thanks!

Title: Re: MAME Monitor help!
Post by: dabone on December 24, 2005, 02:36:25 pm

CGA (STANDARD)              15.7K
EGA (MEDIUM)                  25k
VGA (VGA)                         31.5k



The arcade industry borrowed the names cga/ega from the pc industry because they do share the same refresh rates. Arcade monitors are fully analog, while the pc counterparts were digital (cga 16 colors, ega 64)

Extendend range cga monitors exist that do larger ranges around 15k
(Example is the current 19" Vision Pro from happs       Scanning Frequency: Nominal(15-17.5KHz))

Most modern med resolution monitors will do cga/ega

A few vga monitors will do all 3. (d9200/the betson/the bilabs multisync models)


Later,
dabone