Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: scurvy on April 10, 2007, 11:16:02 am

Title: how do nintendo emulators look on arcade monitor?
Post by: scurvy on April 10, 2007, 11:16:02 am

still havent decided what monitor to use with my setup, an arcade monitor or TV. i'm going to run
-mame
-nes
-snes
-n64

all emulators, not the actual systems.

so i know MAME will look better on an arcade monitor, but what about all my nintendo emulators?

Title: Re: how do nintendo emulators look on arcade monitor?
Post by: ahofle on April 10, 2007, 12:53:36 pm

All systems you mentioned look terrific to me on an arcade monitor running via PC emulation.

Title: Re: how do nintendo emulators look on arcade monitor?
Post by: Frosty on April 10, 2007, 02:45:02 pm

And if you're using an AVGA card, they'll look better then they ever possibly could on a TV.

Why? Because you can run specialized builds of those emulators to take advantage of AVGA's resolutions and run the games in their native resolutions without scaling or artifacts.  For example, the original NES ran at 256×240: simply switch your screen size to the corresponding resolution (http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainst.html) on the AVGA card.  SNES? Most games used resolutions like 256×224, 256×240, 512×224.  N64? Ran anywhere from  256×224 to 640x480.   (Keep in mind that any resolution on an AVGA above 288 vertical lines will be interlaced).

Of course, you could always hack a few cables and connect your old consoles directly to your arcade monitor (see pic).  Pure RGB is where it's at.  Except for the N64 (http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/rgbn64.htm).