Probs with ArcadeVGA... I think.

[Gromet]

OK, I got a new ArcadeVGA card from Andy.   My Current System Specs are:

Pentium 4 2.8Ghz
512MB DDR400 Ram
ASUS P4C800 Delux Motherboard
30 Gig IDE Hard Drive (Waiting for my 200 Gig Serial ATA Drive)
Plextor CD-RW/DVD-ROM Drive
ATI Radeon 7000 64MB Video Card
Wells Gardner D9200 27" Monitor

So I put in the ArcadeVGA card, boot to sae mode, load the drivers, reboot, set everything to 32Bit, 800x600.  All goes well.

Right away I start noticing strange things...  

First as the machine boots, loads, etc... It makes loud snapping noises, I think this is when the refresh rate of the monitor is changing.

It does what it sais it will by the fact I mean that when you choose a game in MAME it picks the correct setting and plays.  I found some strange things though,  Like in NBA Jam  it cut off the botton mabye 3/4 of the screen.

In Daphne my MPEGS ran huge, so I disabled Hardware Accel in Daphne and it fixed that, but there is much more screen flicker with the ArcadeVGA than the Radeon???  

I don't know, I wasn't too inpressed with what I have seen so far, Anyone know why these things are happening???

Thanks

[tom61]

I found some strange things though,  Like in NBA Jam  it cut off the botton mabye 3/4 of the screen.

Mame32 tends to pick the right resolution for most games, but some you'll have to pick manually, or use a utility to set for you.

First as the machine boots, loads, etc... It makes loud snapping noises, I think this is when the refresh rate of the monitor is changing

Probably just your monitor getting warmed up.

[Frostillicus]

Yeah I recommend running the utility that creates INI files for all the games, setting the correct resolution.  And you can specify in Daphne to play at 640x480 or 800x600, which should fix your huge video problem - might even fix the flicker who knows.

The clicking is the monitor changing refresh rates or something - it's normal.  They shouldn't sound like a firecracker though (if it does, duck and cover!)

Don't forget to use the util from andy that is made just for the d9200.

[tom61]

Don't forget to use the util from andy that is made just for the d9200.

Didn't notice that he had a D9200 until you said that. Run the utility Frostillicus mentioned, turn back on hardware acceleration (it only needs to be run with it off if the ArcadeVGA is being run in interlace mode). After that it should look as good as your previous Radeon card.

[MrSaLTy]

I have seen mention of this d9200 utility but can anyone tell me exactly what it is for?
Is it something you need to run every time you start windows or just once?  I haven't
really seen this explained on the ultimac site but I may have just missed it.

Thx

[AndyWarne]

What the D9200 utility does is unlock the 640 X 480  and 800 X 600 modes so that they are controlled by Windows instead of the card. This means that when running in these modes it will run non-interlaced just as a normal Windows picture. The D9200 can handle this, unlike a normal arcade monitor as it can handle 31Khz as well as 15Khz.

Regarding the problems, best drop me an email.

Andy