Greetings. I am planning my first cabinet project and have been reading all I can find to educate myself. I must admit that my head is swimming on the subject of monitor selection. I have done quite a bit of homework, but I wanted to call upon those with much more knowledge as to the direction I should go. I have a pretty strong tech background having founded an ISP back in the day and run a couple of technology companies, but I am a full time attorney at this point and really don't have the time I would like to heavily research for the project.
I am wanting to build a very general purpose system. I recognize there will be compromises involved in that approach, but I want to be able to play a broad spectrum of games on the cabinet and have all of them look pretty good. I will say that what I have seen of MAME on a standard pc monitor just won't cut it... have to achieve something better than that. Here are sort of the criteria:
Cost: I am not looking to do this on a shoestring, but really don't have to have THE BEST hardware available.. Did plan on purchasing an ArcadeVGA if needed
Format: LCD or CRT is fine as it will be installed in the cabinet.. (sort of liking the idea of a showcase format with a pretty big monitor, though)
Size: I want to go big enough to play vertical format games such as Galaga close to their original size, but would probably prefer to mount the monitor horizontal
Fav Games: Asteroids is my #1 and I understand nothing will look like the original and be flexible, also a fan of Galaga, Tetris, Robotron..Area 51
Versatility: I want to be able to run mame and daphne as well as all of the available console emu's
Guns: I really would like to be able to add a gun for games like Area 51 so want to make sure my selection can support that.
So, what would you suggest? I am looking at a used MAME cabinet on CL that I might get for parts more or less. I don't like the actual cabinet, but the price may be right and the ipac4, ArcadeVGA and a 25" arcade monitor purchased new is included.. I don't know the model number yet but it's a Sharp Image... does this make sense for me?
Thanks for any and all help. I really am willing to do my own research and learn, but want to get the project going and don't need to become an expert at this point if I can select the right hardware for the job.