17inch LCD too small and should it rotate?

[Calathea]

I've got an old PC that i was considering using as the basis for my mame cab. Its currently got a 17inch LCD monitor and i was wondering if thats just too small and should i look to get a larger one. I'd be putting a 2p panel in place so the cab wouldnt be massively wide.

One other thing, should i consider being able to rotate the monitor once its installed? Are there many games that play vertically that would justify the effort?

[Blanka]

A 17 inch is 5:4, that is almost square, so it does not matter much. Don't go rotating on 5:4 screens!

[mgb]

There are many vertical games that make rotating worth the effort.
I guess its not needed with a 17" but I would say, go bigger and have it rotate

[nitz]

I've got an old PC that i was considering using as the basis for my mame cab. Its currently got a 17inch LCD monitor and i was wondering if thats just too small and should i look to get a larger one. I'd be putting a 2p panel in place so the cab wouldnt be massively wide.

One other thing, should i consider being able to rotate the monitor once its installed? Are there many games that play vertically that would justify the effort?

IMO, 17 inch is a bit small for a full sized cab - I'd recommend at least 19 inch. But if you have the 17 inch handy and don't want to spend the money for now, it's not so horribly small that you couldn't use it temporarily.

There are a lot of vertical games, but it depends what you want to play. Ask yourself if games like Donkey Kong, Pacman, Galaga, Frogger, and vertical shoot 'em ups interest you. If you're not really into those types of games, then rotating probably isn't worth the effort.

A 17 inch is 5:4, that is almost square, so it does not matter much. Don't go rotating on 5:4 screens!

I disagree. If you do the math, a 4:3 vertical game is only going to be about 13.27 inches on a horizontally mounted 17 inch 5:4 monitor. That's pretty small. Rotate it and you'd get about 16.59 inches which is a significant improvement. Of course you could cheat a bit by stretching the image to make it a little bigger without rotating, but I like my games in the correct aspect ratio.

[Calathea]

Are there any online databases that list all the roms and whether they are vertical what controls they have? Ideally something that will let you  just say

"Show me all the vertical Games"

so that you can go through the list and work out if you need that component?

[Blanka]

You can do that in MAWS. Google it and you can select any criteria you like.