Adjusting Picture With ArcadeVGA

[JAdamz01]

Hey all -- I've got a question about the picture being displayed on my arcade monitor. I'm using an ArcadeVGA card, and my monitor is adjusted in such a way that vertical games are displayed in full when playing them. However, because of this adjustment, my horizontal games have black bars going across the top and bottom. If I use the Horiz. and Vert. adjustments on the monitor to make that game take up the entire screen, then my vertical games are not fully fit on the screen.

My question is this: Is it possible for me to stretch the horizontal games to take up the entire screen while still allowing the vertical games to be displayed in full? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Minwah]

This is pretty common.  The problem is that the vertical games in question use 288 lines.  Most horizontal games use ~240-256 lines, so when the screen is adjusted for these (horiz) games, the remaining (288-~256) lines are cut off.

You have a few options:

1) rotate your screen to suit each game (ideal but not usually practical)

2) Put up with vertical game top/bottoms being cut off (shame if you like vert. games)

3) Adjust so that vertical games fit, but put up with top/bottom borders on horiz. games (shame if you like horiz. games)

4) Use a non-native res. for the vertical games (not arcade perfect).

I personally go with no. 4, since my 'classics' are all horizontal.  Plus I would rather see all of the (vert.) game and be able to play it and put up with a bit of non-authenticity.  My 'ArcadeVGA M.A.M.E. Resolution Tool' allows you to setup resolutions like this easily (automatically in fact).  Get it from my downloads page at http://mamewah.mameworld.net

Edit: Just thought I'd mention that I use 640x480 -hwstretch for said games =>256 lines.

[JAdamz01]

Thanks for the reply

I downloaded your resolution tool, but it seems that the "hwstretch" modes are only available in Windows MAME versions? At the moment I am booting straight to ArcadeOS and using DOS Mame, and I'm not sure that there is a stretch mode for it. If it really came to it, I suppose I could switch to booting into Windows and then directly loading ArcadeOS...

Also, if I WERE to use "-hwstretch 640x480" with Windows Mame, would this cause the ArcadeVGA card to interlace the picture (causing flicker, which is what I would like to avoid if possible)?

Thanks again

[AndyWarne]

If you enable H/W stretch, the "base" resolution that you run underneath the stretch in theory can be any resolution (as far as the ArcadeVGA card is concerned). So you can choose a non-interlaced one.

Andy

[Minwah]

Thanks for the reply

I downloaded your resolution tool, but it seems that the "hwstretch" modes are only available in Windows MAME versions? At the moment I am booting straight to ArcadeOS and using DOS Mame, and I'm not sure that there is a stretch mode for it. If it really came to it, I suppose I could switch to booting into Windows and then directly loading ArcadeOS...

Also, if I WERE to use "-hwstretch 640x480" with Windows Mame, would this cause the ArcadeVGA card to interlace the picture (causing flicker, which is what I would like to avoid if possible)?

Thanks again

Ahh sorry, I didn't realise you were using dos...

I believe there was fairly recently an addition to ArcadeOS that could read Windows-ish .INI files and convert to command-line switches when launching a game.  My program (& AVRES & similar programs) create INI files to set the res...you might have to use AVRES tho, I seem to recall it had a tick-box for DOS which mine doeesn't yet have.  You would need a Windows system to generate the INI's tho (you could then transfer the INI's to your DOS machine).

I don't know if DOS MAME has a 'stretch' option (it didn't used to when I used it a long while back).  But yes, 640x480 will be interlaced.  As you say not ideal, but I prefer actually being able to PLAY these vertical games, and also retain a perfect setup for horizontal games.  You will have to make a sacrifice, it is just a question of where...