Vertical games on a horizontally mounted TV... a definitive answer needed.

[ButeLegz]

Hi all. I have recently completed majority of the physical construction & conversion of my school desk style Taito cocktail cabinet. Woohoo! I have now moved on to the software & video display part of the project... not quite as fun as cutting up wood & using power tools, but still fun nonetheless. My set up is as follows...

- WIN 98
- S3 Virge GX 2 2MB AGP Video card with S-Video
- Horizontally mounted 51cm/20" TV

I have am running MAMEWAH, with my custom, control-panel-matching layouts working perfectly (Yay!).  My problem is related to displaying vertical games on a horizontally mounted monitor. I understand this is a common problem & have done extensive searching within these forums & found the following related threads...

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=15434;start=msg120709#msg120709

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=14906;start=msg116702#msg116702

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=15271;start=msg119578#msg119578

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=14246;start=msg111389#msg111389

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=10963;start=msg85554#msg85554

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=9599;start=msg71282#msg71282

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=6579;start=msg46204#msg46204

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=4454;start=msg28189#msg28189

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=4393;start=msg27867#msg27867

...but have not come across a definitive answer. Many of the above threads are people with either an arcade monitor or an ArcadeVGA, not someone with an average graphics card & a TV.

Currently my cab runs horizontal games in full screen while vertical games run in what appears to be the correct proportions but are displayed significantly smaller than the vertical height of the screen. Galaga has roughly an inch & a half of black top & bottom, while Raiden is so small I was shocked. I was expecting & accepting of the black strips either side but the playable vertical area is smaller than I had anticipated. This annoys me. The other setup I tried looked great & used up the entire vertical height of the screen but surprise, surprise was cut off at the bottom. What are my options here? AdvanceMAME? PowerStrip? Is it possible to run  MAME at a resolution to suit Galaga & other verticals (ie: 288) & somehow define custom resolutions for horizontal games or vice versa?

Any help appreciated. BL.

[b3atmania]

Hi all. I have recently completed majority of the physical construction & conversion of my school desk style Taito cocktail cabinet. Woohoo! I have now moved on to the software & video display part of the project... not quite as fun as cutting up wood & using power tools, but still fun nonetheless. My set up is as follows...

- WIN 98
- S3 Virge GX 2 2MB AGP Video card with S-Video
- Horizontally mounted 51cm/20" TV

I have am running MAMEWAH, with my custom, control-panel-matching layouts working perfectly (Yay!).  My problem is related to displaying vertical games on a horizontally mounted monitor. I understand this is a common problem & have done extensive searching within these forums & found the following related threads...

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=15434;start=msg120709#msg120709

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=14906;start=msg116702#msg116702

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=15271;start=msg119578#msg119578

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=14246;start=msg111389#msg111389

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=10963;start=msg85554#msg85554

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=9599;start=msg71282#msg71282

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=6579;start=msg46204#msg46204

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=4454;start=msg28189#msg28189

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=4393;start=msg27867#msg27867

...but have not come across a definitive answer. Many of the above threads are people with either an arcade monitor or an ArcadeVGA, not someone with an average graphics card & a TV.

Currently my cab runs horizontal games in full screen while vertical games run in what appears to be the correct proportions but are displayed significantly smaller than the vertical height of the screen. Galaga has roughly an inch & a half of black top & bottom, while Raiden is so small I was shocked. I was expecting & accepting of the black strips either side but the playable vertical area is smaller than I had anticipated. This annoys me. The other setup I tried looked great & used up the entire vertical height of the screen but surprise, surprise was cut off at the bottom. What are my options here? AdvanceMAME? PowerStrip? Is it possible to run  MAME at a resolution to suit Galaga & other verticals (ie: 288) & somehow define custom resolutions for horizontal games or vice versa?

Any help appreciated. BL.

The problem you see is the vertical resolution of the game is exceeding the resolution of the television. This will be more appearant on NTSC sets than PAL.

NTSC sets have 240 visible lines while PAL sets have about 280 visible lines. The only way to get around it is to scale the video to a resolution of < 240 lines (or < 280 in case of a PAL set). MAME can do this in the same way it can stretch to full-screen. It doesn't look pretty though.