4:3 monitor, horizontal or vertical?

[AtariMaster]

All,

I am considering building my first cabinet. This is probably a dumb question but do I mount the 4:3 monitor horizontal or vertical (on its side)?

I had an arcade a few years ago that had a vertical screen but didn't know which way works best for MAME games.

Thanks,

Andy

[rfancella]

All,

I am considering building my first cabinet. This is probably a dumb question but do I mount the 4:3 monitor horizontal or vertical (on its side)?

I had an arcade a few years ago that had a vertical screen but didn't know which way works best for MAME games.

Thanks,

Andy

Andy,

I would think there are more horizontal games out there. But if there is a specific game that you loved and it's vertical, you might want to think about that. I think the second cab I build will be vertical, but the one I have is horizontal. Just my two cents.

Thanks,

Ron

[Agrajag]

If you're really keen, you make the screen automatically rotate from horizontal to vertical depending on the game. I think I'll probably do the same as Ron, although I have yet to build my first cabinet!

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, probably while at work...

[albert_c]

Mounting it horizontal will allow you to play all MAME games. The horizontal games will use the entire screen (all fighting games, all beatem ups, most other games), while the vertical games (Donkey Kong, Pacman, Shmups) will be displayed with black bars to the left and right of the image.

[AtariMaster]

Thanks for the replies and opinions.

I was going to try a bartop size cabinet but if I go big and get a Makvision 27" arcade monitor I could mount it horizontal and it should be big enough to play vertical games too.

Any thoughts on this big CRT idea?

Thanks,

Andy

[rfancella]

Thanks for the replies and opinions.

I was going to try a bartop size cabinet but if I go big and get a Makvision 27" arcade monitor I could mount it horizontal and it should be big enough to play vertical games too.

Any thoughts on this big CRT idea?

Thanks,

Andy

Hhhmmm... Thoughts, what are those?

A CRT is most beautiful! Can't get a crt to ever look that good.

They are bulky, heavy, need more power and generate a ton of heat.

But they do look so good.

Thanks,

Ron

[albert_c]

A 27" CRT in a bartop is sort of "Mission Impossible". Would be really hard to design a bartop that could physically support such heavy display device. I have a 27" monitor in my sit down candy cab and if the stand was ever chopped off on it and the remnant part placed on a table, it would be behemoth! Would be much better to go with a freestanding cab if you were to use a monitor that big.

The good thing about the latest version of MAME is the HLSL engine that can emulate CRT scanlines pretty well. Here are a few clips of it in action:

Use these settings as a reference: http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/File:Mame_hlsl_jezze_cools.zip

With CRT's pretty much vanishing, these HLSL settings come right at the right time and are lovely. The only problem is that the largest 4x3 monitors ever made were 20". Close, but not quite 27". And if you go any larger than a 20" LCD (which you would have to buy used), you will have to get a 16x9 or 16x10 display. The resulting image would have black bars on the left and right side of the image. You can use the bezel feature in HyperLaunch to cover up those bars which HyperLaunch does very well and adds to the aesthetic of your cab's display.

You are starting off correctly though. When buidling a cab, you want to think first of the display and what games you want to play. Then look at your options. If you really want a bartop, the charm of having a miniaturized arcade cabinet means you should temper your desired display size to around 19"-20" if you want to say with a 4x3 display. A 16x9 display is really useless for old MAME games since the extra width would never be used. But if you get a 16x9 display, you can go up to around 24" in a bartop and you would have the flexibility to add some modern HD games to gain full use of the extra width. Any larger of an LCD display, and you should think of going with a freestanding cab or a mounted display in conjunction with a controller stand. If you do go with the 27" CRT, I don't see how you could pull that off without going with a freestanding cab.

[albert_c]

Also vertical games on my 27" CRT horizontal display look pretty darn good.

[AtariMaster]

I already bought a 20" 4:3 Dell Ultra Sharp LCD monitor on Craigslist for $50.00. I might try a bartop with that but I'm ok with going big on a Makvision 27" CRT too. I somehow stumbled upon the hyper marquee idea floating around and would be willing to try a stretch screen to go with the Makvision CRT.

I'm glad to see that vertical games display well on a horizontal 27" CRT. Thanks albert_c.