ClassicGMR Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) Fair warning - link and picture heavy. It's finally almost finished. There are a few changes I still want to make and I didn't exactly build it myself but I love it anyway. I really like the strand of rope light around the LCD. Great for flair and in the dark it just looks cool(to me anyway). The Envision LCD will be swapped for a widescreen LCD HDTV probably in the next month or two after my vacation. That way I can add my Playstation 3, Nintendo64 with Z64 and 3DO systems to the cabinet in the shelving below. My main cabinet: Xtension Arcade Cabinet For The X-Arcade Tankstick My display for the setup: Emerson G22LWK 22" LCD Widescreen Monitor My emulation system: Model : Dell Inspiron 410 [ZINO HD] Processor : AMD Athlon II Dual-Core P340 @ 2.2GHz Memory (RAM) : 4096MB DDR3 (8GB Max) Primary Hard Drive : 1TB Video Card : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series 256 MB Sound Card : Dell Computer SB600 High Definition Audio Controller Optical Drive : DVD/RW (CD/DVD Burner) Wired Network Card : Atheros AR8151 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller Wireless Card : DW1501 Wireless-N WLAN Half-Mini Card External Hardware: Logitech K400 Wireless Keyboard Cyber Authority CA-3090 2.1 Speakers USB Highspeed 7 Port Hub w/ AC Adapter (Silver) Belkin Power Authority II Model F5C140 Here's the software: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit GameEX frontend (registered) MAME - Arcade Stella - Atari 2600 Nostalgia - Mattel Intellivision Mednafen - Atari Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Nintendo Entertainment System, NEC TurboGrafx-16, Nintendo Virtual Boy ZSNES - Super Nintendo Kega Fusion - Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear VisualBoyAdvance - Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance Here's the gaming adapters and controllers: * 2600-dapter - Flashback 2 joystick * Vision-dapter - Sears Intellivision controller * Retrolink USB adapter for NES - Original NES control pad * Super SmartJoy USB adapter for SNES - Original SNES control pad * X-Arcade Tankstick + Trackball Last but not least - running in my living room Edited May 12, 2012 by ClassicGMR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Nice to see LCD's entering the scene. I'm so tired of CRTs. They blast your head with too much radiation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catsmasher Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 LCD is the way to go. I bought a MAME machine a few years ago and they went on and on about how I needed this 29" Wells Gardner tube monitor to get the "authentic" arcade experience. It was great until two years later when the monitor went black. The place I bought it from (in Indiana) said they didn't service monitors and gave me the name of a repair place (in HOUSTON!). I had to remove the chassis boards and ship them to Houston. They couldn't fix them so I bought new ones from Wells Gardner for almost $200, The guy told me that I was "Lucky" to get 2 years out of it. Now it works again, but for how long? And the cabinet is built for a narrow screen monitor - it I decide to go LCD, they are ALL widescreen now, My cabinet will look stupid. By the way - you might want to get a custom marquee made up for your machine. It didn't cost much to do and it makes the machine all yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClassicGMR Posted May 12, 2012 Author Share Posted May 12, 2012 (edited) By the way - you might want to get a custom marquee made up for your machine. It didn't cost much to do and it makes the machine all yours. Once I get my vacation out of the way and I get the LCD I want in the cabinet($149 at Wal-Mart is my best bet so far) then I can start looking at side-art. I REALLY want a lit-up bezel on the top but I would have to replace the cross-board though. It's low on my list but it is on it. Edited May 12, 2012 by ClassicGMR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Couldn't you use a 16:10 vertical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 I was just going to say that. Why not go vertical? Lots of games were presented that way in the arcade. Maybe you can rig up something to spin the monitor horiz or vert depending on the game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted May 12, 2012 Share Posted May 12, 2012 Don't fret the LCD monitor choice. It's fine. Somehow, with 100% modern hardware, running the old code from the 70's is even just somehow more cooler! Some of the most vibrant LCD displays are used in casino slot machines. Of course they are not sized correctly and the resolution is low compared to what's available through mail order computer shops and what not. Heck, some of them are even curved and wrapped around with the spinning wheels. Making these displays in a variety of sizes seems the norm in this setting. While I'm a purist in some ways and "anything goes" in others, arcade displays are not top of my list. I would much rather have a display that works well and reliably unlike the Wells Gardener story just posted. Sure the purists get going with an evangelical enthusiasm; but I'd rather be practical. When I play my classic games I want them to work. I don't want to be fucking around with soldering irons and big-ass honk'n CRT's that explode and burn-up if you make a mistake. Also, the rest of the hardware and software (except for the roms and controllers) is not arcade authentic anyways. So why unbalance the equation? Why expend the energy to single-mindedly pursue a failure-prone component? Consider the advantages of LCD Heat Size Weight Cost Reliability and lifespan Versatility and compatibility Custom scanline masks through software.. Surely the game designers would have chosen this display type back in the day if they had the option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 LCDs do OK for vector games but for raster they just don't measure up to the old CRTs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 LCDs do OK for vector games but for raster they just don't measure up to the old CRTs. I've always heard it's the reverse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VectorGamer Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 LCDs do OK for vector games but for raster they just don't measure up to the old CRTs. I've always heard it's the reverse. You'd have to see for yourself. I'd show you my MAME cab that has Star Wars and Centipede loaded and it uses an LCD. Then, I'd show you my 60-in-1 cabinet that has an arcade monitor - you would definitely see that the arcade monitor looks better than LCD. And as far as which looks better on LCD: raster or vector I'll say vector looks better of the two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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