Portrait LCD Modes and MAME

[Great Hierophant]

There are quite a few arcade games that use a vertical orientation. If you were to play those games in MAME with a standard 4:3 monitor, the game would be centered in the middle of the screen with huge borders on the sides. The resolutions of these games include 224x256, 240x240 or 224x288, 224x240, 224x280, 240x276, 240x256, 192x240, 240x 292. You could always turn a monitor on its side, but this was rather impractical with heavy CRTs unless you were building a MAME cabinet dedicated to the vertical games. Many LCDs have a so-called Portrait mode. With these displays you can rotate the screen 90 degrees clockwise on its axis and change the aspect ratio. On my display, the NEC 1980FXi, the screen ratio changes from 1280x1024 to 1024x1280. A good video card is also necessary to reposition the GUI elements. With the vertical orientation you can get full screen in MAME with only minimal stretching/distortion. Just a suggestion for those who love the old arcade games but don't have the resources or desire to build a dedicated MAME cabinet.

[Dones]

How would you tell MAME to activate portrait mode? I know NVIDIA drivers allow you to change desktop orientation, but you have to do so manually through "Display Properties". A registry setting perhaps?

[Danno]

How would you tell MAME to activate portrait mode? I know NVIDIA drivers allow you to change desktop orientation, but you have to do so manually through "Display Properties". A registry setting perhaps?

890430[/snapback]

 

If you set MAME to "Auto-clockwise" in the display config, the games will automatically display fullscreen in the proper orientation.

 

I use an nVidia card with Dual displays and keep one monitor turned 90 degrees clockwise on it's axis for the vertically oriented games.

[+FujiSkunk]

There are a couple of different concepts being discussed here.

 

It is true that many LCD monitors come with software that enables them to be used in portrait mode (of course, if your LCD is like my old one, the portrait software is actually a 30-day demo, making you pay more later on if you actually want to keep that feature). Separately, MAME has a feature that lets you use any monitor in portrait mode, regardless of which way the OS has the monitor oriented. This is a handy feature to have, particularly if you have an LCD monitor on a swivel base: Just keep the OS in landscape mode, then, when loading up a game that uses portrait mode, turn the monitor on its side, and then turn it back again when you're through playing.

Edited July 12, 2005 by skunkworx