Anyone using a REAL 1980-90's arcade monitor

[calebratjunon]

Hi,

I have been reading and reading and reading about how to get my arcade monitor to run with a windows xp machine without an arcadevga card. It's doable but requires alot of user created resolutions. My question is can a normal low res arcade monitor, like my Wells-Gardner K7100 from a converted Moonwalker, be used to run MCE and Gameex? I can't find anyone using MCE or Gameex on a real arcade monitor.. Does the resolution, being so low, make watching movies or videos an act of futility?

Here's my plan. I want to move an existing MCE/GameEx machine from the bedroom because of none-use. I AM going to mount a MAME machine in my cab, but I don't want to replace this nice newly repaired 25 inch Wells-Gardner tube. Right now its converted to run Dragonball Z and it looks so freakin good....But how will watching dragonball z episodes from gameex look?

Can anyone that is running a real arcade monitor with MCE or GameEx post some pictures of how the screens look? and also how it looks or not..when trying to watch a video or .avi file...

Thanx for your help

Caleb

[emphatic]

Hi,

I have been reading and reading and reading about how to get my arcade monitor to run with a windows xp machine without an arcadevga card. It's doable but requires alot of user created resolutions. My question is can a normal low res arcade monitor, like my Wells-Gardner K7100 from a converted Moonwalker, be used to run MCE and Gameex? I can't find anyone using MCE or Gameex on a real arcade monitor.. Does the resolution, being so low, make watching movies or videos an act of futility?

Here's my plan. I want to move an existing MCE/GameEx machine from the bedroom because of none-use. I AM going to mount a MAME machine in my cab, but I don't want to replace this nice newly repaired 25 inch Wells-Gardner tube. Right now its converted to run Dragonball Z and it looks so freakin good....But how will watching dragonball z episodes from gameex look?

Can anyone that is running a real arcade monitor with MCE or GameEx post some pictures of how the screens look? and also how it looks or not..when trying to watch a video or .avi file...

Thanx for your help

Caleb

The easiest way must be to buy yourself an ArcadeVGA card from Ultimarc.

Otherwise, you need to use a program called Powerstrip and you need the right kind of Video card that is "MAME compatible". I know that a lot of ATI cards work, but you need to google I guess. Here's an interesting read that I just found for you -> http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43728.0;all

Emph

[calebratjunon]

The easiest way must be to buy yourself an ArcadeVGA card from Ultimarc.

Otherwise, you need to use a program called Powerstrip and you need the right kind of Video card that is "MAME compatible". I know that a lot of ATI cards work, but you need to google I guess. Here's an interesting read that I just found for you -> http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43728.0;all

Emph

Emph,

I know what I must do to get the HTPC running on an arcade monitor. My question was about quality of video play back. Does a video that is recorded to the PC in an .avi format look good or does the low res of the monitor make watching tv or a film an act of futility on the arcade monitor. I am waiting on my j-pac to hook the machine up. I want to know if I should run a seperate monitor or tv to watch tv thru my tv tuner or to watch movies. I'm kinda looking for an all in one cabinet since the room its going into is low on space. Before I get to involved with the whole powerstrip thing, I want to know if it's even worth it.

The cabinet came with a newly referbished 25 inch wells-gardner monitor and because the entire thing; game, cab, monitor and new control panel cost 175, I want to utilize what I already have.

[emphatic]

Here's a quote from the link I gave you:

"- Watching movies: Movies look best if the monitor uses the same resolution as the source. For DVD movies it means 720x480i (NTSC) or 720x576i (PAL). Other sources are probably made for displaying on a PC monitor so they assume 1:1 pixel aspect ratio. Use 640x480i for NTSC material and 768x576i for PAL. "

An arcade monitor is basically an NTSC TV as far as I know, so you should get good quality for movies.

Emph

[Tom Speirs]

Emph,

I know what I must do to get the HTPC running on an arcade monitor. My question was about quality of video play back. Does a video that is recorded to the PC in an .avi format look good or does the low res of the monitor make watching tv or a film an act of futility on the arcade monitor. I am waiting on my j-pac to hook the machine up. I want to know if I should run a seperate monitor or tv to watch tv thru my tv tuner or to watch movies. I'm kinda looking for an all in one cabinet since the room its going into is low on space. Before I get to involved with the whole powerstrip thing, I want to know if it's even worth it.

The cabinet came with a newly referbished 25 inch wells-gardner monitor and because the entire thing; game, cab, monitor and new control panel cost 175, I want to utilize what I already have.

You can probably think of a low res arcade monitor as a low definition TV but slightly better. Using an arcade VGA card will also give you better quality than say watching a dvd on your tv via RCA/composite or RF, probably even svideo/scart.

So yes they look pretty good or at least as good as a tv from the same era, but yourll probably want to run them interlaced at 640 X 480. ie like how a tv runs.

[Ricci]

I like the idea for authenticity, but with so many great monitors out there now (with component or hdmi) you can't beat the quality and price, in my opinion. I just picked up a monitor (23") with tv tuner in it and run it from component cables and it looks killer!

[calebratjunon]

I like the idea for authenticity, but with so many great monitors out there now (with component or hdmi) you can't beat the quality and price, in my opinion. I just picked up a monitor (23") with tv tuner in it and run it from component cables and it looks killer!

Bought the cab with a newly referbished 25 inch wells-gardner...I HAVE to go authentic...cause I'm outta dough...and it looks soo good with dragonball Z 2. I eventually want to put in a 25 inch 4:3 hdtv or flatpanel, but right now I want to see if I can morph an HTPC, which are in every main room, into a cab like this for games and as an HPTC center for an already small and crowded bar room. I got a jack comming out the back of the cab for a second screen, so I can always just use that if it looks bad...

And Thanx Tom and Emph for your help as well

[lingpanda]

I like the idea for authenticity, but with so many great monitors out there now (with component or hdmi) you can't beat the quality and price, in my opinion. I just picked up a monitor (23") with tv tuner in it and run it from component cables and it looks killer!

A link to that monitor? thx.

[eXo]

hehe, I converted a D&D Tower of Doom cab and used the old WG monitor in it. Every game ha sa slightly transposed Towr of Doom title on it, lol. VERY authentic.

[calebratjunon]

Ok. I got it working. I have a newly refrebished WG K7100 Arcade monitor. I am using an Athlon 64, 1 gig ram, Nvidia GeForce 6600 AGP. I am also using an Ultimarc J-PAC. I am using powerstrip to force the video card to display at 15Hz. Here's what ya do.

Boot the computer with an external monitor. I have a small veiwsonic flat panel. Install Powerstrip and reboot. Load up powerstrip and it should detect your video card. Ok, right click on the tray icon. Choose display and then custom. In the next menu select Advanced Timing. Then click on Custom Resolution. I use either 640X480 NTSC or 640X480 Arcade. Arcade works better for some monitors, but NTSC works better in mine.

Anyway, Try to load the resolution. Powerstrip will test it and then if it's accepted, you can then switch to it. Now you monitor should say "OUT OF RANGE". Quickly unplug the monitor and plug in your J-PAC. You should see an image on the arcade monitor and you can click to accept the resolution in Powerstrip. Press ok and then ok again to get back to the main display menu. Save the resolution. Usually I save it as display defaults because..well on an arcade monitor it is default. Close powerstrip and reset Windows. Unplug the arcade monitor and plug in the external one. This is to test powerstrip.

When Windows comes up, load powerstrip. It should switch resoutions. Plug in the J-PAC and then you should see a proper image on your arcade screen. Close powerstrip and open up the Powerstrip.ini in the powerstrip folder. Make sure you see your resolution listed under custom resolutions. Add two lines to the GLOBAL list. Add..

NoSafetyChecks=1

RunAsService=1

These two lines make it so even if you don't shut down windows correctly, your custom resolution will load -on start-up. If you don't have this line, then you will not be able to see a proper screen till after a dialog box and with no screen you can't see the box to click on it. Instead of the dialog box poping up, this flag just loads the resolution.

Runasservice loads powerstrip even before you log on with the XP login screen. This way if you have multiple users, you can still see the login screen and powerstrip is loaded before anything else once you log in.

I had lots of trouble getting powerstrip to work correctly until I put in those two flags. Now its all working great.

OH!! PS.

Is there a way to play a game currently being displayed in the screensaver. I know Tom's MAME Screensaver does this. Is there anyay to do this in gameex? And how can I change the key for the ESC button.. I want to use a different key to force close emulators and come back to gameex. And for some reason my MCE remote works except for the OK button... Any ideas?

Caleb