Vertical and horizontal CRTs

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:28 am

I could Google this but I feel I get better answers when posting here. Some arcade machines have vertical monitors and some have horizontal. Are these the same monitors only turned sideways? Let's say I was to build a MAME cabinet with a vertical monitor. Could I simply turn the screen 90 degrees and play the horizontal games?

THE
RASTERFARI
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:34 am

Yeah, you have it right -- there is no difference in the actual monitor itself.

Mr. Do! is one odd duck that I can think of because it will send the image "upside down" to a vertical monitor, in terms of how any other game's information would be sent. I think that the high score save patch that was created years later lets you toggle that through dip switches.

The only thing to look out for would be the metal frame around the monitor. It's possible that you'd have to mess around with that to get it 100% right if you took a monitor out of a horizontal game and put it in a different one. But then, with frames, you might have to do that with two horizontal games! Probably not a huge deal if you are going the MAME route.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 1:51 pm

So if I was to build a MAME cabinet that supports both V and H games I could mount the monitor facing straight up and bounce the image off'n a mirror. Then when I wanted to switch I could press a button that rotates the whole CRT 90 Degrees. Hmmmmmmm.

THE
MR. DO-ABLE
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:20 pm

Well, you will have the advantage of not having to really worry about PCBs or anything - I am not up on the latest emulation sensation, but I believe the best tactic might be to get a nice big monitor and let it have some black bands across the sides for vertical games.

Or you can do what JQW did and get a vertical and horizontal cab. (Though it's been 10 years and he hasn't had progress on them.)

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:15 pm

Yeah, you really have two options. One is just using a big monitors. Vertical games will be displayed in the middle of the horizontal monitor with black bars on both sides. It's not as annoying or jarring as you might think. MAME automatically does this for you of course.

The other is building some sort of rotating monitor system. It's been done before so you don't have to reinvent the wheel, even though you're pretty good at inventing wheels and with your mechanical skills you might come up with a better solution than other people did.

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_rotate.shtml

http://jrok.com/project/rotateamon/rota ... nitor.html

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 11:18 am

Thread bump! Just listened to YDKF: Arcade Guts and rekindled my urge to build a mame cabinet. I really have to finish the basement first before I sink any money into a project of that caliber. One thing I will ask, however, is that if anyone goes to a gathering that has arcade parts vendors please keep an eye out for an Aardvark marquee. I'll check around on the internet when it becomes time but that might not be for another year or so. We'll see what happens in 2016.

THE
DUCK IN A ROW
AARDVARK

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:41 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Mr. Do! is one odd duck that I can think of because it will send the image "upside down" to a vertical monitor, in terms of how any other game's information would be sent.

I think that at the time, your typical video game controller didn't have the processing power, software suport, or extra ram to be able to draw images in more than one configuration, so they drew them for whatever was going to be the usual way a coin-op game would be installed relative to the customer.

Today, even Windows will reallign the video in any of the four directions you want. I happen to have a rotatable monitor that provides either landscape or poitrait view, which makes it real nice for viewing documents as a full page in portrait.

Didn't some of them have switches (or just ran the image inverted by default) to mirror the image so that the game could be run from a TV set sitting at the bottom, facing up, that was then reflected off a mirror instead of trying to build a console that could support a full Tv set mounted at customer eye-level?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:13 pm

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:35 pm

Best gif ever!

I remember Omega Race was a reflected style monitor. That's the only one I can think of right now.

When you say rotatable monitor you mean the image can be projected sideways relative to the viewer, not the whole plastic monitor box swivels, right?

THE
WOULD BE COOL TO SEE
AARDVARK

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Feb 24, 2016 12:16 pm

AArdvark wrote:Best gif ever!

I remember Omega Race was a reflected style monitor. That's the only one I can think of right now.

When you say rotatable monitor you mean the image can be projected sideways relative to the viewer, not the whole plastic monitor box swivels, right?

Wrong. You grab the monitor screen and turn it 90 degrees to change it from standard landscape to portrait mode (or back). It's an NEC Mutisync 1880 SX dual mode monitor, landscape or portrait.

Since you asked, when I get back from getting my fingerprints taken for the Maryland State Police, I'll do a video of the process and upload it to YouTube.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:54 pm

Paul, is it maybe possible that you don't know what you're talking about in this thread?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:55 pm

AArdvark wrote:Best gif ever!

I remember Omega Race was a reflected style monitor. That's the only one I can think of right now.

I believe Discs of Tron and Kick / Kickman were two more than did it. Wait, aren't those all Midway games? I guess the mirror image reflected monitor was their thing!

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Feb 26, 2016 5:53 am

Lots of "shooting gallery" cabinets from the 50s and 60s used a mirror to create depth. Space Invaders and Asteroids Deluxe use a similar technique but with tinted glass. Several shooting games from the 90s also used a mirror for the depth trick (Lethal Enforcers was one).

If you really want to see an f'ed up set up, check out the inside of a Darius/Ninja Warriors cabinet. 3 monitors, and the middle one is upside down reflected in glass so that they all seamlessly overlay.

Jizaboz · Post by **Jizaboz** » Fri Feb 26, 2016 12:19 pm

I remember the first time seeing Ninja Warriors in a mall arcade when I was maybe 10 years old.. just staring at the screens trying to figure out how that worked haha

Cool game, too.

Tdarcos: I like NEC monitors best. Good picture and memories of Turbografx-16.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:41 pm

AArdvark wrote:When you say rotatable monitor you mean the image can be projected sideways relative to the viewer, not the whole plastic monitor box swivels, right?

THE
WOULD BE COOL TO SEE
AARDVARK

Well, actually it's both, and you can see it in action, here:

[youtube][/youtube]

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 3:51 pm

Well that's cool. I want my monitor to do that. I want my mame cabinet (that hasn't been built yet) to do that.

THE
FUTURE VISION
AARDVARK

RealNC · Post by **RealNC** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:44 pm

Way too many milk shakes.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:05 pm

Space Invaders had a mirror too, right?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:49 pm

bruce wrote:Space Invaders had a mirror too, right?

I'll allow it.

Space Invaders had a mirror.