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Arcade and Pinball Discussions => Beginner's Help Corner => Topic started by: ybr on August 12, 2014, 11:16:26 pm



Title: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: ybr on August 12, 2014, 11:16:26 pm
I'm putting together an upright MAME cabinet (dedicated to vertical, 4-way games) as a start to my collection.  From there I'll keep watching the videos, reading up, and maybe resurrect my own classic cabinet at some point.  I've been running a craigslist search daily, ready to pounce on something cool.

But one thing I hated right away: default MAME on an LCD.  The square pixels, the razor-sharp perfection...I won't have it.  So I started playing around with MAME's HLSL features with somewhat encouraging results.  While still sold on putting a CRT into this first cabinet because of how much I hated the LCD in my prototype MAME setup, I've been entertaining the idea of using an LCD and tweaking the heck out of HLSL's potential to yield a CRT-like experience for each game I want to present.

What's the consensus thus far?  Can HLSL be a worthy alternative to an actual CRT?


Title: Re: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: iankellogg on August 13, 2014, 07:11:03 am
CRts are the way to go by far but you can get some impressive results. Griffin built his Mame 2.0 cab using a 50 inch plasma masked off for 4:3 and using HLSL gets a pretty close emulation of the roundness of the pixels, scanlines, and more importantly the curve of the glass.


Title: Re: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: ybr on August 13, 2014, 09:42:30 pm
50" plasma?  That thing must be a beast.  Neat idea though, masking it off like that.

I was bummed to discover how hard it is to find a clean (i.e. very little burn-in) 19" CRT, much less a new one.  The 25" still seem to have reasonable availability but they're just a tad too big for Mappy, Donkey Kong, etc., IMO.


Title: Re: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: iankellogg on August 14, 2014, 07:13:57 am
if you are going to do mame i recommend a 25 inch CRT unless you are ONLY going to play early 80s games, in which case you should build two cabinets.


Title: Re: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: ybr on August 15, 2014, 10:51:26 am
Good point.  Lucky for my wallet I don't have nostalgia for stuff outside of the late '70s/early '80s.

The hunt for a Happ 19" CGA (or equivalent?) has begun.  I can already tell they're damn hard to find in good shape.

As an aside, I think it's interesting that coin-op monitor resolutions are classified using "CGA" "EGA" and "VGA" designations.  I suppose it was just out of convenience.  But I never imagined I'd be looking for a CGA monitor again.


Title: Re: HLSL+LCD vs. CRT
Post by: iankellogg on August 15, 2014, 10:59:54 am
pretty much any 19 inch arcade monitor you find will be CGA (standard res) just fine one and use it.