RetroPie Arcade Cabinet Monitors
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As for building a retropie powered arcade cabinet which ones has anyone used any that were inexpensive, lightweight, simple and big enough for 2 players?
I myself has spent many hours playing a Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinet that feels a little cramped when your spending a long time with another player playing the games, which Is why I would also get a bigger screen than ones used by those cabinets as well as making the arcade a little wider and spaced out.
I didn't want a heavy crt or monitor because I don't want the cabinet to be too heavy.
I was looking at some by Sceptre
If anyone has experience in making arcade cabinets I would like to hear about your experiences with arcade cabinets.
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@emulatre71 I have an old, used 20" HP LP2065 monitor, which is plenty large if you're up close to it.
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@emulatre71
I've built an arcade cabinet, but rather than using a monitor, I opted to use a smaller sized LCD TV, as it allowed enough space for two players. -
@luddo183 I used an old 20” 4:3 Dell monitor turned vertically that I picked up in Goodwill for $10. It’s not as light as a modern one, but I’m not moving the cabinet around, so I don’t care. The cabinet is quite a bit wider than the screen to give more space, though.
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I plan on building my cab to be fitted with a 32" tv, the viewport of the cabinet will be 4:3
I decided on that simply cause 32" are super common and cheap to buy.
It having a 16:9 aspect ratio doesn't matter, cause it's not visible on the outside. -
I've built 6 Arcade/MAME machines over the course of 20 years.
Had CRT's but switched them all over to Dell 20" 4:3 UltraSharp 2007FPB.
I found it was the easiest and cheapest to work with and is a workhorse. It has a very thin bezel, lightweight, and fits perfectly in place of any 19" CRT with nearly identical size specs. They last a long time and work really well sideways with no bleed off. Viewing angles are very good with no color/picture loss.
You might need black paper just to cover the very edges and button.
Whatever you choose... I highly reccomend using a 4:3 monitor. Using a wide-screen will distort the games and just looks bad.
The monitor I chose is NOT HDMI, so you'll need to work it out. I run all mini-PC's on my MAME machines so they work perfectly for what I used them for.
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@weirdh said in RetroPie Arcade Cabinet Monitors:
@emulatre71 I have an old, used 20" HP LP2065 monitor, which is plenty large if you're up close to it.
Your build looks incredible.
Looking at fitting my first bartop using this same model monitor, are the viewing angles alright?
Also, what's the power situation, I'm currently using a TV which needs to be turned on prior to powering up my pi, but I'd like my pi to be able to boot the screen when it powers up, rather than turning both on separately. Is that a thing? How do I know which screens/monitors will do this?
Thanks.
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@adamguest1985 Viewing angles are fine. It doesn't have great blacks or anything, but it's also not a modern screen. I believe this thing was discontinued around 2005 or '06. My cab has two dedicated power supplies inside that both get switched on with the same C14 power switch. The screen is hooked up to one of these. When I shut down the Pi with this shutdown script, the screen even goes to sleep after a few seconds.
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@weirdh Good to know. Thank you.
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If you're good and comfortable with house wiring, I've found the best way to build a cabinet is to install a powerstrip internally then open it and extend the switch to a 20a 120v hard-mounted external switch, like the original cabinets had. In fact, you can actually use the original switches to be honest, they ran on 120v systems. I normally replace them just for reliability sake.
Once you do this, everything is left as "wake on power", or left switched "ON". Even the Pi can work this way, but will need a proper shutdown process to turn it off. Everything else in the cabinet will remain off when power is off, then immediately turn on when the main power strip is energized (Lights, LEDs, Audio, Monitor.. etc... just like an original cabinet did. When I build a cabinet, my goal is Old School.. I like it all on at once, and ready to play...all discrete and hidden so you can't tell it's a PC or modern electronics.
Again, not saying to do this, but I am very comfortable designing and working with power, so it's not an issue for me.
Best,
JamR
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