Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

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komatik
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by komatik »

donluca wrote:That's exactly what I did. At first I thought it was just my feeling, so I overlapped them and changed opacity of the front-most layer and saw that the 16:9 backgrounds were squashed. Interestingly enough, the UI and sprites are correct.
OK... well... all I can say is that your copy of Photoshop is broken then. Again, I can personally confirm without any doubt that with raw output there is absolutely no squashing going on in "wide" mode and that "normal" is a pixel-perfect crop. If you stretch them to fit 4:3 and 16:9 then there's a slight difference of about 1% but that only accounts for a couple pixels, and that's confirmed with those pics from FBA I posted, so I have no idea what you think you're seeing.

Regardless, the only thing I actually care about here is whether a game was or had an official not-1x4:3 display setup, which SF3:2i clearly does, so arguing about my or your or anyone's opinion on how squashed or not-squashed the graphics look is mostly irrelevant. It doesn't matter to me if the game looks good at not-1x4:3, just that that was official. And 16:9 is looking moot for my purposes anyway since thus far only SF3:2i and Virtua Racing are confirmed to use it.
energizerfellow‌ wrote:That's typical of many X68000 games, which would have the end user manually adjust the monitor to 4:3 to get the correct picture aspect ratio. Plus it's a home port anyways, not an arcade release. The arcade release is definitely 4:3.
Does the "these games were designed and developed using the X68000 so it's not really a port" issue have any bearing on this?
energizerfellow‌ wrote:As far as I know, all commercial arcade releases using CRTs were done on shadow mask, never aperture grille. Were there even any flat CRT cabinets other than generic tri-sync JVS candy cabs like the Sega Blast City or Taito Egret 3?
I have no idea. Although I figure that if the devs were bothering to do 16:9 for their game then maybe they were also using a higher-end 16:9 screen, but who knows. I just wish there was an easy way to look up the right grill/mask/lines simulation style for any given arcade game.
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Xyga
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Xyga »

komatik wrote:
Xyga wrote:It was curved and its mask type looked peculiar, unlike the average shadow mask.
As a side note, I really really wish this type of information was cataloged somewhere.
Yeah it's unfortunate but a lot of things remain undocumented, in particular when it comes to dedicated cabinets.
The lack of detailed photography and videos is infuriating (most videos of these cabs are worthless for documentation and reference really)

VR deluxe had that peculiar display, but for another anecdote I had the privilege of playing the original Space Harrier deluxe too, and I remember something caught my attention; if my memory's right the top of the display seemed to have a more pronounced curve compared to the three other sides.
I didn't investigate closely enough to tell if it was some sort of oddly shaped bezel-encasing at the top (probably what it was) or whatever, anyway that kind of info is rarely found anywhere on the internet. Sad.
I couldn't play for too long as the owner didn't want the machine (which was 100% original parts) to work too much, I understand why he was afraid especially in regards of the hydraulic system.

On that note; the handful of crazy guys collecting rare cabinets are the only people you can meet who might help better documenting those, or they could do it themselves and publish, but in my experience like all big collectors of whatever once they've acquired the stuff they become over-protective and secretive, and make the number of people they talk to more restricted and away from the internet, or limited to more private/exclusive clubs, in the same fashion big pcb collectors act.
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donluca
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by donluca »

komatik wrote:OK... well... all I can say is that your copy of Photoshop is broken then.
Interesting, just to double check I've cut a piece of the background from both images into a new file and they matched 1:1 indeed.

Something fishy happened when I overlapped the two pictures, where the pillar in the middle was wider than the other one, go figure.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by energizerfellow‌ »

Looks like we have the Namco Medium Sized Attractions and Sega NAOMI Multiboard hardware games to add to the list:

Namco Medium Sized Attractions:
Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator
Galaxian 3
Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 : Project Dragoon
Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 J2 : Attack Of The Zolgear
Mitsubishi DS5000
O.R.B.S.
Ridge Racer Full Scale

Sega NAOMI Multiboard:
Airline Pilots
F355 Challenge
F355 Challenge 2: International Course Edition
Sega Strike Fighter

From Taito both Rastan Saga III and Darius II were available in separate 2x and 3x 4:3 screen variants.

Sega also had their multi-monitor Mega-Tech System, which was the Mega Drive version of Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 system.
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komatik
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by komatik »

energizerfellow‌ wrote:Looks like we have the Namco Medium Sized Attractions and Sega NAOMI Multiboard hardware games to add to the list:
Oh nifty, thanks. I've never even heard of some of these, never realized there was more than one "Galaxian 3". That Orb one looks like it would've been interesting if it were ever made. Still looking like the Darius and Galaxian 3 families were the only shmups though. I swear there was another, but maybe it was a rename.
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buttersoft
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by buttersoft »

Not really sure if this counts, but a single Outrunners PCB drove a side-by-side cab, i believe, and so technically it outputs to two screens. You have to set numscreens in GM/MAME or you get two narrow screens squashed into a single display.

Has anyone mentioned F355? There's a version of that with 3 screens.
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komatik
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by komatik »

I know racing games that let multiple drivers sit side by side would technically count as multiple displays off a single machine, but what I'm really looking for are games that present a single unified playfield whose overall sum total end to end aspect ratio is something other than 4:3 (in other words, a game that really needs a custom cabinet instead of just a few normal cabs next to each other). And yeah F355 is on the list:

16:9
- Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact (dipswitch option)
- Virtua Racing deluxe cab (confirmed via promo flyer)

2x 4:3
- X-Men (6-player version)
- Rastan Saga III
- Tecmo Bowl

3x 4:3
- The Ninja Warriors
- TX-1
- Buggy Boy
- F355 Challenge family
- Sega Strike Fighter
- Eunos Roadster Driving Simulator (just a prototype?)
- Airline Pilots (3x gamefield plus 1x separate info display)

variable
- Darius family (1-3x 4:3)
- Race Drivin' Panorama (3x 4:3 or 5x 4:3)
- Ridge Racer family (normally 1x 4:3, but had 3x 4:3 option)
- Galaxian 3 family (unclear, 2x 4:3? 16x 4:3??)

multiple separate screens with different stuff on them
- Punch-Out (two separate screens with separate info)
- Turret Tower (super rare. some jet game thing?)
- Poka Poka Satan (2x separate screens plus 1x common)
- many racing games with multiple players (eg; Crusin' family, etc)
- several lightgun shooters
- a bunch of crappy strip-mahjong and DDR clones

other shit
- Mitsubishi DS5000 (some traffic safety simulator thing, 3x4:3)
- O.R.B.S. (prototype, half-dome display)

investigate
- Thunder Ceptor (rare game, little info. looks 1x 4:3?)
- original cotton arcade or X68000 ver (unclear)
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Fudoh
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Fudoh »

Do you happen to know if the 3-screen version of Ridge Racer is emulated in MAME?

I have a lovely NEC 431BT monitor (3x 4:3, exact 12:3 aspect ratio) for MAME/3-screen emulation and every additional multi-screen title is highly welcome.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Xyga »

Fudoh wrote:Do you happen to know if the 3-screen version of Ridge Racer is emulated in MAME?
It is, but last time I've tried I couldn't bring the other two screens to show...nothing I did in machine configuration, video, or dipswitches helped.
Couldn't find any notes about that either.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by BuckoA51 »

I have a lovely NEC 431BT monitor (3x 4:3, exact 12:3 aspect ratio) for MAME/3-screen emulation and every additional multi-screen title is highly welcome.
Did you ever take the plunge on the Samsung C49RG90SSU Fudoh? That's a lot of canvas and could fit 3 720x480 windows side by side with room to spare.

All we need now is some kind of ultra HD compatible Datapath type device :)
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by orange808 »

https://www.extron.com/product/quantumultra

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 3807295111

$5000 usd. :)

It's out there, if you have the time and money. I sure don't.
We apologise for the inconvenience
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by BuckoA51 »

:shock: I don't have room for it either :lol:
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Fudoh »

Did you ever take the plunge on the Samsung C49RG90SSU Fudoh?
No, but I want the 49" Dell one as my next desktop display - likely sometime later this year. Need a new desk first and that's no easy task...
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by donluca »

I'm on the same boat.

I want to ditch this 4 monitor setup I have now and just use a big monitor.

Unfortunately Apple decided to shit on us customer looking forward using those new ultrawide monitors, so it seems I'll be stuck with 4 monitors for the foreseeable future.

Ugh.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by BuckoA51 »

No, but I want the 49" Dell one as my next desktop display - likely sometime later this year. Need a new desk first and that's no easy task...
Any reason to go with the Dell over the Samsung?

Sorry for de-railing the thread, if this goes on much more I'll start a new one.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Fudoh »

less curve on the screen (3800 vs 1800) and and the stand is way less deep. Samsung's stand is absurdly deep (for workplace / desktop use).
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Fudoh »

Unfortunately Apple decided to shit on us customer looking forward using those new ultrawide monitors
how so? No support on OSX for the required resolution? Bandwith can't be an issue. The total is the same as on the 5K LG Apple monitors, just in a different width/height configuration.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by BuckoA51 »

Ah OK, I have a mount in mind for mine I'll let you know if I take the plunge.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by donluca »

Fudoh wrote:how so? No support on OSX for the required resolution? Bandwith can't be an issue. The total is the same as on the 5K LG Apple monitors, just in a different width/height configuration.
Don't want to derail further this thread, I'll just leave those here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8641919
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250079605
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by nem »

Returning back to the topic, I already mentioned Suikoenbu before, but I fired it in Mame just now to take screenshots of it. There's a setting under the service menu named Monitor Type. There's two options, Normal and Wide. Wide doesn't make the game output a different resolution, it's still 320x240, however, the characters and backgrounds are notably squished.

Image

Top left is normal, top right is Wide
Bottom is Wide stretched to 16:9 (427 x 240)
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Bassa-Bassa »

https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page= ... db&id=4526

Is this in MAME? Could well be the first using a display of 4 monitors.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by Ed Oscuro »

Interesting discussion which brings in some new (to me, anyway) perspectives & historical information. Pretty cool.

One thing I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet: Many MAME frontends, the style with lists off to the left, usually offer an option to filter variants on screen specs, including, I think, on multi-monitor displays in particular. I think this kind of data is compiled already, but I'm not savvy on the MAME web to know if there is some other way to easily search out non-standard resolutions.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by nem »

Bassa-Bassa wrote:https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page= ... db&id=4526

Is this in MAME? Could well be the first using a display of 4 monitors.
That is really neat.

There's a video of it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOC56PvZN5w

It's not in Mame.
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Re: Which PCBs used abnormal or multi-monitor displays?

Post by komatik »

nem wrote:I already mentioned Suikoenbu before,
Not in this thread you didn't. Thanks, I'll add it to the list.
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