This is really out of idle curiosity, but I'm curious to know how many people prefer smaller screens as opposed to bigger ones, or vice versa... there's a huge range of sizes from cabs to iPhones, but for the people who have tried very different sizes, which ones are you most comfortable with? How far away do you stand from the screen and do you find the favored size depends on the game?
I normally play on a small monitor (15" LCD or 14" CRT, not tated) and find it best for fast-paced game since I can easily keep an eye on the whole screen, and tend to be very close to the screen for tight dodgings... my other setup is a pretty big TV (23" or so, still not tated) that feels too big and tiring for games like Futari Original and its blazing fast bullets, and playing on a cab is almost painful since I can only track half the screen or so (it's especially punishing when I'm tired, and has lead to stage 3 gameovers in DOJ of all games!). But people keep telling me cabs are better and you get used to them, so I wonder if I'm just an alien or what
One of the ONLY times I have ever preferred playing on a much smaller screen is with my flip-top PSX screen/console for PSX games. By doing so, it condenses pixels together, making polygons (and 2D sprites, in some cases) look much clearer and less hideous than they do on a bloated 28' CRT. So basically, the smaller the screen, the better it looks (within reason -- I mean you don't want to play on a fucking screen that is so small, it's the size of your palm, do you? Me neither.).
For example, Tenchu looks worlds better on the PS One than it does on a regular T.V., because let's face it, Playstation games look pretty goddamn ugly sometimes.
Of course, non high definition games such as Panzer Dragoon Orta look shitty on anything that isn't a small 14 to 18' CRT (especially if that happens to be a widescreen plasma display.).
Now, games like Bayonetta and Vanquish beg to be played on a giant HD widescreen television. I wouldn't imagine playing either of them on a small set.
But for straight up arcade games, you'd want a CRT that isn't too big, but certainly isn't too small, either. I find that a great deal of the joy I get from playing games has become testing the same game on many screens to find its the best possible fit. And games are so varied when it comes to this and I am so anal about it, that I have multiple CRTs of various sizes to better suit each game.
"Too kawaii to live, too sugoi to die. Trapped in a moe~ existence"
For tate I think 29" is just about too big, unless I can sit at a good distance from the screen.
A friend recently left a huge tate'able LCD monitor at my place, and sitting right in front of it by the table playing Cave games it was impossible for me to get an overview of everything going on in the playfield...
Cab-size is perfect (29"), but I'm also very comfortable with my 21" Sony CRT, regardless if I'm playing vert or hori games on it. A 27" CRT (for example PVM) looks just as big as a 29" if you're sitting in front of it.
An Amiga monitor (14") is a nice cheap RGB alternative and easy to tate, but I wuld almost call it a little bit too small for comfort. I often found myself dodging too late because I didn't spot the bullets since they were so tiny. It's also considerably harder to spot small gaps between bullets compared to playing on a large 29"/27" screen.
Anything less than 14" is too small for me. (Don't you dare quoting that out of the context.)
I used to play DOJ BL (MAME) in "yoko" mode on a 23" LED monitor and it was borderline okay. I could score and dodge pretty well so it obviously wasn't such a huge disadvantage, but there were situations when dodging felt pretty unfair. This might have been also due to the slight blur which made it hard to spot the gaps in very fast patterns (like stg3 boss, mostly). While this was still okay, I also tried to play on my 15" laptop first (yoko), which resulted in a screen size of maybe 8-10" or so. This was really a pain in the ass, I died for the most irregular reasons.
I agree with the quote vortex. Playing on some huge TV is fun for other kinds of games, but a lot of shooters must be built with this kind of specification in mind. Whenever I sit in front of the cab, it just feels like the best size to be able to see everything but still make minute movements.
I prefer the 25" screen of my Madonna over the regular 29" screens. A lot of 15Khz games look crap at that size, not talking the same about 31Khz games which look nice on big monitors... Nowadays I have a Hantarex trisynch which lets me play at 15-31khz shmups, but obviously the image isn't as sharp and nice as in the original Nanao monitor.
I use a 21" 4:3 Diamondtron based CRT though I greatly prefer a proper 25",29" arcade monitor or just a regular one thats compatible with 15khz.
I need to buy another one so I dont have have to lift the darn thing everytime I want to play a hori or vert, degaussing alot is not exactly good for the monitor.
19" hantarex crt in the cab, much bigger and I'd want to sit further back. Got 14" CRT on the test rig and its fine for old stuff like galaxian, but not much fun when the GFX get more detailed. Xbox is on either a 22" LCD at short range or 37" LCD if im sat on the couch.
Funny how a 14" CRT monitor used to be a luxury back in the day. At least us europeans had RGB scart.
I've got 2 stand up cabs, one's 26" the other 20".
I much prefer playing on the 26" cos firstly it's much more all-encompassing and atmospheric, it sucks you in and fills your vision, secondly I find it easier to spot bullets and weave. It feels like there's more room.
So I tend to play whatever's my current fave on the 26".
But then I tried Alcon on the 20" after not playing it for months and managed to defeat final boss using just shot on my first game, something I'd only ever once in 1,000s of games on the 26". I think the smaller monitor lets you see the 'swarm' and the spaces rather than spotting each individual bullet.
So I prefer bigger, but can play on smaller too. Depends what your playing too maybe.
Love the big 26 " of my Aero but when I switch over to the 18 " Cute then I am perfectly fine with the crisp small image of that one so I really don't care that much .
Yep, the ol' 29" Nanao dual-sync 15/24kHz CRT monitor looks great when playing those dedicated low-res games on it, especially the SH-3 powered DDP-DFK 1.5 PCB.
The Sony 9" CPD-9000 Trinitron RGB monitor is awesome for playing the Neo-Geo MVS games on it - supports up to 640 x 240 resolution in 240p format. Even the arcade PCBs that run in 640i mode on a 15kHz monitor looks sharp (i.e. -- Mr. Driller 2 & Hanabi De Joon PCBs can run in 640i format selected on the Operator's Menu selection setup).
PC Engine Fan X! wrote:Yep, the ol' 29" Nanao dual-sync 15/24kHz CRT monitor looks great when playing those dedicated low-res games on it, especially the SH-3 powered DDP-DFK 1.5 PCB.
I use a 20 inch CRT and it has been adeqate for horizontal shmups and vertical shumps that have a panorama screen option. I only find it too small for vertical shmups in vertical letterbox format. I don't turn it sideways, so I don't use Tate modes.
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