Finally found the ideal way to enjoy vertical shmups in tate

[kennyrh]

Playing vertical shmups in yoko mode has always been a constant source of irritation to me and I finally found the solution. I bought a 23" Hewlett Packard 2335 rotatable monitor from Computer Exchange for £110 and I can report that it is absolutely awesome and has changed my shmupping life forever.

MAME has taken on a whole new dimension and I was totally blown away by the PC Raiden III in tate. All of the tate supported Japanese shmups on PS2 can be played via the PS3 component lead as well as PSN and X-Box 360 shmups that support tate. Also I have a VGA lead for the dreamcast so that all those great shmups on that system can be played in glorious full-screen as well. I haven't tried any Dreamcast yet but I'm hoping the verticals have some tate support.

PS1 and Saturn are catered for via the S-video input although i can't recall if many of the games for the older systems have tate support. I recall that Raiden Project does because i used to turn my portable TV on its side to play Raiden II.

If anybody else has invested in a decent rotatable monitor I'd be glad to hear about your experiences but meanwhile i'd just like to recommend this monitor to anybody who loves verticals.

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear it, but the panel is rated 16ms (grey-to-grey response I assume?) but I don't see anything about input lag (i.e. time from signal reception to the image being displayed onscreen).

Is MAME selecting the correct ratio for the image? There should be bars on the left and right when playing horizontally, and to the top and bottom when playing rotated games. New MAMEs seem to be good about this but I thought it was worth mentioning. On the hardware side, rotating a 16:10 screen sounds like...an undertaking, to me. My 26" is big enough that I know rotating it would require an extra height adjustment (not to mention a special sturdy stand).

On the (probably) plus side it looks like this is a relatively inexpensive S-IPS panel, so you get nicer color and viewing angles than TN. I tried rotating a TN panel and it was horrible (as detailed before - SyncMaster 204B).

[speedlolita]

Widescreen tate isn't that great!

[kennyrh]

Not sure about the technical side of things but anything is an improvement to vertical shmups on a normal monitor. Yeah, obviously I've noticed a slight stretching effect but it's nothing to bother me.

Another massive plus is being able to play Visual Pinball tables full screen. I've seen no bars in MAME, top or bottom, so the aspect ratio is obviously a little off - but there again, it's not that noticeable.

Rotation is no big deal, I just adjust the height and swivel to the left - takes no effort.

I guess there'll always be sacrifices when you get something at a decent price . . .

[StarCreator]

I just picked up a Dell U2311H myself... I finally went for it after seeing a review that had the previous model match a TN in input lag (though not quite as fast on the response time of course). I haven't had a chance to give it a shot with my 360 (it was playing Ketsui on a friend's monitor that pushed me over the edge), but I'm definitely appreciating the color and black levels.

[RGB32E]

I just picked up a Dell U2311H myself... I finally went for it after seeing a review that had the previous model match a TN in input lag (though not quite as fast on the response time of course). I haven't had a chance to give it a shot with my 360 (it was playing Ketsui on a friend's monitor that pushed me over the edge), but I'm definitely appreciating the color and black levels.

I checked out Dell's page for the U2311H and am very tempted to buy one myself! Share some pix if you would!

[t0yrobo]

Another massive plus is being able to play Visual Pinball tables full screen. I've seen no bars in MAME, top or bottom, so the aspect ratio is obviously a little off - but there again, it's not that noticeable.

Check your video card settings. There should be an option to not stretch 4:3 to 16:10 someplace.