Beginners Guide 3 - A Guide To Arcade Monitors

Welcome

With all the different sizes, makes and models of arcade monitors, things can get confusing.

This guide is desgined to tell you all about the differences. Later on I will be adding a basic troubleshooting setion.

Size

9" - 10" - 12"

13" - 14"

19" - 20" - 21"

Very common size in Upright machines, small sitdown machines and USA tabletops (everything is bigger in America) Possibly the most common monitor size.

24"

An odd size not used often. You wont see this size often. One rare game that springs to mind is the dedicated version of Kick 'n' Run

25" - 26"

Common in large upright machines and normal in Sitdown machines

28"

Common in newer sit down Jamma cabs

33"

Common in newer dedicated games. Example Gauntlet Legends

50"

Projection screen games like House of the Dead use these

Screen resolution

PC owners will be used to the term VGA and SVGA describing their monitors and or graphics card. This is a very high resolution in the arcade world with most being much lower. The standard resolutions are listed below.

You might wonder why arcade monitor technology is so far behind that of PC's. Well remember the standard was adopted over 20 years ago. So PC monitors were no better then. Today you may ask well why are they only using VGA in the newest of games. Well if you think how much a good 21" PC monitor costs compared to a 15" one, you will realise why. With most arcade games now using 28" and 33" monitors it would be far too expensive

Standard Resolution

If you ever had an old PC you will remember the term CGA. This is what arcade standard resolution is. Standard resolution was used in all early arcade games and is still used in some brand new games to date. This is by far the most common resolution.

Medium Resolution

In old PC terms this is EGA. Medium resolution monitors were popular with Atari in the mid 80's after Atari no on else seemed to use them for several years where they got used again in the 90's. They are now a very common choice in new games.

High Resolution

This is the PC term VGA. These are used in some modern games and many touch screen games.

Common Monitor Makes and Models

Hantarex MTC90

Hantarex MTC900 / MTC900E

Another Nasty monitor. Due to their age, many of them have failed or are failing. This monitor has 2 main boards very close together. A massive improvement on the MTC90. The most common serious fault is that the LOPT (Line output transformer) fails, causing the monitor to apear completly dead. The large white resistor will start to glow and get very hot when this happens.

Fortunatly, if you have a working one, you will be pleased with the quality. A well adjusted MTC900 provides a pretty crisp display with good colours (good for its age)

These monitors mainly use Phillips tubes which are common and easy to replace.

The MTC900E is almost the same as the 900. I will take pictures of mine shortly to show the differences.

Hanatrex MTC9000 / MTC9110

The MTC 9110 is the same as the MTC9000 except that it has a larger LOPT and heatsink and also has a fan mounted over the LOPT. This is because they are for 25" plus sized tubes which draw more power, therefore needing more cooling. Make sure your fan is working! If its not, expect it to die soon.

The MTC9000 has a major flaw with the LOPT as did the older MTC900. The LOPT fails and the white resistor gets hot and glows. It smells aweful when this happens! There is a single board making it the simpler of the MTC range.

The one thing the MTC9000 has going for it is picture quality. The picture is sharp and the colours are vivid on a correctly setup monitor. This is mainly due to the use of high quality picture tubes such as Nokia made ones.

Wells Gardner K79xx series

Not as common over here in the UK as Hantarex monitors. Wells Gardners mainly found in USA made machines. (So you might find your Atari games have these in them)

This is a monitor with a very high build quality. There is a single small board, which just goes to show that the engineers spent a long time minimizing things to keep it simple. This is reflected in the reliability. They are very long lasting monitors mainly due to the small number of components that can go wrong. The LOPT's are also high quality and don't fail anywhere as near as the Hantarex MTC models.

Unfortunatly I don't feel that these monitors have as sharp a picture as the Hantarex MTC's. Contrast is not as good, and you can't turn the drive up much without the colours becoming blurry. All said they are not 'that bad' The reliabillity probably outways the loss of quality over the Hantarex MTC's

Nanao (must inset model number here) 100v

Japanese made found in mainly Mid 80's Sega games such as Space Harrier. These are 100volt monitors unlike the Hantarex and Wells Gardner Monitors which are 120volt. So if you are using one of these make sure your game cab isn't putting 120volt into it.

The picture quality is excellent. I have one that apears to have never been adjusted since it was new (there is two inches of dust covering the controls and they are all seized up) and all the adjustments are still perfect (whereas most monitors will drift out over time as components wear out.

I do not know about reliability as I only have the one that is working, and I only know someone else with one that isn't working.

Arcade UK MCG (Chassis kit only)

I have imported a few of these into the country myself. These are fantastic Hantarex replacements. They were designed about 13 years ago as a simple reliable replacement for the unreliable Hantarex monitors.Reliability is prooven and they are still using the same old design today. Much thought has gone into these monitors. All hot components are mounted on the outside of the chassis on heatsinks, so not to create hotspots / heat traps in the middle of the chassis causing premature failure.

They work with seperate / composite / positive or negative sync so will work with anything. They also have a 'mirror' connector so that you can easily plug it in to work in a mirrored gun cab with the picture reveresed.

I supply these monitors as a complete chassis kit, providing all the wiring you might need to get this working in your cab. They are drop in replacements for the Hantarex MTC range as they use all the same connectors. You can also adapt them to work with most other monitors using the wires and adapters provided.

The picture quality is superiour to ANY monitor I have seen. You can really turn the colour drive up high, with no bleed. (You can make the colours super vivid without getting any bluring) They look great even when used on a 20 year old Phillips tube. They look incredible on a Nokia tube.

Others

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