6 Player X-Men Flatscreen Mod

I haven't seen the mod, but did they still use 2 monitors, or are you saying they merged it into one large widescreen? I assume either way, they'd need two converters, like CGA to VGA... then if using 2 LCDs, it'd just be a matter of hooking them up and placing them side by side (and make sure it's two large 4:3 monitors with thin plastic surrounds, which may be hard to find).

If using a single wide screen, you'd have to make sure the TV has two VGA inputs (or whatever signal you decided to convert the CGA to), and the ability to do PBP (picture-by-picture). That's like picture-in-picture, except it puts the two video signals side by side instead of one inside the other. It'd probably be a little bit squished, since I don't know of any widescreens that are 8:3 ratio, but it'd probably look fine (and maybe there's a setting to shrink the vertical to keep both sides 4:3).

DogP
 
i woudnt be surprised if they used MAME and put it in a 6-player X-Men cab with the wide screen.

I could be wrong though!!! =-O
 
It could be done with something similar to this:
http://www.ambery.com/duvgadvipipv.html

You would have to use a VGA to component video adapter as shown in the bottom diagram.

MPV-100-VGAPAP-1.gif


MPV-100-InputDiagram.gif
 
I mean in the cab with normal crt's they are not next to each other. One is mounted normally and one is in the system and they use a mirror to display it next to the other. Kinda similar to the virtua cop machines where the monitor is in the base and the mirror was used to display the image(they did it in this to push the screen back further. At least that is how I remember it(I haven't taken one apart in a while).

I don't see why you wouldn't do the lcds the same way. One normally and adjust the mirror so the other displays next to it. Besides if you tried to mount the lcds next to each other one of the images would be messed up.
 
I mean in the cab with normal crt's they are not next to each other. One is mounted normally and one is in the system and they use a mirror to display it next to the other. Kinda similar to the virtua cop machines where the monitor is in the base and the mirror was used to display the image(they did it in this to push the screen back further. At least that is how I remember it(I haven't taken one apart in a while).

You're right, one of the monitors is laying flat and a mirror is used to reflect it up next to the other monitor. I think it would be impossible to use actual boards and get this mod to work, because the image is reversed for the 2nd input. I'm sure Ground Kontrol just has a computer with MAME hooked up to the monitor.
 
You're right, one of the monitors is laying flat and a mirror is used to reflect it up next to the other monitor. I think it would be impossible to use actual boards and get this mod to work, because the image is reversed for the 2nd input. I'm sure Ground Kontrol just has a computer with MAME hooked up to the monitor.

I had to edit this. But I think my cga/ega to VGA converter board has the option to mirror the image ill check later. Also on games I have seen dip switches to change the output image like on one of my cabinets. Does anyone know if the 2nd monitor had its yoke wires standard or reversed to accommodate the mirrored screen?
 
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do you think we can approach clay to make a run of these or do you think ground control has the right on these boards?
 
IMG_5131.JPG


curious about image quality. never seen an HD flat panel make lo-res video look good. but combining the screens into one seamless display is a nice trick. plus it appears they are saving a lot of space, since the cabinet has been... uh... sawed in half.
 
This was from an email from Clay Cowgill to me:

The display stuff is basically one-off hardware that takes the slow scanning
standard resolution video (each field of the video frame gets split out to
two displays using a deinterlacer) and stacks it side by side into a single
'vga' speed image (twice as fast) suitable for a flat panel. One of these
days I plan on getting the design boiled down to something manufacturable
and get some circuit boards made and sell a conversion kit, but I haven't
had time to do it yet.

There is your answer!!
 
i wonder if we should start an interest thread then for clay so he's aware of what demand there might or might not be....
 
IMG_5131.JPG


curious about image quality. never seen an HD flat panel make lo-res video look good. but combining the screens into one seamless display is a nice trick. plus it appears they are saving a lot of space, since the cabinet has been... uh... sawed in half.

Wow, they really cut off the back of that one? WTF?
 
I assume the image is flipped at the yoke, not the video signal, so I don't see how this would be difficult by using 2 CGA converters and simply using PBP (picture-by-picture)... sometimes called POP (picture-outside-picture). I know not all TVs have it, but it's not that uncommon, nor hard to find one that does if you're looking specifically for that. Depending on the inputs available, you might need one CGA to VGA and one CGA to S-Video or something, but that's no problem.

DogP
 
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