Games you restored with a Flat Screen TV or Monitor

You can't restore a vid. You can only ruin them... I have one LCD machine but an HD candy cab comes that way but with a commercial type LCD.
 
I used an LCD on a Top Skater... the picture looks better than the old rear projection screen, and takes up less space. I know others have done similar for other big screen games like that... as well as newer Golden Tee games. As far as classics on an LCD... yuck.

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DogP
 
+1 on Top Skater and other rear projection games. The local mall has an 18 Wheeler deluxe with an LCD instead of the projection set. It looks pretty decent. Putting one in a classic would be a world class no no.
 
I used an LCD on a Top Skater... the picture looks better than the old rear projection screen, and takes up less space. I know others have done similar for other big screen games like that... as well as newer Golden Tee games. As far as classics on an LCD... yuck.

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DogP

what size tv is that?
 
Which games have you recently restored with a flat screen monitor or TV?

Games are not "restored" with a flat-screen monitor or TV, unless they had one originally. They are "updated".

"Updated" is sometimes good, sometimes bad. When it comes to classics, this one is usually seen as bad.
 
I put a 27" LCD into one of my Rush Rock's - I think for these types of games it can be pulled off but recently I saw one of those newer Namco cabs that have a bunch of classics in it. It had an LCD and wow did it look horrible.
 
The Top Skater looks sweet and a great upgrade!

That said though, I've not really seen one in a normal arcade I liked. For example, I've seen a Midway cocktail like mine with one and you basically have to plant your face on top of the screen to see the entire screen.

Others I've seen the person did not make a bezel for the monitor and you could still see LG from the monitor and it did not fill the square window in the glass.

So I suppose you have to try it and see how it goes when doing one, their not for eveyone or every game.
 
I can see why you guys would put these in the newer games; they probably look better and are more stable than the projected screens. Personally, I'd probably only do an LCD for a bartop project. When it comes to restoring games or running classics, it's CRT all the way.

But I can see down the road, there may not be much of a choice. Technology keeps changing. Original monitors are not as plentiful or cost-effective as they once were. I hope we aren't "forced" into LCD or LED replacements once these games become 40 yrs old+.
 
I prefer playing Robotron on the bartop with LCD. looks crisp and clean.
But Defender looks better on CRT because the glow gives effect to the space theme.

I hate CRTs because they are old and you can rarely get them to look just right. always one thing or another to mess with. and if you aren't an expert then you are SOL.

If I could figure out how to retrofit an LCD into that curved plastic shroud of the Joust, the CRT would be gone. but I can't figure out a clean engineering solution, so I leave it. with it's slightly out of line guns and screen curl.....

What i really like is that cga/vga conversion board that gives you full control over form fitting the size of the screen to the monitor. LOVE THAT feature. big benefit of going LCD right there....
 
Have you ever seen Final Fight: Double Impact (downloadable title) for the PS3? The game has CRT-like options, and really looks like you're running it from a CRT monitor, except it's on an LCD TV. It may be "cheating the system" by making it look like CRT with effects, but those little tricks may be our future options once these classics become as old as Methuselah.

 
I think that any game running a standard resolution monitor looks like crap on an LCD. Medium resolution games are OK on LCD and high-res games are a natural fit for LCD.
 
It should be noted that new projection CRTs are available fairly inexpensively.

My personal opinion: swapping out projection monitors with LCD/plasma looks horrible. They are typically haphazardly installed and the aspect ratio is wrong. For a collector with limited space though, I understand this might make good sense.

You might think it makes sense from a reliability standpoint for operators to do this, but I'd almost certainly bet that rebuilding a projector with new tubes & caps will outlast any tv retrofit and cost less, though it is more work.

Since nobody makes or even wants rear-projection sets anymore, replacement CRTs are inexpensive. For Sega's Mitsubishi, Toshiba & Hitachi projectors, VDC (http://www.videodisplay.com/ they also own what used to be penn-tran/wintron/lexel), who made tubes for a lot of projectors, has tubes for just about anything for around $99 each, and IIRC that includes the service of swapping out anything attached to the tube.. you just send them your burned CRTs with yokes & all (projection sets might have 2 or 3 yokes installed on each tube), and you'll get back new tubes you can just plug back in. Otherwise you can often find new tubes on ebay & elsewhere for $50 or less. If you have a US-build Namco game: they used off-the-shelf mits TVs, so just find any old mits model VS-50* from CL for free-$50 and you can drop it in. Just about any home-use projection set should have decent CRTs, or at least nothing more than a channel ID burned into a corner.

Personally, I'd rather spend $0-$400 to actually "restore" a game and keep it original. I have a few projection games I'm going to be re-tubing within the next couple months.

If you have burned projection CRTs just google the tube number or search VDC's site & ebay. Many tubes of a similar class can be swapped around as well, just ask VDC if they don't have the exact replacement.

There is a learning curve in working on a projection set I suppose, mainly in having to converge new tubes and setting your G2 (screen control) & color balancing, so it isn't exactly for beginners. Nearly all CRT projectors (including cheapo consumer sets) have self-discharging bleed-down resistors. You don't have to discharge a projection set or even remove the anode from the tube, you just remove the anode lead from the HV splitter block/flyback with a quick-disconnect.. They're pretty easy to work on, really.
 
I keep kicking around the idea of putting an LCD TV in the Demolition Man pin body that I have and running a video pinball game of some sort..
 
what size tv is that?
It's a 42" screen. It was actually a plasma monitor from a Polycom videoconferencing thing (no tuner), which was great... since nobody really wants a 480P monitor. But it works great for Top Skater, and it allowed me to shrink the cab by over 2 ft. in depth.

DogP
 
Heres one has anyone used a 26in lcd on a naomi setup? I bet that would look pretty bad ass.
 
i used an lcd watch to keep time while restoring my games with factory monitors.

seriously, though, the only lcd screen in my house is my tv. i don't think lcd's belong in arcade games.
 
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