Tempest with a Raster monitor?

GoldenAge

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I just bought a Tempest game. After playing it for a few hours, I noticed that the lines seemed to have a bit of a pixelated look to them. Is it possible that someone put a raster monitor in this game somehow, or possibly replaced the tube? I looked in and the board, monitor, everything looks pretty original, he even pointed out the high-voltage kit that was put on (LV200 or something like this?). I have an Asteroids cocktail, and I see no such effect on that game, just perfectly straight lines. Did I get duped??? Or are there adjustments that can sharpen this up?

Thanks very much,
Ryan
 
Post some pix of what the screen looks like. Also what does the tube model number say?
 
If I remember right, the WG 6100 used in Tempest and most vector games is lower resolution than the black and white vector monitors. That's why some people prefer the Ampliphone vector monitor, it has higher resolution so you don't see quite as much of the 'jaggies'.
 
Your monitor is probably focused too well. Resolution on a 6100 isn't that tight and you can see the individual pixels if you focus it down far enough. Blur it up a bit and you'll lose that look.
 
Tempest with a 6100 doesn't really have that crispness that say Asteroids has:

DSC07919.jpg


Not my pic but my 6100 has this look a bit.
 
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I was recently at someones house and they had a vector mame set up. At first I thought it was just running on a raster monitor, but he explained the 6100 to me.

It really looked like a raster monitor. (as the above pictures show)
 
Thanks for all the replies!

Yes, that pic is pretty much what I'm seeing... I did play around with the focus a bit, and did get a more pleasing overall look.

Well I guess this is normal, so that's a relief.

Thanks for setting my mind at ease about this!
 
Not to be redundant, but mine looks like that as well, and I went through the same doubts when I first got it that, you did.

It still has that afterglow you don't get with most rasters.
 
Yeah, just an adjustment, it would seem. To clarify, a raster monitor is not really anything like an X/Y monitor. They both have tubes and circuit boards and display pretty pictures but that's it. The way they operate is completely different. They are not compatible in the least. Not that you have to worry. Too bad there isn't any kind of swapability, there would probably be a lot less converted vector games around.
 
Tempest with a 6100 doesn't really have that crispness that say Asteroids has:

The reason asteroids doesn't look pixelated is because there are no phosphor dots on the face of the tube. B&W tubes have a coating of phosphor on the inside, (like an oscilloscope) if you look closely it looks like a coating of paint on the inside.

The "pixels" on the tempest monitor is the individual phosphors of color Red, Green, Blue and the shadow mask. But the tubes are mechanicaly the same as the raster monitors. Only the yoke and the deflection circuit are different.

There is no way you have a raster monitor in your Tempest unless you have a MAME setup in there or ZVG of some kind.
 
I found a Tempest in the wild back in the late 90's and remember having this same thought.
The dot pitch of the tube gave a sort of stair-stepping effect that I didn't recall from back in the day.

Even with a MAME setup on a 1024X768 RASTER screen, it looked tons better.

Nowadays, I don't over-analyze, I just try to beat my high score.

Oh- and a single color phosphor coated screen has pretty much an infinite resolution..
 
Yeah, just an adjustment, it would seem. To clarify, a raster monitor is not really anything like an X/Y monitor. They both have tubes and circuit boards and display pretty pictures but that's it. The way they operate is completely different. They are not compatible in the least. Not that you have to worry. Too bad there isn't any kind of swapability, there would probably be a lot less converted vector games around.

This is SOMEWHAT true. A tube is a tube is a tube. Vectors chassis don't take special "vector" tubes... they use the very same tube that a rastor uses.

What is different is the chassis... and how it works with the tube. Instead of drawing every line from top to bottom (or every other line in the case of interlacing).... it only draws the lines you see on screen. That is why the blacks are so... black.
 
There is no way you have a raster monitor in your Tempest unless you have a MAME setup in there or ZVG of some kind.

This is also not entirely true. There is a device out there that will convert vector signals to raster signals allowing you to use a raster monitor in a vector game. I can't remember the name, but it came out about a year and a half ago... and from what I've heard it does a serviceable job.

EDIT: Oops...mcfreak linked to it.
 
This is also not entirely true. There is a device out there that will convert vector signals to raster signals allowing you to use a raster monitor in a vector game. I can't remember the name, but it came out about a year and a half ago... and from what I've heard it does a serviceable job.

EDIT: Oops...mcfreak linked to it.

Not only that, but the ZVG Tronic mentioned is for the other way around...it's to hook a PC up to a vector monitor (for playing vector games in MAME on a real vector monitor, for example)
 
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