Stratosgear/STAC3K — Issue #7: Rotating Monitor
Author: Stratosgear
Created: 2012-02-05 20:12:42+00:00
State: open

After some [research](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApizDr7AD9lXdFdsa2JqbmdLVXZRYzJ1OUVoVTFQNWc&hl=en_US#gid=0) I come to the following conclusions:

* For arcade usage, 16:9 monitors/TVs **SUCK!** In a horizontally placed monitor, games with vertical orientation (eg. shoot'em ups) utilize **only ~42%** of the available screen (same thing on vertically placed monitors and horizontally orientated games). That's **less than half** the actual available screen size.
* Depending on the width of the cabinet, we have a limitation on the size of the rotating monitor. Anything larger than **24"** cannot be rotated because the required diagonal size will exceed 80 cm.
* Realistically we cannot use anything larger than 32" (it's just too big). At that size and placed vertically (too wide to be placed horizontally) we are getting:
* size for horizontal games: 40 x 30 cm (width x height)
* for vertical games: 40 x 53 cm
* With a rotating 24" monitor we have very similar dimensions (39 x 29) and **all** games (horizontal and vertical) have the same screen area.

So I declare the **sweet spot** to be a **rotating 24" monitor**.

Some ideas for monitor mounts:

* http://users.rcn.com/jenison/mars/games/Freak/ (look for the "Head Piece")
* http://www.russprince.com/cabinet/ (look in the Monitor section)

More will be posted as they are found.