Installation and First Impressions

I originally bought the ArcadeVGA for use with a Wells-Gardner D9200 arcade monitor, and have since used it with Betson's Multisync 27" monitor. The AVGA isn't absolutely necessary with these monitors, as they are "hybrid" monitors that can actually support the default 31Khz output from normal PC video cards in addition to the standard arcade video modes of 15Khz and 25Khz.

In addition, these hybrid arcade/PC monitors have standard DB15 monitor ports, so you can connect them to the AVGA using a simple PC video cable. (For other arcade monitors, Ultimarc sells custom VGA patch cables that allow you to wire it up as needed for your specific monitor).

ArcadeVGA Ports (L-R): TV (S-Video) Out, VGA (DB15)

With AdvanceMAME and a lot of configuration work, you can use a regular video card to output 15 KHz video to an arcade monitor. Still, it isn't easy (I've tried), and the results aren't always what you expect — there always seem to be a few games that you just can't get to display correctly. The ArcadeVGA card appealed to me because of its preset arcade resolutions and ease of use.

Installation of the 9200-based AVGA card was extremely simple: I plugged it in, rebooted and inserted the driver disc, and I was in business. The first generation of AVGA cards (based on the ATI 7000) had some issues with Windows auto-loading the ATI drivers instead of the Ultimarc drivers, but the current version of the AVGA installed flawlessly.

The Ultimarc site has a special "D9200 patch" that enables non-interlaced 640x480 and 800x600 modes on hybrid monitors, so I installed that as well. If you don't have a D9200 or Betson Multisync monitor, you'll still be able to have "Windows standard" 640x480 and 800x600 modes, however they'll be interlaced, which does introduce a large amount of flicker. Still, it's pretty impressive seeing resolutions available that an arcade monitor would not normally be able to support.

Next, to ensure that I didn't accidently set the resolution of the monitor to something unsupported, I downloaded RefreshForce: this handy little utility allows you to tweak Window's video modes.

This utility is especially useful since the D9200 and Betson hybrid arcade monitors don't report their capabilities to the OS like standard PC monitors do, meaning that it is possible to set the screen display to a resolution that the monitor cannot handle (and possibly damaging the monitor!) I deleted any resolution over 800x600, and ensured that no resolution had a refresh rate higher than 60Hz.

Time to Play (MAME and the AVGA)

With the ArcadeVGA card installed, patched, and ready for action, it was time to hit the games. If you haven't seen MAME games displayed in their native resolution, as close to the original arcade display as is possible, it's almost impossible to describe how good they look. Colors were vivid, lines sharp and clear, and everything was so crisp and bright it brought a tear to my eye (I'm an arcade fanatic, sue me!)

Video Output Comparison

The vast majority of games in MAME required no adjustments at all, even some of the vertically-oriented games (the AVGA card has a number of custom resolutions specifically designed for displaying vertical games on a horizontal monitor!).

For those games that did require tweaking, there are some great utilities available that make it almost painless. The AVRES program is one available on Ultimarc's site, but personally I'd recommend the M.A.M.E. Resolution Tool from Steve Lilley-Hopkins, author of the MAMEWAH front end. It's a great program to quickly fine-tune the display settings for all your MAME games so that you get the best possible picture — it allows you to change the resolution settings on a per-game or per-resolution basis (such as all 320x200 games, for example).

The majority of horizontal games displayed flawlessly with the default settings, but I found I needed to adjust the display settings for vertical games (some were too small, some cut off, some just weird looking). The M.A.M.E Resolution Tool made making these changes painless, and I quickly had MAME looking "arcade perfect."

The AVGA card is just as comfortable with modern 3D-accelerated games as it is with MAME classics. Being based on the ATI 9200, it's not "cutting edge," but it seemed more than capable of handling every 3D game I threw at it, including my cab favorites Mutant Storm and Space Tripper. The fact that you're limited to a maximum resolution of 800x600 on an hybrid arcade monitor means that the AVGA's got more than enough 3D horsepower, even with the 9200 chipset.

Conclusions

The current generation of ArcadeVGA card is a must-have for MAME cab builders: nearly every single complaint I had with the previous generation of the AVGA has been addressed and the new card performed flawlessly no matter what I threw at it, from 80's classics to modern 3D-blastathons.

The only flaw that still exists with the new AVGA card is an obscure BIOS display problem that seems to be specific to my ASUS P4PE motherboard (Andy has not encountered any other reports of display problems while in the BIOS). The ArcadeVGA card does have a "flash-upgradeable" memory, so future updates to the card's BIOS may be made available if a solution is found.

The ArcadeVGA, At Home in the MAMEframe2

If you've got an arcade monitor, the ArcadeVGA card is a great way to get things hooked up and running quickly. The ArcadeVGA card sells for $89 ($12 shipping), a very reasonable price for everything that it offers.

In conclusion, the AVGA features a large number of "MAME-friendly" features, decent 3D power for modern PC games, and really does make hooking up an arcade monitor a "plug-n-play" operation. Once you've seen what the AVGA can do for MAME on an arcade monitor, you're never going to want to go back to a regular PC video card. Highly Recommended by RetroBlast.

Pros

• An easy way to use an arcade monitor with a PC
• Great "Arcade Perfect" video game displays
• Good 3D-acceleration for modern PC games
• Pre-configured for almost any MAME resolution

Cons

• Some BIOS display problems on my motherboard

Ultimarc ArcadeVGA Page

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