Fruit Machine Chat

I'm sure I posted about this last night but maybe not.
Saw a paragon2 yesterday and the screen was so long that it was really annoying, everything looked stretched. the board on Bullseye was oval and Word Up was a rectangle. But the setting was 300ish for £1 so I took out £11 in two games and finished my pint.
It just put me off with such a big rectangular screen.

Havent seen that yet. Is it as big as that daft inde cab?

Lots of cabs seem to be starting to use widescreen monitors now. This is all very well when the games are written to use widescreen, but all the ones for normal 4:3 look and play rubbish on them.

It must have been the Paragon 3 they launched at the show - have to agree though, not sure why they needed to go widescreen. Ind:e tried it before, and it didn't catch on - not to mention all the games are prob written for like 640 x 480 anyway!

Most cabs are 800x600 I think, although Itbox is often 1024x768.

It's one thing for the games to be stretched, buts it another problem altogether when it is stretched so that parts are no longer visible, and the touch-placement is skew in places. Which happens fairly often.

I find it strange that you could find a machine where the screen positions are all wrong for one game, but another game is absolutely fine.

Ernest W. Quality wrote:I find it strange that you could find a machine where the screen positions are all wrong for one game, but another game is absolutely fine.

Touchscreens need to be calibrated, and that has to be done manually. All it takes is someone being lazy or stupid when they first set the machine up and you've got problems.

As for different games on the same cab behaving differently, that could be down to how they get the screen position. There's at least three ways using Windows alone, not to mention that some of them may use DirectInput. And they may give different results if the touchscreen drivers are a bit dodgy. Some games may also use a different resolution to others - touchscreens need calibrating for each res.

As for games disappearing off the edges of the screen, that's down to bad setup as well. They need to adjust the monitor settings. Again, just because they're right for one res doesn't mean they're right for all reses. You can try that out on your own monitor!

Hmmmmmm can't see the point in a widescreen game?!?!? :shock: Unless anyone can think of a good reason why? If you want more view size, use a bigger ( 4:3 ) monitor surly?

WaterGate wrote:Hmmmmmm can't see the point in a widescreen game?!?!? Unless anyone can think of a good reason why? If you want more view size, use a bigger ( 4:3 ) monitor surly?

True, although if the graphics card inside the machine is rubbish, all that'll do is increase the size. To get more detail you need to increase the resolution.

The shape of the screen can matter - for instance widescreen monitors are better for playing first person shooters or flight sims on, because they give greater peripheral vision. But I agree with you - there's no need for them in a bloody quiz game, because your eyes are dancing all over the place trying to take all the information in, and therefore distracting you. Fine for watching movies, but not when you're trying to concentrate.

The 4:3 ratio was arrived at many years ago as the "Golden Ratio" of 1 1/3 over 1. I think the other name is "Equable Shape". It's bascally the rectangular shape that the human eye finds the most pleasing, which is why TVs and movie screens were given that shape originally.

So can the new paragon go back to a sensible size/ratio? Or is it stuck on a shitty stretched setting?

The Golden ratio is (1+ root 5)/2 : 1, which is about 1.618 : 1. But most TVs have been 4:3, something to do with the size of the first silent films. Incidentally A4, A3 etc paper sizes are root 2 : 1. Apologies for boring everyone.

The new Paragon, if its the one at the ATEI, is a widescreen monitor - probably 1240/768.. so it can't go back to normal size. Unless they put black borders down the sides of each game, which is very unlikely to happen and would no doubt require eons of programming in terms of touchscreen positioning and other such crap

I think I've started to lose the thread

Ok, seems like a strange move there then on the paragoon ( not a typo error ) front!

Ernest W. Quality wrote:The Golden ratio is (1+ root 5)/2 : 1, which is about 1.618 : 1. But most TVs have been 4:3, something to do with the size of the first silent films. Incidentally A4, A3 etc paper sizes are root 2 : 1. Apologies for boring everyone.

Weird, I remember it as 4/3. But maths lessons were a looong time ago...

Actually, there's a very easy way to give all 4:3 games black bars down the side on a widescreen monitor. Remember I said that each res has a different monitor setting? Adjust the monitor in each setting so all the 4:3 ratios have black bars, and all the widescreen ones don't.

Actually saw one today, looks odd. But I have to say though, it doesnt matter a bit about the way it looks really if the games on it are shite!