Good Monitor for a Arcade Machine Build

[Strayan_Hades]

Hi,

 

I'm currently building an Arcade Machine and wanting to know what would be a suitable monitor.

 

My budget for the Display is between $200 - $300 AUD

 

The Arcade Cabinet is planned to allow for four players. So roughly around 25" - 30" 

 

Any help on this would be great.

 

Cheers

[Middcore]

Do you want 4:3 aspect ratio like the displays in most old arcade games actually used?

[SolarNova]

Ideally u would look on the used market for an old CRT display for an authentic experience and superior image for such a use case.

[Middcore]

If you are OK with a modern/semi-modern LCD widescreen display, and playing old arcade games either stretched or with vertical letterboxing borders, then this is pretty easy. A ~27" 1080p 60hz display (since high resolution and refresh rate really aren't relevant for this) should be trivial to find in your price range.

 

If you want an "authentic" 4:3, CRT display then everything about this becomes much more difficult. Harder to find, harder to mount inside your cabinet, and unless you get very lucky and find someone who is willing to give you such a display because to them it's only junk they want cleared out, a lot more expensive. The window of time when old CRT televisions could be had for a song in charity shops is long past. The charity shops started refusing to take any more in a lot of places, actually, so people just junked theirs. Now the nice ones (like the Sony Trinitrons) that still remain in good condition command a price premium precisely because it's known they're desirable for retro gaming enthusiasts. 

 

So basically depending on which route you want to go, it's either pointless to give a recommendation because almost anything will work, or impossible to give a recommendation because it will be so hard to find something suitable you can't be too picky. I'm sorry I can't say anything more helpful.