Advice on converting New Astro City to MAME or other

Hey guys,

I’m very seriously considering purchasing a used New Astro City cab for a fairly reasonable price but would like some advice before I do so.

I’m planning on turning it into either a MAME cab or maybe even hooking up a Dreamcast, Xbox (original) or PS3/360 to it. My questions mostly center around the possibilities of such with the monitor.

Now I know that the monitor is dual-sync so I will need a CGA to VGA adaptor. These appear to be quite expensive and I’m wondering if, if I use one of these, I will see a great loss of quality when running some of the more high end games. I know that running something like SF4 on a tri-sync (such as a Blast City) it looks incredible but that’s because it’s a higher res monitor. Does having such a game play on a New Astro monitor look comparable if you use the converter?

My other question is whether or not it would be worth just buying a shell instead and purchasing a new tri-sync monitor from somewhere like Happ Controls. I realise this would be the more expensive option and would put me in the sort of price range of a Blast City cab anyway, but this is also another option. Is putting in one of these monitors easy, and would there be a noticeable enough quality shift to make it worthwhile (or more importantly, worth the price difference)?

Basically my main purpose is obviously playing fighting games and this would definitely include some newer ones along the lines of SSF4. For now though I’d probably be ok just hooking up an original Xbox to it so I can at least get Third Strike, MvC2 and CvS2 on it without much problems (I know I can do this with a PC too but MvC2 and CvS2 can be a pain to get working correctly). If I know I can hook up my PS3 or 360 to it at a later date then I’d definitely be much more inclined to do so.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I need to make my decision soon so thanks in advance.

No you wont lose quality but if you’re worried about SFIV, and graphics on a PC make sure you use a decent enough PC.

K thanks, yeah that’s not a problem.

However, I am concerned about whether or not I do indeed need a CGA to VGA adaptor or would something from Ultimarc (such as Welcome to Ultimarc, the Ultimate in Arcade Controls.) be all I need? It says it is made specifically for 15hz monitors… I’m guessing this would mean I wouldn’t be able to run the DC/Xbox in 24hz mode?

Sorry I’m getting a bit confused because of all the information out there.

I haven’t dove that far into cabs yet, But im sure you probably would need it, Yea id get two of the dreamcast ones either way just to have laying around even if you dont seeing as there going out of stock eventually

shmups.system11.org • View topic - Console --> Arcade monitor adapter (SOLD OUT)

Go here and ask if you could be the next in line for the improved version. Only thing you need to do is order a scart cable for whatever system you want to pu in the cab and pad hack controls for the cab simple as that.