A Cheap Monitor for Pac-Man

I have an 80’s arcade machine (Super Pac-Man, shown in the picture above the day I got it, September 15th 2015) that I converted years ago to play multiple arcade games on. The original CRT monitor had bad burn-in, and other than Super Pac-Man, it was just too noticeable to use with other games. I had originally thought to replace it with another CRT, but the cost and, honestly, maintenance / upkeep of an old CRT was simply not worth it. Enter a “modern” LCD screen, in my case a generic branded 19” monitor that fit in decently well.

The problem with playing older 1980s arcade games on a modern monitor is that the screen makes them look too good. Why is that a problem? Well, CRT screens had scanlines, which is how an older TV would display a picture on the screen. Drawing one line at a time, albeit so fast the human eye could not see it. Old arcade games took advantage of these scantines in their pixelated artwork, so when you view these games on a modern flat screen, it looks too good, and not at all correct. 

To fix this problem, and make the gameplay more authentic, I added a small devise between the arcade board and the flatscreen called a Scan Line Generator. It does as the name implies, and does it well. With a few tweaks and turns of a dial, my modern screen was displaying these old games as good as an old CRT would. Or as bad? I dunno, you get my meaning. 

Yes, I needed to degrade the quality to make the games look better. It’s a thing.

Well, fast forward about ten years, or this week to be precise, and said monitor is going bad on me. More lines than the Scan Line Generator is showing up, and in fact if you just turn the monitor on you can see the lines even before the arcade boards starts to boot. Meaning this LCD screen is about it die.

On to ebay to buy a monitor! The last couple monitors I purchased have been huge ones to use with my Mac and for those I spent a pretty penny. But for this old arcade monitor, I figured I could go cheap and grab something of quality but inexpensive from ebay. 

I did have to make sure that whatever monitor I got was also 19”, but more importantly it had to have VGA inputs. I found a buyer selling brand-new Dell E1913S monitors for well under $50 with free shipping. While I await the package to arrive, I have to marvel at just how cheap a decent monitor will set someone back nowadays. 

You don’t always have to go expensive to get what you need. There are so many great monitors for sale, and even with shipping, they are dirt cheap.