By Aszurom (Aszurom) on Friday, August 17, 2001 - 10:45 pm:
Well, I've been eyeballing flat-panel displays for a while now. My #2 box is a win2k work-only beast (no games) and I'm doing a lot of web/programming on it. So, I was strolling through Compusa a few weeks ago and saw a viewsonic VA800 sitting there...
The neat feature of this monitor (besides being bright and purty in 1280x1024) is that it's on a pivot, so you can rotate the screen from the normal "landscape" mode to "portrait". This basically means that you've now got a 1024x1280 monitor instead. The effect is similar to stacking a pair of 15" monitors on top of each other, seamlessly.
Anyway, you all know how long the threads run in the boards here... it's great to be able to fit double the usual amount of text on the screen, hehe.
W3rd!
By Steve on Saturday, August 18, 2001 - 10:16 am:
My boss had a pivoting monitor, a Radius I believe, for his Macintosh about eight years ago. It was pretty cool, I guess. He rotated it mostly because, well, he could.
By Dave Long on Saturday, August 18, 2001 - 04:51 pm:
The only thing I'd think it's cool for is to play all the old scrolling shooters that move from top to bottom as they were meant to be seen. I flipped my TV on its side to do that with one on the Sega Saturn once. I think MAME supports it for some shooters too. You might want to check that out.
--Dave
By Aszurom (Aszurom) on Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 12:12 am:
I might. I don't have any games on this box as it is though. At 60hz refresh rate, and given the way TFT LCD works, I think gaming on one of these would probably be a mess. Of course, there's one sure way to find out...
By Jason_cross (Jason_cross) on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 05:25 pm:
Hercules will be coming out with a 15" LCD monitor (with pivot) this fall. I don't know what the price will be yet, but it should be pretty keen. I think they have a 17" model in the cards as well.
A question for the gamers: would you guys be interested in a little LCD roundup in Computer Games? It's not the kind of thing we'd normally do, but there seems to be some interest in the newer, more affordable LCDs. Would you like to read about it, or would you rather have that couple pages be about other, more game-specific stuff (video and sound cards, peripherals, stuff like that)?
By Desslock on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 06:24 pm:
>would you guys be interested in a little LCD roundup in Computer Games?
Sure. I'd also just like a good analysis about how well they work with games in general. LCDs are great for work, but historically have been poor gaming choices because of their binding on a default resolution. Outside of that resolution, things aren't as crisp, which is problematic for games. Is that less of a concern now?
Stefan
By Tim Elhajj on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 08:37 pm:
"more game-specific stuff (video and sound cards, peripherals, stuff like that?"
I'd actually enjoy reading about something a little different, myself. Affordable LCD's would be a nice diversion!
By Michael Murphy (Murph) on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 12:51 am:
Count me in that group, as well. It's totally justifiable for a games magazine to cover PC peripherals, and this sounds like something I'd very much be interested in. Personally, I'd love to have a better idea of what to look for when buying a new monitor.
By David E. Hunt (Davidcpa) on Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 11:06 am:
Go for the LCD review. They are getting very mainstream. I saw a 15" KDS flat screen at Wal-Mart last night for under $400.
-DavidCPA
By Denny on Sunday, August 26, 2001 - 05:39 pm:
Go for it, Jason. If my 21" monitor ever blows, I'm going to replace it with the biggest flat screen I can afford. Love the LCD screen on Dawn's computer...