> Grrr I'm about to buy a real arcade monitor and you are saying I will have issues > running win7 64bit? What about using the ArcadeVGA 3000 on win7 64 does it work then? > What about win8 64 did they fix the problem?
We're getting way off topic now, but Windows 7 has issues (at least when running MAME in DDRAW mode) when you switch from a non-interlaced resolution to an interlaced resolution (or possibly the other way around). Also, it reports interlaced resolutions as having 1/2 the refresh rate. If you dig around on BYOAC, I think people have worked around some of the issues but I gave up and went back to XP 64-bit.
Regarding the ArcadeVGA 3000, there's this bit on the install page...
Quote: Important note about Windows 7 and 8
There is currently a known issue with Windows 7 switching between resolutions, which is caused by a bug in Windows 7 / DirectX.
If the desktop is running at an interlaced resolution (eg 640 x 480 on a standard-res monitor), When any game which uses a non-interlaced res is started (which is pretty much any Mame game), an error resuts "Unable to initialize directdraw".
Note this only happens if the desktop is running at an interlaced res, which is the case when using a standard res monitor (not a multi-frequency monitor).
There is a workaround for this: Run the desktop at a non-interlaced res such as 640 x 288. This might mean using a front end which has a 640 x 288 mode such as Mamewah. The resolution can be switched using the Quickres icon.
There are also 3 useful utilities which can be downloaded here. These are simple programs which change to the specified res. So, you can configure a front end to run 640x288.exe to change to this resolution before starting the game. Once this has happened, Mame will then be able to invoke the correct resolution for the game.
Note to Mame devs: This issue does not arise if D3D is selected. But owing to not being able to disable stretching in D3D in Mame this results in a poor quality picture.