I had this game... was nice how it played both in vga, and also on my crappy tandy laptop that was CGA.

Biggest problem though was as you can see, the game moves slowly, and the fault of that is the sound code. The game has to pause every time it plays a sound. If you mute it, the game finishes in half the time.

The version I remember was on PC, and it was better because it was VGA, and it could DO things while sounds were playing. None of this take one step, play a sound, take another step once sound is finished crap. But then I don't remember the sounds being quite like this either. It was still better on IBM-PC. *nostalgia anyway. *sniff*

They oughta sue whoever designed their site. Who the hell thought making people look at your site through a window half the size of the lowest VGA resolution was a good idea?

KP, I have seen a TV from HP and 1 other brand that have built-in streaming features, but the unit was much more expensive than just buying an HDTV + game console (or that Roku player), so I would find a TV you like first.

Some other points related to some comments above:
1080p- a few years ago this cost a lot more, but nowadays it's only marginally more expensive than a 720p, many blu-ray discs are encoded 1080p, so it's worth getting a 1080p screen today. (I have a 720p LCD TV that I bought 2 years ago, and it's fine, though I use it mostly for games).
^MycroftHomlz, p (progressive vertical lines) is not dpi (dots per inch) (a 46" 720 dpi display would cost over a million dollars and have 225 times the resolution of 1080p)

120Hz- this is the new fancy feature on higher-end hdtv's. it doesn't magically make your content any better. Even the best Bluray movies are still recorded and encoded at 30fps. It will make some DVD content look better, because 120 is an even multiple of 24, whereas to display 24fps content at 60Hz (standard refresh rate of LCD's) you have to drop or add frames (called inverse-telecine) so sometimes you see tearing. So movies, sports, games, with lots of motion or many small moving details will look better. I've asked several Best Buy "tv specialists" some specific questions about 120Hz that I already knew the answers to, and NONE of them got it right. and instead of just saying "I don't know" they talked out of their ass and tried to sell me some special hdmi cable that supports 120Hz... epic lolz. If your total budget is $1500, don't waste your money on this feature.

LCD vs Plasma vs DLP- The quality depends a lot on the manufacturer. It used to be that LCD screens simply could not be made as big as plasma, but they are getting larger and cheaper each year. Plasmas still have burn-in problems (more problem for games than movies), and a shorter life span (about 7 years vs 10+ years for LCD- both assuming you use the TV several hours per day). Plasmas are also more fragile, so be careful when moving them. That said, I think the picture does look slightly better on plasma, but would still get LCD. (samsung, sony, mitsubishi- all great choices. other brands, try to look at it in person before you decide). DLP is a rear-projection TV, and I've found these to not be as crisp as LCD/plasma (sometimes the pixels blur and/or you can see horizontal scan lines). They are usually 80+ lbs vs an LCD being 30 lbs (base detached). Some people can see a flickering of the color-wheel with DLP (personally I can't, depends on lighting conditions and how sensitive your eyes are).

streaming content- if you have a PC with windows XP media center or Vista premium/ultimate, and all your content is windows compatible, an xbox-360 will make a nice front-end that you stream videos from your PC. If you use other formats, the PS3 has a better chance of playing them (also recommended since it plays bluray). I have both consoles, and the PS3 is much better at playing H.264 videos from CD-R/DVD-R and wired network. I haven't seen Roku player in person, and I don't have netflix, but it looks like a nifty device. If you subscribe to cable or fios, many of their DVR's can stream content that was recorded in other rooms.

projectors- not sure if you will find a decent 1080p one under $1500, but you can get a very large screen. Keep in mind the cost of replacing the lamp/bulb can be several hundred $$ (lamps usually last 2000+ hours in eco-mode). I have a 480p (widescreen but not high def) projector in my bedroom with an 8' diagonal screensize. Upon advice from someone else, I bought a 4'x8' foam board, and painted it with brightest white but non-glossy paint, and hung it on a wall for my screen. $380 projector + $30 screen + $37 progressive DVD player + $15 component cable + $30 black curtains. Compgeeks has a electric roll-up screen for pretty cheap.
Choosing a projector also depends on your room size, visit www.projectorcentral.com and use their calculator for any given model you are considering.

cables- buy online. someone mentioned monoprice, they are good, just check their in-stock status to be sure. they always ship ground from CA, so can be slow depending on where you live. HDMI and DVI are electrically identical, so it's a passive adapter. HDMI includes extra pair for sending digital audio. Component and VGA are analog, HDMI/DVI is digital - means more accurate colors, less ghosting/interference effects. Although analog is capable of carrying a full 1080p signal, content creators (namely Sony blu-ray) will cripple devices stating that you need HDMI to do 1080p output. This is because HDMI support encryption in the form of HDCP, which they think will reduce piracy (obviously they have been proven wrong already). fiber (sometimes called TOSlink) vs digital audio over copper (RCA jack) doesn't make a difference in quality, digital is digital. Look for a stereo receiver with many inputs and outputs.

antennas- hdtv's can pick up all the local broadcast channels with perfect picture and digital surround sound, if you get the right antenna. check www.antennaweb.org to see where channels are broadcasting relative to your home and to pick the correct antenna. It's a 1-time fee, unlike month-to-month cable/satellite. www.titantv.com is a tv-guide style website, lets you sort by broadcast type.

internet speed- 1.5Mbps should be fine, as long as you have patience to download the video before watching it. Will stream standard def no problem, but high-def or netflix downloads would take longer-than-realtime. Most services let you download in advance, so I wouldn't upgrade your 'net connection until you try it out for a month or 2.

buying online- go to best buy or walmart, and look for a screen you like, so you can see it in person. a lot of times the specs "on paper" look good, but the display is mediocre at best. Then look for exact model online, try to get a pricematch. Get the extended warranty if it's not outrageous (a single repair could be $500+ without it). We bought a 46" LCD for work from www.lcdtvs.com, they are New Jersey based, and their salespeople might try to up-sell you some cables, but we got free shipping and a free hdmi cable from them, and 3rd-party warranty was cheap (service is actually provided by best buy locally). Took about a week to arrive (western PA). If you buy online, make sure you factor in shipping costs, it could be $150+ since it's considered freight.

wireless vs wired- Roku, Wii, PS3 have wifi built in. xbox-360 is $99 for the wifi adapter (all except wii have wired ethernet built in). It's not too hard to run cat-5 cable if you are a DIY'er, but would be really expensive to get an electrician to do it. Ethernet hubs/switches are cheap, put a 4-port hub at your TV, run single cable between hub and DSL/cable/fios router, and all devices are online.

hope that helps. sorry for the long post. I'll answer specific questions if you have any.

ah come on you couldn't have played the vga version?!?

>> ^southblvd:
>> ^Shepppard:
Also, with the old BIG monitors, you don't need to unplug them, the USB/PS2 port would most likely snap because of the amount of weight from the montitor as it pulls away.

What USB/PS2 ports? They only had VGA and power going to them.


True, but IMO that only makes them more flimsy. The power cord is easily pulled out of most monitors, but the VGA cord isnt really plugged IN to anything, and those two metal..twisty..things.. On the side aren't exactly strong. I had to break them off to fit my adapter for my video card, and it was actually VERY easy to just rip them out of the plastic.

>> ^Shepppard:
Also, with the old BIG monitors, you don't need to unplug them, the USB/PS2 port would most likely snap because of the amount of weight from the montitor as it pulls away.


What USB/PS2 ports? They only had VGA and power going to them.

Hey Krupo!

Thanx alot for the promotion of my video http://www.videosift.com/video/Prototype-VGA-trailer

/Laek

Woo! I still remember my Voodoo 1! With the cable to hook it to the other video card because no VGA adaptor. Just pure, raw 3D power. Awesome.

There was a really awesome and trippy screen saver that used it. And Tomb Raider. That's all I can remember at the moment, but man that was a SWEET screensaver.

Oh, maybe magic carpet?

It's true- Dan says so.

"It's normal for LCD monitors, whether you're using DVI or VGA input, to have some tens of milliseconds of "input lag", as they buffer the incoming data in their panel driver hardware. This doesn't make the image blur, but it does make LCDs that much slower than a pure analogue monitor to get an image onto the screen. This can affect audio/video sync in movie playback, and make games feel slightly more sluggish too, but not everybody can notice the difference. I'm pretty good at spotting, and being annoyed by, minor lip-sync problems in video; most people don't seem to notice errors below 100ms."

quoted from http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00009.htm

westy, the data to display doesn't follow similar paths from the video card to a CRT compared to an LCD. Any component in those 2 paths could cause one to be much slower than the other. The image isn't taken directly from the gfx card.

It's also highly possible that in this comparison he used some things known to cause such delay. Either using a vga cable to connect the gfx card, or running it at a non-native resolution requiring the LCD to rescale each frame to fit the native LCD resolution. Both of these introduce lag, but there could be any number of other components processing the signal to get it onto the display that could also introduce lag.

you also have to take into account whether that's a DVI-LCD or a VGA-LCD... DVI is going to be quicker, because you don't have to convert it to an analog signal and back again, like you do with VGA.

i actually prefer the CRT image (on a flatscreen CRT design), because the grays and blacks are better defined. most LCD's are not true 32/24-bit color, due to the advantages of pixel dithering in LCD's.
but because i go to a lot of LAN parties, the LCD is obviously more advantageous...