A lot of arcade games run with the monitor rotated 90 degrees from the “normal” format that we’re used to with our TV’s. If you’ve ever tried to install one of these games in an arcade cabinet you might be scratching your head as to which way to rotate the monitor. The Truth is it depends on the game…
Most games have an option to “flip” or “invert” the screen so you can adjust the game to however your monitor is rotated but other games do not. I tend to leave my monitors rotated in the Counter Clockwise orientation mostly because there are a lot of excellent Cave SHMUPS that use this orientation with no option to flip. On the other side of that there are a number of Namco “Classics” PCBs that only work in the Clockwise orientation.
Not content with simply basing my decisions on the opinions and anecdotal evidence of people on the internet I decided to Actually create a spreadsheet with every Vertical Arcade Game I could think of and track what their default rotation was, whether they had an option to flip and how to set that option. You see the results in the Google Spreadsheet Below
twistedsymphony’s Vertical/Tate Monitor Game List and Rotation Guide
I stuck with mostly JAMMA-era and newer games since this guide is primarily for those collectors like me who frequently swap their PCBs in and out of generic cabinets. Most of the Classic/Pre-JAMMA-era gamer are more likely to be using dedicated cabinets for their games where aggregated information like this is less useful.
As always if there are games you think should be on the list, or I got anything incorrect please let me know.
My take away from this experience, is that far and wide Counter-Clockwise is the more highly supported rotation option. And Default rotations tend to be split by manufacturer with Namco, Konami and Kaneko opting for Clockwise, and most other developers opting for Counter-Clockwise.
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