Any guides?
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Okay, my dad and I are planning on building an arcade cabinet, but we aren't sure how to hook up all of the electronics. Plus, we are NOT using MAME. I really prefer the real deal. So, are there any guides on how to hook all the crap up???
Refusing to change my avatar since like freakin 2007.
YES! I'm glad you asked. There are lots and lots of guides to this, but if you can't find any on Google, here are some tips. First off, the very first thing you need to do is figure out what kind of games you want to have inside. If this is your first system you're building, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and go with any Jamma or Jamma+ games. Try and avoid really retro stuff until you have some experience or lots of money. They are rare and occasionally very easy to screw up.
First thing you need to do is pick out some game motherboards. You can look on ebay and search for things like 'jamma pcb' 'jamma game' 'jamma arcade' or things like that. Find some working motherboards of games you think would be cool, and read all the fine print. If the guy won't post pictures you know something's up. Also, if his feedback is below about %80, be very cautious. Also, and this is really a personal bias, but if the guy doesn't know how to spell or has really bad grammar or SPELLS EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS, then you might want to avoid him.
Then, after you have some motherboards, you need a few more things. You will need buttons and joysticks, the usual Jamma setup is 2 8way digital joyticks with 3 buttons per player plus 2 start buttons. Most NEOGEO games use 4 buttons per player, and some capcom games use 6. You also need an arcade monitor, I would go with a "standard resolution" or "CGA resolution" they are both the same, just different names. You can get a used one that has been refurbished for around a hundred dollars, even less if you don't have to have it shipped very far.
Then, after you have all of that stuff arranged, you can get into wiring. I'll post back soon on how all that would work out, but it's dependent on what kind of hardware you buy to use in the machine. And trust me, it's not really hard.
Edit: if you want to find some stuff out now before you go any farther, you should look at this website: www.hardmvs.com
It is primarily for NeoGeo, but they have a good guide for converting an existing arcade cabinet into a NeoGeo cab, and it will work for pretty much any Jamma boards with little or no modification.
First thing you need to do is pick out some game motherboards. You can look on ebay and search for things like 'jamma pcb' 'jamma game' 'jamma arcade' or things like that. Find some working motherboards of games you think would be cool, and read all the fine print. If the guy won't post pictures you know something's up. Also, if his feedback is below about %80, be very cautious. Also, and this is really a personal bias, but if the guy doesn't know how to spell or has really bad grammar or SPELLS EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS, then you might want to avoid him.
Then, after you have some motherboards, you need a few more things. You will need buttons and joysticks, the usual Jamma setup is 2 8way digital joyticks with 3 buttons per player plus 2 start buttons. Most NEOGEO games use 4 buttons per player, and some capcom games use 6. You also need an arcade monitor, I would go with a "standard resolution" or "CGA resolution" they are both the same, just different names. You can get a used one that has been refurbished for around a hundred dollars, even less if you don't have to have it shipped very far.
Then, after you have all of that stuff arranged, you can get into wiring. I'll post back soon on how all that would work out, but it's dependent on what kind of hardware you buy to use in the machine. And trust me, it's not really hard.
Edit: if you want to find some stuff out now before you go any farther, you should look at this website: www.hardmvs.com
It is primarily for NeoGeo, but they have a good guide for converting an existing arcade cabinet into a NeoGeo cab, and it will work for pretty much any Jamma boards with little or no modification.
Emulation isn't accurate. There is no substitute for real hardware!
arfink wrote:They are rare and occasionally very easy to screw up.
Heed this advice, My space invaders machines sound broke with me just looking at it!
I reccomend the book - "Project Arcade - Build Your Own Arcade Machine". It's filled with tonnes of great info. It's released under the same "Extreme Tech" Label as Bens Book so you know it's all good.[/i]
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ganonbanned
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from indigno, last year sometime. great guide.
EDIT: oh, nevermind, you arent using MAMEIf you really want one, I would suggest building your own with an old PC and MAME. I've been trying to convince my parents to let me, and I've been keeping my eye on garage sales for an old CRT.
Now, I've drawn it out on paper and done some research, and:
1: Get an old PC. Something in the 300 - 900 mhz range would be fine.
2: Get a video card with RCA output and get it working.
3: Install MAME and all of the games you want.
4: Build a cabinet.
5: Controlls:
Alright, first, get an old keyboard that you never want to use again. Then, figure out all of the keys you want to use with your game(s). Build the board with all of the buttons and joysticks, spinners and trackballs that you want (You can order real arcade parts for this online). Now, for the buttons and joysticks, take the wires for all of the switched from the parts, and solder them onto their respective keys on the keyboard.
For trackballs and spinners. You will have to hack apart ball mice for this. You will have to use the motion detectors on the inside to use with the trackball or spinner. There are more descriptive tuts on the internet, and I have no plans to use these parts in my design anyways.
For the coin insert slots, you can either use buttons or coin slots off the internet, depending on whether or not you plan on making the machine free or pay to play (Although, I believe that it is illegal to use MAME for commercial use, but it's fine if you just use it in the house), but it's the same concept as the buttons.
6: Mount the TV in the cabinet so that only the screen is visible, if possible.
7: For power, you can just plug everything on the inside into a power stip. Then plug the power strip into a black extention cord and lead it out of the back of the case so that it looks all nice and pretty.
8: decorate it and add the finishing touches.
Last edited by ganonbanned on Sat May 05, 2007 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Wow, that's what I call a GOOD seller! If I knew the man I would shake his hand and congratulate him for being such an awesome guy! Arcade dealers in MN sure aren't like that- they are more like politicians, always ready to take your money, stab you in the back, and run.
Emulation isn't accurate. There is no substitute for real hardware!
IF I may make a suggestion,
start with the Jamma cabs as suggested by arfink, the Jamma's have a lot of possibilities for ya, also another suggestion I can make is to have it easy to swap boards/cartridges
I am still mad when I want to swap out MVS carts (actually I only have one cart but it is still a be-otch whenever I wanna show off the cart to a friend, gloating is fun stuff ya know
)
Eventually I wanna be able to have an easily swapable arcade cab with the ability to plug my classics into it via RGB (I have seen the light!)
Having few more features to your project can't hurt and always reach further to make it better
~Krepticor
start with the Jamma cabs as suggested by arfink, the Jamma's have a lot of possibilities for ya, also another suggestion I can make is to have it easy to swap boards/cartridges
I am still mad when I want to swap out MVS carts (actually I only have one cart but it is still a be-otch whenever I wanna show off the cart to a friend, gloating is fun stuff ya know
)Eventually I wanna be able to have an easily swapable arcade cab with the ability to plug my classics into it via RGB (I have seen the light!)
Having few more features to your project can't hurt and always reach further to make it better
~Krepticor
I refuse to dignify myself with an intelligent and witty signature
OK, just to make this even easier for you:
http://www.hardmvs.com/html/buildAcab.htm
This guide tells you how to turn a junked out Jamma cabinet into a full blown NeoGeo MVS cabinet. The only things it does not tell you how to do is install a working arcade monitor, because it assumes you know that part already. I'm going to assume that you are using a newer monitor that does not require an isolation transformer. If you do need an isolation transformer I don't know how to help you there. Chances are if you are buying an arcade monitor new or even refurbished you won't need one.
For the monitor you will need to have the manual on hand so you can have the pinouts of the monitor. The important things you will need to put into your monitor are the red, green, and blue image signals, a video ground, and the sync signal. Some monitors will have a place for both a positive and a negative sync. Just try one or the other, if the image is upside down then you need to use the other one. Oh yeah, the monitor will also have a power cable, which you should know how to hook up. Of course, the monitors don't have plugs to plug into a wall, you will need to grab your 120 volts (assuming you live in the US) from the main power supply of the machine.
I hope that all helps some for you, unless of course I am misunderstanding what you mean by a wiring guide.
http://www.hardmvs.com/html/buildAcab.htm
This guide tells you how to turn a junked out Jamma cabinet into a full blown NeoGeo MVS cabinet. The only things it does not tell you how to do is install a working arcade monitor, because it assumes you know that part already. I'm going to assume that you are using a newer monitor that does not require an isolation transformer. If you do need an isolation transformer I don't know how to help you there. Chances are if you are buying an arcade monitor new or even refurbished you won't need one.
For the monitor you will need to have the manual on hand so you can have the pinouts of the monitor. The important things you will need to put into your monitor are the red, green, and blue image signals, a video ground, and the sync signal. Some monitors will have a place for both a positive and a negative sync. Just try one or the other, if the image is upside down then you need to use the other one. Oh yeah, the monitor will also have a power cable, which you should know how to hook up. Of course, the monitors don't have plugs to plug into a wall, you will need to grab your 120 volts (assuming you live in the US) from the main power supply of the machine.
I hope that all helps some for you, unless of course I am misunderstanding what you mean by a wiring guide.
Emulation isn't accurate. There is no substitute for real hardware!