Tekken Tag -> Mame Cabinet?

[rivacom]

I'm just about ready to purchase a Tekken Tag Tournament Arcade cabinet(Fully working) but I had a few questions that maybe everyone could help me figure out.

1.  The cabinet is in full working order,  Would this be a hard cabinet(existing buttons/montior/speakers) to rewire into a PC to use for mame?  I already have a card for controls(I bought it years ago and have no idea what they call it lol) and Would most likely just need to pick up a video card to handle the VGA for the monitor, am I correct?

2.  I was a big fan of Tekken I am on the fence about pulling the plug on the Tekken board and moving it to mame.  Is there a way I could wire both up?  So I could switch between the PC and Tekken?

[SephYuyX]

If it's a good condition cab, it's rarely suggested to convert it to mame. I believe there have been projects with a switch involved, but I dont recall off the top of my head.
Another option would be to keep the cab as is, and just buy another one to convert to mame. Or, convert this one to mame, and just use MAME to play Tekken Tag instead of the actaul board.

[rivacom]

I understand the reason behind mame and preserving the history of a machine.  I'm thinking however that the cab was not a original Tekken Tag cabinet, but just a standard Jamma cabinet.  Maybe others can tell me more. .  The original side art is already begun to peal away and there seems to be something spilled all over the control overway.  However, I am planning to just add a existing Mame to the machine without modifying the actual cabinet.  I read somewhere that Jamma switcher could be used, to keep the existing board intact, and that jpac could be used as well.

My concern is Jpac only seems to hold 3 buttons per user, I would need something with 6 or more per person.  What exactly would I need to do to make this playable with mame, without modifying the original setup?

[BobA]

The jpac supports the regular buttons on the jamma harness.  It also has direct inputs for up to 8 buttons per player on the jpac board.  The buttons over 3 on a jamma machine are on a kick harness that can be directed to the jpac instead of the arcade pcb.

[nitz]

Something to keep in mind is, I don't think Tekken Tag Tournament is working very well in MAME, or maybe it's working, but needs a really fast PC. Someone else can maybe shed more light on that. Just sayin' that if you like that game, don't ditch the board just yet!

[rivacom]

I was told elsewhere that I could just setup a jamma switch and keep the original board as well as use mame.

[nitz]

2.  I was a big fan of Tekken I am on the fence about pulling the plug on the Tekken board and moving it to mame.  Is there a way I could wire both up?  So I could switch between the PC and Tekken?

Heh, I think I read that first sentence there and then just shut off my brain! So I had it in my head that you were pulling the plug (ie ditching) the Tekken board and moving it (ie playing it) in mame.

[rivacom]

Ok so I guess I have a few questions here.

First, if I order the j-pac like i've been instructed.  http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html  I see where I would hook my monitor from the pc, and USB to jpac.  But 1.  Where does this card plug into? and 2. Where would the controls plug into?

Second I guess depends on the first question though,  If I get a jamma switcher, I'm assuming I would plug the Jamma board from Tekken into say, slot 1, and then would I plug the J-pac into slot 2?

[Malenko]

1, the card plugs into the jamma harness which is what the buttons are wired to, the other end you figured out.

2, yes.

[rivacom]

The jpac supports the regular buttons on the jamma harness.  It also has direct inputs for up to 8 buttons per player on the jpac board.  The buttons over 3 on a jamma machine are on a kick harness that can be directed to the jpac instead of the arcade pcb.

Just so I'm not missing anything,  Do I need to buy something extra for this?  Basicly The machine has 5 buttons and a start button for both players.  I will probably add a 6th button and possibly a coin button to each player.  The extra two per player your saying I can wire in the j-pac, but that leave's 3 buttons for the kick harness, so I guess I need to figure out what this is and or if I have to purchase it.

[Malenko]

Just so I'm not missing anything,  Do I need to buy something extra for this?  Basicly The machine has 5 buttons and a start button for both players.  I will probably add a 6th button and possibly a coin button to each player.  The extra two per player your saying I can wire in the j-pac, but that leave's 3 buttons for the kick harness, so I guess I need to figure out what this is and or if I have to purchase it.

No there is a screw terminal on the JPAC. All you will need to do is rewire the buttons from Tekken's Kick harness to the JPAC. The kick harness is a little connector that goes into the tekken board for the extra kick and tag button. You can either cut the harness (I wouldnt) or just run new wires (I would)

[rivacom]

Is this going to be a problem if I rewire the extra buttons, when I pick up a jamma switcher down the road?  How will I make sure the jpac see's every button then?

[rivacom]

So I got my Jpac and went to install it, turned on the PC and loaded it to 640 480, rebooted and I can't seem to pick up the pc on the arcade monitor or lcd screen.  Is there a default resolution I should be shooting for?

It's a old dell computer with geforce mx 440 card in it. The controls seem to work great, just trying to figure out the monitor.

[Malenko]

you running soft15 or an arcadeVGA?

[rivacom]

I loaded soft15 on, loaded the 15hz and rebooted and nothing came back.  I have to grab a keyboard from work tonight to try safemode(my g15 doesn't seem to do any bios hotkeys) but maybe I choose something wrong?

[rivacom]

Ok so I got it to show up finally after swapping out the Geforce mx 440 for the ATI 9800 Pro card.  But the lowest resolution I seem to be able to go is 640x480, which still seems off for the arcade monitor.  Any suggestions on what resolution will probably look best?

[Malenko]

for windows ? I think its like 640x240 or some odd resolution

[shan1784]

I basically did the same thing you are doing but with a Tekken 1 cab... It was alot of work to get it all setup but once it is done you will love it...

Just a side note, not that it's going to make much difference now as it seems you are well on your way but, the computer you are running if older probably won't do a very good job of running any of the Tekken series roms... I am using a P4 2.6 Ghz CPU with 2 gig of RAM and the arcadevga card as well and am already upgrading to a newer system... I did test Tekken Tag on an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3000+ which is a 3Ghz dual core chip and it ran pretty decent but not flawless...

Just an fyi to something to expect when you fire up Tekken Tag.. It probably won't run perfect but there is a way to fix it...

Also for the coin buttons.. I didn't wire this to my JPAC.. I wired the buttons to the terminals on the coinbox which should already be wired to the JAMMA harness... This will save you a couple of spots on your JPAC if you were going to wire to a screw down terminal...