Advice on how hard this would be to convert to MAME

[markronz]

Hello everyone-
   I have built two arcade machines so far.  Both have been relatively "from scratch".  But recently a friend of mine approached me.  He is considering converting his existing cocktail cab into a MAME one.   Attached below are two pictures of his cabinet.   I haven't seen it in person yet, but he said it's one of those 60-in-1 type games that you see in bars.  So I would assume this is a Jamma board, right?   And then I would also assume that the monitor is a regular arcade monitor.    I have no experience with Jamma yet.   What would be the advantages of using a J-Pac to convert this, rather than a Key-Wiz (which is what I have experience with)?    Currently the cabinet only has two buttons, I think he might be thinking of expanding this to three, or maybe four, if we can fit it.  Since we would be adding additional buttons, would this still be an option to use a J-Pac?  I sort of thought the idea of a J-Pac was so that you could use existing controls, and if we're adding buttons, I was just wondering if it was still easier to use a J-Pac?

And then I assume we'd need a Arcade VGA as well to do this conversion.  And, obviously, a computer.

Is there anything else I am missing here?   Any guesses as to how hard this would be to convert to MAME?

Thanks!

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac2.html

If I'm reading this right it looks like it supports 8 buttons per player. 4 of which per player are supported by the jamma harness, the other 4 are screw down terminals.

If you go JPAC instead of Keywiz, then you just unplug the jamma harness, hook it into the jpac, then run a few extra wires for your additional buttons (unless you want to wire them into the jamma harness). With the Keywiz you'll be disconnecting everything from the harness then hooking them back up to the Keywiz.


As for getting video from the PC to the Jpac, you could go with an AVGA or use (almost) any video card and Soft15kHz (ATI cards seem to have the best success at the moment).

There are some really exciting things going on over in the "Switchres/GroovyArcade" thread for working with standard res monitors right now:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106405.0

Between the programs being developed there you can set up essentially a turnkey, just add roms, system based on Linux, or in Windows just use the SwitchRes tool along with a modified MAME build that supports dynamically created video modes on a per-game basis, making every game display exactly as it's suppose to on the standard res monitor.

[markronz]

Ok thanks so much for the information.   That really clarifies some things.   Appreciate those essential links!

Does anyone have any pictures of a Jpac all wired up that I could look at?   Just want to get some idea of what it looks like, beyond that one pic they have on ultimarc.com.    They should have a customer submitted picture gallery on their site.    Just an idea.

[Malenko]

I love the peter pepper chair/stool

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90691.0

From that thread:

Fullsize: http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo244/mlwood2008/MicroSwitch1.jpg

And here is a picture of what it looks like in real life:

[markronz]

Thank you, that link is huge!  I read that thread.  Very interesting.   

So let me see if I've got this correct.  The "Jamma Edge".  So this plugs into the Jamma harness right?  I know that much at least, that there's a harness.   So I plug that in there.   Those just work then.  No extra wiring, to the existing controls, needed right?    Then the other connectors -- for "Player 1" and "Player 2" in your picture, those are for use on ADDITIONAL buttons, right?

What about the VGA port there.  It says its going to the PC Screen or Arcade screen.   I'm confused about this, since I have no knowledge of arcade monitors either.   So if the one VGA cord from the arcade monitor goes here, what plugs into the computer? Sorry, just not sure what that looks like yet with the monitor...

[Nephasth]

The VGA port is input coming from the computer. The J-Pac outputs video to the arcade monitor through the JAMMA harness.

[bkenobi]

Correct me if I'm wrong (never worked on JAMMA stuff), but the display is fed through the JAMMA connector.

So, to get things working should be pretty simple.  Plug the card into the JAMMA connector.  If you have more buttons that required a kick harness, you wire those through the P1 and P2 button area.  Then, plug the VGA, USB/keyboard/etc ports into the PC (and optipac/ipac/keyboard/etc).  Seems pretty simple.

EDIT: Woops, Nephasth beat me...

[markronz]

Ok that makes much more sense.  I was not aware that the display was also through the harness.  That answers that.   But I still need the Arcade VGA card, even though my video is being passed through the JPac, right?  If so, would I still need Soft 15 as well, even though I have a JPac and Arcade VGA?

Also, I assume the speakers work in the same way?  That the sound is passed to the speakers through the Jpac?

[Nephasth]

You still need an ArcadeVGA (or some other VGA to CGA adapter), yes. You shouldn't need soft 15 if you use an ArcadeVGA.
As far as speakers, from Ultimarc:

JAMMA cabinet speaker routed to screw connectors for wiring to powered sound card or hacked PC speakers.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Specifically:

The J-PAC does not contain any active sound circuitry owing to the JAMMA standard not providing good sound capabilities (one speaker only), nor any powerful enough voltage supply being readily available. The JAMMA standard is mono sound. The JAMMA edge connector speaker wires are routed to screw connectors on the J-PAC. These connections can be used to connect a powered PC sound card to the cabinet speaker. Alternatively for better quality stereo sound, simply use a normal pair of PC speakers, either powered or passive, and place inside the cabinet or wire to the cabinet speaker(s).

Soft15kHz works as a replacement for the ArcadeVGA, with the exception of not working outside of windows (eg: bios start up screens). The JPAC will compensate for this however by 'halving' the incoming signal in order to present a safe signal to the monitor.

[markronz]

Thanks for the help guys!  I really appreciate the info!