Konami X-Men 4 Player MAME Conversion - I'm new, Input needed!

[C4N3]

Hello Arcade Guru's,
I'm new to this forum, and I'm a relatively new Arcade Cabinet owner. As a college graduation present to myself I used my graduation money to buy myself a Konami X-Men 4 Player cabinet. This cabinet has the original artwork, and is fully working (all coin slots, buttons, monitor and speakers work) Almost everything is original. I believe the Marque incandescent lamp was switched for a flourescent, but everything that matter is original.

My goal is to add a MAME PC to the cabinet to utilize the 4 player functionality on some of my other favorite arcade games. Simpsons 4player, TMNT 4 player and others are just a few that come to mind. I would like to do this as stealthily as possible, I don't want to modify anything externally on the arcade or damage any of the art. I'm a purist in the sense that I don't want to mangle a perfectly good working Arcade cabinet, and I would like my additions to be easily undone with no lasting effects. Here is a summary of my goals:

• Maintain original appearance and asthetics
  
• Re-use controls
  
  • Ability to switch back and forth between built in X-Men Jamma PCB and MAME PC.
    
  
  I have technical skills, I work in IT and I know enough that seeking guidance from those more experienced than I am is generally a recipe for success. I am not as savvy when it comes to handywork, although being a relatively new home owner I've accumulated tools and experience rapidly, but I'm certainly no craftsman.
  
  My questions for you are:
  
  What is the best way to do this project? (please let me know if you need any more details or info from me)
  Is it possible to repair minor burn-in on the Arcade Monitor? (this might be a dumb question as was fairly certain it is permanent)
  How do I connect a MAME PC to the Jamma controls without disconnecting or damaging the X-Men PCB so that I can switch between them easily?
  
  Thanks for all of your help and assistance, I've seen a lot of very excellent projects on here and I hope to carry on that tradition. I will post pictures of my arcade once I get home.
  
  Lastly, I found this system on Craigslist and purchased it for $650, was that a good deal?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

You'll probably get a good bit of the way with something like this:
http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html

For the 3 and 4 player controls you'll need to wire in a second keyboard encoder. This is discussed here:
http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac2.html

There exist Jamma switchers which let you toggle between multiple boards (one of which in this case is a computer):
http://www.jammaboards.com/store/2-in-1-multijamma-switcher-pcb-gbs-8118-/prod_324.html

To drive an arcade monitor you'll need the videocard outputting a 15kHz signal. This can be achieved by buying an ArcadeVGA card from Ultimarc, using the "Soft15kHz" software by SailorSat (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=66402.0) to modify the registry entries of most videocards, or by using the modified ATI drivers by Calamity (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110905.0). This last options is probably the most versatile at the moment.

[C4N3]

Thanks!

I have done some research and looked at the JPac and iPac2 in order to get full 4 player functionality, but what I'm confused about is how to wire them together. Is the Konami 4 player JAMMA harness/connector different than the traditional 2 player JAMMA Harness?

I looked at the JAMMA switch link you posted, Is it compatible with the Konami 4 player X-Men game, and do they use the same connector?

Maybe these are stupid questions, but It would be good to know either way.

I was looking at the Arcade VGA, thank you for bringing up the modified ATI drivers, I didn't even know that was an option. Do you know if it works on integrated graphics (I'm thinking of getting a cheap AMD board with integrated ATI graphics)?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I'm not 100% how to handle the kick harness for the extra player controls as far as the switcher goes. Someone else will have to chime in on that. I believe you should just be able to wire them in parallel with the other encoder, but like I said, this is going beyond my experience.

Integrated ATI graphics should work.. You'll want to go dig through that thread and take a look at device compatibility. Currently I'm running an HD4350, which is a fairly cheap card with passive cooling:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127436&cm_re=4350-_-14-127-436-_-Product
It's like $40.

Paired with a 3.2Ghz core 2 duo, I can run non-mame emulators like NullDC and Project64 at full speed at as high a resolution as my monitor supports.

[C4N3]

Two more questions that you probably can answer for me, and thank you for your quick responses.

1. What OS do you use? Linux (what dist) / Windows (what version)?

2. Where do you get your Game Roms? I'd like to be able to play Simpsons, TMNT, Gauntlet and so on when I'm done, and I'm not sure where I can get the Roms.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

On my cab I'm running WinXP64. 64bit versions of Mame get a performance boost, but from Vista onward there are issues with running some arcade resolutions.

ROM discussion is forbidden.

[C4N3]

Ooops, guess I should have looked at the forum rules more closely. Thanks!

[C4N3]

Does anyone know how to wire up the 4 player controls to the JPac and iPac2 with a JAMMA Switcher? Any expertise and help on this would be appreciated, or if there is a better way to do it. I want to make sure that I don't damage the anything original on the Cabinet. Thanks!