I just bought my first arcade machine!

[honkey]

Last night I bought my first arcade machine. It is a Tekken Tag Tournament. I feel like I got a great deal. I expected to find a beat up cabinet with a half working monitor because the seller was only asking $120 for it. When I got there I found that the cabinet and artwork were in near perfect condition. The monitor works wonderfully with a very vivid picture. He also had the keys to the doors and an owner's manual to go with it. Here are some pictures of it laying on its side in my mom's van.

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/musician1/Arcade/

[Hoopz]

Nice score.  Being patient pays off, doesn't it?

Gonna Mame it??   

[BobA]

Nice score 

[honkey]

Nice score.  Being patient pays off, doesn't it?

Gonna Mame it??   

Yeah it does! I am just about to haul this thing up a flight of stairs to get into my apartment!

I am going to take out the game board and put in a PC for MAME, but I am not sure if I am going to use the monitor or not yet... The Arcade VGA video card is pretty expensive, I already have a TV, and I could make money on this monitor easily. Then again, it looks awesome. Tough decision here.

[honkey]

I just found out a bit more about my cabinet... It was originally a Mortal Kombat 3.

The controls don't work, but I have some close friends that are electricians and they seemed confident that they would be able to diagnose and fix the problem.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

While an ArcadeVGA is a good plug-and-play solution, you can use almost any videocard with Soft15kHz, and if you get an ATI video card, there are modified drivers which work with GroovyMame to produce exact native resolutions and framerates on every game. A cheap ATI card can be had for $40USD and the software is free.

[mgb]

Nice score. I would definitely use the monitor rather than a tv

[Malenko]

the buttons and sticks are just NO/NC switches, dont need an electrician to figure that out.

Are you going to try and remove the paint to let Sindel and Shao Kahn out of hiding?

[honkey]

the buttons and sticks are just NO/NC switches, dont need an electrician to figure that out.

Are you going to try and remove the paint to let Sindel and Shao Kahn out of hiding?

What does removing the paint entail? That would be pretty cool, but I had not thought about that.

[Malenko]

the buttons and sticks are just NO/NC switches, dont need an electrician to figure that out.

Are you going to try and remove the paint to let Sindel and Shao Kahn out of hiding?

What does removing the paint entail? That would be pretty cool, but I had not thought about that.

the method I used can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/thom01

[honkey]

the buttons and sticks are just NO/NC switches, dont need an electrician to figure that out.

Are you going to try and remove the paint to let Sindel and Shao Kahn out of hiding?

What does removing the paint entail? That would be pretty cool, but I had not thought about that.

the method I used can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/thom01

Thanks! I might think about doing that. Is there anything to look for to make sure I will be able to successfully uncover the original artwork?

[mgb]

If none of the controls work at all, it may simply be the signal ground is disconnected somewhere at the beginning of the circuit

[honkey]

If none of the controls work at all, it may simply be the signal ground is disconnected somewhere at the beginning of the circuit

One joystick is pressing the up switch down unless you move it into the down position and then it is in neutral position. The buttons that go with that joystick don't work except for one of them and sometimes you can get a character to kick, but that has been just me button mashing until something happened. On the other control, the joystick seems fine, but only the punch button works. Both start buttons seem to work fine.

[Malenko]

just try to remove some paint near the bottom back part, so if it looks bad you can repaint and no one will notice.

As for the buttons, make sure they arent on the NC instead of NO

did that machine come with the PCB? If so , go to the switch test and see if the machine thinks all the buttons are being held down.

[honkey]

just try to remove some paint near the bottom back part, so if it looks bad you can repaint and no one will notice.

As for the buttons, make sure they arent on the NC instead of NO

did that machine come with the PCB? If so , go to the switch test and see if the machine thinks all the buttons are being held down.

Yeah, it has got everything to play, except the controls don't work. I tried to go to the switch test, but since player one button isn't working, I can't select it. When I get home I will see if I can figure out what you are talking about. The machine came with an operations manual that I was planning on reading through for advice also.

[Mr. Dude]

Nice find man!  I'm sure the controls are an easy fix.  I would keep the monitor as well instead of going with a tv.  Either way looks like you got a good deal.

[honkey]

While an ArcadeVGA is a good plug-and-play solution, you can use almost any videocard with Soft15kHz, and if you get an ATI video card, there are modified drivers which work with GroovyMame to produce exact native resolutions and framerates on every game. A cheap ATI card can be had for $40USD and the software is free.

Can't this damage the arcade monitor when the pc is powering up though?

[mgb]

I believe with that setup, you would need to wait for the pc to boot before you power up the monitor.

[Malenko]

I believe with that setup, you would need to wait for the pc to boot before you power up the monitor.

Ive never had a problem with the monitor showing an image out of range

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

The "safe answer" is 'maybe', but many of us here have been doing this sort of solution for a very long time with no issues.

Where you'd run into trouble is when there is a component that's already at the verge of failing getting pushed over by running just out of spec for a short period of time. Chances are that given the brief period before windows kicks in, you'll be ok.

If you really wanted to play it safe you could do something like get an LEDWhiz or similar device and use the +5V from it to trigger something like this:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9842
That way the monitor would never power on until Windows was fully loaded and the LEDWhiz initiated.

[honkey]

The "safe answer" is 'maybe', but many of us here have been doing this sort of solution for a very long time with no issues.

Where you'd run into trouble is when there is a component that's already at the verge of failing getting pushed over by running just out of spec for a short period of time. Chances are that given the brief period before windows kicks in, you'll be ok.

If you really wanted to play it safe you could do something like get an LEDWhiz or similar device and use the +5V from it to trigger something like this:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9842
That way the monitor would never power on until Windows was fully loaded and the LEDWhiz initiated.

Interesting... I have not messed around with front ends or anything like that. Is it easy to put the computer to sleep so the monitor powers off without having to go through the problem of sending too high of a signal each time you turn it on?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I just let my K7400 monitor display the Bios and WinXP startup screens garbled until Windows kicked in, but I did use a device just like that (powered off of a bare USB port) to turn the monitor on/off when the PC goes to sleep.

once it booted from 'sleep' to screen on and in a front-end was as quick as it took the monitor to power up (maybe 3 seconds?).

[Mac Green]

funny my first game was also a TTT and it was a MK2 conversion also