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OpenJamma board - interest?
shanghaiguide:
I've been silently working on making an open sourced JAMMA board for a little while now.
My intention is to make something open sourced that can plug directly into JAMMA hardware, but also has USB and VGA and other connections for those unfortunate enough not to have a nice arcade setup (what on this forum? nah...).
While I was looking originally at MIPS originally, I intend to use an ARM based CPU now. I already have prototyped the hardware using a dev board, and it works well enough for me to be happy. As it will be open source *legit*, the board won't have rom's shipped with it, but I'll stick compiled versions of popular emulators + a front end on there, plus setup a github repo so others can assist / improve.
(Unless I can find a way to licence roms, in which case it will have some).
My question is this - any interest?
Essentially it will be like the Chinese XX in 1 boards, *but* with better emulation, a lot more open, plus better emulation, oh, and better emulation :lol
Basically made by an enthusiast for enthusiasts..
Open Hardware (to the extent where thats possible)
Target will be roughly mid year for board shipping if everything goes according to plan.
So...
What features are must haves for people?
My current hardware feature set target is:
VGA
HDMI
Video out (CVBS)
USB
JAMMA
RGB OUT (via JAMMA)
SD Card (up to 32g)
NAND flash 4G for OS + Emulators + front end.
Software -
Decent emulation (not everything will be possible but most 80/90's should be fine.
I'll definitely try to get emulation better than the slapdash chinese clone it works, ship it style we're so used to)!
...and lastly - Its going to be called OpenJAMMA
Comments, criticism, thoughts ?
matsadona:
Don’t take it personally, but to start with as the obvious criticism is that there have been similar posts before with similar ideas. And so far they have resulted in nothing. So please understand that the general opinion might be skepticism.
Besides from that I would love that kind of hardware, if the price is reasonable. Sure a MAME computer would do the same thing, but I want a more plugnplay system that you don’t have to be a Windows/Linux expert to configure.
A little bit curious about the different video outputs. How will you manage that? Would it require a lot of manual configurations to get native resolutions at the RGB output etc?
Support for analog and optic inputs?
Any outputs (lamps, ff, solenoids)?
BobA:
Sounds like you have a good start. If it is working you have made it alot further than others who have tried. Very interested in anything that helps make things more plug and play. Will be watching your project closely. Best of luck! :applaud:
shanghaiguide:
Yay, a comment :D
Was thinking that people were just ignoring this :badmood:
As a background - I do have experience in taking things from concept to market.
I also have the relevant experience in both software and hardware sides to do this, although for some of this i'll obviously hire other people.
Those that know me, know that when I say i'll do something I will do it, damn the naysayers ;)
I actually reverse engineered an off the shelf jamma board last year with the intent of redoing the software, but the cpu wasn't really up to the task.
The newer arm chipsets appearing now are up to the task, and I think its the right time for something done right.
I am based in China too, so thats good for a lot of reasons - pcb and hardware is fairly easy to do here.
I have been toying over the idea for well over a year now, and my staff are well aware of whats coming ;)
I've already registered domains, and staff are busy on logo design.
I already have running protypes (on dev hardware) + gpio -> jamma so the concept seems like its feasible.
The chipset I'm using supports HDMI, VGA, and CVBS, the GPIO's will mostly be in use for the JAMMA inputs, but I do have some spare for other things.
Can also do LVDS, but not so keen on that initially.
Different video outputs are fairly straightforward, although HDMI is a bit of a pain resolution wise. I'll sort that out though.
There are PWM outputs on the SoC for things like lamps etc, but I was just planning on doing basic JAMMA board initially + USB/VGA for the less well endowed, rather than try be all encompassing.
I'm aiming at around $80 for end product - with something thats jamma plug n play, and will be low power (somewhere in the < 5w range).
Haven't really thought about analog inputs - can do, but will have to see if thats a large feature request.
Thank you for being the first to reply!
DeLuSioNal29:
Just send you a PM. I think this is a great idea. Long overdue IMHO.
:applaud:
D