Seeking advice on Arcade Legends 3 Conversion

[sylar]

A few days ago I became the owner of a used Arcade Legends 3 machine. It's in great shape and it's the CRT version. Images can be found here:

http://imgur.com/a/BEtrv/all

I want to convert this sucker to a MAME machine. I've googled and searched and have not found anyone online who has done this and posted details.

The unit appears to boot off of a USB stick.

I don't care about modifying any of the controls or customizing the look of the unit right now, just want to get MAME on this sucker ASAP. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see a hard drive, so I'd have to get one inside. There are a couple of free USB ports.

Where would you start if you were me? I haven't built my own PC in over a decade, but since I've done so in the past I'm comfortable doing what needs to be done.

Thanks in advance!

[sylar]

OK, so a few weeks and no responses at all. So let me be more specific now that I've had time.

I've got the machine up and running with the GroovyMAME Linux Distro. One irratating thing though is that joystick and button controls aren't recognized and in fact don't appear to be mapped to any actual keyboard commands.

I noticed that the joysticks and buttons are wired to

Does anyone recognize it? Is there a way I can get linux to recognize its signals, preferably without rewiring??

[behrmr]

You need to get a JPAC which is basically an IPAC with a JAMMA connector that you can plug into that harness.  Or you need to re-wire the cabinet to an IPAC or other keyboard encoder.

[sylar]

Thank you for the response!

I'm doing research and a bit confused -- what would the J-PAC plug in to? The JAMMA board is connected to the motherboard via USB (and also has separate power going into it). From looking at J-PAC images, I'm unsure about the connections to this board. I hope I make sense.

[JimmyU]

It might be easier just to remove the Arcade Legends harness and computer and start from scratch with a new computer and encoder. Maybe do a Minipac since it can do both joysticks and trackball.

[sylar]

All,

It may be easier to get a J-PAC or something but I'd like the ability to switch between the original arcade legends set up and a custom MAME set up. This way my investment is protected if I mess it up.

I was able to get linux running on the machine and when I run dmesg, I see the following:

Here's the dmesg output:

Code: [Select]

[    3.871902] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic

[    3.871947] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic

[    3.882753] usbcore: registered new interface driver ftdi_sio

[    3.882806] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device

[    3.883035] ftdi_sio 4-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected

[    3.885160] usb 4-1: Detected FT232RL

[    3.885172] usb 4-1: Number of endpoints 2

[    3.885182] usb 4-1: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64

[    3.885190] usb 4-1: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64

[    3.885198] usb 4-1: Setting MaxPacketSize 64

[    3.890680] usb 4-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
I did some research and was able to download an FTDI program that allows me to read the EEPROM:

Code: [Select]

Library version = 0x10112

Opening port 0

FT_Open succeeded.  Handle is 0x12df3b0

FT_GetDeviceInfo succeeded.  Device is type 5.

FT_EE_Read succeeded.

Signature1 = 0

Signature2 = -1

Version = 2

VendorId = 0x0403

ProductId = 0x6001

Manufacturer = FTDI

ManufacturerId = A5

Description = FT232R USB UART

SerialNumber = A5003v2n

MaxPower = 90

PnP = 1

SelfPowered = 0

RemoteWakeup = 1

232R:
-----

UseExtOsc = 0x0
HighDriveIOs = 0x0
EndpointSize = 0x40
PullDownEnableR = 0x0
SerNumEnableR = 0x1
InvertTXD = 0x0
InvertRXD = 0x0
InvertRTS = 0x0
InvertCTS = 0x0
InvertDTR = 0x0
InvertDSR = 0x0
InvertDCD = 0x0
InvertRI = 0x0
Cbus0 = 0x3
Cbus1 = 0x2
Cbus2 = 0x0
Cbus3 = 0x1
Cbus4 = 0x5
RIsD2XX = 0x0
Returning 0
I'm not sure what to do now. When I read /dev/ttyUSB0 it just gives lots of garbage output and I'm not entirely sure how to go about mapping signals to keys.

Wondering anyone else knows where to begin. Google isn't helping much.

[Locke141]

I don't mean to sound harsh but have dyslexia and in a rush.

You need to post your pic's here and not on an external site. People are less likely to take the extra step to help.
To post photo's click on the attachments and other options and look at my attached pic.

Is that a regular x86 intel CPU mother board? How is the Jamma connectioned to the mother board (pic)? There are JAMMA switchers out there that will let you have two boards in one arcade but I have never used one and I have no idea if one would help you. It's hard to even try to think it out with out pics.

If you have GroovyMame questions you will probably get a quicker reply by posting you questions in the GroovyMame section.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,52.0.html


Edit: I went and looked closer at you externally linked pic's. I see what you mean about the JAMMA board to USB. I think you could do a JAMMA switching board and just add a second PC with something like a jpac for MAME, but I have never used either and would not be the person to ask.
 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-in-1-Multi-JAMMA-Switcher-PCB-Arcade-Game-2-in-1-Switch-Control-JAMMA-PC-Board-/331132529126

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

I'd do a some reading on them and start a new topic under the Mane topic about adding one and if it would work for what you want.

If you start a topic about an ultimarc product with the name of the item in the name of the thread, Some one who has one or Andy from ultimarc will probably respond to your questions. Just do your reading about the product first.   

[Hics1934]

Thanks for the positive response towards members regarding the subject being questioned here..

[sylar]

Locke -- I appreciate your reply and all your suggestions. You didn't sound harsh and I'll take the advice about pictures in the future.

I'll also hit up those other forums. It's tricky -- this is just a PC. The Arcade Legends 3 software is a thumbstick that boots a custom FreeBSD frontend. BSD is a little different from Linux so I don't see exactly what's going on. Obviously the arcade controls are mapped and work.

In theory, then, I should be able to boot to anything and with the correct driver, be able to map controls. It's very frustrating to have to think about rewiring a perfectly good (and seemingly awesome) harness due to a software issue. I want to avoid that at all costs.

Again, thanks for the advice.

[ABACABB]

Anyone know if you can buy these thumbsticks from the Arcade Legends that sylar mentioned?  I'd like to get that software but dont need the whole cabinet.