Swapping Between Original Game & PC MAME in One Cabinet

[danielm7999]

I have a fully working T2 (CRT tube) in original working order/setup. I want to add a PC with MAME (shooter games only) in the cabinet as well. Ultimately I want to get it to this point with the recoil etc: ...
...BUT FOR NOW I just want to get the controls/monitor working w/ the PC and be able to switch back and forth between the original T2 game and the PC MAME (at least semi-easily) when I get bored with one or the other. I know there are MANY parts to doing all of this but here are the parts I'm hung up on at the start (and I apologize in advance if these are stupid questions, very sorry. I have done a lot of research already, I'm just extra paranoid about messing up my T2 boards and would like some educated reassurance that I'm going about this the safe & right way):

1. T2 is JAMMA. If I buy a J-PAC and plug the T2 JAMMA wiring harness connector to it, that should take care of getting a video signal from my PC to my monitor right? (I do understand that I'll have to have a certain type of graphics card for it to work properly, 15khz, etc, etc)

2. MY BIGGEST CONCERNS:

    A: Do I run a risk to any of my T2 boards by plugging the T2 JAMMA wiring harness into something like a J-PAC? In other words, once I unplug the JAMMA connector from the T2 main board, are my T2 boards all safe from any mistake I might make when wiring up my J-PAC and other things to the MAME PC?

     B: Do the JAMMA harness wires connect to anything besides video and player controls? (If not then I guess that kinda answers question A). My T2 JAMMA wires are all tied tightly together with other wires and its hard to tell whats what.

     C: Obviously I'll be doing a ton of homework on all of this, and I've got at least enough ability to have swapped out monitors successfully on this system, so, speaking outside the boundaries of complete retardation, is there any way that I could fry/mess up my T2 boards by adding this MAME PC? (I will be installing the pc parts etc on the OTHER side of the cabinet away from the T2 boards)

Thanks again!

[paigeoliver]

There aren't any reasons to ever run the real T2 boards anymore once you mame it. In any case you don't want to run a switching power supply without a load so you want to unhook that as well.

There is also little reason to use a jpac with such a project since it doesn't support the only controls your cabinet has.

T2 also uses a mirror in the cabinet IIRC, so you will have to deal with trying to invert windows or a frontend.

Ultimately it would be cheaper and easier to just build a second machine to sit next to your T2 than it would be to rig up your T2 to be dual mame and original.

[danielm7999]

Thanks for the info!

"There aren't any reasons to ever run the real T2 boards anymore once you mame it." - If I get MAME working in this cab, I dont expect to have the solenoids & flash bulbs behind the mirror working anytime soon...so, being a big fan of the original T2, I'd like to be able to swap back to it once in a while. If I get the solenoids & flash bulbs working 100% w/ MAME T2 the way they do with the original T2, then youre definitely right. From what Im reading, it's not so easy to do.

"There is also little reason to use a jpac with such a project since it doesn't support the only controls your cabinet has." - Good to know, thanks, I'll look into that. So now I'm wondering what connector I need to get video from my pc to my k7000 chassis/tube

"T2 also uses a mirror in the cabinet IIRC, so you will have to deal with trying to invert windows or a frontend." - The green & yellow wires from the yoke just have to be flipped on the chassis board, I believe. Should be good to go after that.

"Ultimately it would be cheaper and easier to just build a second machine to sit next to your T2 than it would be to rig up your T2 to be dual mame and original." - Maybe... but I'm guessing that would be more expensive actually..considering having to buy another set of guns/solenoids/led's and a cabinet with a working tube, just for starters to get myself to the starting point that I'm at now with the T2 cab.

Thanks for all the info 

[paigeoliver]

From what I understand the solenoids and flashbulbs and such can be done with mame.

A hacked up VGA cable is normally used. You will still need a solution to output standard res video (the JPac doesn't solve that problem for you either).

Yes, you can flip the wires on the yoke to flip windows but then you would have to unflip them to go back to original T2.

I was commenting under the assumption that you just wanted more games to play, not more positional gun games. A duplicate dual positional gun mame cabinet would indeed likely cost more than rigging your T2, unless you happen to luck into a set of guns, which is something that has happened to me 3 times now.

[yotsuya]

I'm wrong, but I thought Terminator 2 used guns are actually positional joysticks and not true light guns. Am I wrong? Or was that revolutionx?

[PL1]

I thought Terminator 2 used guns are actually positional joysticks and not true light guns. Am I wrong?

You are correct.  The pots on pg 72 here confirm that T2 uses positional guns, not light guns.   


Scott

[paigeoliver]

I'm wrong, but I thought Terminator 2 used guns are actually positional joysticks and not true light guns. Am I wrong? Or was that revolutionx?

It was both of them. I think operation wolf is the only game that ever used a mounted gun that was actually optical in nature.

[PL1]

I think operation wolf is the only game that ever used a mounted gun that was actually optical in nature.

There are a few others like Crossbow, Chiller, and Cheyenne -- partial list here.


Scott

[paigeoliver]

I think operation wolf is the only game that ever used a mounted gun that was actually optical in nature.

There are a few others like Crossbow, Chiller, and Cheyenne -- partial list here.


Scott

For some reason for all these years I thought the Exidy games were pot based and not optical~~!!