NOOB needing some help

[driftingricegod]

So today I walked into an arcade that closed shop and I bought myself a upright fighter cabinet.

I was going to build one myself with the FORUM help and then throw in an emulator or hacked XBox which would have made it very easy to setup.

However, I got the entire cabinet pretty cheap and probably cheaper than I would have paid in wood. It already comes with a JAMMA harness wired in & power supply & the coin mechanism. This is where you guys come in... Beyond that, I need help getting it up and running. I am going to need a screen, games, controllers, graphics & design, and anything else you guys think/know I need.
Ideally, I would love to build a 2 player fighter with Street Fighter and if I can get more games, that would be great.

This is my first so please be patient with my stupidity and possible dumb questions.

I'm picking it up on Sunday so I will have pictures and more info to share later. 

[driftingricegod]

Also, Let me know what to look for to help answer your questions to help me!
Thanks in advance!

[PL1]

The FAQ will help you sort things out.   

https://web.archive.org/web/20160809113045/http://newwiki.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?title=FAQ


Scott

[Rumblebelly5]

Also, Let me know what to look for to help answer your questions to help me!
Thanks in advance!

Think of this as Home Depot, "You Can Do It, We Can Help!"

post them pictures man. Lets see what you got!

[driftingricegod]

So i had this whole thing typed out and when I hit post, an error occurred...

So I went to go pick up my cabinet today and bought another unit on top of it. I also bought a NBA Showtime/Blitz 2K 4player cabinet also. It needs a hard drive also and I picked it up for $500

So my original cabinet is home now but it is too dark outside to take pictures. It was a old Primal Rage cabinet so I am assuming the Jamma harness was for that. It has the cabinet frame, Jamma harness, power supply, speakers
Visually missing (again, i'm a virgin so things can be missing and I wouldnt even know):
screen/monitor- opening allows 29.5" across
buttons/controls
game/games (was told not to ask about illegal games)
anything else I could be missing?


This is where you EXPERTS come in...
Screen/monitor- I got LCD TVs and monitors I no longer use, could I use those? pro/con? should I buy something and where?

Buttons/Controls- Should I buy a kit from a place like Holland Computers? Used top from a game on ebay? Other sources?

games- What board do I buy? How do I know if it is compatible? Can I buy a bunch of different boards and switch them like video game cartridges? Do the buttons work on all games or do I need to reset them up?


Be gentle, this is my virgin build. So please help me with the acronyms and what each part is or looks like. Let me also know what I should be looking for. I might not even know it is missing something cause I know nothing,

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!

 

[PL1]

So my original cabinet is home now but it is too dark outside to take pictures. It was a old Primal Rage cabinet so I am assuming the Jamma harness was for that.

The Primal Rage cabinet has a "JAMMA+" harness. (unofficial name for a Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association-style wiring harness with more than 3 buttons or alternate controls like a trackball)

The Primal Rage JAMMA+ pinout is on pg. 52 of the manual here.

games- What board do I buy? How do I know if it is compatible? Can I buy a bunch of different boards and switch them like video game cartridges? Do the buttons work on all games or do I need to reset them up?

If you want to connect a computer to the existing wiring harness to run MAME:
Use a J-Pac encoder.
* May require some modification to the harness.   

If you want to connect a computer to a different wiring harness to run MAME:
Disconnect the existing wiring from the controls and keep the harness intact in case you ever decide to convert it back to a Primal Rage dedicated machine.
Use an encoder like an IPac and wire it up as needed.
* Usually considered good form to make any changes/modifications easily reversable to the original configuration.

If you want to connect a JAMMA Printed Circuit Board (PCB) to the existing wiring harness:
The idea behind standardized wiring pinouts like JAMMA is to make it easy to swap boards.

Since Primal Rage does not use a 100% standard JAMMA harness like below, you need to verify that the wiring differences will not cause a problem with the board.

For example, standard JAMMA does not have wires on 25, 26, c, or d, but Primal Rage does. (c=CC, d=DD in the manual)

Sometimes boards don't have a trace connected to an unused pin.

Some boards have a slightly different pinout so check BEFORE you apply power and it does this.   

JAMMA pinout:



Scott

[driftingricegod]

After reading a bunch... I decided to BASTARDIZE it.. I'm going R-Pi. However, I will not hack up the cabinet anymore than it is already. I will not remove the factory harnesses more than it is already. I figure this is my first unit and let me get this thing running and then I can always modify or build another one.

I did so much reading and decided to go with the following to fit my gaming style.
Buttons: Seimitsu PS-14-KN SCREWBUTTON
Stick: Seimitsu LS-40-01 Joystick (PCB Type) with RE Plate
Player 1 and Player 2 buttons
two COIN buttons (use them for select on console emulator games)
SEIMITSU Button on the side or under for ESC button
LCD TV (I have like 4 TVs I am not using and I am going to try to see what fits) I was really sad about the one that was the closest, It was a 32" 1080p Vizio from around year 2010. I took off the plastic frame and I was just 1/4" too wide, There was not extra play that I can even cut the metal frame. IT WAS SOOOOO DAMN CLOSE! It is 29.5" wide opening...


In the future, I might mount a TV to a wall, build one of those control panels that I can plug consoles into it and maybe move the Pi over if I decide to build a JAMMA+ unit. BABY STEPS.........

[driftingricegod]

Here are some crappy pictures of the progress..
**update, it was a SOUL EDGE cabinet- maybe, it could have been switched a million times**

#1 The TV was about 1/2" too wide even when I de-cased it. I actually like where the screen will be once it is in. So I routered out 1/4" on each side without punching through the 1/2" of plywood on the cabinet. I was about to give the cabinet enough slack to jam the TV in.

I will then mount the factory TV speakers under the screen behind the bezel that I will be making. I will be drilling holes for the sound to come through. Then I will try to hook up the factory cabinet speakers above (inside the lightbox)



#2 Here is a test fit of the control panel.

#3 I got my R-Pi working with RecalBox. It works well with the Nintendo & SNES games. it also works really well with HDMI on my 70" TV in my living room. I do have issues with some MAME arcade games, like Tekken works but I must have some bad files on other games.

#4 I'm thinking of mounting my R-Pi inside the control panel area (the box where all the wires for the buttons are located. It should be big enough to vent and if I every want to take off the control panel to move it (like to move it from room to room), I would need to just unhook the HDMI Cable and power wire.

[driftingricegod]

I need to redo the bazel to surround the screen size.
Question, since Im going LCD, should I even bother doing a glass front like classic arcades?

[behrmr]

I would do glass or plexiglas. You don't want your screen getting scratched or otherwise damaged. Plus if you have artwork (like instructions) you can put behind the plexiglas or have it reverse applied.

[driftingricegod]

I am worried about the glare on the plexi or glass top over it. I am not too worried about the screen i guess. Cause 32" TVs are pretty cheap now and it would cost me almost $50-80 for a nice piece of plexi or glass.

Here is an update.

Built the controller top. I will work on the art and cleaning up everything. I just wanted a test run to make sure everything works then I will make it "pretty"

Pictures of RecalBox running and what the cabinet looks like now.
I mounted the USB adapter for the controls underneath the controls along with the Raspberry Pi. On the legs of the Raspberry, I used the Jamma mounting legs I bought on Amazon. Unfortunately, I did not notice the mounting holes of the USB board. I need to buy new ones.

One thing I noticed on the Recalbox control menu is that I need a select button and a "HOTKEY". The select button is going to be my "Coin" button I bought. If you wanted to back out of the ROM, you need to hit "hotkey" + Start. Where should I mount these buttons?

[driftingricegod]

going to build my frame (bezel) around the TV and I am going to mount the TV control that I took off the side of the TV onto the bezel. Also,I'm going to mount the IF eye that I took off also. I'm going to use the OEM TV speakers and you can where I mounted them onto the CAB already. I am just going to drill holes into the bezel so the sound comes through.