What are the "guts" of a complete cab?

[Crazy Cooter]

My dad saw the cab I picked up for my MAME project and was very interested in something for himself.  Only he would be interested in restoring a game or two.  My experience is mostly MAME so I'm trying to find out what the guts of *cough* "Real" cabinets are.  I've looked around online for sellers of parts and it seems that it could be broken down into a few categories:

Cabinet - Obviously

Control Panel - Joy/Buttons

Monitor - Vert/Horz

PCB - The actual game circuitry

Wires - ?

Power - ?

If he bought a gutted cab or scratch built, what all would he need to buy?  Do most pcb sellers include the wiring?  I'm just not sure how the electronic stuff is categorized.  

[DYNAGOD]

jamma harness...and a kick harness, if you like 6 button fighters.

switchable arcade power supply unit

AC line filter

[Apollo]

I suggest you buy a working cab and just have a look at how it works. You can get them pretty cheap if you are not concerned with the actual game or condition of the cab.

[exibar]

That's probabaly the best thing.  Find an arcade shop around somewhere and see what cheapo's they have for sale.  

  You can probably find something complete for cheap 100 - 300 bucks, maybe less.  You won't find a pac-man or a Galaga, but you might find an ataxx or some other wierd game that isn't popular for cheap that they might just want to get rid of...  

  I picked up a 3 gun beast busters and a Neo-Geo 4 way (no MB though) for $150 complete with 25" monitors and everything, but no main boards...  main boards just plugged right in though :-)

[Crazy Cooter]

I'd like to pick up a full cab with him.  But I'm not sure what "complete" is.  Obviously if it was working I would know, but if it was missing say the isolation transformer for the monitor, I'd have no idea since I don't know what it looks like.  Is there a pic somewhere that identifies what the parts are (generally of course)?  I've got an idea since I understand what the parts are supposed to do, but I don't have a clear picture in my head.

Take the isolation transformer for example.  I know it's something that's between the wall outlet and monitor.  That's about it.  I'd guess it to be rectangular and vented... maybe even have an actual plug unless it's hardwired

Even a sketch in paint would help.  A website dealing in parts with some pics might be better

[HaRuMaN]

If the game is working when you buy it, most likely it is "complete".  

[dag2000]

Obviously if it was working I would know, but if it was missing say the isolation transformer for the monitor, I'd have no idea since I don't know what it looks like.  Is there a pic somewhere that identifies what the parts are (generally of course)?  

[Crazy Cooter]

The past 24 hours have been pretty revealing as far as my understanding of this stuff.  Most of it became clear by looking into the JAMMA standard.  Now I'm wondering if each game with JAMMA+ has it's own extension board.  I'm guessing not since DYNAGOD referred to the "kick harness" for fighters.  Would this auxillary board be the same for 2 JAMMA+ fighter cabs?  

edit:  I think I found my answer.  It appears that the auxillary board is particular to the manufacturer/time period.  ie: Street Fighter II has a "capcom CPS", Street Fighter III has a "capcom CPS III".  I assume these are not the same, but are they compatable?

[RayB]

Capcom CPS is just the name of the system hardware the games were designed for. Like "playstation" versus "playstation 2". Get it?

[Crazy Cooter]

I get it.  

Thanks

[krick]

The past 24 hours have been pretty revealing as far as my understanding of this stuff.  Most of it became clear by looking into the JAMMA standard.  Now I'm wondering if each game with JAMMA+ has it's own extension board.  I'm guessing not since DYNAGOD referred to the "kick harness" for fighters.  Would this auxillary board be the same for 2 JAMMA+ fighter cabs?  

edit:  I think I found my answer.  It appears that the auxillary board is particular to the manufacturer/time period.  ie: Street Fighter II has a "capcom CPS", Street Fighter III has a "capcom CPS III".  I assume these are not the same, but are they compatable?

I'm not sure what the "auxillary board" is that you are referring to.

Just to clarify...

JAMMA only supports 2 players with 3 buttons per player.

A kick harness is a blanket term used to refer to a wiring bundle that comes with a game board and is designed to handle the additional controls that are outside the JAMMA specification.  There is no aux board.

So a game that supports 4 players with 3 buttons each will have an extra wiring harness to handle the 2 extra joysticks and the 6 extra buttons.

And a game like Street Fighter 2 that supports 2 players with 6 buttons each will have an extra wiring harness to handle the 6 extra buttons. The 6 extra buttons just happen to be the "kick" buttons.  That is where the term "kick harness" comes from.  

These harnesses typically have a unique connector and/or pinout so they will only work with a specific PCB (or family of games like SF2).

Bob Roberts has some information on a way to make the kick harnesses somewhat universal so you can easily swap PCBs...
http://www.dameon.net/BBBB/plus.html

[Crazy Cooter]

The kick harness is what I was refering to.  I had assumed it required another board that used some kind of shift function persay that enabled the game to use a standard JAMMA interface.  The JAMMA+ interface is semi-proprietary then?.  I'll read through Bob Roberts site to find out about his universal wiring technique.  Should be easy now that I know it's in the wiring/pinout rather than another pcb.

[SirPoonga]

The JAMMA+ interface is semi-proprietary then?.

No, JAMMA+ is JAMMA with extras.  The extras is implemented however the game manufacturer decided to interface the extras.

To original poster, I suggest picking up the book.  www.projectarcade.com

[krick]

What he said.

The JAMMA spec only pertains to the 56 pin JAMMA connector itself.

Any other controls that can't be accomodated by the 2 joystick w/ 3 buttons each limit are handled with a proprietary "kick harnesses".

People refer JAMMA games that require a kick harness as "JAMMA+" but there is no JAMMA+ standard.

Also, there are variations to the JAMMA "standard" to watch out for...

Some manufacturers used the "empty" pins 25/26 and c/d for 4th and 5th buttons for each player, and some used pins 11/M for non-standard sound.  Usually amplified or unamplified stereo output.

There are also systems that use the same connector with somewhat different pinouts:

Notable are Electrocoin:
http://www.coin.demon.co.uk/jamma.htm

and NeoGeo MVS:
http://www.hardmvs.com/manuals/Jamma2NeoGeo4SlotPinout.pdf

I'm sure there are others.