Hey I have a question, about cabinets...

[thehammer12]

Hey everyone I am a newb I wanted to know if I build or purchase a cabinet, and wanted to just make it a arcade game, what do I need, I was told that I need a  pcb board and a wiring harness and a power supply, sorry if this sounds stupid but is this true and if so, how do I know which one is right for it, and its installation I dont even want to get in to, I just want to have one for myself. thanks and let me know what everyone thinks.

Hammer

[mnm1200]

Have you read : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,19049.0.html ?

[terryd]

You can either build yourself a cabinet or but a gutted one.

[paigeoliver]

If you are wanting a JAMMA cabinet, but wanting it to be a project, then buy a complete, but non-working game. That way you will have the basic AC wiring for the game allready done, and from there you can add your new JAMMA harness and new power supply, controls, monitor, etc.

[thehammer12]

Sorry what is jamma, sorry I am a total newb

[mnm1200]

"What is a JAMMA cabinet anyway?

JAMMA (Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association) is a wiring standard which was developed in the 1980's to standardize wiring of cabinets to game logic boards. A JAMMA cabinet has a 28+28 way edge connector for connection to a game board pre-wired to controls, monitor etc. If the controls you will be using are not wired to one of these connectors then the I-PAC may be for you rather than J-PAC."

From http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac1.html

[Oddfeld]

So, in newbie terms:

If you buy a fully working arcade cabinet it will probably be wired up according to the JAMMA standard, in which case you can just rip out the game board inside it and plug something else into the JAMMA connector it was plugged into (this can be a different JAMMA game board or a JAMMA interface to a PC if you want to run MAME and other emulators - i.e. an Ultimarc JPAC).

If you have a dead arcade cab that you'll be gutting, or you're building a cabinet from scratch, then there isn't much point worrying about JAMMA if you're just going to use it for emulation,  since you'll never have to plug an original arcade game PCB into it - you can use less contrived interfaces to the PC, such as an Ultimarc IPAC or other keyboard encoder.

[missioncontrol]

You may want to do a little research on what kind of cab you are wanting to build....

Are you wanting to make a Mame cab or are you wanting to restore an old arcade machine?

This may help....


step 1 : http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,19049.0.html ?

step 2 : Pick up the book Project Arcade By John St. Clair

also check out http://www.mame.net