Interface help.....

[Prizmdrop]

This is confusing the hell outta me. I want a spinner, trackball, 2 player 8 ways w/ 6 buttons, 2 player 8 ways / 4 buttons, and a 4 way. So, I dont know what to do. I have a old arcade monitor that is currently hooked up to a jamma board. Should I buy a jpac for the monitor, then use a ipac4 for the joysticks / buttons? or should I just buy a minipac, and a Ipac 2 and a jpac....i dont know, im just confused. someone help me!

[Prizmdrop]

I would've liked to order the parts today, guess i'll have to wait till' tomarrow. Answers appreciated!

[NoOne=NBA=]

This is kind of a specialty question, so you're going to have to wait for some of the more knowledgable people to get to it.
I'm sure there are alot of people here (like me) who would love to help you, but aren't SURE about where to lead you.

I help where I can, and keep my mouth shut unless I'm sure of my answer.

You might fire an email off to Andy at Ultimarc, and see what he recommends.

[whammoed]

How will you be driving your arcade monitor?  arcadevga?  advmame? etc.?
Do you want to use the existing jamma wiring, or does it matter to you?

[monkeybomb]

Hey PD,

You are going to have to wait a little on this one.  You don't want to rush this stuff, mistakes are expensive in this hobby.

* Edit *  Monkeybomb just shut up sometimes *Edit*

[paigeoliver]

You want a JPac and one of andy's USB gamepad encoders, that pair will hook up all that 3rd and 4th player stuff that is only going to get used once.

Oscar has a USB interface available cheaply with his spinners and USB/PS2 trackballs are widely available and they need no interface at all.

[Tiger-Heli]

I agree with Paige as usual, but I think I would consider the GP-Wiz (and maybe the no-solder Eco version) for Player 3 and 4 over the A-PAC, unless you plan to add a steering wheel or race pedals or SW yoke or other analog controls to the cabinet later on.

[monkeybomb]

Even with the Jpac doesn't he still need an Arcade VGA or is there video built into the Jpac. 

[pointdablame]

Even with the Jpac doesn't he still need an Arcade VGA or is there video built into the Jpac. 

He'll still need either the ArcadeVGA or a vid card with AdvMame AFAIK.

My take on it:

You need the JPAC - that'll take care of the cab end of the monitor problem as well as players 1 and 2.

You need another encoder for players 3 and 4.... A-Pac, GP-Wiz, whatever... Now you have all 4 players ready to go.

You need a video solution - either an arcadeVGA or an AdvMame solution (which I know nothing about personally)

You need to hook up that spinner and trackball too, so you need either an Opti-Pac or a few of Oscars hacked mice.

Another possiblity: maybe you chould hook up a Mini-Pac and a JPAC in the same cab, which could elminiate the Opti-pac/hacked mice needs.   I'm not sure if this is possible/worth it though, since I think the Mini-pac may conflict with the JPAC... unless you can reprogram it.....

my .02

[Tiger-Heli]

Another possiblity: maybe you chould hook up a Mini-Pac and a JPAC in the same cab, which could elminiate the Opti-pac/hacked mice needs.   I'm not sure if this is possible/worth it though, since I think the Mini-pac may conflict with the JPAC... unless you can reprogram it.....

Either the mini-pac or the J-PAC can be reprogrammed.  Only the I-PAC VE and the KeyWiz encoders use SDRAM and thus must be programmed again on re-boot.

[pointdablame]

Another possiblity: maybe you chould hook up a Mini-Pac and a JPAC in the same cab, which could elminiate the Opti-pac/hacked mice needs.   I'm not sure if this is possible/worth it though, since I think the Mini-pac may conflict with the JPAC... unless you can reprogram it.....

Either the mini-pac or the J-PAC can be reprogrammed.  Only the I-PAC VE and the KeyWiz encoders use SDRAM and thus must be programmed again on re-boot.

I know the Mini-Pac is programmable, just couldnt remember if it held the program.  Checking Ultimarc though.. it does Just like you said.

So you (Prizmdrop) could use either option I would think.