Hard drive Jammas? (& Multijamma)

[brain21]

Some of the more modern Jammas (Killer Instinct is one that I can think of) have their own hard drive.

I guess they are called "Jamma+" ?

Can I still stick these in an arcade cab with a MultiJamma (+J-Pac) board and switch between one of these HDD games and say a Galaga jamma board?

Thanks!

Brain21

[CheffoJeffo]

Short answer is yes (although you don't need a JPac unless you are also running a PC).

You're going to need to address additional controls (e.g. extra buttons), but those can be handled in a couple of ways -- either straight from CP to PCB or via the "extra" control headers on the MJ boards.

From the MultiJamma FAQ:

Q: How do I use the MultiJAMMA with fighting games (etc.) that have extra buttons?

A: The MultiJAMMA supports the three "standard" buttons for each player on the JAMMA connector. It also support the fourth semi-standard button on the JAMMA connector. To use the MultiJAMMA with fighting games you simply connect the extra buttons on the control panel directly to the extra buttons inputs on each game board. The buttons do not need to go through the MultiJAMMA at all.

Q. Will the MultiJAMMA work with JAMMA based driving games or paddle-type or gun games?

A. Similar to the question above, if the controllers used are non-standard the MultiJAMMA won't know what to do with them. On the other hand, the control signals don't have to go through the MultiJAMMA, so as long as the controls are compatible with the games you want to use, you can generally hook them together in parallel without any problems. (Gun games might have problems if there are too many games on one gun, you'll have to experiment.)

Cheers.

EDIT: Silly me ... should have pointed out that Galaga is vertical and most modern games are horizontal. The MultiJamma will not rotate -- your games need to be the same orientation (or you have to rotate the monitor when switching games).

[pointdablame]

Just for the record, a Jamma+ game is not a game with a hard drive... it's a JAMMA game that uses more buttons than the standard JAMMA specs allow.... so any 6 button fighter for instance is JAMMA+.  The extra buttons are put on a "kick harness" that attaches directly to the board.

So JAMMA+ and a hard drive game (or a game that uses a CHD image) are not one in the same... just don't want you to be confused.

To answer your original question, yes, you can run hard drive games with a Multi-JAMMA board.  As CheffoJeffo quoted, you just need to wire up the "extra" buttons to kick harnesses.

[tommy]

Also make sure you have your -5 and +5 on you power suppy going to the jamma harness, i didn't have it hooked up on my NFL blitz and it looked like i needed to adjust the monitor but it wasen't getting all the power it needed. (other jamma boards run fine without one or the other connected)

[brain21]

Thanks everyone for the info.

And duh!  I didn't even think about the monitor orientation!

Hmmm, gotta find some way to solve that...  Anyone want to sell me an incredibly cheap cocktail table cab?  :-)

Thanks guys,

Brain21