Why bother with a ??? in one board??

[rollerball]

Hey there...YES I was almost about to buy a in one board for my jamma machine....then after reading this forum for a few days....I thought why would anyone bother to buy one of those cards.....seems to be a no brainer to just get an arcadeVGA and a j-pac...way more options doing that..

[ahofle]

Wassa  " in one board"?

[shardian]

It has quickly become a  topic on this board. I can tell you that much.

[knave]

It's a sensitive topic because some/most/all of those  boards are bootlegs. 

It does seem to be overly taboo...are we even allowed to discuss their existance?

 

[saint]

Discuss away, please don't link to sales of the boards if they are not completely legal.

[shardian]

In that case, the multiboards require no software setup, and are a complete plug'n'play solution to a jamma cabinet.
They are essentially a stripped down computer mounted on a board and it is suspected that some of them run MAME, if memory serves me correctly.

[rollerball]

Sorry If I opened up a can of worms...I just found that the arcadeVGA and a j-pac sounds like a much better Idea...even just with an old pc....at least you can play around with it more...price would be much the same....

[knave]

Lots of people might like the simplicity of just pluging in a multiboard and poof having lots more games available.  Mame is not for the weak willed.   

I've seen two different types.  The crazy ones that boast hundreds or a thousand games are really just a specialized mame pc.  These always seem kinda shady to me. 

Then I've seen some that are more like a traditional pcb.  Some of these appear more legit but I've never realy looked into it.

[CheffoJeffo]

Lots of people might like the simplicity of just pluging in a multiboard and poof having lots more games available.  Mame is not for the weak willed.   

I've seen two different types.  The crazy ones that boast hundreds or a thousand games are really just a specialized mame pc.  These always seem kinda shady to me. 

Then I've seen some that are more like a traditional pcb.  Some of these appear more legit but I've never realy looked into it.

Some of the boards are also more reliable than your average MAME cab, which is extremely appealing. I like the idea of a quick-to-configure option.

Having said that, I have never bought a multi-board, but am currently considering using one for a Multi-Williams (one where you have to load the ROM images yourself).

Cheers.