jamma vs. mame and a noob's hello

[mastercave]

hello guys. newbie here...very "new". i just found out about this hobby maybe 2 weeks ago and this weekend i just finished my first joystick for mame, running through a gravis usb.

does anyone of you guys have a jamma cab and a mame cab? here's my story: i didnt even know what mame is until last week. i got into this hobby for the jamma. so i went online ordered jamma connectors, buttons, joysticks, and some jamma pcbs. but after everything came, i found out about the wonderful MAME and realized all the games i wanted for the jamma is available on MAME. now here's my dilemma: should i just put the whole jamma project on hold and build a bare-bones computer and cab for the MAME? i think this is a more wallet-friendly project since i wouldnt be buying $100 pcbs.

[Birdtales]

You can have your cake and eat it too. Why not do both? All you need is a jPac and an Arcade VGA and you can use the computer right along side the JAMMA PCBs you already bought.

http://www.ultimarc.com

[Sasquatch!]

My take on it is that you need to mentally gear yourself to decide if you're going to have a JAMMA cabinet that also runs MAME, or a MAME cabinet that also runs JAMMA.  And then, plan accordingly.

If it's a JAMMA cabinet that also runs MAME, then the ArcadeVGA video card in your PC and the J-PAC interface is the way to go.  This combo assumes that you're using an arcade monitor (versus a PC monitor or a TV) and that you already have your controls wired JAMMA-style.

If it's a MAME cabinet that also runs JAMMA (which is what my next cab will be), you can just use a normal JAMMA harness, and make sure that you have disconnects in the wiring (like molex or D-SUB connectors) so that you can switch the controls to be wired either to the PC keyboard encorder or to the JAMMA PCBs.

But either way, it's definitely do-able.

(Edited because speeling is fun.)