Those multi-game Jamma boards...give me the lowdown!

[AE35]

Hey all!

I've just ordered one of those 48 in 1 jamma boards. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons? I've heard
something abouthiscores being different(no initials etc) and sound problems.

As of now I don't have a Jamma harness, but I have the Jamma 'plug'. How would go about hooking up power
from a PC PSU to the Jamma plug? Are both 5v and 12v needed? Is there a pinout somwehere that tells me
precisely what pin is what?

Thanks for your time!

Nicholas

[Minwah]

http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jammaFAQ.html

[CrazyKongFan]

If it's the same one that the local arcade has, of the ones I've played (Pac-man, DK, Gyruss, Gaplus, Phoenix), Gyruss and Phoenix sounded horrible, DK wasn't too bad. Not original, but the only really obvious one was Mario's running. The "How High Can You Get?" music was the same, but the notes terminated quicker than on a normal DK.

[rescue161]

Is there any way to correct the sound?  Like adding sound files to the chips?  I'm thinking of getting one of these boards, but I want it to be perfect.

[FrizzleFried]

Nope...sound issues are what they are...  They affect about 1/3 of the games.  Gyruss, Time Pilot, and Bombjack are particularly bad.  Games like Galaga,  Galaxian,  and the Pacs are all perfect.  The biggest difference in the Kongs are the fact they use a single sample for running instead of 3 samples.   You get used to it and it's not as annoying as the DDK kit which uses the DKJr climb sounds for running in DK.

As for the scores,  only the HIGHEST score is saved in MOST games (some don't save at all)...and no initials.

I've moved both of my multigame boards to the ArcadeShop version which has better sounds and most of the High Scores save with initials...but at a price premium (about 3x the cost+)

[ArtMAME]

Hey all!

I've just ordered one of those 48 in 1 jamma boards. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons? I've heard
something abouthiscores being different(no initials etc) and sound problems.

As of now I don't have a Jamma harness, but I have the Jamma 'plug'. How would go about hooking up power
from a PC PSU to the Jamma plug? Are both 5v and 12v needed? Is there a pinout somwehere that tells me
precisely what pin is what?

Thanks for your time!

Nicholas

You really don't need to wire the PC power supply to the JAMMA harness, the 48-in1 board has a 4-pin molex connector that you plug the PC power supply into.  You will see it when you get the board. 

Just get a $10 JAMMA harness from jammaboards.com to wire up the joystick and buttons.
If you are using a PC monitor and PC power supply, you really don't need to wire anything else to the JAMMA harness except the coin and test switches if you are using them.

If you are using an arcade monitor, wire the Red Green Blue Ground and Sync from the JAMMA harness to the monitor molex connector.  (There is one already hooked up to the JAMMA harness from jammaboards.com but I doubt it will fit your monitor inputs.)  Make sure your dipswitch is set to 15KHz.

If you are using a PC monitor, just plug the VGA monitor connector to the VGA socket on the board.  Make sure your dipswitch is set to 31KHz.
 
Then get a spare PC power supply and jump the Power On and Ground together to enable the power supply as described in this link:
http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/196/1

You don't have to wire up an ON/OFF switch as described in the link unless you want to.  Test you power supply to make sure it comes ON when you plug the power cable into the AC outlet.

Plug in one of the 4-pin molex connectors from the power supply to the matching molex connector on the 48-in-1 board.

That's it, you should be ready to go. 

Plug in the PC power supply and your board should boot up in about a minute.