Jamma + MAME? possible?

[pezkore]

Ok, When i first started posting on this message board, I was only interested in putting together a Golden Tee Cabinet. But after reading SO DAMN much about mame, and seeing so many mame cabinets, I have decided that I'm going to have to get one. It was just too damn irresistable. My plan is to get a laptop for X-mas and just put my present PC into my Golden tee cab, then add two 8 way joysticks on a 7 button configuration on each, plus a 4 way joystick on top.
My PC is a Pentium 3, 850Mhz, 256 mg RAM PC. I want to keep my GT 99 in the cab as well as have my MAME pc in there. I know that you can use a J-pac to hook up MAME in a jamma cabinet, but what I want to know is...is there something that I can buy that will allow me to EASILY switch between the Golden Tee and the MAME? So that i can have both, hooked up, in the same cab at the same time? Any info you could give would be great.

[SirPeale]

Sure.  Get a J-Pac.

http://www.ultimarc.com

[pezkore]

So, installing the J-pac allows me to leave the Jamma GAME still hooked up? How do you switch  between the GT 99 and the MAME?

[SirPoonga]

Ok, the jamma harness on the gtg board handles controls, sound, and video.  The jpac basically just does controls, though it does dvideo.  However, video would probably be better achieved with the arcadevga for mame.

Ask Andy at ultimarc, see what he suggests.

[AlanS17]

The J-Pac is a piece that let's you use a JAMMA interface with your PC. You just leave the board and PC ion the computer.

When you want to switch over you turn your arcade machine off and just move the connector from the game board to the MAME machine. I wouldn't recommend using a switch to toggle between the two, but switching it takes just a couple seconds.

[paigeoliver]

Unplug Golden Tee board, unplug power supply, plug in J-Pac.

You have to unplug the power supply to keep it from ruining itself by running with no load (the J-Pac does not use it).

[SirPoonga]

Unplug Golden Tee board, unplug power supply, plug in J-Pac.

You have to unplug the power supply to keep it from ruining itself by running with no load (the J-Pac does not use it).

It's not that simple.
What about video and sound?  Those are handled in JAMMA, but the JPAC just does controls, and basic video which requires a specific setup.

[paigeoliver]

I was only answering what needed to be done to switch once he set everything up.

[Generic Eric]

Isn't there some multi jamma interface that this fella can use?  I thought there was.  It wouldn't be from ultimarc though.

[paigeoliver]

Clay Cowgill sells a Multijamma kit at multigame.com

Not sure if that would work at not, if it keeps the Golden Tee running in the background then it would work, otherwise it wouldn't because the power supply would conk out from running with no load.

[SirPoonga]

sound and video between the the pcb and the computer are still a problem with this setup.    Again, just email Andy at ultimarc or post on ultimarc's forum to see what people have done.  That;s the purpose of the jpac and arcadevga, to get a computer into a jamma cabinet.  however, not sure about switching.

[paigeoliver]

sound and video between the the pcb and the computer are still a problem with this setup.    Again, just email Andy at ultimarc or post on ultimarc's forum to see what people have done.  That;s the purpose of the jpac and arcadevga, to get a computer into a jamma cabinet.  however, not sure about switching.

J-Pac hooks up video, as long as your video card can drive an arcade monitor (gonna be DOS and arcadeos fer sure, but a lot of cards can do it). As for the sound, all you do is hook up your PC sound to the cabinet speakers (or speaker if it is a mono cabinet). Hook up the Golden Tee speakers too, I don't think that would conflict, it's not like they will both be on at the same time.

[SirPoonga]

actually, I think the arcadvevga works with the jpac.  again, the best thing to do is ask the expert, Andy.

[AlanS17]

I'm just speaking from experience. I actually had a PC and game board in the same machine and would switch them out. Sound was a problem, but video wasn't. Even still, I think the J-Pac includes posts for PC sound. I was just lazy to and cheap to hack an audio cable. I would bet it's not so hard, though.

The cabinet I used was a KI2. I was blessed with that machine because it used to similar parts to a PC board. All I had to do was move one AC cord back and forth along with the JAMMA connector.

[mattudland]

I have a Street Fighter Alpha 3 cabinet, with a computer in it.  I use the arcadeVGA and J-Pac, and because I have a seperate power supply for the two, I just switch out the Jamma connector.  It's probably dangerous, and I'm a moron and will fry something I'm sure, but I've just spliced in the wires for sound and that's the only obstacle...  It's really a piece of cake if you are willing to open up the cab and change out the plug.

I don't have access to pictures, sorry, my cabinet is in storage in Oklahoma and I'm in Virginia for the next 3 months.