PC Emulators + Gameconsole in original Arcade Cab the ultimate pc2jamma Solution

[pc2jamma]

Hi !

After searching for a long time for a hardware that can connect my original JAMMA arcade cabinet to my PC and game consoles, i decided to build it on my own.
All commercially available things (J-PAC ...) need a lot of additional hardware or wiring and none of them can handle a trackball for my favorite game marble madness.

The Project is in the final stage and i would like to hear your opinion if there is a market for it or not.

What does this hardware in principal:

- Connects PC and gameconsole (psx, SNES, more to come) to JAMMA Connector of the acade cabinet
- Makes a full ATX power supply from a arcade supply
- Works with MAME and other PC based emulators
- Emulates the joypads of SNES, Playstation (more to come)
- On board video Amplifier and 8W stereo sound
- Can be configured via USB
- Firmware update via USB

I made some Fotos, that you can see how it looks like.



All features in detail:

PC2JAMMA 1.4 Features

On board 5Amps 3.3V switching power supply
Original arcade power supply (+12V +5V -5V) is enough to connect the PC mainboard. Arcade cabinet can stay original
ATX power connector for PC mainboard
4pin. ATX 12V Aux connector
Harddisk + floppy power (+5V / GND / GND / +12V)
15 programmable keysets
5 x USB for MAME or other PC based Emulators etc.
3 x PSX (digitalcontroller, analog "red" and "green")
1 x Super Nintendo "SNES"
1 x Nintendo 64 (planned)
1 x GameCube (planned)
4 x reserved for future use
Keyboard and mouse emulation via USB
Keyset configuration from PC via USB
Defaults for all Keysets in ROM
Stereo 8W/6W audio amplifier
2 video inputs VGA & SCART (selects automatically the correct source)
Controllable video amp (0.7 .. 4Vpp)
Arcade monitor protection from wrong line frequency
Built in SYNC signal divider (configurable)
Extented JAMMA connector with 4 buttons
Additional 12 general purpose inputs for buttons, Spinner, Trackball
Gold plated JAMMA connector
3 status LEDs
Firmware updates via USB

What do you think?
If there are enough interested gamers i'll make a few to sell them.

Regards,

Dirk

[BASS!]

Wow, just wow. Considering that no other device offers these features, I would definitely think they would sell great. My only questions would be:

Would you be planning on having a full 6 button layout available for all the 6 button fighting games out there?
What would be the cost?

This thing is so awesome, and would be so sweet! I didn't have a use for it before, but heck, if the price is right I just may.

[IG-88]

That would be very cool. How much do you think you would sell them for?

[pc2jamma]

(...)

Would you be planning on having a full 6 button layout available for all the 6 button fighting games out there?
what would be the cost?

(...)

4 Buttons/Player are standard on the JAMMA connector, you can have additional 6 per player if your emulator supports this.
The only thing to do is the wiring to the screw connectors on the PCB.


The price is at the moment difficult to mention. One prototype PCB costs me approx. 50 EUR (75 US$) plus components, which is another 65 EUR. Population of the prototypes was done by hand.

As a first guess i'd say 150 EUR if i build more than 25 units.

Regards,

Dirk

[pc2jamma]

Some news...

I received the first 4 final PCBs, fully populated.
All of the features are working properly. I'm working now on the configuration software for the PC. When this is ready i'll post some screenshots.




Regards,

Dirk

[mayhem]

hi thereim intrested intwo of theseto runmyproject c-macc's

Question

1) Your saying i can plug in 1 console and 1 PC at the same time and switch between them both.

2) How many consoles can u link up

ect ect. could you put up more deatils please as defo intrested and have the money waiting.

 

[Timstuff]

I'd say there'd definitely be a market for this. I'm not aware of any other plug-and-play solutions for interfacing a PC to a Jamma cabinet, as they all involve multiple encoders, cards, harnesses, etc. There are more than a few people who would love to have something like this.

[Singapura]

I have a Jamma cab coming in from China that I want to use for my Xbox, PS2 and PC. I'm definitely in the market for one of these (if the price is right).  Do you by any chance live in The Netherlands?

[ark_ader]

Buy several finger boards and a Selector, soldering iron = cheaper than 150 EUR.

[TOK]

This is a great idea... I've never seen anything about SCART cables/connections in US though.

[abzman2000]

I don't think the US does scart, but the pinout is readily available and is a useful set of outputs to have standardized, that's the US for ya, the cool standard that other people use isn't good enough

[TOK]

I don't think the US does scart, but the pinout is readily available and is a useful set of outputs to have standardized, that's the US for ya, the cool standard that other people use isn't good enough

Yea, but we'd also probably buy 10 times more of that device than the rest of the world. 

[pc2jamma]

Hi !

SCART is the only way to connect a RGB game console. There is no other way to have a game console picture on a real arcade display.

Regards,

Dirk

[TOK]

Hi !

SCART is the only way to connect a RGB game console. There is no other way to have a game console picture on a real arcade display.

Regards,

Dirk

I think I'm lost, perhaps I'm just confusing your definition of SCART. I thought it involved the physical connector and not just that fact that it's RGB and sync lines... Does Ulimarc's PS2 and XBox adapters have a SCART connector? I thought it was VGA connnector.

[pc2jamma]

Ultimarc is using their own cable which fits into the consoles AV output. They are routing this with some electronics to their connector. PC2JAMMA does it in a similar way. Instead of using a special cable it uses the (in europe) common SCART cable from the game console to the pc2jamma.


Dirk

[Ummon]

Here's a question: does this accommodate the extra three buttons some jamma panels have? (Incidentally, I don't think the J-PAC does.)

[pc2jamma]

It does 

Regards,

Dirk

[Ummon]

It does 

Regards,

Dirk

Is there just a pin set to plug the extra one right in?

[pc2jamma]

Look at the photo, the green screw connectors are used for the extra buttons.

Dirk