what does a jpac do?

[loser123]

Im thinking of buying a jamma cabinet to convert to pc based and running mame,
what exactly does the jpac do? i know it controls the control panels and buttons but does it also show your pc on the original cabinet screen?
i dont want to be messing about with the jamma cabinets monitor as i have been told you can get fried if you dont know much about electrics

also by chance is there anyone in North East england UK selling a jamma cabinet pref a 6 button fighting style one?

thanks in advance

[Nemss316]

You're correct that the JPac does allow for additional buttons.

As far as the signal goes, and I may be corrected on this, but the J-pac will only block the initial signal from your windows start-up screen.

You still need to run either an ArcadeVGA, or use Soft15Khz with a compatible graphics card to be able to display resolutions for your monitor.

[shardian]

Jpac will interface directly with a jamma connector. This includes monitor, joysticks, start buttons, coins, and 4 buttons each player. You have to wire more buttons to the supplied terminals on the Jpac.

The Jpac has a video amp built in, which is necessary for some arcade monitors who have too weak of a video signal. It does not account for the different frequencies of the monitor (arcade monitor wants 15khz, your PC is pretty much double that. The JPAC will BLOCK any frequencies that are damaging to your arcade monitor. You will need to either set your PC and software up to send a 15khz signal (soft15khz, advmame, dosmame, etc), or get an ArcadeVGA card, which will send the proper 15khz frequency. The arcadeVGA is the easiest solution, which is why you see people buying a JPAC and ArcadeVGA usually.

[Turnarcades]

also by chance is there anyone in North East england UK selling a jamma cabinet pref a 6 button fighting style one?

Best place to look as always is ebay. Knocking one up yourself though is not as hard as it first seems so maybe yu can avoid having to settle for a conversion. Borrow the tools you need, buy 50 quid of wood and you'll get plenty of help from here.