Cab Preperation/Questions (With NEW Pics!)

[chinabox]

I finally got some pictures of my cab and the guts.  I have a couple of general questions regarding the pictures located here:

http://home.rochester.rr.com/sparer/good/cab_pics.htm

I'm probably going to be using a J-PAC with an ArcadeVGA card.  That being said, where does the J-PAC physically plug in to the arcade machine?  And then the ArcadeVGA plugs right into the JPAC?  That's my understanding...Also, what parts do I take out of the cabinet, and what parts do I keep in?

Finally, what are people's recommendations about the control panel?  My current plan is to do a 2-player joystick/6-buttons with several (5-10) "auxilary" buttons.  Any recommendations about expanding the current control panel?

Also, can you help me ID these parts?  Just for curiosity's sake...

Thanks in advance for your help!
Zach

[rampy]

The jpac plugs in to the JAMMA harness... Your jamma harness is currently occupied by the game PCB..

You could remove the game PCB and plug the Jpac into the black harness in picture 4

Hopefully it's a fully populated jamma harness... I wonder though since your cabinet is a trackball game if the person who originally wired/jammified it bothered to make the full runs for player 1/2 joy and other buttons n' stuff...

*Shrug*  It's just a possible complication.  I highly recommend for background reading bob roberts "so I want to build a game" or his jamma explanations...

good luck with your project (you, you lucky bastage who just happens to have a championship bowling in his basement)

rampy

EDIT 1:  BTW I suggest making a new control panel out of mdf or the like to create a replacement CP.  

I dont' think you'll need that many admin functions man.  There's a "shift" function in the JPAC that allows you to have buttons do duel duty.  If you setup a FrontEnd properly you'll never need your keyboard (well not really -- but in regular useage  you wouldn't)

I'd keep everything in the cabinet =P  Depending on what games you want to play (Street Fighters? ... )  you might want to rotate the monitor horizontally... but if you prefer classics/verticals maybe leave it vertical. =P

[Apollo]

The ArcadeVGA card replaces the video card in your mobo. That means that you cant use a PC with onboard graphics as you need a mobo with spare AGP slot. You may be better off just ditching the jamma harness ( sell it on ebay along with the Championship Bowling PCB? ) and rewiring a control panel to an IPAC. It may be a lot simpler in the long run.
Good luck and have fun ( just a tip, don't rush it ).

[chinabox]

NEW PICS ADDED!  Can you guys help me ID this stuff?

The cabinet comes apart really well.  I didn't expect things to be this easy.  It looks like it's a"fully JAMMA-fied" cabinet.  Can anyone confirm this?

[paigeoliver]

I would ditch the Jamma harness and go with an I-Pac and arcadevga instead. There are no wired joysticks on that panel, and the wires for them may be snipped off from the harness itself. Even if it isn't, you will still have to rewire, so you might as well do it from scratch and save the extra money.

You might also want to check and see if Championship Bowling has been dumped for emulation yet. I don't see it in Mame.

Kind of a shame that you don't have any other cabinets to use. Bowling games are pretty fun and often sell for pretty good money. Capcom Bowling has been skyrocketing in value lately. They used to sell for like $50 at the auctions, but lately they are going for much more (one on ebay now is already at $280).

Also, the old kit will probably sell for much more money if you include the control panel, marquee, trackball, PCB, harness, bezel, and all the other guts too.

[chinabox]

...you might as well do it from scratch and save the extra money.

...You might also want to check and see if Championship Bowling has been dumped for emulation yet. I don't see it in Mame.

Is the implication here that a J-PAC won't work if Championship Bowling is not emulated on MAME?  And also, isn't the J-PAC cheaper than the I-PAC4?  I'm confused about all of this now...It can't just be any JAMMA harness?

If I ditch the JAMMA, what will I keep from the original cabinet?  

[paigeoliver]

No, the implication was that you may have an undumped game on your hands, and thus might want to send the boardset out to one of the Mame dumpers so it can be emulated.

The J-Pac is cheaper than the Ipac-4, but not cheaper than the I-Pac 2 (the j-pac basically IS an I-Pac2 with a jamma edge connector on it). You have an obvious 2 player cabinet, so the I-Pac 2 is the one for you.

The reason I suggested ditching the J-Pac idea is that the J-Pac doesn't support trackballs, and the trackball is the only thing your cabinet has wired up in the first place. Thus you would have to do a bunch of wiring anyway, so you might as well not get a J-Pac.

What would you keep from your original cabinet? The transformer, the power cord, and the wires from the transformer to the monitor. The coin door. The marquee light

What goes is the JAMMA edge connector (and all associated wiring). The power supply, the game boardset, and the original control panel (which looks to me like it would not hold up to having any more holes drilled in it).

[chinabox]

No, the implication was that you may have an undumped game on your hands, and thus might want to send the boardset out to one of the Mame dumpers so it can be emulated.

The J-Pac is cheaper than the Ipac-4, but not cheaper than the I-Pac 2 (the j-pac basically IS an I-Pac2 with a jamma edge connector on it). You have an obvious 2 player cabinet, so the I-Pac 2 is the one for you.

The reason I suggested ditching the J-Pac idea is that the J-Pac doesn't support trackballs, and the trackball is the only thing your cabinet has wired up in the first place. Thus you would have to do a bunch of wiring anyway, so you might as well not get a J-Pac.

What would you keep from your original cabinet? The transformer, the power cord, and the wires from the transformer to the monitor. The coin door. The marquee light

What goes is the JAMMA edge connector (and all associated wiring). The power supply, the game boardset, and the original control panel (which looks to me like it would not hold up to having any more holes drilled in it).

Okay, this all might be good news actually.  I have an IPAC on its way in the mail that I ordered before I was convinced to buy a JPAC  Now you're making me think that I made the right choice in the first place.  Thanks!

Still need to order the ArcadeVGA though...damn $12 shipping  Andy's a great guy, though.  So what should I sell from this mother?

[paigeoliver]

Sell EVERYTHING from it. Preferably in one lot (the more complete a "kit" is, the higher price it will fetch on ebay).

My suggestion is one lot having

Control Panel (complete and populated, if you really want a trackball, just buy one of those 3" PS2 ones, almost as cheap as buying the interface for the one you already have anyway, plus it will be new).
Marquee
monitor bezel
Boardset
Jamma harness (still attached to control panel).
power supply (you don't need it, and it aint worth listing separate, so you might as well let it add a few bucks to the value of your kit on ebay).

With proper pictures and description you could easily get $70-$100 for that kit. Be sure to specify that your kit includes everything needed to convert a game to Championship Bowling. Wouldn't hurt to mention how you like Championship Bowling better than Capcom Bowling.

[rampy]

*Shrug*  If you have an ipac on the way... by all means use that!  I was just trying to give you the simplest options.

There's no way to know from sure from here... but picture 8 made me think the jamma joystick/button wiring was complete/populated...i.e. ready to slide on to a set of joys buttons. which would  facilitate a quicker maming by a jpac (however not an absolute necessity  -- the ipac works just as well you just run the wires yourself instead of using the existing harness -- no big whup)... the only other bonus of using a j-pac is that perhaps someday you can revert it back to a regular arcade game without too much trouble... (but once you mame it I doubt you'd want to go back=P)

Now that I've had a better look at your control panel... I see it's already pre-drilled for conversion to a joystick game.  I also see that it might be a little bit of a pain to re-make out of wood.  If you took off the lexan/overlay and replaced the lexan you should be in good shape to drill out the button/joy holes on the lexan and drop in your joy/buttons.

If championship bowling is unemulated or rather un-dumped, the noble thing to do would be to find out if the guru has your particular game roms yet.  And if not, ship out the board to him to have the rom information dumped and hopefully someone will write a driver for it for MAME... (I believe they do/can give the boards back... but it's a slow process.... check the site for details or start a dialogue with guru)

*shrug*

Rampy

[AlanS17]

Hi yall. I'm the guy that recommended the JPac and for an arcade machine with a JAMMA harness and and arcademinotr I still think it's the best suggestion. Otherwise you're gonna have to gut the machine to re-wire in the IPac.

On top of that you're gonna have to hack a cable to connect your ArcadeVGA and your monitor instead of plugging it straight into that JPac. You may also come out with a dimmer and possibly jumpier picture than you would expect because you don't have a video amplifier.

Furthermore, it will not be backwards compatible as a real arcade machine anymore because you're chopping into the whole wiring structure. You'd have to re-re-wire the thing to ever make it worth something again.

Rather tha pulling wires I just think it's a better idea to use them. It's cleaner and easier. Plus the JPac works WITH the ArcadeVGA. Sure the ArcadeVGA works by itlsef, but it works better with the JPac.

I'm sure yall have your own opinions. If you're in a rush and feel the need to start re-wiring the thing wheny our IPac comes in then go ahead. You'll save yourself some trouble and time, though, if you use the JPac.

By the way, this is all coming from someone who has both.

[Apollo]

The Ulitimarc video amp is only about $15 isn't it?