Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Software Support => GroovyMAME => Topic started by: meyer980 on November 06, 2021, 02:15:39 pm
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Hey all, Just wanted to say thanks to Calamity and everyone else in these threads for everything you've done. Without the various guides and tools, I definitely wouldn't have been able to accomplish what I was going for. I wanted to document my experience in case it helps anyone else.
My goal: I'm building a Nintendo cabaret (build thread coming this winter) and want it to be VERY close to original, in case I ever acquire a real PCB board set. But also need it to play MAME and other PC games. Why? Because I've coded several of my own games and want to play them on a cabinet with a true CRT.
Parts
Monitor: a 14" Sanyo EZZ (a variant of the 20EZ). These monitors were found in Nintendo cabarets and some older cocktails, like DK.
Power: Requires 100 VAC through an isolation transformer. So built my own power section for the monitor.
PC: Optiplex 7010 slim pc (ebay)
Video: Radeon HD 7500 card to properly use CRT Emudriver
Controls and Video Adapter: J-PAC. Lets me use a jamma harness which is easily found and also adapts the video physically to what I need
Challenges
- Setting up CRT Emudriver: Using the 2019 version of Calamity's guide worked well. On the official forum all screenshot links were dead so I used an archived copy from Internet Archive. The jpac helped me confirm I was outputting 15khz and helps protect my monitor. My video card has DVI-I so I used an adapter to VGA which goes into the jpac. The Sanyo monitor doesn't use the most common video connector so had to build a cable with the proper 6-pin plug on the end.
- Inverted Video: My monitor came out of a parted Nintendo cocktail. As such, it was set from the factory to expect inverted colors. Unlike the larger Sanyos it does NOT come with an inverter board or inverter switch so is not immediately compatible with regular color setups. SOLUTION: Originally, I tried to use Mike's Arcade Video Inverter. This *worked* technically, but really dulled by colors and lowered brightness. No amount of monitor controls would help. Using a Craftymech TPG confirmed hooking straight to monitor worked perfectly, only through the adapter was I have quality issues. Next, I tried to find a software solution by inverting colors straight at the computer level. This also worked, sort of. Different tools would get me half way there. For example, the Windows 10 Color Filter tools has an invert option. This made the desktop look great and even some games but ONLY if they ran in windowed mode. GroovyMAME and switchres is meant to run in fullscreen mode (sort of the whole point of switchres, I think?).Similar issues arose using other tools, like NegativeScreen or PowerStrip. They'd work for some things but not all. At this point I considered doing a hardware modification directly to the monitor to have it allow positive colors but my last effort was using an original Nintendo Sanyo color inverter. Bought a used one from KLOV and this worked MUCH better. Problem solved. At this point, you might be asking, why not use one of the other variety of products that do inversion? There are a variety of products that help convert JAMMA to Nintendo controls and color (pcbjunkie, mikes arcade, arcadeparts). The answer is I am NOT wiring my cabinet with a Nintendo harness, which these products presume. Sure, I could adapt from JAMMA - Nintendo - Back to JAMMA. But that felt excessive and also limits my controls, I want to have two action buttons and 8-way joystick. The normal old school Nintendo harnesses only have pinouts for 1 action button.
- Playing non-MAME games: Using the standalone switchres application really saved my butt on this. I wanted to be able to play my own games on this machine. This one for example: https://github.com/meyers980/Fix-It-Felix-3 BUT as they launched on their own, they just played in whatever resolution Windows was using, which was basically 480i and looked not great. Lots of wobbling. The standalone switchres app let me build a batch file that switched to 240p, launch the app, and then switch back on exit. MUCH better looking games.
- Vertical Monitor: My cabinet will strictly be a vertical cab. I don't know if this is the proper or best method but here's what worked for me; Had VMM generate all the super resolutions and modes, export to GroovyMAME. In Windows 10, switch the desktop to Portrait. When I launch games, I confirmed it's using the super resolutions and 240p (not interlaced) modes. Picture looks great. Having the desktop set to portrait also allows me to easily launch/play non-MAME games that don't have built in rotate options.
I guess the short story is, don't give up! This took me many nights of reading and testing before I started to understand super resolutions, color values, 15khz crap, etc. But thanks to all these awesome tools working in tandem, the dream can come true! In my case, that's seeing my self-programmed game running on an arcade CRT and looking great. The picture below doesn't do it justice, in person it's popping. If anyone has questions about specific - just let me know! I'm not an expert but can provide links and such to places that helped me.
Links
Here are a number of places and threads I found useful or lead me to tools I used. They weren't all part of my final solution but were still informative.
- Someone else who used a Sanyo monitor (the 20ez): http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=161426.0
- Switchres standalone: https://github.com/antonioginer/switchres (this has the different launch options which are necessary to use switchres with an application that doesn't have it built in)
- Mikes Arcade video inverter and amp: https://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/store.pl?sku=NININVAMP (while this worked, I couldn't get the necessary quality I needed so ended up using an original Nintendo/Sanyo inverter)
- Installing GroovyMAME: https://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=433
- Setting up CRT Emudriver, very helpful!: https://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1052#p1052 (it has dead image links, but if you put this url into Internet Archive's wayback machine you can find them)
- JAMMA to Nintendo video convert: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/connecting-jamma-pcb-to-sanyo-20ez-what-cables-connectors.277798/ (this thread helped me understand how the video inverter works, how to power it, and how to convert my jamma video wires to the Nintendo Sanyo standard).
- My fix It Felix 3 game which was designed for 240p (224x256): https://github.com/meyers980/Fix-It-Felix-3