Windows PC System => Arcade Monitor - Foolproof??

[ParityBit]

Hello all,

Only recently joined this excellent site! Keep up the great work guys!

[Jess--]

You are right about the arcadevga being based on an ati card, however they are programmed to output specific modes that are compatible with arcade monitors (and to modify non compatible modes so that they can be displayed) if you use a card other than the arcadevga then you will have to set up custom resolutions for games, and also you will most likely have to use Advmame.

I went for the arcadevga method on my jamma cab (first using dos / dmame, then using win98 / mamewah / mame32) and have had no problems on the video side whatsoever (all my problems stemmed from sound cards in dos)

[Silver]

An original Arcade Monitor operates at between 15 - 31Khz (approx).

Sorry not quite right - Arcade monitors operate at 15Khz (15.6Khz ish to be exact, but I imagine most can do roughly the range 15-16Khz).

PC Monitors tend to start at 31Khz, and go up. Therefore, wiring a normal VGA card straight to the arcade monitor would be drastically overdriving it, and potential bad for the monitor.

Quote: To interface a PC running Windows to the Arcade Monitor SAFELY (ie: for MAME), it is "advised" to only use an Utimarc ArcadeVGA video card, which will ensure that ONLY the correct frequencies are received at the Monitor.

...What I am keen to learn, would the following solution be just as effective, and safe for the Arcade Monitor?...

Install an ATI Radeon 9200 graphics card (effectively what the ArcadeVGA card is), and connect it to an Ultimarc J-Pac card? One of the features of the J-Pac card is to only allow sync signals to be sent to the Monitor if they are in the correct range?

Yes the Jpac will stop syncs not suitable going to the arcade monitor (and yes, it can divide the 31Khz sync so you can 'see' the image on the monitor - but note that it will not be a playable image - it will actually be a doubled image (2 copies of the screen on the monitor at once)).

In addition, on the Windows PC install an Emulator such as AdvanceMAME,  which is able to program directly the graphics card to always get a video mode with the correct size and frequency.

Are there any issues or areas that I may not have taken into consideration? Would this solution work, and ensures that the Arcade Monitor never receives any resolutions/frequencies outside of its operating range?

Yes the jpac will protect the monitor until you run Advance mame to output correct video ranges. BUT (and its a big one) you should be aware that running advancemame in windows is only supported by VERY FEW graphics cards. I can personally vouch for that fact that I have never been able to even configure Advancemame in windows for 15Khz output using a Radeon. If you wish to run windows, you need to make sure you have a card that works in windows. I believe it is tested on a geforce, but I am not sure. A lot of people use dos or linux with advancemame.

As mentioned previously, the ArcadeVGA is not just a 9200 - it has hardware modifications allowing 15Khz output designed specifically for reproducing arcade resolutions. You can achieve similar results with things like AdvanceMame, or Powerstrip in windows, but you will have to work to set this up on your own, and you will need a system to prevent damage to your monitor until the output is suitable.

ArcadeVGA removes all the hassle, plug in and go. Just my opinion.

[wpcmame]

Some other comments:
- SVGALib doesn't work with Radeon 9x00 and above and modern NVidia cards got issues as well. The effect is that you can't use advancemame to program the 15KHz resolutions in windows. You can still use advancemame in windows with SDL but then you need to first create the resolutions in windows (and then you can just as well use regular mame or mame32).

- Using powerstrip to add AVGA resolutions in windows shouldn't take more than 10 minutes but you still need something to protect your monitor until windows welcome screen is displayed (JPAC works fine).

- If you buy a new graphic card, go for one with FSAA (e.g. Radeon 9600). It will make PC games look a lot better.

[ParityBit]

Thanks all for your informative replys! *thumbs up*
(and for correcting me, when my 'facts' weren't quite right)

[gmorse]

The ArcadeVGA only has a UK distributor (London if I remember correctly).  We in the States have to import them from the UK.  Andy still gets things to me faster than most companies over here.

If you're willing to use DOS or Linux, it can be as simple as using a jpac between your graphics card and arcade monitor.

My setup was very easy using a Diamond Viper V550 and jpac.

Installed an old copy of Win 98 and set it to only boot into true DOS.
Installed AdvanceMame
Installed ArcadeOS
Installed AdvanceCab.

Run vga.exe from AdvanceCab in the autoexec.bat (gives a stable image for Dos and arcadeOS)
Run advcfg.exe from AdvanceMame to configure the graphics card/monitor for Mame.
Configure arcadeos to use the arcade monitor and I was off to the races.

For sound, I'm using an old PCI Soundblaster Live and haven't had any issues with it in Dos.

[Scott84]

www.ultimarc.com

Thats the site.

AndyWarne is the man!

[ParityBit]

Thats great, thanks Scott84,

GMorse, I'm quite interested in your approach, using a 'True DOS mode' (with an original graphics card)? I've always thought that running MAME in Windows, the graphics and colours would be alot sleeker, better performance, as Windows would provide alot more support (ie: Drivers/stability) compared to running an Emulator in DOS - especially for the complex Console games? Wont look any different?

Can you confirm how you have configured Windows to boot only into a True DOS mode, and not into Windows  (command line switch or something)? And the only "special" JAMMA interface that I'll need would be a J-Pac?

Building a JAMMA cabinet = constant learning curve! 

[gmorse]

Dos is much more stable than any version of windows.  Still not Unix, but we can save that argument for another day.  Considering there are no real drivers other than the sound card that need to be installed, you don't really need to worry about compatibility issues.  The only thing to keep in mind with Dos is you can't use USB.  I made that mistake initially with the JPAC.

All you need to do to boot into DOS is edit MSDOS.SYS (after typing attrib -r -h -s) in the root directory and change  BOOTGUI=1 to BOOTGUI=0.  There's another setting called LOGO (I think it's called) that you can change to 0 as well.  After that it will boot up to the C:\ prompt without loading any of the windows layer.  The only thing to keep in mind is you can only do this up to Win 98.  Win ME  will not work for this.

If you're running on an arcade monitor then I don't think there should be any difference graphic wise.  As far as graphic cards for AdvanceMame go, there's a roundup someone posted several weeks ago, but I forget where exactly.  I've found my Diamond Viper V550 has worked very well, but consensus is the Trident Blade T64 is the best.