Multijamma kit & Jamma+

[Ninten-doh]

Hi Guys,
I'm a newbie when it comes to "real" arcade machines (only done Mame thus far).  My ideal arcade machine would be one that could play multiple rotary games like Heavy Barrel and Guerrilla War.  Thing is, I know these games are Jamma+ due to the LS30 joysticks (and anything else?).  Would the multijamma that Clay sells work with Jamma+ PCB's?  Any comments would be appreciated!

[RayB]

The + in Jamma+ means that it is Jamma standard PLUS extras. And unfortunately, those extras are NOT standardized from game to game.

Odds are even the rotary connectors would have a different pin-out for each game.

[CheffoJeffo]

Clay's kits provide for a few additional buttons per player, but not enough to support a rotary stick.

Having sad that, I would expect that you can wire the rotaries to each board and have things work out. But thenI am really tired right now and may be missing something obvious.

Cheers.

[tetsu96]

What do you guys think would be easiest / cheapest for multijamma where power isn't needed?  If a JPAC and Dreamcast (or PS2 or whatever) using a JAMMA fingerboard needed to share a cab, would it be cheaper / easier to just splice the wires to a 2nd JAMMA connector?  If splicing the wires, will inputs /signal strength not always register on the active system (assuming only 1 is active at a time)?

[CheffoJeffo]

What do you guys think would be easiest / cheapest for multijamma where power isn't needed?  If a JPAC and Dreamcast (or PS2 or whatever) using a JAMMA fingerboard needed to share a cab, would it be cheaper / easier to just splice the wires to a 2nd JAMMA connector?  If splicing the wires, will inputs /signal strength not always register on the active system (assuming only 1 is active at a time)?

You seem to be assuming that the "system" will not be drawing power from the JAMMA harness (if you are talking about a Jpac and DC, that may well be). [EDIT: Just reread the first line of your post ... you specifically mention power not being needed ... duh to me!] I can see how your idea MIGHT work, but you need to be very specific about the components that you are talking about before anybody could answer your question with a reasonable degree of certainty.

As for me, I love my Clay MJ, but might consider Mike's JAMMA Switcher for the situation you are talking about. I most likely wouldn't just splice the wires together from the whole harness (a few digital controls as I suggest above is one thing, the video, audio and power are another thing altogether).

Cheapest is, of course, swap the harness when you switch. No problems at all and minimal inconvenience.

Cheers.

[tetsu96]

What do you guys think would be easiest / cheapest for multijamma where power isn't needed?  If a JPAC and Dreamcast (or PS2 or whatever) using a JAMMA fingerboard needed to share a cab, would it be cheaper / easier to just splice the wires to a 2nd JAMMA connector?  If splicing the wires, will inputs /signal strength not always register on the active system (assuming only 1 is active at a time)?

You seem to be assuming that the "system" will not be drawing power from the JAMMA harness (if you are talking about a Jpac and DC, that may well be). [EDIT: Just reread the first line of your post ... you specifically mention power not being needed ... duh to me!] I can see how your idea MIGHT work, but you need to be very specific about the components that you are talking about before anybody could answer your question with a reasonable degree of certainty.

As for me, I love my Clay MJ, but might consider Mike's JAMMA Switcher for the situation you are talking about. I most likely wouldn't just splice the wires together from the whole harness (a few digital controls as I suggest above is one thing, the video, audio and power are another thing altogether).

Cheapest is, of course, swap the harness when you switch. No problems at all and minimal inconvenience.

Cheers.

Yeah, I thought about the video and audio after, but that's a correct assumption - the only controls going through the harness (and buttons 4-6 w/o) would be the control panel.  The power isn't used, the audio is seperate, and the monitor is using a vga plug straight into the PC right now.  I'm not sure if the VGA box I'm getting for the Dreamcast has an input for the PC, but I can figure something out if not.

Switching the harness wouldn't be bad but since buttons 4-6 aren't JAMMA standard, I need to do something to allow them to switch anyhow and wanted to figure the best way with the least fuss.

[CheffoJeffo]

I've been thinking about this and, if you're not using the JAMMA harness for power, video or audio, you might consider tossing the idea of using a JAMMA harness at all and maybe just wire your digital controls to both systems OR toss the JAMMA wiring and pick up an old parallel port switch and use that to switch controls between the two.

Cheers