SFII to MAME Project w/ lots of questions.

[CaptainBuzz8]

Hello all, I am new to the forums but not to this awesome site.  I have built a Dreamcast arcade stick a few years ago but this time I am going for the big boy build.  I just recently purchased the original Street Fighter II machine in great condition for $300 on ebay.  Soon I will be turning it into a Mame machine.  I intend to keep the monitor in there and use a J-pac and ArcadeVGA.  I understand computers quite well but arcade machines, I am still learning.  Now on with the questions...

1.  I understand that the monitor connects through Jamma but where does it get it's power from?  There is a button connected to the power supply that I hit from the outside that turns everything on.  If I connect the Jamma connector to the J-Pac will that power the monitor up or will I have to keep something connected to the power supply?

2.  Is the second connector to the PCB the extra buttons for Jamma+?  If so which buttons do I need to directly wire to the J-Pac board?  Is it just buttons 5 and 6 for both 1p and 2p?

3.  How beefy of a PC do I need?  I plan on running this through DOS but I also plan on having Windows 98 or ME installed for other reasons such as USB, windows games, and setting up the files and folders.  I want it to be able to run the Mortal Kombats and all the CPSII games perfectly.  Is a 1.4 Celeron with 128MB ram enough or should I have 256+ of ram?   It might be overkill but I want to be able to do other things also.

4.  Is the ArcadeVGA card AGP or PCI? 

5.  Can I wire the existing cab speakers to the PC or should I just replace them with powered PC speakers? 

Here are some pics...







 

I also plan on mounting headphone jacks and USB ports to the sides near the control panel for hooking up extra controllers and such for other emus. 

The PC mobo, hdd, psu and maybe a disk drive will be mounted to the wooden board where the current pcb is.

Thanks for reading, I will keep you guys updated as more progresses.  Also, if there is anything else I forgot to mention, I will really appreciate any other advice.

[Timoe]

4.  Right now, I believe the ArcadeVGA is AGP.


This is going to be great.  Take lots of pictures.

[Raven..]

1.  I understand that the monitor connects through Jamma but where does it get it's power from?  There is a button connected to the power supply that I hit from the outside that turns everything on.  If I connect the Jamma connector to the J-Pac will that power the monitor up or will I have to keep something connected to the power supply?

The monitor should have a separate isolation transformer connected to the power block, the JAMMA harness power should be coming from a separate power supply (usually has screw terminals on the side).  I would suggest that you disconnect the JAMMA harness from the power supply to avoid the chance of frying your JPAC.  You can use the auxillary power outlet on the back of your cabinet to power your PC.


2.  Is the second connector to the PCB the extra buttons for Jamma+?  If so which buttons do I need to directly wire to the J-Pac board?  Is it just buttons 5 and 6 for both 1p and 2p?

Yes it is (aka the "kick harness").  You need to directly wire buttons 4-6 to the JPAC.

3.  How beefy of a PC do I need?   Is a 1.4 Celeron with 128MB ram enough or should I have 256+ of ram?

I've run DOS MAME on a 766 with 128MB RAM just fine.  That being said, you can never have too much RAM.

5.  Can I wire the existing cab speakers to the PC or should I just replace them with powered PC speakers? 

Take the amp out of a cheap pair of powered PC speakers.  Wire the cab speakers to that.  It's easy and sounds much better.

[CaptainBuzz8]

Let me just say that the J-Pac and the ArcadeVGA are awesome and work just as they should.  Pretty much went according to plan and everything was hooked up in an hour or so.  Here is an updated pic with the pc installed but not bolted down.  CURRENTLY, everything is bolted down and it works great.  I still need to mess around with some resolutions and get it to run a little better.  I think I am going to keep it looking like a SFII machine and not a MAME cab.  Thanks to everyone who helped me with my questions.  I will submit my project to the site once I have time.



http://www.geocities.com/captainbuzz8

[Raven..]

Congrats!  I'm glad you got it going and are enjoying your new machine.   

(Now go throw that dusty, unloved SFII board in a box and mail to.....   )