My First MAME cabinet finally finished.

[sman6452]

Hi All,

Just thought I would share my first MAME arcade with everyone. I picked up an old Mortal Combat 2 cabinet at a local auction for $5. It had a great monitor in it (WG 25k7197) with a very clear picture. It also inclued a Bass fishing game which I sold on ebay. I repainted the entire cabinet and installed an AMD Dual Core 4200+ with an ArcadeVGA video card, J-PAC for the monitor, and an I-PAC4 for the 4 player control panel. The picture below shows the result. The whole thing cost me a little more than expected $800, but I think it was worth it.

The only problem which I am still having is a video issue. When the whole system starts up, I get an intermittent ghosting on the screen. During this the screen also flickers. It is always fixed if I unplug the J-PAC from the computer PS/2 port, or unplug the I-PAC4 from the J-PAC. This happens a few times in the first 10 minutes of operation and then doesn't happen again.

Also, when the system starts up none of the controls work, which are connected to the I-PAC4. The problem is fixed when I unplug and replug the PS/2 cable from the I-PAC4.

By the way, the J-PAC is only used for video while the I-PAC4 is used for controls.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks

[BASS!]

Awesome work! It looks like a beauty, and shiny to boot:-) You got quite the deal for $5. A gutted crappy cabinet is usually at least $50.

I wish I had the answer to your problems. The I pac issue may be solved by trying to plug it in via the USB port and then plugging a regular keyboard into the ps2 port. Ultimark sells cables that go ps2 to usb, and most computer stores sell adapters and cables as well. The video issue is weird, have you tried contacting ultimark for ideas? Or you could also post in the monitor forum here.

[Franco B]

$5  nice!

Good work, looks really nice. I see you have the perfect D&D CP too.

[sman6452]

I'll try connecting the J-PAC through USB. Can I use the PS/2-USB adapter that is used for the mouse?

I also posted in the Video forum but haven't had any responses yet. If I don't get any further suggestions I will contact Ultimarc next. From what I have read, they seem to have really good customer service.

[sman6452]

Just thought of something else. I have a WG 25k7197 monitor. The J-PAC has two jumpers selected for the 15kHz and 31 kHZ refresh rates. Should only the 15kHZ jumper be selected for my monitor and would this cause my problem?

Thanks

[Sir Auros]

That's pretty slick, and I love the marquee. That's the game that got me into MAME in the first place.

Have you just tried a different keyboard w/the ipac4? I had some similar funkiness w/mine, but I switched keyboards and it worked fine.

I use a TV, so I'm no help on the monitor front. It would be cool if you showed some build pics, though.

[sman6452]

I'm not using a keyboard with the machine so that is not the problem. I tried taking out the 31kHz jumper but that did not fix the problem. Unfortunately, I do not have any build pics because I do not own a digital camera.