Converting Existing Arcade into MAME System...Questions...

[armour248]

A few months ago I bought a NBA Jam TE arcade cabinet.  Everything is functional besides some of the buttons/joysticks which I plan on replacing.  I haven't begun working on it yet but want to gain a decent understanding what each step entails before I begin.

First, I would like to learn how to wire the arcade monitor to my PC.  I'm not sure which video card I will use but I have a decently new ATI card (I forget the model) and an old Geforce3.  I was planning on using the ATI card.  The best article I have found thus far is at http://www.ultimarc.com/monfaq.html#monitorcable. 

I would like to find an article or forum thread that has pictures and explanations of the process so that I can simply follow it step-by-step.  If someone could provide some url's to any useful information I would really appreciate it.  Thanks.

J

[armour248]

Will posting my monitor information be helpful?

[StephenH]

If NBA Jam is JAMMA Compatible, you may want to consider the J-Pac and ArcadeVGA from http://www.ultimarc.com.

[armour248]

can you plug the arcade monitor directly into that video card?  how does it work?

[SirPeale]

It's not a video card.  It's a keyboard encoder and a video amp designed to plug-and-play into a JAMMA harness.  Very nice.

[Ummon]

can you plug the arcade monitor directly into that video card?  how does it work?

Reading the wiki might help ya a bit.

[extendedplayarcade]

I am new to the forum. I was reading this post and noticed the J-pac answer.

Seems like a great solution for adding a PC to an existing Jamma PCB board and play mame games right on the Existing Arcade Cabinet's monitor.

Can you still play the Jamma board as well?  or does the J-Pac over ride the original game on the Jamma PCB board?

I wanted to hook up my existing Golden Tee Arcade Game (i think it is jamma how do you know if it is?) so I can play some mame games on it.

Does anyone know as well if Silver Strike is emulated yet?  I might be in the wrong forum for that question but the J-pac seems like an awesome and easy solution.  Anyone use it yet?  The website has instructions but no photos to help with install.

Thanks in advance
Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

[armour248]

the ArcadeVGA sure looks like a video card to me...

"The Ultimate Video card for gaming on 15Khz Arcade Monitors and now PC Monitors"

[armour248]

Alright according to http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jamma_board_list.html, my cabinet should be JAMMA.

Assuming this is correct, I should be able to buy the ArcadeVGA card and a J-Pac card and basically connect the arcade monitor to the ArcadeVGA card and the buttons/joysticks to the J-Pac card correct?

Does the J-Pac card really only support 2 players with 3 buttons each?  How do you play fighting games etc. than?