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CP Harness and ArcadeVGA Questions

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FlashFreak:
Hey everyone, great community, you actually pushed me to buy my first cab, after long reads!

I picked up a Sunset Riders JAMMA+ cab in very good condition for around $300CAN.  It was a steal I couldn't pass up.  It's in fully working condition, the monitor is in GREAT condition with no burn in, and the CP (with the exception of one gummed up joystick) is fully functional - 4 coin slots, hardly a scratch on the plexiglas monitor cover.  Some cigarette burns on the control panel, but I'm getting ready to replace that anyway.

I'm turning it into a MAME cab.  I've got the computer all ready to go, and it has an X800 graphic card in it.  I've been doing some reading on software drivers that will adjust the output to the required 15Khz.

I have an old VGA cable or three lying around and was going to wire it up to the monitor.  But I'm torn.  I don't want to damage the monitor or the PC in the process.

It's a good graphic card, but would I be better off for sheer convenience to go with an ArcadeVGA Card?

It's a JAMMA cab with original wiring (the machine is 2 button, 4 players).  I have the manual for the cab with all the pinouts. For MAME, I'd like to build a loaded CP, with 6 button P1 and P2, and 4 button P3 and P4.  I also want to add a spinner and a track ball.  That seems to me, from what I've read, more than a J-PAC can handle.

One article recommended an ArcadeVGA to J-PAC to JAMMA harness, but am I wrong in  thinking the J-PAC can't handle all those controls?

If so, should I go with an ArcadeVGA and an I-PAC4?  If so, will I then need a custom cable to go from the ArcadeVGA to the arcade monitor?

Sorry guys, just getting into this and I'm a bit confused. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

ff.

ahofle:
For the sake of simplicity (and considering you are going all out MAME on this), I would just go with the AVGA + IPAC4.  The AVGA will also take care of the VGA boot screens that appear before Windows loads so you won't have to worry about damaging your monitor.  You can get a VGA break out cable from ultimarc too which connects easily from your video card to your arcade monitor.

CheffoJeffo:
If you want to go 4-player, then you can either use a JPac (for P1 and P2) and IPac-2 (for P3 and P4) or rewire the cabinet and go with an IPac-4. I second the recommendation for the AVGA (and, if you don't go with the JPac, you will need to hack/buy a cable to connect the PC to the monitor).

In either case, you will also need an optical encoder (like the OptiPac) for your spinner/trackball.

If it were me, I would use a JPac, IPac-2, AVGA and OptiPac, but, as ahofle points out, it may just be simpler to rewire the cabinet for an IPac-4 instead of going with the JPac/IPac-2.

Ummon:
Especially if you're not preserving the jamma feature, it's much less money to make your own breakout cable (seriously simple it is) and run an IPAC 4. Depending on the type (read - brand) of trackball you get, it may already have an encoder.

Unless you go seriously retro or homebrew your spinner will certainly have an encoder. I think the GGG spinner accomodates itself and a slave unit, so you could possibly connect a trackball with no encoder that would share one axis - which is the case in Windows, anyways.

Your card works just fine with soft15. Bios screens can be filtered out easily; my PCIe compatible mobo has integrated, so if I set in the bios to 'PCI/internal VGA', it defaults to the integrated until Windows loads and voila.

extendedplayarcade:

--- Quote from: Ummon on August 22, 2008, 08:45:59 pm ---Especially if you're not preserving the jamma feature, it's much less money to make your own breakout cable (seriously simple it is)

--- End quote ---

Is that with an arcade VGA card?  Or without?

I been on the fence myself in converting my golden tee to a golden mame and want to hook up my PC to a Arcade Monitor.

I kinda want to do it on the cheap for now to get it to work but then upgrade along the way.  (i am strapped for cash because of my little girl and a new born on the way and in need of a bigger home)

Anyways if you have any link to these hacks that would be awesome

Thanks in advance
Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

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