Leisure 2K conversion project

[miner49er]

I there folks, this is my first post!

I am currently in the process of aquiring a Leisure 2K JAMMA cab with 20" monitor. I intend to install a PC I have lying around and using AdvanceMame on top of Linux.

I have an ATI Rage Pro card, that I understand can output the neccesary 15Khz.

Is it neccesary to purchase a J-PAC?

Can anyone give me any more tips on what I need or can prepare for when it's delivered? Obviously I want to start playing as soon as it arrives, or as soon as possible anyway!

Thanks!

[BobA]

The jpac is required if you want to use the existing jamma connector to connect to the buttons and joys in your cab.   If you want to rewire your buttons and joy to another interface then you can use a ipac or a keywiz.

[miner49er]

Then a J-PAC is what I need as I want to connect my PC to the JAMMA connector (yes?)

Another question I had is: Is it possible to destroy/damage the monitor if I happen to not set the correct modeline? What are the dangers of destroying my monitor?

Also, the cab I'm getting allows the monitor to be placed horizontal or vertical. Do you know how easy/dangerous the procedure is? I.E. am I likely to eloctrocute myself? Will I have to discharge the monitor before attempting this? I am far too scared to mess with high voltages!

[TOK]

Also, the cab I'm getting allows the monitor to be placed horizontal or vertical. Do you know how easy/dangerous the procedure is? I.E. am I likely to eloctrocute myself? Will I have to discharge the monitor before attempting this? I am far too scared to mess with high voltages!

I'm not familiar with the cabinet you're getting, but most cabinets designed to let you rotate the monitor make it pretty easy to do from the front with grab handles/cuts in the monitor mount.

If there is stuff you have to do from the back of the monitor, just use a little caution and the weight of the monitor is the bigger danger than the electricity. 

With the cabinet unplugged, you just need to be careful around is the anode cap (the big "suction" cup) on the back of the tube, and the danger there for what you're doing is incredibly remote. Unless its all dried up and ready to crap out on you anyway, there shouldn't be any voltage reaching the outside of it.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

I am currently in the process of aquiring a Leisure 2K JAMMA cab with 20" monitor. I intend to install a PC I have lying around and using AdvanceMame on top of Linux.

Hi There, Welcome.

Why are you running AdvanceMame? I haven't used it. What does it offer over SDLMAME and a Linux front tend like say WAH!Cade? (that's how I'm setup at the moment but always open yo new ideas!)

[miner49er]

Why are you running AdvanceMame? I haven't used it. What does it offer over SDLMAME and a Linux front tend like say WAH!Cade? (that's how I'm setup at the moment but always open yo new ideas!)

Well, I'm still looking into ideas at the moment. I don't want to use X windows if I can help it. Why? Because I don't see the point in starting X when i can use the kernel framebuffer driver and save a bit of overhead and startup time.

I want this cab to be as seamless as possible I.E. to start quick and show little sign of being a PC inside.

For now though, I've just installed debian net install with the bare minimum and it starts up in seconds.

My cab arrives this week - can't wait to start tinkering! Hope I don't blow it up!

What distro are you using?
Do you autorun into X, then autostart WAH!cade?
What VGA card do you use (assuming you have an Arcade monitor)

I'm on a tip hunting mission at the moment :-)

[Barry Barcrest]

I take it you are in the UK, a friend of mine is watching one of these cabs on ebay. Is yours 6 button, because i was wondering how the 6 buttons would work with a J-Pac as i believe Jamma is only 3 buttons.

[miner49er]

I am the UK. Mine has 6 buttons (or will have when it arrives).

I'm not sure about this myself, I'm very new to this arcade stuff.

Aren't the extra buttoned JAMMA systems knows as JAMMA+

I hope I can make use of this damn thing :-o

[miner49er]

I have my machine in a working state now and I blummin love it!
So much fun, it's untrue. so addictive.

I'm using AdvanceMenu under debian linux, with an ATI rage 128 Pro plugged into a J-Pac that I purchased off someone from this very forum!

I have an issue with bleeding on the monitor but I've temporarily fixed that by reducing the brightness in advanceMame.

I will play until a feel the urge to tweak, then possibly replace the caps on the monitor chassis (I'm learning all the lingo as well!)

The monitor is also mounted horizontally and I find myself playing more vertical games (bombjack, Flying Shark, Pacman, 1942), so I may rotate it as the scaling kinda ruins the look of those games...

Did I mention I love my cab!