advice on plan

[ackbar]

I have built a MAME cabinet before which used a PC monitor for display.  Now I am building another one out of a Nintendo "VS Golf" machine, and the original monitor in the cabinet is working so I intend to use it.  After some reading up on this, I'm starting to lean towards buying an Arcade VGA card and the breakout cable.

I am going to have this machine running Arcade OS in DOS all the time.

Now, here's my questions-

- is the Arcade VGA card + breakout cable pretty easy to hook up?  Is there any chance of this setup not ultimately working out (if I'm going the easy Arcade VGA route I want it to be foolproof)?  

- Are people pleased with the results from an Arcade VGA card?

- About not going the Arcade VGA route: Right now there's an S3 card in there, which I know will not work.  I have access to a Matrox Millenium.  Would it be viable to reprogram the registers on this card?  I think I'd be comfortable with splitting a VGA extension cord and hooking it up properly, but I can't find any good information about how to reprogram the card, and I'm afraid this may just lead to a dead end.

[tom61]

- is the Arcade VGA card + breakout cable pretty easy to hook up?  Is there any chance of this setup not ultimately working out (if I'm going the easy Arcade VGA route I want it to be foolproof)?  

Very easy to hook up, just follow the labels on the wires of the breakout cable. One possible snag is that most monitors in Nintendo cabs use an inverted color scheme, and you might need to build an inversion circuit (there was a thread on this not long ago). But, it might be fixable in the ArcadeVGA's software (I haven't tried with mine, since it's not hooked up currently).

- Are people pleased with the results from an Arcade VGA card?

Eveyone I've heard from that has one has been happy with it, and I really like mine.

- About not going the Arcade VGA route: Right now there's an S3 card in there, which I know will not work.  I have access to a Matrox Millenium.  Would it be viable to reprogram the registers on this card?

Arcadeos lets you use most cards when you set the incabinet=1 in arcadeos.cfg, however you can't turn on the monitor before arcadeos loads, or you could damage the monitor (as the card will output 31kHz until arcadeos loads).  I've never heard of someone re-writting the rom of a card to change the output before, so that's a dead end if you mean that (with the exception of Andy and the ArcadeVGA, but that has further modifications other than just the rom).

I think I'd be comfortable with splitting a VGA extension cord and hooking it up properly

Though not as easy as a pre labeled breakout cable, it's still quite doable (I've done it before, just requires some time, a VOM and a steady hand, as those pins are small)

[ackbar]

Alright, thanks a lot for the info.  It's much appreciated

[IIOIOOIOO]

Do the VS cabs use that Sanyo monitor which require the Inversion circuit?

[rampy]

Do the VS cabs use that Sanyo monitor which require the Inversion circuit?

I'd assume (key word assume) it does... or a simliar nintendo spec monitor (not necessarily sanyo..) that expected inverted signal input.

*shrug*

Rampy