Jamma Cab Help!

[1980-20..]

I thought i could work out what i was doing all by myself but im getting nowhere fast, i don't even no where to start. I have one thing going for me, im not too proud to ask for help!

WHAT I WANT IT TO DO

I want the cab to be able to run mame and PCBs (i think i need jpac to be able to do this).
I want it to boot straight in to mame and have windows completely invisible.
I want it to have a working coin mech.
I would like it to not look rubbish.

WHAT I THINK NEEDS DOING

I need to test the PSU as advised by members here.
I need to drill some locks.
I need to find out if glass chips are repairable.
I need to respray cab
I need to replace some molding.
I need to fill some damage to the wood
and the list goes on
SOME PICTURES

Acrylic CP needs replacing, those are what look like cigaret and chemical burns of some kind.

Inside underneath the CP looks like the cabs been damp at some point.

Round the back the coin mech is just behind the psu ( not checked the details on that yet)

Some more wires and what i assume is a clamp for holding the PCB.

Now this litle do hickey seems to be the back of the front lock and im assuming its alarmed.

Im also asuming that this is part of the cabs alarm system, wires run to the front lock, down through the bottom of the cab and into that white thing which im assuming is the noisy bit of the alarm.

This is part of the cabs dubious power system its marked in pen as an on off switch and as you can see its taped down.

and here is the second power switch that i asume is pressed in when the back panel is on the cab.

So any help greatly appreciated, if you see anything in the photos that looks wrong or worryingly shoddy let me know.

All and any ideas welcomely received.

 

[DanP]

Hi (sorry I don't know your name). As you've probably found there's a lot of information on this subject out there. Here's what I think you need to concentrate on in very basic steps;

1) Get the cab working as just a regular Jamma cab. Converting it to MAME is a piece of cake once this is done. This is fairly simple as long as the Monitor, PSU, and wiring are all OK. If the latter is bad just replace with a new one from ebay. They are simple to wire up.

2) Decide on the PC to use for MAME. The umpf needed will vary according to which games you want to play. If it's all 1980-84 you don't need a high spec. If you want more modern games you'll need something with more grunt. You'll also need to decide if you want AGP or PCIE for your graphics card.

2) Setup a MAME PC. You'll need an ArcadeVGA or variant that outputs 15khz OR you'll need to use a software solution to do the same. I've only ever gone with the AVGA cos it's so much simpler. You'll need to decide on which OS to use (I suggest XP), which frontend to use (I used MALA cos it was simple).

3) A JPAC is definatley the way to go if you want to keep it simple. Obviously this relies on the first step being done.

4) Coin mech, personally I'd always go for a simple mechanical coin mech (an S10) which only needs minimal wiring and is simple (i.e it takes one coin and then gives one credit). I can't really tell if there's an S10 capable mounting on your cab from the pix.

5) Sort the cosmetics, there are a lot more people better suited to answer these questions than me

The last picture you show is of an Interlock switch, it's a safety switch designed to cut power when you open up a door. When the door is on it's engaged, when the door is off it's not - unless you pull the plunger out.

HTH

DanDanP2011-08-24 10:41:00

 

[cliff_poole]

Your assumtions are all correct. Those are called interlock switches, they break the power when the panels are removed (hence one of them is taped down to keep the power on).

That does indeed look like an alarm, and the PCB clamp looks like just that.

I'd say the mould in the bottom of the cab and under the control panel is due to drinks spill, I think I can see marks where it has run down the inside of the cab. Just clean it off.

It might be worth trying to polish the control panel, if the burns are deep you probably won't get them out completely but you might be able to improve the look.

 

[cliff_poole]

Personally speaking, I wouldn't bother with MAME. It seems like a lot of trouble to go to and I'd probably never touch 98% of the games.

How about one of those modern multi game JAMMA PCBs ?, it would plug straight in, no need for any messing about.

 

[DanP]

I like/choose MAME cos it's totally configurable and updateable. However for simplicity a 60-1 board is a good alternative. The sound issues would put me off though, not to mention the naff menu interface

Dan

 

[stevearcade]

60-in-1 boards aren't worth the money imo. You won't get all the games you want and the emulation isn't great on some games, wrong colours, dodgy sound etc. Although I here the later versions are amending some of these issues.

Dan's advice is spot on. To avoid Shame/MAME cab desasters consider the following:

Make your JAMMA cab as nice, shiny and operational as possible. I.e. you can put any PCB in it and it will work nicely. Sorted!

Find a suitable PC, get it all set up and configured running MAME through a Front-End (I'd recommend MALA for ease of use) which will boot on windows start up and neatly present all your games lists.

Treat these as two separate jobs. Remember, you're not converting you cab to MAME, you're converting your PC to MAME. And then just putting it in your cab

.

Once the PC's ready to go, buy a JPAC and an ArcadeVGA graphics card from Ultimarc. Install the graphics card and just plug it all in to a JAMMA cabinet. You'll also want a little amp for the speakers too. Just get some cheap PC speakers and hack the amp with volume control out of it, mount it inside the coin door or something.

You may need to boot into safe mode and follow the install instructions for getting the drivers sorted for the ArcadeVGA. But once that's done, you're gaming!!!

You won't have unnecessarily hacked your cab up with more buttons than required. And your cab will also be fully backwards compatible if you ever want to revert back to playing PCBs.

If you want to go the shame cab route of putting spinners, track balls, flight yokes, light guns, ash trays, beers holders, you probably can given the size of your cab

. But I wouldn't recommend it. Take it from me, I used to think having one cab that did everything was amazing! But then I only ever played Street Fighter 2, RType Juno First and Robotron

.

The danger with MAME is that you can easily get addicted to tweaking your front-end design and settings. Your Games Lists and Menu Background Music. The list goes on. MAME-ing cabs itself become the hobby, not the video games. I sold my MAME cab in the end, bought a straight up JAMMA cab just for SF2. Ended up with a MAME PC in there on a switcher so I could play Robotron and RType too

. I sometimes flip the monitor for some Juno First action as well

.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Please check in for help if you get stuck and keep us updated with pics please.

Edited for Typo

stevearcade2011-08-24 11:37:22

 

[DanP]

Great advice from Steve there. Get the PC running using a normal VGA monitor first then do the whole safe mode install AVGA driver thing once you're ready to put it into the cab. Playing with the setup once it's in CGA mode can be hard work on the eyes. Another option is to get the XP setup to allow RDP connections, then you can make changes as long as the MAME PC is connected to your network

There definatley is a tendancy to play too much with tweaking the setup. I'm guilty of that for sure

The other thing you need to decide is wether you're going with Horizontal or Vertical orientation of the monitor. I'm not sure how great vertical games look on a horizontal monitor, I think the other way round might be too much for the graphics card/monitor to handle, so I tend to stick with only having games for the correct orientation (but then again I have 2 MAME cabs, 1 on each).

As Steve says, for the sound just hack a cheapo set of PC speakers into the cabs speakers (I think the JPAC caters for that).

Cheers,

Dan

 

[stevearcade]

My Mala set up supports both orientations. By monitor rotates! Simples. I made a vid a while back when I got it up and running, here you go:

See I'd originall planned it to be JAMMA cab that switched between SF2 and Puzzle Bobble. But got a free old PC and ArcadeVGA, so couldn't resist doing a MAME PC. I hope this is of some help.

 

[1980-20..]

Cheers for the replies guys.

I forgot to show pics of the locks that need drilling one is a normal key type lock thingy and im quite confident i can drill that but the other is like the locks you see on those solid bike locks with the circular socket type key and it looks solid any advice?

Ive got two possible pcs to put in i will post the specs tonight, ones an Intel dual core and the other is a pentium one.

Pete.
1980-20..2011-08-24 13:41:16

 

[1980-20..]

ok one pc is a pentium 4 and the other is an intel dual core. They both have graphics cards the dualcore has a nvidia geoforce 8400GS and the pentium has a Radeon X800 pro AGP card.

Do either of those sound up to the job?

 

[DanP]

CPU wise (depending on what games you want to play) either of those should be fine. I use a 2.8 P4 setup for my MAME cabs, plays everything I want (which is mainly golden era stuff).

I don't think either of those Graphics cards will be suitable out of the box. You'll have to play around with the Soft15khz, so you need to check it's compatible with either of those. I can't really help with that, I've always used Arcade VGA cards so I can see all the bios screens, etc.

Dan

 

[1980-20..]

Drilled the lock on the bottom front of the cab to gain access to the coin bucket to see what treasures lay inside and found 10p. Get in!

 

[1980-20..]

Ive decided to go the route of getting arcade VGA graphics card but looking at the two pcs ive got the one i wanted to use has only got AGP connection im assuming its going to be tricky to find one for this?

Edit: there's one on ebay for £30. ??
1980-20..2011-09-09 23:03:22