Quick question about choosing a mutiple JAMMA board

[Gryzor]

Ok guys, quick question:


Need to set up a couple of arcade cabs in a hurry, so I was wondering, would you suggest any of those gazillion-in-one JAMMA boards out there? Which one?


It would be much appreciated if I could hear your suggestions

[Bryce]

If you are in a hurry, then you don't really have much of a choice. Anything else is going to take quite a bit of time.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Well, yes, but if people tell me they're a waste of time and money I'd prefer to delay it...


Also, I asked for models, too, if possible

[Bryce]

Ok, I just had a chat with my Arcade specialist friend. He tells me they are all very similar and all have particular weaknesses. Usually colour or lag prblems in certain games. They are also usually limited to playing vertical games, so classic like Defender etc are usually not possible. His recommendation for the most flexibility is to buy an old windows laptop/tablet, install MAME and connect real arcade Joysticks/buttons by hacking a cheap USB keyboard.

Actually sounds like a cool project

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Oh, thanks for asking


Well the odd peculiarity here and there wouldn't bother me, but both cabs are horizontal, so this is a big minus...


But yeah, the MAME machine is the only other way to go. You can't go with a laptop/tablet, though, since you can't connect these to the CRT monitor. You'd need a PC with a special VGA card to do it...


Thanks again!

[Bryce]

The mod he showed me used the Laptops screen in the cabinet. He removed all the CRT stuff, made a new frame that fit the Laptop screen exactly and fixed it from behind. The laptop was set up to boot directly to MAME. He had also added a rotation feature to suit the game he has currently loaded.

Bryce.

[beaker]

Urgh reminds me my Uncle has a Moonlander (from memory) cocktail cabinet that stopped working about 5 years ago, and he refuses to sell it to me Instead it's probably sitting in the shed somewhere 

[Gryzor]

The mod he showed me used the Laptops screen in the cabinet. He removed all the CRT stuff, made a new frame that fit the Laptop screen exactly and fixed it from behind. The laptop was set up to boot directly to MAME. He had also added a rotation feature to suit the game he has currently loaded.

You do realise this is sacrilege right there, don't you?

[Bryce]

I'd normally agree with you, but it's so well done. It looks fantastic and plays flawlessly. The original CRT and board were broken. The tube was damaged. It also has the coin counter connected to add to the realism. I'll try to get some pictures of it for you. It has an SSD too, so it boots in seconds directly into MAME.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Well, yes; if you have no CRT you can use a flat screen, but nothing needs the original... and it's not hard to do it with a PC, a JAMMA harness and a modded VGA.


However, what kind of a laptop did he have that he used its screen? It must have been a very small cab! The ones I'm supposed to work on have 25" screens...

[Bryce]

It was a desktop cabinet with a 15in screen.

Bryce.

[The Last Bandit]

Those multigame boards are a bit of a minefield. Some are good enough but others are crap.


I've build a few bartops using the vertical 60-in-1 boards, the emulation is good on most games but is limited to early stuff - Donkey Kong/Frogger era stuff.
The 138-in-1 horizontal board is also ok, emulation is fair enough on most of them.


You can expect a heap of hack and duplicates on most of these boards too.


A groovymame setup with a CRT is the best so long as you don't have to support it !!!


Heaps of reviews of the various multiboards on the Jamma+ forums.

[Gryzor]

Thanks for your reply, mate. Never heard of GroovyMAME before, will look into it; however I guess it requires a PC to be setup and harnessed to the CRT and controls, which is what I'm trying to avoid.


I'll probably register at Jamma+ and do a few inquiries; which is the 138-in-1 you're referring to?


I was also looking into bigger systems, like this for instance.


Darn, looks like it needs lots of studying...

[Bryce]

That link doesn't work.

Very strange: If I click on it directly I get a "error loading page" when it tries to go here: "http://http//www.jammaboards.com/store/pandoras-box-version-2-400-in-1-horizontal-multigame-jamma-pcb.html";

If I click on "Open link in new window" it tries to send me here: "http://www.http.com//www.jammaboards.com/store/pandoras-box-version-2-400-in-1-horizontal-multigame-jamma-pcb.html";

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

For me, it doesn't include the ":" in the protocol part of the URL. Weird. Anyhow, this is the one:

Code Select Expand


[url=http://www.jammaboards.com/store/pandoras-box-version-2-400-in-1-horizontal-multigame-jamma-pcb.html]Just Another Pandora's Box Version 2 (400-in-1) Multigame JAMMA PCB[/url]

[Bryce]

I was able to get there by manually editing the url, but I've tried on three different computers (All Win7 with FireFox) and they all do the same?

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Yeah, for me too. Probably a bug in url parsing...

[The Last Bandit]

The 138-in-1 is here (along) with heaps of other multigame boards - anything with VGA output is very handy if building up a cab.
One thing to watch for on some of these boards with 6 button support is they can have a non Jamma standard pinout - they often use Pin 27 & e for Button 6 instead of GND.

[Bryce]

Do any of these Trazillion-1 boards have Xian'd Sleena on them?

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

The 138-in-1 is here (along) with heaps of other multigame boards - anything with VGA output is very handy if building up a cab.
One thing to watch for on some of these boards with 6 button support is they can have a non Jamma standard pinout - they often use Pin 27 & e for Button 6 instead of GND.

Hm, hadn't found that site. You say these work ok?


I may be getting rusty, but why need a VGA output? Doesn't video come through the JAMMA connector? Also, what's with the SD cards in there?


Thanks for the tip about the pinout, will keep it in mind  

[The Last Bandit]

They're ok, sound problems on some games but the majority are acceptable to the untrained eye    That site is the cheapest place I found to get those boards, never had a problem with them so far.


Ya video is thru both the VGA and Jamma connector. Jamma output is fine if you're hooking up to an arcade CRT at (15KHz) but the VGA is great for connecting to LCD panels (via a scanline generator) and CRT monitors at (31KHz).


60-in-1 running in this bartop for example (no room for a full size cab  )

[Gryzor]

Thanks for clarifying that, and thanks again for the pointer. Any idea what the SD cards are used for?


Nice little cab Why did you opt for a vertical orientation?

[Bryce]

I think the game ROM images are on the SD Card.

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

But... if the ROMs are on the card why are they labelled "xxx-in-one"? Wouldn't that be "however-many-ROMs-you-have-in-one"?

[The Last Bandit]

Hmm, thought I posted a reply. Must have fell off the interwebs.


The SDcard holds the OS/Emulator/ROMS and is well encrypted. Few projects on the go to open it up so the emulator and ROMS can be altered but not sure if anyone has done it yet.
The board is an ARM SOC and the various XXX-in-1 use this same board just with a different SDcard.


I think the OpenJamma project is an attempt to build an opensourced version of these.


The 60-1 in the bartop is a vertical board, as in all the games have a vertical screen orientation, LCD with a scanline generator gives a decent enough picture.