I'd like an ARCADE MACHINE. Please help!

[Astral]

Don't you hate it when you're new to something and you try to filter through all the information to make a decision

Well...I'd like an arcade machine. An upright, self contained, multi-gamed, coin operated, big buttoned bonanza of a machine just like it was 1988

My recently acquired newbie expertise has lead me to source a Sega Blast City from a local supplier. I've researched that it uses a JAMMA interface - which apparentely is THE standard. But, I also like the idea of a MAME based machine. Or even a NEOGEO compatible machine. With so many options, specs, pricing and so on...my head is spinning just a little

Is it possible that some kind AmiBay folk may please help me to demistify the options, so I could work out what a good purchase would be?

Thankyou greatly!

 

[McVenco]

With a JAMMA machine it's dead easy to make a MAME conversion. Buy a JPAC (http://www.ultimarc.com/jpac.html), connect it to a pc and the JAMMA connector of the machine and you're done!
Converting to Neo Geo is a tad more work, but hardly rocket science.

Also, the Blast City is one hell of a cool candy cab, if the price is right for it's condition I wouldn't hesitate long

 

[salaxi54]

People that build or purchase cabinets tend to maintain the original CRTs of yesteryears, but in case you intend to use MAME too, you might want to consider a rather more modern CRT monitor.
What i'm saying is, that although you might be purchasing an original cabinet, the screen quality usually is craps, and hooking it up to a PC simultaneously with your JAMA gear will not give you the best picture...
I'm using a Hitachi 19" crt monitor on my cabinet, and although it's solely a MAME machine, my eyes don't complain. Not to forget that those true arcade crt's might not have many years of life left.
So, my conclusion is, try finding a cabinet without a screen (total cost would be less that way), and research interfacing with your JAMA gear.
Good luck any way.

 

[Harrison]

Have a look at

http://www.arcadeworlduk.com/

They used to be called Gremlin UK. I've purchased loads of X-Arcade and arcade parts from them over the years. They have Jamma parts and expertise too. They could probably answer your questions and recommend parts if you contacted them.

You won't regret owning a MAME cabinet. Brilliant fun and a completely authentic feel.

If you went down the ipac (jpac for Jamma cabs) route you could even consider adding additional controls to your cabinets layout. Many people add spinners, trackballs, extra buttons, additional joysticks (analogue).

Also with looking at graphics cards specifically designed for arcade resolution output, because these will work the best with original arcade monitors, and can output down to 15Hz.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[edd_jedi]

I had a Jamma/Mame cabinet for years. To start with I just had a Street Fighter 2 PCB in it, but eventually got one of these:

http://www.jammaparts.net/jamma-boards/106-2060-in-1-dual-core-games-family-system.html

It was much easier than building my own PC and the spec was fine for the majority of pre-90s games. There's probably a better solution these days though - Raspberry Pi?

I think you need to retain the CRT though, they just don't look right on a monitor.

 

[McVenco]

I think you need to retain the CRT though, they just don't look right on a monitor.

+1 for CRT. Putting a TFT/LCD monitor in a cab looks like crap, both for the looks of the cab and the looks/feeling of the game. Also, when you're thinking of MAME-ifying an old arcade cab, PLEASE get a generic cab to fiddle around with. It's such a shame when people gut an original Nintendo or Bally/Midway cab and put in a pc and a 15" TFT monitor




Oh yeah, for inspiration what NOT to do when making an arcade cab, take a lookie here:
http://www.wickedretarded.com/~crapmame/
(don't take it TOO serious though )

 

[stephenfalken]

I went through the same thing myself a year ago!

I couldn't resist the urge and talked to a guy who used to have a few arcade machines in his shop. I asked whatever happened to them and it turned out he moved them into storage years earlier and never got round to digging them out again!

Anyway, long story short one of them is now pride of place in the corner of my living room, and has been the bases of many marital problems too! hehe

I converted it from the NEO GEO system (which didn't work anyway) to a modern i7 PC but got a 21" CRT monitor. Right now I have about 40 systems on it running through Hyperspin (you simply HAVE to have this on an arcade cabinet!) totaling about 50,000 games!

Although I have no pictures handy, the following is a video I made of me testing the light gun I found (i had a bet with an old colleague who assured me the modern IR based guns were better than the classic CRT only type... I won, lol).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve0O5J3tIjc

I have restored the machine as best I can, it was in a right state when I got it with peeled graphics, broken buttons and joysticks etc but now I love it! Even have the coin slot working so you literally can "INSERT COIN TO PLAY" hehe

If anyone is interested I can supply pics of my conversion process - I have been meaning to do a write up of it but never seem to get round to it!

Regards and good luck!

 

[BluesBrothers]

If I could convince the wife to allow it I'd have a NeoGeo but it'll never happen and even if it did I'd never get a look in cos of the kids

 

[BloodyCactus]

if your going to buy a machine, restore it back to glory, just dont turn it into a piece of **** mame cab with 5000 buttons and 3 trackballs and other ****!

jamma is nice and swappable. just remember tho, some games need 8 way sticks, some 4 way and some 2 way. trying to play a pacman jamma conversion on an 8 way stick sucks etc.

whatever you do, dont stick an LCD in it or replace the monitor with an LCD.

 

[lantus360]

well , my opinion may not be popular but here goes.....as an owner of 2 candy cabs - my advice is to forget the Xarcade and MAME stuff.

you want a dedicated cabinet. Japanese Candy Cabs are the ones you want. I would recommend you pursue the Sega Blast City lead. They are excellent arcade cabinets. They are sit down which makes it really nice and quite honestly look far and away better than any wooden cab you come across (imo of course

The CRTs are tri-sync which means they will handle 15/25/31khz resolutions. They also come with a VGA input which means you can wire up an xbox 360/PC/etc with ease.

i would also recommend non-bootleg PCBs. Forget the china 60 in 1's etc. They are usually emulated via MAME (poorly i might add). In the arcade scene you really do get what you pay for.

here are my 2 cabs. Sega Blast City and Capcom Mini Cute

everyone needs a little candy in their life