How do I hook up a JAMMA board?

[King Atari]

Sorry this isn't in the coin-op section. Anyways, I've been thinking about picking up an arcade JAMMA board. What would I need to do to hook one up? Will it hook to a computer monitor? Would both sound and picture be included? Any special wires etc. I might need? Anything anyone can tell me would be great. I know next to nothing about this, other than it's the arcade PCB, so any info at all would help.

[AlanD]

Ok well here is my quick and dirty take on playing with arcade boards.

 

JAMMA is basically the name for the main connector on the PCB. Itis a standard way to interface almost everything on an arcade machine to the circuit board. If you have a JAMMA board you know where the power goes, the sticks and buttons, the start buttons, the credit switches, test switches, coin counters, the speakers and the video.

 

To use a JAMMA board without a cabinet you would need:

 

1. a power supply. It has to output +5V, -5V and +12V.

 

2. Speakers

 

3. Controls - for my test bench I use a rewired NES Advantage joystick which also holds the start button.

 

4. A credit and a test switch.

 

5. an RGB monitor. I use one scavenged from an arcade game but if you track down an old Commodore monitor that takes RGB that will work. Don't forget that some JAMMA games have screens that are oriented vertically instead of horizontally so you will need to have a monitor that can be put on its side.

 

All you would have to do to quickly be up and running is gather everything on the list and also buy a JAMMA harness. The harness has the mating plug for the PCB then a bunch of wires hanging off it. A good harness will have everything labelled so you can just wire it up from there. If not a quick search around the net will get you the pinout for the JAMMA harness so you can figure it out.

 

Last note - Some JAMMA games are actually JAMMA+ which means that it uses more or different controls than the normal standard allows. Examples of these are the Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter series which need more buttons.

 

Hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] or list it here.

AlanD

[King Atari]

Hmmm, this might be a bit harder than I thought. Any idea on where I can get some of that stuff?

[AlanD]

Apologize for not getting back to you sooner. Have been spending a bit of time working on Adventure 2 and finally got parts to do what I wanted.

 

Anyway, most of those parts are available on ebay (of course), Bob Roberts (do a search thru google for 'Bob Roberts arcade parts' and it'll come up. Long URL which I don't recall) and thru the rec.games.video.arcade.collecting newsgroup. You can also visit #RGVAC on EFnet thru IRC.

AlanD

[King Atari]

Wow, I had no idea so much was involved. All the stuff to get it going might cost more than the PCB! Thanks Alan, I'll be sure to pick the stuff up you listed.