butchering arcade machine game PCBs?

Hso · Post by **Hso** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:32 am

I'm wondering if anyone has ever owned an arcade machine game's pcb unit thingy and has rebuilt it to be more.... new looking and efficient, should i say?

i /want/ an arcade machine for my bedroom, there are tonnes of PCBs out there i want, i can get the actual machines easily enough, but the old PCBs look so fragile... i fear they would break Y_Y

Reaperman93010 · Post by **Reaperman93010** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:57 am

rebuilding the arcade PCB, or the game to look newer? which do you mean?

sometimes the game companies put out updated romchips so you can upgrade to this years version of the game, more levels/characters, or even totally different games.

or you talking about something homebuilt? upping the hardware and software? best build from scratch then...and good luck with that.

also arcade PCBs are generally not especially fragile.

Hso · Post by **Hso** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 3:40 am

Heh... I was talking about rebuilding them.

Ya, but they look so flimsy in my opinion o_o a case to protect the board which still lets the machine read them, would be nice, but oh well

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 11:31 am

a case to protect them?

that's why they go in cabinets.

tom61 · Post by **tom61** » Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:19 pm

Hso wrote:Heh... I was talking about rebuilding them.

Ya, but they look so flimsy in my opinion o_o a case to protect the board which still lets the machine read them, would be nice, but oh well

Arcade boards are as robust, or more so, than a computer motherboard. Static is far more of a threat than dropping them. I tend to keep my boards in anti-static bubble wrap in a box, until I want to play them.

Hso · Post by **Hso** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:27 am

Heh... indeed, but they /would/ be a lot safer if they were decked out like a giant NES cartridge, right? lol

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:56 am

Does anyone know how big these boards are?
Some look like they have a "case" and many look really flimsy.
http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/pcbs.html
I was thinking of making one look like a giant game system...

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:10 am

a traditional board can be any size. But the link that you used points mainly to arcade systems.

The arcade system works very much like a home video game system in that there is a 'hardware' board (with something resembling a jamma arcade connector) and one ore more 'software' boards that go into it. The vast majority of these have the 'software' boards already placed in fixed-size cartridges. because of this, they are a good candidate for 'consolization'. There are numerous sites on consolizing an MVS--which due to the number and price of games is the typical choice for this operation. I have also heard of CPS2 consoles.

A standard arcade game, on the other hand, has both the 'hardware' and 'software' on the same board, and are generally naked. But since everybody makes their own, these can be almost ANY size. These also generally feature something close to a 'jamma' connector.

for some reason devices that connect to standard jamma connectors and translate them into useful I/O (for a home system) are called "superguns". It's a good word to google. They're generally easy to make, compared to any of these portables. The only real trick is changing the video to NTSC, but there are pleanty of commercial solutions.

edit: before you consolize, let me just say that changing arcade boards is never fun. You probably also want to check this site out:
http://www.sgrepository.com/modules/news/

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:39 am

So I need an Arcade PCB (I'm probably getting a NEO GEO), A Supegun, and an Arcade Controller? Where could I find the old NEO GEO stick?

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:54 am

since the mvs is a system, you'll need both the system board and a game for it.

the mvs is a doubly good choice, since it comes with two extra (never used in arcade cabinets) onboard jacks that take any neo geo home console controllers. where for any other system you will be building something from scratch and hooking it to the jamma connector. (I can't even imagine why SNK decided to give us this wonderful feature.)

speaking of scratchbuilds, you could take the pinout and make your own--arcade controllers use no internal chips (naturally) so it's a simple operation. You'll want to use arcade parts, and it will feel pretty good when completed.

if you buy a neo geo stick, stay clear of the 'pad' style (it breaks and feels like garbage) and remember that you will be paying big $$ for it. my last one was $70+ (nib).

for a neogeo stick, try ebay or:
http://www.neostore.com/ though the url doesn't seem to be working for me today, it's parent site is up
http://www.neo-geo.com

but yes, all you need is:
mvs system (comes with 1-6 game slots)
mvs game
supergun (handles power supply, video conversion, etc)
controller
tv

...I was going to go 'supergun' once, but then I realized that it was just cheaper to buy an arcade cabinet 'with the works'...

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:28 pm

Reaperman@home wrote: ...I was going to go 'supergun' once, but then I realized that it was just cheaper to buy an arcade cabinet 'with the works'...

Like one of those MVS cabinets with the buttons and Credits LCD?
I'll check that neo-store later, do they have that?

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:37 pm

ebay's your best bet, search regularly for mvs cabinets in your area. trust me, you'd rather rent a truck and pick up than pay shipping. I imagine within 2 months you'll find one, and it'll be under $250 (before truck rental).

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:45 pm

Reaperman@home wrote:ebay's your best bet, search regularly for mvs cabinets in your area. trust me, you'd rather rent a truck and pick up than pay shipping. I imagine within 2 months you'll find one, and it'll be under $250 (before truck rental).

My Dad works for a Honda car thing and I could probably borrow the parts truck. I've got a few local and kinda local places to look at first. The longest trip I would have to make would be to Las Vegas, so I'm kinda ok. (I live in Southern Ahnuld land)

Also, when it says PCB version (like a Metal Slug 5 thing I found), does that mean it i a single board with game and everything?

Reaperman@home · Post by **Reaperman@home** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:33 pm

I looked at metal slug 5 in that link you posted, and it sounded normal. I couldn't find the "pcb version" thing. I don't think any of the neo-geo games were released as an all-in-one. It wouldn't make sense.

perhaps they were talking about the version of the PCB's inside the MVS cart (there are two in each cart). of course that doesn't really make much more sense...

thanks to all this talk, I've actually played my mvs today... can't...stop...playing...street hoop...

shelter pitfall · Post by **shelter pitfall** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 1:37 pm

http://www.neostore.com/
This one: http://www.neostore.com/detail.asp?ProductID=1057