Buying an arcade

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:25 pm

Dude, you know that NEC MultiSyncs can be picked up for $50, right?

Also, I think you have the whole thing backwards. Nowadays, JAMMA hardware is getting harder to find, & more expensive w/ age. For example, I could spend ~$50 on a TMNT PCB, or I can spend ~$20 on a generic PII or PIII machine & plug it into the same hardware. (even the 15KHz RGB monitor)

Plus, MAME only gets more accurate w/ each release. Just about every single game made before 1990 has been polished off & perfected, & everything from 1990-1995 is mostly up & running, w/ very few/minor glitches or flaws if it's not a good game. (although a lot of things 1996 & up barely work, if at all)

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:04 am

Well, again, TMNT is a highly wanted arcade board with a fairly limited production run in Jamma standard format. Most TMNT boards are non-Jamma standard because they use a 4 player control panel setup. Jamma supports only 2 players, with 3 buttons each, and mono sound only, with the possible exception of the Neo Geo, which adds a 4th button for each player and stereo sound. Also, about the NEC multisyncs, the reason why you wouldn't want to use one is because the dot pitch of the phosphor coating inside is wrong for arcade games, so it would not have an authentic appearance. It would be nice for medium (EGA frequency) and high (VGA frequency) resolution games, but standard resolution games would look like garbage. Also, it really is illegal to keep MAME roms on your machine unless you own the original hardware. Not to be a goody-goody, but I prefer to keep the law even if no one cares if I break it.

Edit: One other thing to look at, is that there is more to the arcade industry than Ebay. I know of about 8 arcade suppliers in my state, but only 3 of them are listed in the business section of the phone book, and only 1 sells stuff on Ebay. You really do need to hunt to find the deals out there, but they do exist. I got a pretty good starter collection of Neo Geo MVS stuff for under $80 that way, and after looking on Ebay I could have payed 5 or 6 times more money for that same equipment. Also, if you have repair skill and can examine the hardware in person before you buy it, you can easily repair a lot of broken hardware and get it for pennies. Of course, the reason I say "in person" is because on ebay you get a lot of listings that say "Board is tested as non working, sold as is," without even a picture, and you think, so is the board lightly damaged or snapped in half, or what?

Of course, my ranting stems from the fact that I am a purist. I do keep MAME roms for the games I own, and I can tell you surely, that for the games I do own, even the newest version of MAME still messes up the emulation, especially the video and sound emulation. Your computer monitor and your sound card simply cannot ever possibly perfectly recreate the original custom hardware used in the arcades, especially if the system used anything which was analogue.

End of Rant:

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:39 am

Aren't TMNT boards Jamma+, like most Jamma games made after 1990? (for example, Mortal Kombat)

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 5:50 pm

Jamma+ just means it has a regular Jamma connector and hooks up the extra stuff in a special way. Jamma has not changed, and I have never heard of a formal Jamma+ which replaced it, it just means that it's Jamma plus extra connector so you can hook up extra stuff. For example, all CPS boards have a "kick harness," so called because Jamma only uses 3 buttons but Street Fighter games add another 3 for the kicking actions. Some CPS boards (all? I am not sure on this part) also have RCA jacks which output stereo sound, just like most other modern audio equipment. However, operators only like to do conversions in machines which don't have any of this extra stuff in it. Hence, anything which is not strictly Jamma standard is going to be difficult to find unless it is broken because it will most likely stay in it's dedicated cabinet. Seriously, unless a repair/conversion job is very easy, most operators don't care. When you business is fueled by little kid's quarters, you really don't want to spend any extra money or time, so if it breaks you just unload it and move on to the next thing.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:42 pm

Yeah, that's what I meant. You said TMNT wasn't Jamma, & w/ a quick check at klov.com, it looks like they're BOTH Jamma+.

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:47 pm

Hmm, I guess I should do more thorough research. My info came from looking at board pics and noticing that the 4 player variant has extra harnesses while the 2 player version does not. The two player version hardware may have an attachment point for the extra harnesses, but it doesn't need to use them because two players with two buttons fits easily within Jamma guidelines.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:53 pm

Eh. You know, my 2-slot Neo-Geo MVS mobo has BOTH AES controller ports & pins for the buttons, yet the previous owner had the buttons wired through the Jamma harness. I don't know, maybe that was the previous owner's half-@$$ transformation from MVS to MK. (he even gave me the MK mobo w/ an extra sound daughter-board)

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:11 pm

You mean he ripped out the old MK board and put in an MVS board? That one's not hard, all you do is add 1 button to a standard Jamma. Now, putting MK into an MVS machine would just be stupid if you ask me, that's why I assumed it was the other way around. The fighters on the Neo are about a billion times better than any mortal kombat and they make more money in the arcades too. Also, was the person you bought this from an operator or a hobbyist? Hobbyists tend to go out of their way to do hard things in order to save the amount of cash they need to lay down up front. Also, remember that technically MVS is considered a Jamma+ of sorts since it's not really fully Jamma compatible. This goes especially for the multi slots, which have even less similarities to Jamma than the 1 slot units. Of course, operators were free to hook it up wither my modding their Jamma to be an MVSJamma or by using a harness which hooked up to the control ports. The same was true for the audio. Most of the multi slot boards have separate outputs for the stereo sound too, so operators can keep the Jamma standard and then make their own audio harness.

atari2600a · Post by **atari2600a** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:24 pm

The other way around, actually. It's an MVS cab half-converted into an MK cab.

arfink · Post by **arfink** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 1:33 pm

Why bother? MVS fighters can kick MK across the room and then use MK to mop up the mess on the floor. I dunno, guess I'm a purist, I never liked MK. MK seemed to be popular in America in the 90's, but then again, so were a lot of things we all dislike now- Vanilla Ice, anyone?

dudex77 · Post by **dudex77** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:51 pm

arfink wrote:Why bother? MVS fighters can kick MK across the room and then use MK to mop up the mess on the floor. I dunno, guess I'm a purist, I never liked MK. MK seemed to be popular in America in the 90's, but then again, so were a lot of things we all dislike now- Vanilla Ice, anyone?

yeah i have to agree with you ont that its definitely the kind of thing that was more "cool" than good, its like how well look back at rap in 10 years

HotDog-Cart · Post by **HotDog-Cart** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:09 pm

Yea my Pizza Hut has, a tabletop arcade machine. Its like a touch scren based thingy.

You just have to remember, pizza hut does NOT own them. Someone pays to put it into their stores, and in return gets all of money thats spent on it.

So, you'd have to contact the owner of the machine.

Jimmy · Post by **Jimmy** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:30 pm

EnterTheHatrix wrote:Build one... It's significantly cheaper than buying one.. Trust me!

You could build an entire MAME cabinate with built in screen and joypad for around $300, complete with acrylic header cathode backlight, and vinyl prints for authenticity.

And you can make the design 100% original. If you want it to be Pac Man, shape the case to look like him.

Krepticor · Post by **Krepticor** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:01 am

orignality is nice, just keep it you and place a lot of arcades everywhere, check out malls too, and local stores will be your friend if you can create a gaming center to help bring families in...

Zeguna · Post by **Zeguna** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:14 am

They can get pretty expensive because they still bring in money.