arcade

jamma

It's amazing when you look into something the other possibilities you discover.

Another option i have discovered is to forgo the PC and buy a 1084 in 1 JAMMA Edge Board with the games installed. JAMMA stands for Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association. The JAMMA wiring standard allows you remove and insert actual arcade game circuit boards (i.e. plug and play for arcade cabinets).

This specific board has a range of games including many of the Street Fighter II variants, King of Fighters, NBA Jam, Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat and classics like Galaga, Frogger, Donkey Kong etc.

The positives:

  • an elegant solution
  • possibly closer quality to the original arcade versions
  • nice user interface better suited to arcade and large selection of games

The Negatives

  • cost prohibitive ($400)
  • more involved to set up
  • compatibility with a PC monitor (something i need to check, a proper arcade monitor might be better, which leads to the final negative)
  • increased chance of electrocution

Then again, might be able to do both.

mame brain

Just costing up the option of making a "MAME brain" like this.

Currently thinking of a motherboard such as the Intel D201GLY2 Desktop Board.

two pronged

Currently thinking of a two pronged strategy: building a high quality finish JAMMA arcade cabinet with arcade monitor similar to my original design, and, in the short term, a smaller sit down table style arcade cab using a computer monitor. Going with an ITX motherboard which is smaller and quieter than my ageing pc would be ideal for a small table design.

I just need some wood working skillz.

arcade parts

The joystick parts arrived on Friday, so thought i'd should you the various bits and pieces out of their natural environment.

Hope to throw together a prototype/test control board to make sure everything works.