My game board doesn't fit the connector on my cabinet. Newbie here.

[JustinMSalvato]

I'm trying to restore a Sega Champion Baseball arcade machine, but I'm having some problems. Today's problem is the Sega Champion Baseball board, which arrived yesterday, does not fit the connector inside the cabinet. I'm sure there are more technical terms, but I am a novice when it comes to this stuff and therefore, I do not know how to solve this. At some point someone turned this cabinet into a Ms. Pac-Man machine. In the photo you can see the Ms. Pac-Man board on the right and the Sega Champion Baseball on the left. Notice the big difference in the pin-out size (I don't know the terminology...). The Sega board does not fit. Any idea what I do from here? (I'm having problems getting the image to show up, so the links to the images are below)

Game boards image

Connector image 1


Connector image 2


Connector image 3

 

[Frank_fjs]

So your cab is wired for the common jamma standard. Baseball has a unique pinout and connector. You will need to fabricate an adapter to rewire baseball to the jamma standard.

P.s. Your jamma connector looks like it could do with a rewire, it's seen better days.

 

[PascalP]

Your Ms. Pacman looks to be Jamma standard, so someone will have converted the cab to Jamma wiring.
Easiest would be to get a fitting connector for your baseball game and wire it to a Jamma fingerboard.

I know there are pre-made adapters for stuff like Sega System 16 to Jamma, maybe there are also complete pre-made adapters for your baseball board?
Something like this for example;

Or homemade something like this;

 

[JustinMSalvato]

So your cab is wired for the common jamma standard. Baseball has a unique pinout and connector. You will need to fabricate an adapter to rewire baseball to the jamma standard.

P.s. Your jamma connector looks like it could do with a rewire, it's seen better days.

Thank you Frank. As for the connector, it actually works fine for the Ms. Pac-Man game. The monitor is shot as well, that's another obstacle I'm working on.

Monitor: it's worse when it's first on, this is after 3 hours.

 

[JustinMSalvato]

Your Ms. Pacman looks to be Jamma standard, so someone will have converted the cab to Jamma wiring.
Easiest would be to get a fitting connector for your baseball game and wire it to a Jamma fingerboard.

I know there are pre-made adapters for stuff like Sega System 16 to Jamma, maybe there are also complete pre-made adapters for your baseball board?
Something like this for example;

Or homemade something like this;

That's brilliant Pascal! I will look into that. Worst case scenario, I know an electronics guy who can probably do the latter (used to work for Coleco). I'm hoping someone already has an adapter.

 

[benime]

So your cab is wired for the common jamma standard. Baseball has a unique pinout and connector. You will need to fabricate an adapter to rewire baseball to the jamma standard.

P.s. Your jamma connector looks like it could do with a rewire, it's seen better days.

The monitor is shot as well, that's another obstacle I'm working on.
Monitor: it's worse when it's first on, this is after 3 hours.

failing capacitor(s) in the vertical section more than likely but possibly power section; I've had similar problems.

 

[JustinMSalvato]

So your cab is wired for the common jamma standard. Baseball has a unique pinout and connector. You will need to fabricate an adapter to rewire baseball to the jamma standard.

P.s. Your jamma connector looks like it could do with a rewire, it's seen better days.

The monitor is shot as well, that's another obstacle I'm working on.Monitor: it's worse when it's first on, this is after 3 hours.

failing capacitor(s) in the vertical section more than likely but possibly power section; I've had similar problems.

So you're saying... it's fixable? Hmm.... Maybe I'll keep it on the side if I ever try to get a cabinet for Ms. Pac-Man.

 

[benime]

most problems with monitors are fixable, it just depends on how much time/money you're willing to invest haha.

 

[JustinMSalvato]

most problems with monitors are fixable, it just depends on how much time/money you're willing to invest haha.

ha, well, time I can give, but money... I'm hitting a wall. I like the idea of replacing it with something much lighter, like an LED but that aint cheap either. I'm still deciding. Just trying to get this board to work first. A part of me wants to strip the whole thing, throw in an old laptop with a ROM, program controls to USB and get that new monitor. Would simplify things. That is, if I can even find a workable Sega Champion Baseball ROM and appropriate emulator. I do have the marquee now, brand new, so... it's a start

 

[YesAffinity]

If you're trying to restore, an LED and anything other than original is not the way to go. Leaving the JAMMA harness, okay, it's in the cab, nobody will ever see it, and it may be easier just to stick with the wiring that's already there. But for the monitor, changing from CRT to LED will significantly change the appearance of the cabinet. I mean, you got the marquee already, you've obviously got good intentions.

And, the amount of work to change a cab from CRT to LED is equal to if not greater than, bring that CRT back to its original glory. It looks good in the picture, in terms of color clarity, and if you look past the waviness (you sure that's not just level 256/killscreen? :p), the image looks good. Post up what type of monitor it is. Some of those older monitors, like Wells Gardner 6100's, are extremely easy to work on. They're fairly light and they're literally like 12 caps, some of which don't always get used (compared to Donkey Kong's, and your standard 25" monitors in 90's era games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, which are 2x-3x as many caps or more).

Bottom line, don't be discouraged. It all seems a bit overwhelming at first, but there is lots of info out there to help with the effort and great forums like this one and others, where plenty of folks have been down similar roads.

 

[JustinMSalvato]

If you're trying to restore, an LED and anything other than original is not the way to go. Leaving the JAMMA harness, okay, it's in the cab, nobody will ever see it, and it may be easier just to stick with the wiring that's already there. But for the monitor, changing from CRT to LED will significantly change the appearance of the cabinet. I mean, you got the marquee already, you've obviously got good intentions.

And, the amount of work to change a cab from CRT to LED is equal to if not greater than, bring that CRT back to its original glory. It looks good in the picture, in terms of color clarity, and if you look past the waviness (you sure that's not just level 256/killscreen? :p), the image looks good. Post up what type of monitor it is. Some of those older monitors, like Wells Gardner 6100's, are extremely easy to work on. They're fairly light and they're literally like 12 caps, some of which don't always get used (compared to Donkey Kong's, and your standard 25" monitors in 90's era games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, which are 2x-3x as many caps or more).

Bottom line, don't be discouraged. It all seems a bit overwhelming at first, but there is lots of info out there to help with the effort and great forums like this one and others, where plenty of folks have been down similar roads.

Thanks. The problem with trying to use that monitor is its aspect ratio. I don't know what it is but it should be 4:3 (or close for Sega Champion Baseball). The CRT is more like 16:9 or closer to 1.66:1. I have since gone a different route with this project, but I will be putting in an LED screen. The CRT is going into storage until I figure out what to do with it.