Portable JAMMA emu PC

[Dreygor]

So I wanted to be able to play any game I wanted in my Blast City cabs but I was un-willing to alter the cabs from being able to play regular or JVS games the way it's supposed to

What I came up with was a totally modular emulation PC that uses JAMMA and CPS2 kick harness connectors.

I went and cut a new backing board to match the original from the cab and the mounted all the PC parts to it. I quickly realized because I used a larger mother board I was going to come up with another way to mount the J-PAC , CPS2 connector, SSD, and power/reset buttons. So I got some L brackets and mounted another board at a 90 degree angle to where the JAMMA connector was facing into the cab. This actually makes it much easier to connect and disconnect it.

I went with the following specs..

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 Processor 3.40 GHz Quad core
RAM: 16GB
Motherboard: MSI 85M-G43
Video: ULTIMARC ArcadeVGA
Hard Drive:250GB SSD
Windows 10 Pro
Interface: Ultimarc J-PAC with a JNX CPS2 kick harness adapter
Front End: LaunchBox
Backend: MAME / Sega Model 2 Emulator

..probably overkill for what I am using it for.

It slides right into the slot for the original PCB board

Everything hooks up very easily. I did have to make an electrical adapter to plug into the cab to the power supply to plug into the ATX power supply for the PC. Still did it to match an existing connector so it did not alter the cab itself at all.

Once connected it slid back into place with plenty of breathing room left.

Still working on setting up the font end and tweaking it but the games all seem to play awesome. Seems to play everything at full speed with no apparent slowdowns.

Made a very bad short demo video.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-I...DJY8aFrh1KgO0BI0sgixFJzYpRuOqW_8pfkgd-_nTarVk

 

[RealMFnG]

I have very little experience with a Blast City. So as I say this, it might not work for the video portion. I think there is room for you can streamline the build a bit. But of course, the trade off is that it is not portable JAMMA. But if you were make this Blast City only, I'd approach it like this.

Video:

Since the Blast's monitor is tri-sync, I believe it can accept a 15khz RGB signal from a CRT Emu enabled PC through VGA without problem. The monitor should not require the signal to be amped either. So therefore, the J-Pac's onboard video amp would not be needed in this case if that monitor can handle such a signal.

That is a CRT Emu enabled PC, right? See if you get a proper video signal if you plug the Blast's VGA cable right into the video card on your PC. I know I am able to do that on an New Net City.

Controls:

Also, unless you really prefer J-Pac's keyboard emulation, you can probably go with Zero Delay encoders (or some other controller PCB). Rather than buying the JNX CPS2 adapter, terminate the controller PCB's into receptables that the joystick plugs can plug right into under the CP. You can also build a wye so that the controller PCB's can be left in at all times. Here is what I am doing for my buddy's emulation setup for a New Net City. He wants emulation all the time, so no need for a wye:

This is an expensive hobby, so I am always looking for different ways to do things to save some dough. If what is suggested above works, the cost of a J-Pac and the JNX CPS2 adapter is saved. The cost is traded for 2 zero delay encoders at $8 each, plus the plugs and pins needed to wire into the controls of a Blast City (~$5 in total). Also, the overall components and physical footprint is reduced. Let me know what you think.

Question for you, do you set your PC to power on upon power restrore? And do you set your front end to shut down the OS befoe you cut AC power to your cab?

 

[Dreygor]

Oh yeah I totally get ya. There's always multiple ways to do things.

Yeah I did not go the cheap route for sure. Between the JNX adapter, Arcade-VGA, and J-Pac I am prolly at $200 just for those.

I have used J-PACs before (On my Capcom big Blue) so I had already made up my mind before hand that was the route I was going to go just for ease of set up for me and it's been rock solid in the other cab. All personal preference.

Yup power on at power restore so when I flip on the cab it all boots up. Yup,on the Launch-box menu I shutdown the machine and then flip the cabs power switch. If I was willing to alter the cab I would tie a relay in to power the cab down at PC shutdown

 

[RealMFnG]

• Yeap, that is what I do. Some people put in a $30 smart power strip. I'm like, "That is $30 down the drain!!"
• I can tell you that Calamity's CRT Emu drivers when you use a card that is Radeon HD5000 series or higher beats the pants off ArcadeVGA. And is less than $15 shipped.
• Yeah, see what happens if you connect the Blast right into the ArcadeVGA, skipping over the J-Pac. I think the Blast should handle that signal no sweat.

 

[Dreygor]

Nah. It works so i'm not gonna screw with it lol.

 

[mathewbeall]

This is awesome - I built one almost the same, but with a MiniITX board... I'll put pictures of it up later.

 

[mathewbeall]

Here is mine - I went the ultimarc route as well.

 

[RealMFnG]

Nah. It works so i'm not gonna screw with it lol.

Ahhh yeah. Once you have MAME working, don't mess with it. One last suggestion tho..........

To make it truly JAMMA portable, you'll need amped mono. Hack up a 3.5mm line-in cable. Add a couple of resistors to downmux from stereo to mono. Connect that to a mono amp. Find where on your rig to tap 5volts to power the mono amp. Plug that into the J-Pac.

Or run your stereo signal from the PC to a stereo amp. Extract mono sound from that stereo amp with resistors. Run that signal into the J-Pac.

You can probably pull 5v from a hacked USB cable to power the amp, or somewhere off the J-Pac.

 

[kuze]

Nah. It works so i'm not gonna screw with it lol.

Ahhh yeah. Once you have MAME working, don't mess with it. One last suggestion tho..........
To make it truly JAMMA portable, you'll need amped mono. Hack up a 3.5mm line-in cable. Add a couple of resistors to downmux from stereo to mono. Connect that to a mono amp. Find where on your rig to tap 5volts to power the mono amp. Plug that into the J-Pac.

Or run your stereo signal from the PC to a stereo amp. Extract mono sound from that stereo amp with resistors. Run that signal into the J-Pac.

You can probably pull 5v from a hacked USB cable to power the amp, or somewhere off the J-Pac.

His intended use case is for Blast City cabs, so he's already got a Stereo amp in those. The 3.5 mm to RCA adapter he's using should be just fine.

By the way, nice setup OP! I recently setup a similar rig but haven't mounted it to plywood/MDF yet to easily insert/remove.

Good stuff!

 

[MoppelTheWhale]

very cool

 

[ekorz]

• I can tell you that Calamity's CRT Emu drivers when you use a card that is Radeon HD5000 series or higher beats the pants off ArcadeVGA. And is less than $15 shipped.
• Yeah, see what happens if you connect the Blast right into the ArcadeVGA, skipping over the J-Pac. I think the Blast should handle that signal no sweat.

I’ve got a build like this in mind, though it’s a bit back burnered. I’ll let you know how it works out, and I am planning on trying your suggested Radeon -> vga approach.

 

[RealMFnG]

I'm just curious if the Blast City's monitor can take a 15khz RGBHV signal from either an ArcadeVGA or CRT Emu Radeon card (no amp, no J-Pac). In any case, I'll be setting up such a rig soon for a buddy of mine. So if that isn't the cab you'll get going, I'll find out soon enough.

 

[ekorz]

I can’t think of why it wouldn’t... I run stuff like the 246 direct via vga, and I think I’ve done 15 and 31k sources. is this any different?

Anyway I know I won’t get to this for a month or more, and you’re the mame master here anyway, so please save some notes on your build!

I’m musing something I can move around actually, just minimal adjustment between setups. I plan to use it with my big oled TV with a sinden light gun for gun games, jvspac2 for when it’s in the vewlix, and a solve for when it’s parked in one of my jamma cabs - but probably a blast (I have one vertical and one horizontal). I’m thinking of a profile / set of games suitable for each.

 

[RealMFnG]

Some of these VGA arcade monitors are RGBS. I pulled a 29E31S out of a US Tekken 5 cab (System 246). Plugged in a PC to the 29E31S and couldn't get it to sync. Had to jumper pin 13 and 14 on the RGB cable for it to work with a PC which only outputs RGBHV (separate H & V sync).

Anyways, will keep you posted so you can save some dough.

 

[thomas3184]

Isn’t there an option in crtemudriver to output csync on pin 13?

 

[RealMFnG]

Isn’t there an option in crtemudriver to output csync on pin 13?

I think you are right. I just read up on it just now. So yeah, should work just fine on a Blast City.

I've been doing things the same for the past 7-9 years that I never bothered to update myself :/

 

[suverman]

Lovely. I have a J-Pac setup as well. Got it from Richard of UKVac had some issues because I was trying stuff on it. Finally had to read for 2 hours and built another one. Once you get the hang of building arcade PCs it beats any other emulation setup hands down. Did you flash the bios with atom15 or relying on J-Pac to divide the voltage? Edit: Just realised you are using arcadevga, so your bootup is already in 15KHZ.

 

[thomas3184]

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it right? Lol

 

[xlom]

I'm just curious if the Blast City's monitor can take a 15khz RGBHV signal from either an ArcadeVGA or CRT Emu Radeon card (no amp, no J-Pac). In any case, I'll be setting up such a rig soon for a buddy of mine. So if that isn't the cab you'll get going, I'll find out soon enough.

I've been running my radeon (r7 240 if I recall) in 15khz mode using CRT EmuDriver for awhile now. The setup was a bit weird. It didn't recognize any resolutions the first time I installed, so I uninstalled the driver and started over and they all worked the second time. I can't remember if I did a writeup on it or not. I was disappointed that fightcade 1 wouldn't run SSF2X at native for online play. It stretches that game to the full 240p instead of just adding black bars at the top and bottom. ended up having to go into a dx9 mode which doesn't seem to work with the fightcade overlay. Groovymame works as intended though. Games look great on it.

I haven't plugged in the PC much since I installed my CPS2 multi, but if ya'll need some assistance, let me know!

Here are some pics of the pc I put together to use with my blast. https://imgur.com/a/pZU9CGI

I’m musing something I can move around actually, just minimal adjustment between setups. I plan to use it with my big oled TV with a sinden light gun for gun games, jvspac2 for when it’s in the vewlix, and a solve for when it’s parked in one of my jamma cabs - but probably a blast (I have one vertical and one horizontal). I’m thinking of a profile / set of games suitable for each.

With my blast I run a VGA cable in the hole on the bottom back and plug it into the VGA port on my chassis. I have a passthrough RCA stereo cable that I plug my left/right channels into that goes out to a headphone jack and into the computer. Same with my ipac. From the CP, out the back and to the computer. When I need to move the computer, I disconnect those things from the back and move it where I need it.

 

[RealMFnG]

@xlom, yeap. Little hiccup on your side, but you got it going. A used R7 240 costs less than an ArcadeVGA anyway. If you're buying and ArcadeVGA, you are really burning some serious money. As for fightcade, hope that gets fixed.