What's new
By:
Filters

Let's Connect a PC to an Arcade Cab, Shall we??!!

jimmyjames said:
I just freed up an old setup.
fx8350
asus mobo
32gb ddr3 1600
rx460

thinking about using this for my astro city in Tate mode. I also have a blast city that I could throw it in. Astro has a stereo amp in it and a line level converter. Thinking about going jpac however in the blast I could put a Brook Zero use the vga skip the jpac and get another cheap amp and wire it in. Decisions , decisions
Click to expand...
J-Pac's video amp sucks TBH. I find it crushes whites. You get a washed out image.

In that setup, I think the best available option is to go with Tim Worthington's SCART2ARC 3.0. Of all the video amp options, I think I own them all:
  1. JAMMAizer
  2. J-Pac
  3. JammaSD
  4. SCART2ARC 3.0
SCART2ARC 3.0 has the best video quality. You can also just feed the hacked 15khz signal into the Blast City and see if you like it un-amped after some tuning.
 
Just a heads up Tim has PayPal now so I’m gonna go with him.
Well the jammaizer isn’t available, the scart2arc checkout has super slow shipping and no safe way to checkout, CC, PayPal ect. They only take western union it seems. Sucks so im just gonna grab a jpac to tide me over until I can get one of the others.
 
Last edited:
Very well documented write up. Thank you. I'm a vet to GroovyMAME, but it's literally been YEARS since I messed with it.

My MAME cab recently died (turns out it's a bad ATI video card), but I'm looking to update MAME and GroovyMAME while I'm at it. I'm running a 27" Multisync Betson monitor. I thought about getting rid of my MAME cab altogether since I've moved on to collecting original cabinets. But I did use it to try out a game first before purchasing the real thing. Now it's dead, so I need to revive it.

Again, thanks for giving me the tools to jump into this again.

Del
 
Anyone using one of these? Heard they were dope plus they work for pc,mister and rgbpi
3DEB29E6-4D22-49DC-8131-6B781729469A.jpeg


https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/product/jamma-adapter/
 
RealMFnG said:
J-Pac's video amp sucks TBH. I find it crushes whites. You get a washed out image.

In that setup, I think the best available option is to go with Tim Worthington's SCART2ARC 3.0. Of all the video amp options, I think I own them all:
  1. JAMMAizer
  2. J-Pac
  3. JammaSD
  4. SCART2ARC 3.0
SCART2ARC 3.0 has the best video quality. You can also just feed the hacked 15khz signal into the Blast City and see if you like it un-amped after some tuning.
Click to expand...

so I listened to your advice as this will allow me to do consoles along with mister, raspberry pi and a pc. He accepts PayPal now so it made it smooth af. i Appreciate the good look and once I get everything sorted I’ll do a pick of the setup. This is what I grabbed. Also sorry for the double post.

970A393B-A6CB-44CC-A2F2-30D3322DBF3E.png
 
RealMFnG said:
J-Pac also has circuitry that will protect your arcade should you feed it a 31khz computer video signal.
Click to expand...
Installed GroovyTime to small HP mini PC. CRT emudriver do work correctly !

is there any risk for my trisync cabs (blast city and Windy 2) if the initial "HP" bios flash screen gets to the chassis. Are those splash screen 1080p ?

I own a Jammaizer that i could use for AV input but there it lacks a video protection circuit iirc.

thx for the help !
 
Barth0lin0 said:
Installed GroovyTime to small HP mini PC. CRT emudriver do work correctly !

is there any risk for my trisync cabs (blast city and Windy 2) if the initial "HP" bios flash screen gets to the chassis. Are those splash screen 1080p ?

I own a Jammaizer that i could use for AV input but there it lacks a video protection circuit iirc.

thx for the help !
Click to expand...
Does the BIOS display properly on boot-up?
 
RealMFnG said:
Does the BIOS display properly on boot-up?
Click to expand...
it does. seems like a high resolution Hp logo

there is no option to change the bios screen for this specific HP model.

for now, i wait 15-20 sec before turning on the cab and it get the job done.
 
I am thinking it is a good idea to use ATOM-15 and hack the video card's BIOS to output 15khz. Modern PC's BIOS resolutions are at least 800x600. A tri-sync arcade monitor is 640x480 max resolution. It may be a compatible resolution, but I wouldn't stress that tri-sync chassis. Parts aren't made for arcade monitors anymore. Parts are made for modern PC's. Save the native BIOS for the video card, then run ATOM-15 to hack the BIOS to 15khz to be safe. I am guessing this should be a dedicated PC for MAME purposes, so I don't think you'll miss that video card's high resolution modes too much.
 
What would be the minimal cpu spec if I want to run all cave games without issue ?
 
Barth0lin0 said:
What would be the minimal cpu spec if I want to run all cave games without issue ?
Click to expand...
A ~12-year old Core 2 Duo w/ 8GB of RAM running Win7 64-bit. You can get away with 4GB. MAME doesn't need that much, but Windows is sluggish with that little RAM.
 
RealMFnG said:
A ~12-year old Core 2 Duo w/ 8GB of RAM running Win7 64-bit. You can get away with 4GB. MAME doesn't need that much, but Windows is sluggish with that little RAM.
Click to expand...
I’m having slowdown issues with deathsmiles and SDOJ with my AMD A8-7410 APU …. This is why I’m wondering if I should upgrade . (Hp 260-a129)
 
I read somewhere that intel cpus are better with mame, Take that with a grain of salt. Im using celerons from 2016 and I dont run into any issues. I have a spare too if your interested lmk
 
10 years later, I'm still using the same old 2 rigs ... XP + hyperspin + autohotkey + misc arcade emus . one tate , one yoko.

these days I just play mostly arcade hardware but sometimes I toss them in ;0


6820029448_db5b8fb835_h.jpg


video traces on the jpac are cut, I just run everything off the VGA connector. using on blast city cabs.

good look man, it's a lot of fun setting it all up :)
 
Any idea how to get groovymame running on an S-video trinitron?

This probably a very specific question, but I have a GroovyArcade PC that’s worked great in arcade cabs with a jpac and just recently acquired the trinitron.

I have a mister vga to s-video adapter that works for Fpga but not when I connect it to the mame PC vga port.

It’s been a while since I really delved into this stuff - possibly it has something to do with sync-on-green? Is a consumer s-video crt an option that a fresh rebuild of a groovytime PC would enable?
 
S-video will look like crap just like it did way back in the day when hooking up a PC to a TV was a hard thing to do. That was before HDMI.

You should RGB mod that Trinitron.
 
What’s easier?

Trinitron RGB mod or enabling groovymame through s-video?

Edit: you’ve sent me down a rabbit hole on this one. I think I have one of the models capable of modding, but need to check tomorrow
 
Last edited:
"Easy" is a relative term brother. You should aim towards getting things functional in the way you desire.

S-video from a 2000's model video card/PC is an easy thing to do. But you'll quickly see it is worthless and a waste of your time. But it hardly requires much effort. Give it a shot and see what you get before you go down the rabbit hole.

The arcade hobby is an endless rabbit hole, so don't be too turned off.
 
RealMFnG said:
"Easy" is a relative term brother. You should aim towards getting things functional in the way you desire.

S-video from a 2000's model video card/PC is an easy thing to do. But you'll quickly see it is worthless and a waste of your time. But it hardly requires much effort. Give it a shot and see what you get before you go down the rabbit hole.

The arcade hobby is an endless rabbit hole, so don't be too turned off.
Click to expand...
Is 240p over svideo easy to do?

I remember it was always 480i it always looked like shit.

It's not something I'm interested in, but this is information/educational kind of place. I'm wondering if you could do all the different resolutions/refresh rates using groovymame over svideo.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top