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MiSTer FPGA

One of the arcade core developers, Ace, is going to tackle Zero Wing after he finishes up the Jackal core. That'll open the door to the other first-generation Toaplan games.
 
Let’s say I wanted to get the MiSTeR up and working on an arcade cabinet with an MVS setup. What additional hardware would that require? Also, is that going to result in any kind of lag or anything?
 
You'd need two components - (1) A way to adapt the MiSTer to JAMMA, and (2) A way to adapt JAMMA to the MVS cabinet.

Let's talk about (2) first. If your MVS cabinet is setup for a single-slot MVS board, then it's already wired for JAMMA and you don't need to worry about (2). But multi-slot MVS boards are not JAMMA, so you need something like @'XianXi''s JNX Big Red adapter to make the JAMMA adaption to the cabinet.

Now for (1), you have a few options on adapting the MiSTer to JAMMA. You can use a Ultimark JPAC to adapt the MiSTer's VGA output to the cabinet, and the cabinet's controls to USB. Or you can wait for Antonio Villena's MiSTer JAMMA adapter to become available.
https://www.retrorgb.com/mister-jamma-arcade-interface-and-raspberry-pi-new-arcade-supergun.html

EDIT: Antonio Villena's adapter is listed in his store, but it's out of stock at the moment:
https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/product/jamma-adapter/

@SmokeMonster has first-hand experience with using MiSTer in a JAMMA cabinet, so he's a good resource to ask on this topic.

As for lag, there won't be any video lag, and there will be negligible controller lag. The VGA display out of the MiSTer is already lag-free. The USB controls have a small amount of lag, but it's very unlikely that you'd notice it. You can explore lag-free control solutions like the Blisster along with cabinet control adapters if USB input lag is a concern.
 
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ShootTheCore said:
EDIT: Antonio Villena's adapter is listed in his store, but it's out of stock at the moment:
https://www.antoniovillena.es/store/product/jamma-adapter/

As for lag, there won't be any video lag, and there will be negligible controller lag. The VGA display out of the MiSTer is already lag-free. The USB controls have a small amount of lag, but it's very unlikely that you'd notice it. You can explore lag-free control solutions like the Blisster along with cabinet control adapters if USB input lag is a concern.
Click to expand...
See, this is why I’m glad I asked, because I had no clue about Villena’s adapter. I’m going to keep an eye on it to come back in stock.

It seems like that completely negates the control lag as well, at least according to his description, since it isn’t using USB. The downside is that it isn’t going to be supported by the official cores, so you have to use his recompiled cores. I would rather have the official support, but that doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world.
 
Huh, I didn't read through Villena's adapter description as closely as I should have. I didn't realize that he was maintaining his own separate fork of the MisTer cores to provide support for his own controller board. I'm not seeing the arcade cores in his GitHub repository ... interesting.

I dunno, if I was doing it myself, I'd go with the J-PAC and USB controls to ensure compatibility with the latest cores. That's just IMHO - one great thing about the MiSTer is all the flexibility.
 
I've never used MiSTer in a JAMMA cabinet, but the people who have seem to mostly be using JPACs.

Villena confirmed to me three times that you could use his JAMMA adapter with the normal IO board, but then changed the info on his site as soon as I made a video. Apparently you now need his custom IO board, custom RAM add-on, and forked cores supporting direct input.
 
SmokeMonster said:
I've never used MiSTer in a JAMMA cabinet, but the people who have seem to mostly be using JPACs.

Villena confirmed to me three times that you could use his JAMMA adapter with the normal IO board, but then changed the info on his site as soon as I made a video. Apparently you now need his custom IO board, custom RAM add-on, and forked cores supporting direct input.
Click to expand...
If you want potential customers not to buy a product, we have a winner here. If this was a completely new product like Analog’s systems and cores then, yes, you can do and be all that, a bag of chips and a soda.
 
SmokeMonster said:
I've never used MiSTer in a JAMMA cabinet, but the people who have seem to mostly be using JPACs.

Villena confirmed to me three times that you could use his JAMMA adapter with the normal IO board, but then changed the info on his site as soon as I made a video. Apparently you now need his custom IO board, custom RAM add-on, and forked cores supporting direct input.
Click to expand...
I totally missed the part about having to buy his I/O Board and RAM module. Forget that.

JPAC it is then. If the lag is bad enough (really doubt it), I can always hope that the LL Cool Joy gets released.
 
How would sound work, since the JPAC doesn’t pass audio? Would there be a way to still use the cab’s speakers and not have to hook up an external set?
 
Cloggerdude said:
How would sound work, since the JPAC doesn’t pass audio? Would there be a way to still use the cab’s speakers and not have to hook up an external set?
Click to expand...
Same way you'd hook up a JPAC to anything else: thrown a little Amp in line.
 
ShootTheCore said:
Let's talk about (2) first. If your MVS cabinet is setup for a single-slot MVS board, then it's already wired for JAMMA and you don't need to worry about (2). But multi-slot MVS boards are not JAMMA, so you need something like @'XianXi''s JNX Big Red adapter to make the JAMMA adaption to the cabinet.
Click to expand...
This is the Super Neo 29 he's buying, so it's definitely wired for MVS from what I've read.

Cloggerdude, here's the thing about that, if you put a Jamma board into an MVS wired cab, you can overheat the amp on your Jamma boards. You're gonna send power to where it doesn't belong. The adapter is basically a must to run Jamma in that cab.

I thought I needed one myself for a while, before I discovered that Neo Candy 29s are actually wired for Jamma from the factory, and not MVS. No idea why, they're the odd duck out as far as I can tell for Neo candies.

Here's some more info: JNX Big Red - JAMMA to MVS Board Adapter
 
Aurich said:
Cloggerdude, here's the thing about that, if you put a Jamma board into an MVS wired cab, you can overheat the amp on your Jamma boards. You're gonna send power to where it doesn't belong. The adapter is basically a must to run Jamma in that cab.

I thought I needed one myself for a while, before I discovered that Neo Candy 29s are actually wired for Jamma from the factory, and not MVS. No idea why, they're the odd duck out as far as I can tell for Neo candies.

Here's some more info: JNX Big Red - JAMMA to MVS Board Adapter
Click to expand...
Yep, the Super I’m buying has a 4-Slot, so I’ll definitely need the adapter. Looks like my setup would be:

DE10
IO Board
128mb RAM
JNX Big Red
JPAC
Amp

So about $330+. Not too bad. I’m definitely thinking about it.
 
ShootTheCore said:
Huh, I didn't read through Villena's adapter description as closely as I should have. I didn't realize that he was maintaining his own separate fork of the MisTer cores to provide support for his own controller board. I'm not seeing the arcade cores in his GitHub repository ... interesting.

I dunno, if I was doing it myself, I'd go with the J-PAC and USB controls to ensure compatibility with the latest cores. That's just IMHO - one great thing about the MiSTer is all the flexibility.
Click to expand...
so you guys say ist better to go with the j-pac? was waiting for the Villenas Adapter Project sind last year. finally want to try this stuff.
 
thanks
does anyone know a place where i can get a complete Setup? incl the 128 ram?
 
Original analog video without I/O board? Possible!

Any thoughts on this? It may have been discussed here already, but it seems like a viable/better option? I'm actually hoping someone here can tell me the potential downsides for my use case (candy cab). I don't mind buying the IO Board if that's the better option, but that doesn't seem to necessarily be the case?
 
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