New to the hobby

[adgenet]

Hi all, I've been bitten by the arcade bug and playing on emulators at my desk [sup]isn't cutting it so I've started to venture into the world of real hardware.
[/sup]
[sup]Hoping to start with a modern cabinet like a noir or vewlix with a ttx2 and expand from there to older gear like the cps2, mvs and the like.
[/sup]
[sup]Lots of reading to do here!
[/sup]

 

[Psyko-M1]

Hi all, I've been bitten by the arcade bug and playing on emulators at my desk [/sup][sup]isn't cutting it so I've started to venture into the world of real hardware.

Hoping to start with a modern cabinet like a noir or vewlix with a ttx2 and expand from there to older gear like the cps2, mvs and the like.

Lots of reading to do here!

You’re definitely on the right side of the country to get into this black hole of a hobby.
Welcome.

 

[rewrite]

Not to mention the right part of the state. Sheesh.

Welcome!

 

[ekorz]

Welcome! My vewlix usually has a ttx2 inside running Niko’s awesome free multi, a must.

If you want to have the vewlix run older stuff from there, Naomi is a good pick. Anything jamma you’ll need either a different cab or a jamma solution for the vewlix. That info is also around here, in droves. Taito Vewlix (VLX) Appreciation/Owners Thread is shaping up to be good place to start.

 

[BlinG]

Welcome!

Say goodbye to any kind of savings account...

 

[jassin000]

If you want to have the vewlix run older stuff from there, Naomi is a good pick. Anything jamma you’ll need either a different cab or a jamma solution for the vewlix.

Naomi is really good in a Vewlix IMO, the upsampling from the LCD is just fine, and IF your really picky...
Run the Naomi's VGA thru the OSSC first and output 2x upscaled DVI to the LCD instead.

This is normal VGA connected directly to the Diamond's LCD

The JVS IO's are common, and so are the power supplies, but one major warning about that!
YOU MUST USE A STEPDOWN transformer with Wei Ya's or the power output could damage game boards.

Sega Naomi + NetDIMM/PiForce inside a very dirty Vewlix Diamond

Like the Naomi, Namco 246/256 is also great.

JAMMA in a Vewlix today is something of a headache.
The once available and IMO great official Taito Kit is now gone/discontinued.

I was turned on to the Jammafier and purchased one, I'm told it's great...
Unfortunately I'm waiting to pull my cabs out of storage to actually use it.

 

[Darksoft]

@jassin000 yellow painted Naomi? Really? Isn't there a law in NH against that? Just kidding.

playing on emulators at my desk isn't cutting it so I've started to venture into the world of real hardware.

That's why 99% of us is here I believe. We want the real thing.

 

[Psyko-M1]

@jassin000 yellow painted Naomi? Really? Isn't there a law in NH against that? Just kidding.

Don't hate on Naomi painting.

 

[jassin000]

Isn't there a law in NH against that?

Likely, everything else I like to do is illegal here.

It's actually more like a "Constructicon" green than yellow (the lighting in the image is off).
I was going to paint my Jorge 2-in-1 dark deep purple to complete the look.

But than I went NetDIMM/PiForce and haven't had the desire to paint again.
Also I've have to get to the woods/edges of town, I can't do it at my place and pulling out rattle cans in the center of town isn't recommended... unless you're Banksy.

 

[Kaede]

im new here as well I just made an account to see if u could get a vewlix cab as well. I think I recognized some people here from the SRK tech talk forums by just looking at the names and avs. This forum looks pretty new too, so this where all you guys ended up after the the "we're going to close the forums fiasco" back on srk.

 

[adgenet]

Thanks for the warm welcome!
Good suggestion on the Naomi, lots of great games and easy compatibility with a Vewlix due to JVS it sounds like.
Also, thanks for the heads up regarding power supplies. I've already got a bunch of step-down transformers ready to go including one of these beasts:

I sort of figured out that JAMMA is a bit of a pain without the discontinued kit but I'm willing to do custom wiring and create harness adapters. I've done similar work for engine swaps on cars so it wouldn't be a huge deal other than investing the time to plan and wire everything. Of course if I stick to just a naomi or ttx2 at first, that wouldn't be a problem.
We'll see how it goes. Have to find the right cabinet first.

 

[jassin000]

@Cereth has a sales thread up, some of the cabs are looking a little ruff but that's why its a close out.
Normally I'd say get the FC (aka Capcom) Vewlix (Red) but with a L-AMI (Blue) is selling for 500$ less, and is really a very nice machine (just missing a few features of the FC).

The real problem to a custom JAMMA harness in a Vewlix is you'll need to basically rewire the entire cab.
I found it easier to just get a HAS supergun and run the supergun inside the cab with a OSSC+iScan DVDO (you need the DVDO because the cab LCD is picky/only wants 59~60hz).

This allowed me to support pain-in-the-ass PCBs like the Midway family, MK2 won't work with the Taito JAMMA Kit PERIOD!

 

[Kaede]

what makes an fc stand out over the ami L I dunno. All I know they have different monitors

 

[jassin000]

Biggest different IMO... The illumination, but inside the FC is nicer and it has some other minor attention to details.
You can clearly see in the shot I posted above how the Red FC "lights up" and the Blue Diamond don't.

Only the original F and the FC have illumination.

 

[Kaede]

ohh I see thanks

No big deal for me then I was worried I might have some incompabilty issues or some other serious issues I have a few boards already like the Sega naomi I should be able to use on one these right. For the cps2 and cps3,mvs I have I was thinking in getting a low res cab like an astro or blast city. I don't know if a new net city would do the job as well.

 

[Cereth]

I actually have rewired a Vewlix for JAMMA before. It was a bit of work and it was years ago, I've since gone back and tidied up some of the wiring. I'll post some pictures of it when I get a chance. It could be better, but for what it is, pretty functional right now

 

[jassin000]

I was worried I might have some incompabilty issues or some other serious issues I have a few boards already like the Sega naomi

Well interesting you said this...
Because the Taito JVS IO actually does contain a "bug" (that's what I'm calling it) where it improperly identifies itself as having less buttons than it actually supports.

That means games like Capcom Vs. SNK 2 won't run on a Vewlix, and instead throw this error screen upon boot...

The work around came from @MetalliC who gave us the necessary offsets to patch away this button requirement (that actually isn't even an issue because the fucking IO supports enough buttons).

After applying his patch you'll be greeted with this...

However, because you can't patch the original GDROM... This is only really possible if you NetBoot (or make a hacked cart conversion).

new net city would do the job as well

I don't own a New Net City, but I believe the monitor in that cab is 31khz only (so no low res support).
I think what you want is a Naomi Universal, it should have a tri-sync monitor in it (low, med, high).

 

[Kaede]

ohh crap, Nah no bid deal

What I really want to do with this cabinet is play modern games on it like ps4,ps3 xbox 360 and hooking up a pc. If I can do all of that with a vewlix l then that's all I need.

So naomi universal has a tri sync I didn't know that I like the designs of the net cities, they're easy to break a part.

 

[jassin000]

Blast City is my fave CRT based candy cab, its got a tri-sync, the control panel easily/quickly unbolts from the body, Sega panels are pretty easy to find even today, it support both JAMMA and JVS (with IO kit) and it has that huge sexy marquee.

Based on this...

What I really want to do with this cabinet is play modern games on it like ps4,ps3 xbox 360 and hooking up a pc

I'd say you want a Vewlix with a pair of Brook Universal Fighting PCBs installed into the control panel.

 

[twistedsymphony]

Blast City is my fave CRT based candy cab, its got a tri-sync, the control panel easily/quickly unbolts from the body, Sega panels are pretty easy to find even today, it support both JAMMA and JVS (with IO kit) and it has that huge sexy marquee.

Based on this...

What I really want to do with this cabinet is play modern games on it like ps4,ps3 xbox 360 and hooking up a pc

I'd say you want a Vewlix with a pair of Brook Universal Fighting PCBs installed into the control panel.

Agreed. The Blast is a great cab and the Vewlix is a great cab, but the cab is just a tool for playing the games and it's about picking the right cab for the games, and the Vewlix is the right cab for those games.