J
jassin000
Some of you may have noticed the ridiculous "5K Kandy Klub" signature I've been sporting lately...
I'm poking fun at myself sure, but I wanted to tell the full story behind it.
So without further delay, may I proudly present my adventures in JAMMA with the Vewlix cab.
It all started with me getting one of these...
I did my best to detail the entire purchase/shipping process along with pictures here.
I made the decision to buy a Vewlix knowing it was a JVS cab, despite my having no intention of ever playing a single JVS board on it.
My choice came down to one major factor, CRT maintenance!
I owned I Sega Blast City not long ago, I really loved the look of that machine.
What I hated was that chassis, the geometry problems of the tube and its eventual failure.
With my mind made up, and my order for 3,050$... That's one Taito Vewlix C and one JAMMA-to-JVS adapter placed... I impatiently waited.
This is the JAMMA-to-JVS adapter I received USPS a few days after the cab...
You may recognize it as the River Serive Japan JAMMA-to-JVS adapter, its only identification is the word "JVS Console V2.01" stamped on the lower left-hand side.
I used this converter board in conjunction with a xRGB mini "Framemeister", from the output of the scaler I ran directly to the DVI-D input of the stock Vewlix C monitor.
The image quality was very good (@1360x76
its what the xRGB family is known for.
Unfortunately the mini is also known for adding some lag, about 16ms to be exact and this is in addition to any lag present in your LCD.
Now I've never found the conversion lag of the mini to be a major problem, maybe its because I'm not a tournament level competitive gamer.
What did bother me to no end about this setup... Input lag!
The River Service board needs to take input from the JAMMA edge and encode it for JVS, and some boards (like the Namco or Konami) just do this better then others.
Well let me be the first to tell you, RS sucks big time!
This revelation pretty much killed my vision for how this whole thing was going to work.
I had to think of an alternative, something of high quality and that wouldn't require hacking up my new expensive cab.
After doing some reading...
I was pretty disappointment about everything... However, I decided I've come this far, I might as well see the official Taito solution in action for myself.
I starting by emailing Taito-Tech directly... Asking about a wide variety of replacement (I need things like locks etc) Vewlix parts, one of them being the official JAMMA kit.
The very first email I received back from a man identifying himself as Yugo brought to light another item I was interested in...
Hello Jason,
Thanks for your inquiry.
We have new LCD monitor kit compatible all VEWLIX models as attached.
N94R0442A VEWLIX LCD monitor kit （NEW TYPE）＠JPY162,800－In stock
Best regards,
Yugo
Taito Corporation
A follow-up email confirmed that not only was this new monitor better in every single (yup better then the Vewlix Diamond) way then my existing screen.
It also confirmed my greatest fear with a replacement part of this expense, availability!
The new monitor was a limited run, Taito has no future plans to produce anymore, what they have in stock is all that's left PERIOD.
I rushed to place a order for both the new LCD, and what I viewed as an experimental JAMMA kit.
Taito demands bank transfer as form of payment for all orders, after signing/returning the purchase invoice, I first sent 195,400Y (1,719$) for the LCD, then 43,600Y (384$) for the JAMMA kit.
The order was shipped out via EMS Japan, 4 speedy days later my parts arrived to my door!
I installed the monitor so quickly and easily, I didn't stop and take proper pictures along the way.
I was really just a total drop in replacement/swap, the weight being a LCD was very manageable even solo!
So I've finally arrived at something that's a joy to play, and stunning to behold!
Stunning price too, at 5,153$!!!!!11
I'll put up some shots of different games running on the LCD eventually, for now I'll finish this post with a video of Final Fight in action.
I'm poking fun at myself sure, but I wanted to tell the full story behind it.
So without further delay, may I proudly present my adventures in JAMMA with the Vewlix cab.
It all started with me getting one of these...
I did my best to detail the entire purchase/shipping process along with pictures here.
I made the decision to buy a Vewlix knowing it was a JVS cab, despite my having no intention of ever playing a single JVS board on it.
My choice came down to one major factor, CRT maintenance!
I owned I Sega Blast City not long ago, I really loved the look of that machine.
What I hated was that chassis, the geometry problems of the tube and its eventual failure.
With my mind made up, and my order for 3,050$... That's one Taito Vewlix C and one JAMMA-to-JVS adapter placed... I impatiently waited.
This is the JAMMA-to-JVS adapter I received USPS a few days after the cab...
You may recognize it as the River Serive Japan JAMMA-to-JVS adapter, its only identification is the word "JVS Console V2.01" stamped on the lower left-hand side.
I used this converter board in conjunction with a xRGB mini "Framemeister", from the output of the scaler I ran directly to the DVI-D input of the stock Vewlix C monitor.
The image quality was very good (@1360x76
its what the xRGB family is known for.Unfortunately the mini is also known for adding some lag, about 16ms to be exact and this is in addition to any lag present in your LCD.
Now I've never found the conversion lag of the mini to be a major problem, maybe its because I'm not a tournament level competitive gamer.
What did bother me to no end about this setup... Input lag!
The River Service board needs to take input from the JAMMA edge and encode it for JVS, and some boards (like the Namco or Konami) just do this better then others.
Well let me be the first to tell you, RS sucks big time!
This revelation pretty much killed my vision for how this whole thing was going to work.
I had to think of an alternative, something of high quality and that wouldn't require hacking up my new expensive cab.
After doing some reading...
I was pretty disappointment about everything... However, I decided I've come this far, I might as well see the official Taito solution in action for myself.
I starting by emailing Taito-Tech directly... Asking about a wide variety of replacement (I need things like locks etc) Vewlix parts, one of them being the official JAMMA kit.
The very first email I received back from a man identifying himself as Yugo brought to light another item I was interested in...
Hello Jason,
Thanks for your inquiry.
We have new LCD monitor kit compatible all VEWLIX models as attached.
N94R0442A VEWLIX LCD monitor kit （NEW TYPE）＠JPY162,800－In stock
Best regards,
Yugo
Taito Corporation
A follow-up email confirmed that not only was this new monitor better in every single (yup better then the Vewlix Diamond) way then my existing screen.
It also confirmed my greatest fear with a replacement part of this expense, availability!
The new monitor was a limited run, Taito has no future plans to produce anymore, what they have in stock is all that's left PERIOD.
I rushed to place a order for both the new LCD, and what I viewed as an experimental JAMMA kit.
Taito demands bank transfer as form of payment for all orders, after signing/returning the purchase invoice, I first sent 195,400Y (1,719$) for the LCD, then 43,600Y (384$) for the JAMMA kit.
The order was shipped out via EMS Japan, 4 speedy days later my parts arrived to my door!
I installed the monitor so quickly and easily, I didn't stop and take proper pictures along the way.
I was really just a total drop in replacement/swap, the weight being a LCD was very manageable even solo!
So I've finally arrived at something that's a joy to play, and stunning to behold!
Stunning price too, at 5,153$!!!!!11
I'll put up some shots of different games running on the LCD eventually, for now I'll finish this post with a video of Final Fight in action.
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VGA.
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