this is a quick page for the folks at ess in hannibal who helped me with the computer bits i needed to finish off my arcade.

this is an arcade game, a real arcade game, with real arcade parts, that can play JAMMA compatable game boards. the purpose of this project was to allow me to play mame on a computer, and display the game on an actual arcade monitor, in its original resolution, refresh rate, and dimensions, on actual arcade hardware, and play the game using actual arcade buttons and joysticks.

i wanted to be able to play the arcade boards i own in this cabinet as well, since i've invested thousands of dollars in these gameboards, i feel its important to be able to play them when i want, especially since some of them are not yet emulated.

how it works: inside this cabinet is a pc running windows xp pro, just like the computer you're reading this page with. on the computer i am running mame32, a windows program that emulates thousands of arcade machines, and the games that often occupy them. it is important to understand that mame actually emulates the arcade hardware, not just plays the games (the software).

that's all well and good, but how do you get a computer to display on an arcade monitor, since none of the connectors match up? well, not only do the connectors not match up, the signalling and voltages don't even match up. and the way arcade buttons work and the way keyboards work are not at all compatable, not the way arcades are traditionally wired, anyway.

there are a couple of little cheats i used, since i'm not willing to learn electronics and microprocessor programming for this project. to the right here is a little nifty item called a j-pac (more info). this little jewel does many wonderful things, all of which are necessary in one way or another for a project like this. first, it takes the video from the computer, and readies it for an arcade monitor by amplifying the voltage from 1 to 5 volts, and filtering out signals that can hurt arcade monitors (more about this later). second, it takes the button and joystick keypresses and converts them to keyboard strokes so the computer can understand them. since mame runs on a computer, mame needs keyboard strokes for input. the j-pac uses a rather awesome method for encoding keystrokes so that when any combination of joystick button presses are made, no blocking or ghosting of keys is possible.

this is a special video card from ultimarc.com that tells windows exactly how to display video on an arcade monitor. arcade monitors are cool things, but they can't do much in the way of resolution or refresh rate. this video card forces windows to behave like an arcade game, instead of forcing the monitor to behave the way windows likes. it also tells windows applications what the full-screen resolutions are, so that any fullscreen application can display on this arcade monitor in a crisp clean manner. very handy for game emulators.

it all adds up to a computer that can display arcade games on an arcade cabinet, through a real arcade monitor, accepting input from real arcade buttons and joysticks.

a couple more photos:


dig the fancy cup holders!


this is how you impress people you don't know that come into your apartment.


not three seconds after i finish this and make it playable, does dave come over and insist on doing some intensive "testing" on the setup. here, he is testing gradius III. he tested about 25 games, and finished by saying "it works, but man these stools start to hurt after a while!" he sat there for quite some time.

final notes: these games (all 3700 or so of them) play just like they should, in the resolutions and screensizes of the originals. it is very addictive. the monitor in the cabinet somewhat easily (it could definitely be a LOT harder) rotates 90 degrees to accomodate the vertical screen games like 1942 and pacman and strikers 1945 III and frogger and others. it can play vertical screen games when the monitor is horizontal, but you lose resolution, and often the extreme edges of the picture get cropped away.

in the end this machine will be emulating games from the following systems: NES, SNES, Genesis, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, and anything else i can find an emulator for.