All things Silver Strike Bowling..

kabal57

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While looking around for ways to build my own silver strike game, I came across this forum (by far the most info I've found anywhere on it)

Anyway, from what I understand SSB is basically a computer with a hdd and interface board.

If I were to build my own, would I be able to use my own computer similar in spec to the nitehawk that ssb runs on, and just stick a hdd from IT and all the other boards that the game needs in it? Do the hdd's that IT sells come with all the files the game needs to run on them?
Does the game boot from the HDD?

Seems to me this would be the easiest/cheapest way to do it.. I realize that all the parts that come with the kit would be needed, I just have tons of older computers laying around, would love to put them to some kind of use :)

can anyone who has built their own SSB machine chime in here and add any knowledge/info?

thanks in advance!

** eta*
does golden tee run on the same type hardware setup? would I be able to get a newer GT setup and convert it to SSB?
 
This is not possible. There is a JAMMA I/O board that connects as well and the game also has a USB security board that plugs in.
 
Yeah, basically what the above poster said.

White the nighthawk box is nothing more than a PC with a hard drive and video card (and only 256 meg of ram), there are two USB connections needed:

1) to an I/O pcb, which connects to the jamma harness and contains all of the dip switch info
2) to a security chip, which has a different number for each game

You can't run the game without those two things.
 
I haven't dealt with SSB specifically, but PC-based arcade games generally require a very specific model of motherboard to function, and the GPU has to be something their driver recognizes (generally, same brand same series -- i.e. you could replace a GeForce 6200 with a GeForce 6600, but not a GeForce 7600 or any kind of Radeon). The Linux-based games you can sometimes hack to work on different boards, but sometimes the game relies on undocumented quirks in the motherboard they're built on, and you'll NEVER track down exactly what those quirks are. And if it runs on Windows... forget it, you will NEED an exact board, if nothing else for the BIOS DMI alone.

I really wouldn't try building a cabinet from scratch, it'd probably be cheaper to just buy a used cabinet in the first place. If you're dead-set on building it, save yourself a lot of headache and order everything straight from IT. Computer, dongle, JAMMA interface board, any extra I/O connectors... if someone has an SSB cabinet they may let you poke around to figure out what you need.
 
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