Cabaret Klax-Tris multi setup

ArcadeDanger

Well-known member

Donor 2013, 2015
Joined
Sep 2, 2013
Messages
2,968
Reaction score
283
Location
Sunnyvale, California
I have a cabaret Klax that I got some months ago. These are nice cabarets, with a 19" monitor, and enough room for two folks to play together. Atari also did a small run of Tetris in these Klax cabaret cabinets (the only 'dedicated' Atari Tetris cabinets, the rest were kits).
Klax uses a 4 way joystick, and a button to flip. Cabinet has a button on each side of the joystick.
Tetris uses a 3 way (left right and down), and a button to spin the tetrominos.

There's no start button, the P1-BTN1 and P2-BTN1 start the games on both boards.

I decided it'd be a great cabinet to multi the original Klax with Tetris.

I purchased a 2 in 1 Jamma switcher from RiddledTV; these are gorgeous boards, and I'm very happy to report he provided excellent support. I also bought a cheap $9 Jamma extender from eBay.

When connected straight, Klax and Tetris would work. But with RiddledTV's switcher it did not. It turns out, the harness in the cabaret does separate ground leads for P1 and P2, which connect to JAMMA pins 27+e (28+f are ground for the coin door). Normally, Klax and Tetris share the ground plane on their PCBs across 27/28 and e+f pins so everything works. RiddledTV's switcher isolates 27+e for boards that use them as buttons instead of signal grounds.

The solution was to modify the harness, tying the grounds together for 27+28 and e+f.

The next issue was how to make the game switching work; by default the switcher board looks for P1+P2 Start to be pressed simultaneously to make the switch between games. As mentioned above, no Start buttons on this cabinet!

Fortunately RiddledTV planned for this scenario. I found an old PC wired jumper connector, hooked it up to the appropriate pins on the switcher board (see the white and blue leads in pic). I also ran a ground wire to the power supply. These were connected to a separate switch. Drilled a 1 1/8" hole in the bottom of the control panel box. I then installed this switch in the center underside of the cabinet, in front of the speaker.

I think it's a tasteful modification - it's unobtrusive, no one will accidentally bump it during play, and the cabinet comes up with Klax first, so no one would be the wiser.

Maybe I'll order up one of those lit buttons to replace the plain black one I have there, but that's for some other time.

(pics aren't uploading, I'll try again later)
 
Pics showing location of new board toggle button, board layouts, etc...

I do wish someone was making repro Klax cabaret and sideart. It seems Atari cheaped out on the inks for Klax and they all look like mud now.
 

Attachments

  • Klax-HoleSaw.jpg
    Klax-HoleSaw.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 27
  • Klax-SwitcherSwitchTop.jpg
    Klax-SwitcherSwitchTop.jpg
    966 KB · Views: 27
  • Klax-Switcher-Extension-Tetris.jpg
    Klax-Switcher-Extension-Tetris.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 30
  • Klax-SwitchButtonInstalledUnder.jpg
    Klax-SwitchButtonInstalledUnder.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 26
i used a mikes arcade switcher in mine. i had to move a wire or two around (i forget which ones), because if you look the pinout isnt exactly jamma, but didnt have to add any additional buttons.
 
i used a mikes arcade switcher in mine. i had to move a wire or two around (i forget which ones), because if you look the pinout isnt exactly jamma, but didnt have to add any additional buttons.

What was the magic keypress to switch from one board to the other for you? Mike's Switcher also works with P1/P2 Start combo to switch, which the cabaret doesn't have in its harness.
 
What was the magic keypress to switch from one board to the other for you? Mike's Switcher also works with P1/P2 Start combo to switch, which the cabaret doesn't have in its harness.

mine switches using the P1/P2 start combo. you have to look at the pinout in the manual and compare it with the standard jamma pinout. they are slightly different.
 
Nice work. I am in the process of doing the same thing with my Tetris that came in an upright 19" Dynamo cab. I figured it was a great combination to have these two titles in the same cab. I have have to check out the 2 in 1 you bought. That is one piece I haven't grabbed yet.
 
Nice work. I am in the process of doing the same thing with my Tetris that came in an upright 19" Dynamo cab. I figured it was a great combination to have these two titles in the same cab. I have have to check out the 2 in 1 you bought. That is one piece I haven't grabbed yet.

I'll be doing a multi SHMUP setup in my 19" dynamo next (Raiden and Aerofighters for now) with another switcher board.

RiddledTV's boards are less expensive than Mike's options, but I believe much better quality than the Chinese Jamma switchers. Much better support too!

For sale thread here: https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=411694
 
Last edited:
Great installation, and thank you for the kind words. I love getting to play a part in these kinds of projects.

I've now seen the grounding issue you mentioned a total of 3 times from various buyers of my Jamma switchers. In each instance, pins 27&e were used as a grounding takeoff point to the control panel wiring. I plan to add 2 more jumpers to future board designs that resolve this potential problem. In the mean time, the easiest workaround is to run a wire from the GND terminal of your power supply to your control panel grounds.
 
Back
Top Bottom