Can you convert an Ultracde to MAME?

freeder23

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Yes, I have an Ultracade. Feel free to chastise me. Yes, I was stupid.... I bought it on a whim at an arcade auction because it had Street FIghter II and my loves that game... Anyway, now I am trying to make it right.

The Ultracade I have is one of the conversion kits that converts a Jamma cabinet. I'm guessing the Ultracade dates back to around 2000 or 2001 time frame. The cabinet was originally a Killer Instict II from 1996 era. What I want to do is take the Ultracade PC inside and install Windows on it. Then I could install a front end and MAME. Is this even possible? Upon further inspection of the cabinet it appears that the video and keyboard inputs from the PC plug into some type of hardware adapter that is powered by the PC. My hope, is this adapter would still work after installing MAME. Has anyone ever done this? Is it even possible? Am I better off just ripping everything out and starting over? If so, is there a relatively simple way to be able to use the existing arcade monitor?

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
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I'm not sure about converting the Ultracade part, but there's an easy option if it's a jamma cab. Although, it sounds like the ultracade uses some kind of encoder board already...


Get a j-pac (keyboard encoder) and pc with mame and you'd be good to go. If you already have the pc, a j-pac will only cost you about $60.

That's what I'd do. Just rip out the ultracade part and sell it. I'm sure someone will take it.
 
Thanks! I think your suggestion is the way to go. Hopefully, I can get a few $ for the Ultracade stuff. I tried installing Windows on it tonight unsucesfully. I am getting a computer from a friend so all I need is the J-pac. Unfortunately, they are out of stock right now!
 
Put a request up in the "Trading: Videogame and Pinball - Wanted" section on this forum. I'm sure someone will respond and sell you one.
 
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