Donkey Kong to MAME - Help me not make it crappy!

rainman154

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I picked up a nice DK cabinet that is basically empty. It was a VS. unit that has since been stripped.
Here is what I want to do.
I want to restore the cabinet to look just like a Donkey Kong machine (side art, marquee, coin door..etc), but play a 60 in 1 JAMMA.

Currently all I have is a 2001 19" monitor (not a sanyo), DK Bezel and Cab.

I have been working with some GREAT very helpful people here in Minnesota who have all given me info. Since I am a newbe to building a machine, I want to do something simple but classy...no crazy 10 foot long control panels!

I am planning on picking up a 60 in 1 board from NIXS. Would this JAMMA board work with a DK control panel from Mike'sArcade? I know it only has ONE button (JUMP), and some of the JAMMA games need 2 or 3. But I think MOST of the games use only one button.
Is this easy to do?

Help me out so I don't cheese out a beautiful DK cab!
 
The buttons are very easy to wire up to the CP.. Just hook up each button to its wire off of the Jamma, and then link all of the buttons with daisy chained ground from the harness.
 
So do you think it will suck to have 1 button (JUMP) for all 60 games? I just don't want a cheesy control panel and would love to just buy the DK control panel. Shoot, if the game just played Pac-Man, DK, DK Jr., Mrs. Pac-Man, Gallaga etc...I would be happy.
 
I think You'll be ok with 1 button. I believe all of those games require a 4 way stick, and 1 button. You'll just need a Jamma Harness and power supply.
 
Yeah that is what I thought. I know that NIXS has those too. I just want to make sure I am buying everything I need and not wasting money on stuff I don't.
I am going to take pics through the process and post them. Should turn out nice.
 
Can you please use something that is not a classic game cab. This Crap is killing me!
Yeah that is what I thought. I know that NIXS has those too. I just want to make sure I am buying everything I need and not wasting money on stuff I don't.
I am going to take pics through the process and post them. Should turn out nice.
 
I kind of agree, do like I did and get a broke done crap cab and use that as your Jamma Cab.
 
Can you please use something that is not a classic game cab. This Crap is killing me!

Its his cab to do what he wants...Maybe he doesnt have room (or money) for 10 arcade cabs.
Sounds to me like hes on the right path by not drilling a shit pot of holes for a trackball, spinner, and flight stick, so IF on down the road he sees the errors in his ways and wants to convert it back then no big deal.
Frankly I think the 60/1 has done alot of good for our hobby as it allows people an affordable "turnkey solution" for getting started, and I cant blame him for wanting to put it in a nice cabinet.
Plus I dont think Street Fighter is on the 60/1....
Just my two cents
 
The way I look at it... I just saved a beautiful DK (vs.) cab. It was gonna get junked. Now I am going to go through clean it up, put up the original Bezel, Marquee, Sideart etc.
I would LOVE to put the original control panel too! It will also be a nice 19" vertical monitor.
I want it to play DK. But if I can get a card that plays DK, DK jr., Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man and a few other classics... why not??

The machine will look exactly like a DK machine on the outside, but with a classic multi jamma board on the inside.

Unless you all feel that it would be cheaper and EASIER to get a regular DK board and hook it up to a 2001 19" monitor. I would probably do that too. As long as it plays DK and looks like a DK that is what I want.
 
Its his cab to do what he wants...Maybe he doesnt have room (or money) for 10 arcade cabs.
Sounds to me like hes on the right path by not drilling a shit pot of holes for a trackball, spinner, and flight stick, so IF on down the road he sees the errors in his ways and wants to convert it back then no big deal.
Frankly I think the 60/1 has done alot of good for our hobby as it allows people an affordable "turnkey solution" for getting started, and I cant blame him for wanting to put it in a nice cabinet.
Plus I dont think Street Fighter is on the 60/1....
Just my two cents

Yeah, NO STREET FIGHTER on this cab. NO TRACK BALL! I just want it to play DK and possibly some other classics because your right, I don't have the space for a bunch of systems.

Again, I would consider just using a DK board IF it was cheaper and EASIER.
Like I said, I want this thing classy, not cheesy.
 
I have the same idea for a gutted DKjr cab..

One button plays most of the games on the 60 in 1. Same for the 4 way joystick

I dont see any harm in a cosmetic restore and multi games..

Just dont add buttons on CP!
 
Nothing at all wrong with what he's doing. Remember, he's starting from an already converted, already empty cabinet. He's not one of those idiots gutting perfectly good games to convert, he's just fixing up a scavenged empty cab.

My MAME cabinet is built out of a Donkey Kong cabinet. I got it for free, gutted - if I hadn't taken it it would have been chopped up for kindling. Only thing Donkey Kong left was the marquee. I cleaned it up, made a new control panel, and built it into a MAME cabinet. It's not hard to make a non-crap MAME/multi. Just keep it clean and simple, and it will be fine.

-Ian
 
The way I look at it... I just saved a beautiful DK (vs.) cab. It was gonna get junked. Now I am going to go through clean it up, put up the original Bezel, Marquee, Sideart etc.
I would LOVE to put the original control panel too! It will also be a nice 19" vertical monitor.

I wouldn't listen to the naysayers. If you ever decide to sell the cabinet, it'll be in much nicer (and closer to original shape) than when you got it. In fact, most of the work will have been done if you ever decide to revert it to original. You are NOT defiling a classic cabinet- by any definition of the word. To infer you are destroying a DK, is a ludicrous claim.
 
I would consider just using a DK board IF it was cheaper and EASIER. Like I said, I want this thing classy, not cheesy.
I think it's a fine project, but I will point out that the quest for "cheaper and EASIER" rarely leads to "classy, not cheesy".
 
The way I look at it... I just saved a beautiful DK (vs.) cab. It was gonna get junked. Now I am going to go through clean it up, put up the original Bezel, Marquee, Sideart etc.
I would LOVE to put the original control panel too! It will also be a nice 19" vertical monitor.
I want it to play DK. But if I can get a card that plays DK, DK jr., Pac-Man, Mrs. Pac-Man and a few other classics... why not??

The machine will look exactly like a DK machine on the outside, but with a classic multi jamma board on the inside.

Unless you all feel that it would be cheaper and EASIER to get a regular DK board and hook it up to a 2001 19" monitor. I would probably do that too. As long as it plays DK and looks like a DK that is what I want.

Just an FYI, it won't sound like real DK unless you put a real DK PCB in. The Jump, Stomp, and Run sounds are all analog and don't sound correct when emulated (same for DK Jr., and probably the Pacs too but I'm not as familiar with them). Also if you put an LCD monitor in there (it wasn't clear if that was your plan) it won't look like real DK either. I would definately try to get a Sanyo 20EZ if you're puting together a DK.

I'm not saying you should go one way or the other though. Some people will gladly trade off looks, feel, and sounds for more games.

Also, as long as you don't start drilling a bunch of holes and whatnot I don't see the problem with making a multi-cade out of the cab. You can always put orignal parts in there down the line as long as you don't do something destructive.

Lastly, if you'd rather go the purist route, you can do what I did. I have a dedicated stock DK and I swap out the boards when I want to play DK Jr. You can also swap with DK 3, and DKII. So that's 4 games in one cabinet, all orginal parts, without doing anything destructive. When I switch PCBs it takes about 15 minutes (that includes unhooking the 8 wiring connectors, pulling the PCB, wrapping the PCB in bubble wrap, boxing it, and vice versa fo the PCB I'm swaping in.) I'm pretty meticulous about it. It would take about 2 minutes if I used an edge connector harness and kept multiple PCBs in the cab. Its more hassle to switch games on my setup than on a 60-1, but when I'm playing DK, I'm playing REAL DK, not an emulation. Just another option you might consider.
 
Awe... I think we can give the guy a pass on this one. It was already converted to a VS Unisystem... he's not pissing away a dedicated DK.

Exactly... plus there is a glut of parts available for DK both used and reproduction. I don't see any chainsaws at work here so no harm whatsoever.

Using the words "anything to MAME" is like dropping the F-Bomb in church around here so that makes this thread title pretty dramatic for these parts ;)
 
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I'd make it Jamma , put a DK board with an adaptor and a 60 n 1 board in there so you can switch back , whenever you want the true DK game .
 
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