How easy is it swap JAMMA boards?

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I may be picking up a Simpsons 4-player this weekend but before I do, I want to make sure I can easily swap in other 4-player JAMMA games (Wrestlefest, Ninja Turtles, etc.). Is it a simple board swap and I'm ready to go?
 
Switching the board itself is easy. For the 4P games, and games with more than 3 buttons per player you'll have to change the kick harness as well. It should be simple if the boards are from the same company (and have the same wiring on the kick harness), but if they're from different companies you might need a different kick harness.
 
Switching the board itself is easy. For the 4P games, and games with more than 3 buttons per player you'll have to change the kick harness as well. It should be simple if the boards are from the same company (and have the same wiring on the kick harness), but if they're from different companies you might need a different kick harness.

What's the kick harness? Also, I'm probably going to stick to games that only use two buttons so I don't have to destroy a perfectly good control panel to add buttons.
 
I think they are very easy to change out from game to game if, as osver said, you stay within the same limits of each game.
I've got 2 of my games running 4 jamma boards a piece, but I had to be selective due to the cabinet having only 2 buttons, so I only have jamma boards that require only 2 buttons. :(
 
The kick harness is the main wiring harness on the game that usually hold the actual jamma connector to the main PCB
 
Yeah it should, this was the whole point of JAMMA. However I'm not sure about the harness for the 4 player action. Perhaps since Simpsons, Turtles etc were made by Konami, the harness might be swappable on the boards. Don't quote me on that though.

Other than that you just carefully pull out the Jamma board like you would a SNES tape out of the console and swap in another JAMMA board. Harness are the extra tid bits for the extra buttons since Jamma is only configured 3-4 buttons off the 56 pin harness.


don't know why the video isn't showing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eSUe5FrkC8
 
I think they are very easy to change out from game to game if, as osver said, you stay within the same limits of each game.
I've got 2 of my games running 4 jamma boards a piece, but I had to be selective due to the cabinet having only 2 buttons, so I only have jamma boards that require only 2 buttons. :(

What boards do you have in your games?
 
The kick harness is the main wiring harness on the game that usually hold the actual jamma connector to the main PCB

JAMMA is the main wiring harness in the cab (power, video, coin, sound, etc) and has wires for players 1 and 2 controls (joystick and up to 3 buttons). The "kick" harnesses are for players 3 and 4 controls. The 3/4 player's kick harness hook from the control panel directly to a header on the pcb.

"kick" harness is a nickname that came from fighting games that had 4+ buttons. The first 3 buttons, typically the punch buttons, were handled on the JAMMA harness and the last 3 buttons, typically the kick buttons, were handled by an additional harness = "kick harness". The term "kick harness" is used loosely for any harness that either handles extra buttons or additional players that cannot fit on the JAMMA wiring harness.

JAMMA games have the same wiring for the cab and players 1 and 2, but different manufacturers used different "kick" harnesses if the game had more than 2 players. In your Simpsons cab you could play any of the other konami 4 players (that use 2 buttons) using the existing 3/4 player "kick" harnesses. TMNT, Sunset Riders, etc. will be a direct swap.
 
What boards do you have in your games?

I've got TMNT: Turtles in Time, Captain America and the Avengers, The Simpsons, and TMNT in my one cabinet.
And Splatterhouse, Spiderman, Sunset Riders, and Battletoads in my other cabinet.
I switch maybe 4 connections to go from one game to the other.
Beats having close to 10 gaming cabinets at home versus the 2......
 
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