Question about Non Jamma Games 1980-1989

Shredder565

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If I bought, say, a Star Wars Cabinet.... would I be able to use that as a base and plug in games like Popeye, Pac-Man, and other 80's classics just like one would use a JAMMA cabinet for TMNT, Simpsons and XMen?

Down here at the Jersey shore, only one arcade has the original star wars game left, sadly. And Star wars Arcade is long gone...
 
If I bought, say, a Star Wars Cabinet.... would I be able to use that as a base and plug in games like Popeye, Pac-Man, and other 80's classics just like one would use a JAMMA cabinet for TMNT, Simpsons and XMen?

Down here at the Jersey shore, only one arcade has the original star wars game left, sadly. And Star wars Arcade is long gone...

Short answer no.

The pinouts are different for the nonJAMMA games. Check out CrazyKong.com to view.

Then, after that, look at the controls. What could you put in a SW that has the same controls? Nothing comes to mind, even if the pinouts were changed to accomodate.

There are adapters for others like Pac, DK, etc. to convert to JAMMA, and vice versa.
 
There are several things you need to know about your proposal:

1) In your example, you propose using a Star Wars. Star Wars is a color vector game, so the monitor is completely different than what you would find in a Pac-Man and 99% of all other classic 80's games - which are color raster. To make matters even more confusing, games by Nintendo (like Popeye, Donkey Kong, etc) from that time period used inverted video, so the monitor would need to be hooked up differently than a Pac-Man also, even though both are color raster.

2) The next problem you'd have is the wiring. Most of the early 80's games had unique wiring harnesses. This means that a Galaga, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Star Wars, Popeye, Moon Patrol, etc would all have completely different board connectors, and you wouldn't be able to swap board from one game into another game without an adapter of some kind.

3) Next up is power requirements. Some games need strange voltages like +28v, -5, -12, etc to work. Other's don't. If the cabinet you have doesn't supply those voltages from it's power supply, the board will not work. There are some groups of games that have the same wiring and can be swapped out - like the Konami Classic set (Gyruss, Frogger, etc) or some of the Taito sets.

4) Then you have to worry about screen orientation. Games like Star Wars and Popeye are games that are orientated horizontally. Games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong are orientated vertically. Unless you like tilting your head sideways while playing, you won't be able to play all four in the same cab - even if you somehow solved the problems with monitor type, connectors, and power.

5) The last thing to consider is your control panel. Some games will need 4-way joysticks, some will need 2-way, some will need 8-way, and some won't use joysticks at all. Some may need a spinner or trackball. If you have a control panel with only one button, then you won't be able to play games that need two.

It's easier to install a JAMMA harness and switching power supply into your cab, and then use JAMMA adapters to play different games. Decide on what games you MOST want to play, and set up your monitor and control panel to support those. That will give you the best option of playing multiple style of games in one cab.

Or you could build a MAME cab, but please don't kill a nice older classic cabinet just for MAME....
 
modessitt nailed it
your best bet is to find a jamma conversion cab (or beat the heck up gutted classic machine if oyu must have a classic)
and either run a x in 1 board or just build a nice mame rig
it would be nice to tackle a project like you are thinking but due to so many varying edge connectors and co9ntrol setups its just not somthing that is feasible
 
If I bought, say, a Star Wars Cabinet.... would I be able to use that as a base and plug in games like Popeye, Pac-Man, and other 80's classics just like one would use a JAMMA cabinet for TMNT, Simpsons and XMen?

Down here at the Jersey shore, only one arcade has the original star wars game left, sadly. And Star wars Arcade is long gone...

Is that a serious question? Kinda sounds like a joke.
 
It's easier to install a JAMMA harness and switching power supply into your cab, and then use JAMMA adapters to play different games. Decide on what games you MOST want to play, and set up your monitor and control panel to support those. That will give you the best option of playing multiple style of games in one cab.

Or you could build a MAME cab, but please don't kill a nice older classic cabinet just for MAME....


Do what Modessitt said ,
 
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