Williams Video output...

tmcw

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I was wondering if there are any devices (to purchase or make) that can take the video output from Williams boards and put it into something like a PC monitor or TV?
 
By default, Wiliams games output separate positive sync signals. As it stands, any of the standalone CGA to VGA/TV converter boards aren't going to be able to work with that - they want negative composite sync.

But.. fortunately, there is a positive csync output on the Wiliams boards - it's just not used in the original cabinet. You can take this signal and invert it. There is also a simple modification you can do to the board to make it output negative csync on that pin instead. See here:

http://www.robotron-2084.co.uk/techwilliams2jamma.html

So, once you have negative csync, you should have no problems using any of the CGA to VGA adapter boards. There's a cheapie one from China that's readily available on eBay.

Word of warning though, these converters are kind of hit or miss. For best results, just use a real arcade monitor....

-Ian
 
That's great, thanks for the info.

Just to be clear, if I cut the trace on my board, the signal coming off the board is now a standard CGA set? And the V-sync and H-sync pins from the board are now combined into the Composite-sync output? So on one of the boards I was looking at, the composite-sync output would be connected to the "S" connection? (the board I was looking at had R, G, B, GND and S pins on the CGA input).

My monitor is a 13" in a Stargate cocktail, fully original as far as I can tell, and still giving a great picture. When I was playing it a few nights ago, I was just thinking about how old it is, and that it's probably difficult or expensive to get parts for the monitor if it ever needed them, so just thinking ahead to what options might be available if I did have to put some other monitor in there.
 
My monitor is a 13" in a Stargate cocktail, fully original as far as I can tell, and still giving a great picture. When I was playing it a few nights ago, I was just thinking about how old it is, and that it's probably difficult or expensive to get parts for the monitor if it ever needed them, so just thinking ahead to what options might be available if I did have to put some other monitor in there.

If you already have a real monitor, don't waste your time or money trying to convert the signal to a VGA monitor. The converter boards work OK, but not great. The picture will never be as good as it is on the original monitor. And the old monitors are so much easier to get parts for and maintain than some crappy converter board/PC monitor.

Don't worry about parts for old monitors. 90% of them are common, currently manufactured industry standard components (caps and transistors), and new flybacks are available for just about everything.

-Ian
 
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