I bought an arcade cabinet

[CorruptedOldGnom(sic)]

Congratulations, I hope you enjoy it. I also got an arcade cab recently, my first game (Bad Dudes) is currently in the mail.

[FirstBlood]

i plan to own a Jamma cabinet someday... that'd be nice

[JefmcC]

That's a great find and a great price. Congrats!

First thing you should do is learn about the JAMMA wiring standard. What it is, how it works, ect. Ad if you plan on using games with more than 3 buttons, like fighting games and Neo Geo, read up about JAMMA +. It's all pretty simple stuff.

After you that, and perhaps even first, learn about horizontal vs. verticle resolution. You have a verticle mounted monitor in your cab. (unless you changed it already).

If you plan to plan mostly verticle scrolling shooters, keep the monitor the way it is.

If you plan to use it for fighting games, turn that puppy side ways. Me, personally, I'd leave it verticle.

And if there is any orginal side art, leave it alone. Don't be tempeted to paint over it. If it is an orginal Pac Man cab, someone may be willing to pay good money for it. Or trade it for another one.
Orginal art on an old game is hard to come by. Unless it's totally messed up, I'd leave it.


DO NOT FOOL AROUND WITH THE BACK OF THE MONITOR UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! THERE IS ENOUGH ELECTRICITY IN THERE TO LITERALLY KILL YOU IF IT DISCHARGES THROUGH YOUR BODY! BE CAREFULL!!

[gameoverDude]

Congratulations on that score, Hero. $75 isn't bad at all.

If you want some more good vertical games, look into Gundhara, Air Gallet, Grid Seeker, an F3 motherboard for Gekirindan/Space Invaders '95/Kyukyoku Tiger II, Daioh (Japanese 2-button version, I've heard it's great), and a SPI motherboard for Raiden Fighters II. Those would keep you busy for awhile.

I wouldn't go messing with rotating the monitor. If you're going to want fighting games, Neo-Geo, F3 games other than the above mentioned handful, or other horizontal stuff, get a 2nd cabinet with a horizontal monitor- or use a super gun if there's no room for another cab.

Enjoy!

[Hero]

sweet links guys! Thanks for the help. Now a semi-related question:

What exactly is a Super Gun, hwo does it work, and what is it used for specifically?

Oh yeah, the inside of the cab has a label for dip switch settings for pacman. The monitor has the 1st level of pacman semi-burned into it. Other than that, the cabinet sides, marquee, ect, are all Sky Soldiers. I pllayed more of it last night; good good stuff, though easy at the beginning.

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by JefmcC
DO NOT FOOL AROUND WITH THE BACK OF THE MONITOR UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! THERE IS ENOUGH ELECTRICITY IN THERE TO LITERALLY KILL YOU IF IT DISCHARGES THROUGH YOUR BODY! BE CAREFULL!!

Just to re-itterate here, this is even when the monitor is unplugged. Monitors have huge capacitors that store up the charge and keep them. At no time is it ever safe to go poking around the back of a monitor.

[Hero]

Now that you guys have scared the crap out of me, exactly how close is too close to the back of the monitor?

[JefmcC]

Originally posted by Hero
sweet links guys! Thanks for the help. Now a semi-related question:

What exactly is a Super Gun, hwo does it work, and what is it used for specifically?

Oh yeah, the inside of the cab has a label for dip switch settings for pacman. The monitor has the 1st level of pacman semi-burned into it. Other than that, the cabinet sides, marquee, ect, are all Sky Soldiers. I pllayed more of it last night; good good stuff, though easy at the beginning.

A super gun is simply a jamma harness set up to output to a TV screen.
It eliminates the cab and saves space.

They are also known as super nova or a jamma test rig.

A super gun would consist of everything in a standard cabnet, minus the cabnet.

[JefmcC]

Originally posted by Hero
Now that you guys have scared the crap out of me, exactly how close is too close to the back of the monitor?

There is a thing that looks like a suction cup on the back of the tube. Don't go near it. You really shouldn't need to do anything with the monitor that would require your messing with that.

If there are adjustment knobs back there, that should be OK to play with.

check out www.randyfromm.com

[Cheebs]

Originally posted by Hero
Now that you guys have scared the crap out of me, exactly how close is too close to the back of the monitor?

Ummm... I think you have to get almost close enough to touch the thing you're not supposed to touch. It's not going to arc out at you from a foot away. Capacitors look like big (or little) cylinders. Don't touch any cylinders.