Saturday, June 23, 2012

JAMMA: How you connect everything to the board


The JAMMA wiring standard was introduced in 1985. Arcade cabinets wired to the JAMMA standard can be made to play all games built to this standard, simply by installing the circuit boards for the new game. By the 1990s, most new arcade games were JAMMA standard. As the majority of arcade games were designed in Japan at this time, JAMMA became the de facto world standard.

Before the JAMMA standard, most arcade PCBs, wiring harnesses, and power supplies were custom-built. When an old game became unprofitable, many arcade operators would rewire the cabinet and update the artwork in order to put different games in the cabinets. Reusing old cabinets made a lot of sense, and it was realized that the cabinets were a different market from the games themselves. The JAMMA standard allowed plug-and-play cabinets to be created (reducing the cost to arcade operators) where an unprofitable game could be replaced with another game by a simple swap of the game PCB, and an update of the artwork.



The JAMMA standard uses a 56-pin edge connector on the board with inputs and outputs common to most video games. These include power inputs (5 volts for the game and 12 volts for sound); inputs for two joysticks, each with three action buttons and one start button; analog RGB video output with negative composite sync; single-speaker sound output; and inputs for coin, service, test, and tilt (the former to accept game credits and the latter to maintain the board).

Source: Wikipedia

Now, to make things clear, this is how you connect all the arcade's components (Monitor, power source, controls, etc) to the board. Here's an wiring diagram of how to connect everything:




JAMMA's Wiring Layout

JAMMA Connector



JAMMA Harness


For the consolized version I need to build something called supergun:

A SuperGun (or super gun) is a device used to play arcade games in lieu of requiring a full arcade cabinet. Arcade games typically are designed to be used in a universal cabinet design. The supergun provides this universal interface in a greatly reduced size, allowing arcade games to be tested or enjoyed without needing the entire cabinet. Superguns frequently resemble video game consoles which plug into a television or monitor, and have detached joysticks and play arcade boards as if they were large cartridges. Some superguns are a large box with two arcade controllers side by side, resembling the top of a typical arcade cabinet.

Source: Wikipedia


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