"Arcade" Collecting 101

[TheReturnofCaptainFalcon]

Ok granted Ive been away from the hobby for awhile but back in my glory days I had 3 cabinets roughly 40 boards and an equal of marquees. Ill add to this post depending on the response but a few basics.

1. GO JAMMA! Jamma is well as close to a universal standard as you could get in the mid 90's That means if you had you heart set on SFII or TMNT then your in luck you only need one cabinet, as Jamma allows you to change the boards much in a plug and play type fashion, the only difference being the number of buttons you decide to have on your control panel. (Most homemade are set for 7 as you can swap multiple games in without having to change the control panel every time for 3-6 button games.)

2. Dedicated Machines are a bit trickier, mid 80's games are almost all dedicated, meaning they need there own special/customer hardware and cabinet. This is not to say you cant make a 4 player TMNT into a Donkey Kong, (Why would you really want to though?) its just trickier as that requires a good degree of custom work (Wiring, wood cutting etc.) But we all have our "jones" and the crowning jewel in my former collection was a Tapper machine (By far and away one of the best bar games EVER and Im not biased just because I work in a nightclub/bar

More to come? You tell me

[Pop Culture Portal]

I LOVE Tapper! Just came across my first cabs several weeks ago...would love to see someone step forward and do a "101" for the wiring of the older dedicated cabinets or maybe a general "where does the green wire go? Does it connect to the yellow wire?" sort of help. I've gotten a Joust and Kangaroo cab, both with Jamma wiring, and from what I understand, I can't simply take out the Jamma boards (Final Fight and a WWF game) and simply put Joust and Kangaroo back in their respective cabinets. That would be too easy. Is that right?

I DID run across something the other day Flack brough up about repairing/replacing water damaged bases for cabs.

Here's the link I finally found. Maybe could help others...I haven't tried it myself, but need to for this poor Joust I've gotten.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=49927.0

[TheReturnofCaptainFalcon]

Unfortunately a 101 on wiring isnt that simple, I only dealt with 2 dedicated cabs hand on, as far as I know theres no universal (I could be wrong before people start flaming) for dedicated cabs on wiring color code, I thought it was individual to the manufacturer or the game itself. The old operator manuals I have for a even Jamma dedicated machines had wiring schematics. The Randy Fromm series is especially handy for the novice but definitely not cheap.

[Flack]

Even if there were a manual for wiring like that, it's almost a given that operators and former owners have changed out things over time. Out of the 30 or so cabinets I've owned I'd say only one or two of them at most were "original" inside. Not good odds.

If you're only going to own one JAMMA cab, I'd recommend one of those candy cabs. They've got huge monitors that are easy to rotate to accomadate (sp) both vertical and horizontal games. They're also pretty light to scoot around (being plastic and all), and most of them come with enough buttons to control any JAMMA game.

As for those dedicated cabinets, there are quite a few that are interchangable, but they are company-dependent. In other words, you can swap out Konami boards with other Konami boards or Sega boards with other Sega boards with little or no effort. But yeah, if something's got dedicated controls (like Tapper) then it would be silly to convert it to something else.

[TheReturnofCaptainFalcon]

Couldnt agree more with flack, worst is most operators were extra sloppy in my experience with inside cab wiring so any machine you plan on picking up unless it has been worked on by a collector plan on gutting the wiring or at the very least relocating a large majority of wires. (Operators for some reason hesitate to use wire ties.) ???

[Pop Culture Portal]

Couldnt agree more with flack, worst is most operators were extra sloppy in my experience with inside cab wiring so any machine you plan on picking up unless it has been worked on by a collector plan on gutting the wiring or at the very least relocating a large majority of wires. (Operators for some reason hesitate to use wire ties.) ???

Thanks to both of you for all the info! Guess it was too much to hope for an easy fix for the wiring. Well, I figure if I can rewire my house, AND it passes inspection, hopefully I can figure out how to rewire these cabs.

I had thought that pulling all these wires out MIGHT be an option, but I suppose is probably the best option. The Kangaroo I have has JAMMA wiring and is a complete mess on the inside....wires going in every direction and ALOT of electrical tape where it looks like someone spliced wires together.

The Joust, which has a WWF Superstars in it, is very neat and alot easier for me to move around in. Some splicing here and there, but not much. Plus, I don't see anything that looks like a JAMMA harness, but I'm still new at this and I'm only looking for the word "JAMMA" on any of the wiring. I'm also assuming WWF Superstars is a JAMMA board, or however you say it.

I have copies of the specs for Joust and hope to sit down and study it when I can find some free time .

From what I'm finding on the FAQ section here, Bob Roberts would be the best place to start on ordering the right parts I'll need.

Something else I'm going to have to learn and that is how to solder and desolder. I found this electronics website explaining how and it all seems pretty simple...I hope.

http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/solder.htm

http://www.aaroncake.net/electronics/desolder.htm

[ClubNinja]

(Operators for some reason hesitate to use wire ties.) ???

Operators want a game to be working with as little time, effort, and cost involved as possible. Wire ties, matching colors, and neatly arranged repairs are a waste of time and money to anyone but a private collector.

[TheReturnofCaptainFalcon]

POP, WWF Superstars is a Jamma board, stop looking for the Jamma logo its not there because it doesnt exist ;-) Its an acronym (Japan Arcade Machine Manufacturers' Association) When we talk about wiring and Jamma is brought it up its usually in reference to the Jamma connector (56 pins if I remember correct could be wrong though) defintely though if you plan on restoring your cabs to old glory then definitely gut the system entirely. The wiring is very simple, youve done your house like you said so you should have no problems whatsoever. If I got a cab, even in descent shape I replaced nearly everything except the monitors, that way I wouldnt have so much troubleshooting to do later on if there was a problem, plus I was anal about having the wiring neat and organized. Happy Hunting

[Pop Culture Portal]

Oh, so JAMMA is a Pin Connection issue...duh, makes sense now . Guess I've forgotten how to use Google and Yahoo to look for JAMMA info.

When I looked in the Kangaroo cab and saw that wiring mess, I just started twitching. Yeah, I'm pretty anal about messes too.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

The easiest thing you could do would to be look on ebay for a Joust wiring harness. I've never looked for a Joust one specifically, but I've seen Galaga ones on there a ton.

If they don't turn up on there, you could probably pretty easily find and pay someone in the hobby with the expertise to make you a new one.

This also may get you going in the right direction:
http://www.homearcade.org/BBBB/acwiring.html
http://www.homearcade.org/BBBB/inthecab.html
http://www.homearcade.org/BBBB/dcwiring.html

It's info on wiring up a ms. pac cab from scratch. Obviously it's going to be different, but the general ideas are the same.

Good luck!

[TheReturnofCaptainFalcon]

I guess I am a little anal about cleaning up cabs hehe, each old one I came across, good shape or not I started, ripping, clipping and snipping. I wanted the 3 I had to all be of the same configuration for the most part to simplify the whole troubleshooting process. Well either way good luck feel free to drop a line if you got q's

[shawnbo42]

(Operators for some reason hesitate to use wire ties.) ???

Operators want a game to be working with as little time, effort, and cost involved as possible. Wire ties, matching colors, and neatly arranged repairs are a waste of time and money to anyone but a private collector.

OK, granted that this is true, however, you have to consider the person FIXING the operator's machine (like me, for example). While it is true that the operator just wants to make money and doesn't really care what the interior of the cabinet looks like, so long as it works, it is ultimately up to the repair tech that determines what the cabinet wiring ends up like. I have been known NUMEROUS times to completely strip/gut a cab, rewire all the A/C wiring, install a new JAMMA tail, paint (conversion cabs.) new moldings, etc. if it was necessary. I do not, repeat, DO NOT use black tape (or any other kind for that matter), wire nuts, etc. Everything I do in a cab is by Molex connector, and wire ties like a serial killer. Basically what I try for is to make it as "dedicated" as possible for being a conversion cab. Also, if I start out with a green wire, I attach a green wire to it. I have seen way too many "lazy operator" conversions that are (sometimes literally) a rat's nest. I am psycho like this for several reasons. 1 I am just anal like that 2. I try to make it as easy as possible for repairs/maintainance (let's see here, the blue wire is wire-nutted to the purple, black taped to the white/green, molexed to the orange, and ends up red at the power supply.....yeah, makes perfect sense to me, right?). Also reason number three is that it makes it that much easier for the next guy to fix if I'm not there. Also, in the case of complete assemblies (guns, specialty parts, etc) if it is fixed by the book, then the next time it breaks, the book is still useful for repairing it the second time. There, I've got my two cents in, and I feel better now.

[ClubNinja]

Hey - New England, eh? Who do you work for? You're one of very few, though, regarding your work ethic.

[Peale]

Hey - New England, eh? Who do you work for? You're one of very few, though, regarding your work ethic.

Curious myself, as a New England tech.

I have a similar philosophy towards wiring. Make it neat, so the next guy (which might be me!) can have as little trouble as possible.

Wire ties are a MUST.