Newbie Arcade questions.

[Simplynes]

For years now I have had a Simpsons Arcade machine UK version (much bigger than US version) and a couple of extra jamma pcb's (Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Robocop). But I have never got up the courage to swap the PCB's. For one I wouldn't know where to start and also the fear of damaging something. Is it just a case oh removing the old board and slotting the new one in? how do I tell which way around to put it in? I have seen a few pictures of the insides of cabs and it looks like you have to mount the pcb to the case some elastic looking stuff?. x_x

Also the sound has been going for quite some time now it goes very quite or off completely some times. I think the speakers just need replacing or rewiring, what else could it be?

Lastly does anyone know of any sites in the UK that sell jamma pcbs, marquees, parts etc?

Paul.

[Flack]

For years now I have had a Simpsons Arcade machine UK version (much bigger than US version) and a couple of extra jamma pcb's (Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Robocop). But I have never got up the courage to swap the PCB's. For one I wouldn't know where to start and also the fear of damaging something. Is it just a case oh removing the old board and slotting the new one in? how do I tell which way around to put it in? I have seen a few pictures of the insides of cabs and it looks like you have to mount the pcb to the case some elastic looking stuff?. x_x

Also the sound has been going for quite some time now it goes very quite or off completely some times. I think the speakers just need replacing or rewiring, what else could it be?

Lastly does anyone know of any sites in the UK that sell jamma pcbs, marquees, parts etc?

Paul.

Well, let me answer what I can. I've never seen inside one of those machines, but I can make some pretty good guesses.

JAMMA supports 2 joysticks and 3 buttons per player. If you have the 4 player cabinet, it uses what's called JAMMA+. That means that it's JAMMA, but has a few extra wires for extra players and/or buttons. Still, the connector that connects the wiring to the board is a JAMMA connector.

To switch out a JAMMA board, simply pull that connector off, and hook up another board. That's it! If it's JAMMA+, you may have a few more wires to swap, but even if you leave the old ones hooked up it won't hurt anything.

Technically, you don't need to mount a PCB to get it to work. Of course it's a good idea, so it won't flop around or anything. I wouldn't have it lying on metal or anything, but I've often tried PCB's by just tossing them in the bottom of a cabinet and hooking them up.

I don't know of any UK stores, but keep an eye on eBay!

[Simplynes]

Hi Flack thanks for the quick reply, today I finally got around to trying TMHT and Robocop to my surprise they both worked (got them cheap from a local paper years ago). The only problem was with robocop the picture scrolled down. I presume this is either a NTSC > PAL issue or simply the monitor needs some tuning. I remember this happening after I cleaned under the controls, turned out I knocked one of the adjustments for the monitor. But why would it scroll on robocop and not turtles/simpson's?.

Paul.

[Flack]

Hm, good question there. Does the Robocop seem to fit the screen? Again, I'm only spouting book knowledge and not first hand information here, but NTSC games have 525 lines and PAL games have 625. That's why when we NTSC owners plug in a PAL game, the bottom of the screen is cut off. I would assume if a PAL owner such as yourself plugged in an NTSC board, you would see black bars (almost like letterbox) above and below the picture.

If it's rolling, it might be something wrong with the video signal on the board itself. Again, just a guess. I'll do some checking and see what I can come up with.

[Simplynes]

ok thanks Flack, the picture appears to fit the screen so I doubt the board is NTSC.

[AlanD]

You may just need to adjust the vertical hold which is a typical adjustment when swapping boards. You may be lucky in your cabinet as many Simpsons had monitors with the addjustments mounted on a remote board. I always made sure they were mounted right inside the coin door so the adjustment was easy to make without opening the back of the cabinet
Alan