Is it possible to consolize other jamma pcb's?

Since many members here are on a kick to consolize their mvs boards (wish I had the spare cash to buy in), I raise this question: Is it possible to consolize other jamma pcb's? I ask this for one reason in particular. My girlfriend absolutely loves ms. pacman, plays the hell out of it in mame every time she gets her hands on my laptop. So, would it be possible to either enclose the entire ms. pacman pcb for use on a small supergun, or to place the whole thing in one box for ease of use?

Kaede's Disciple said:

Since many members here are on a kick to consolize their mvs boards (wish I had the spare cash to buy in), I raise this question: Is it possible to consolize other jamma pcb's? I ask this for one reason in particular. My girlfriend absolutely loves ms. pacman, plays the hell out of it in mame every time she gets her hands on my laptop. So, would it be possible to either enclose the entire ms. pacman pcb for use on a small supergun, or to place the whole thing in one box for ease of use?

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Any PCB can be consolized... there are JAMMA PCBs with boot leged arcade games (like MAME I think) BUT... it's like a 400-500 games in one (sells for alot of money).

Anyways, any thing of the sort can be consolized and the concepts are similar to setting these boards up in a cab, but now everything is packed down and you may have to use a converter to change the RGB signals into NTSC etc.

Yes it can be done, but you know they make the plug-and-play pacman games now right? That may be all your g/f needs or wants...

If your hardcore like myself check the following link out:

http://users.erols.com/mowerman/pacfile.htm

It has the pinout for the non-jamma pacman board (pacman and ms pacman share nearly identical hardware). The only problem I can see is with screen orientation. It will display sideways on a tv set... If somehow you could find a way to trick the board into rotating it's output 90 degrees to the left, you'd be set.

It doesn't make sense to consolize a single game board (it is possible, just not economically wise, specially in USA as you would ned a whole RGB->NTSC converter just for it), only the ones that accept cart games like MVS (the most popular one), Atomiswave, CPS2...
In adition, the original Pac-Man is non-JAMMA (not really a problem), but being vertical is a huge handicap, you would have to turn your TV 90º on its side (no other way to use the real arcade board). There are also 2 more recent JAMMA boards from Namco featuring Ms Pac-Man and other Namco games but they are still vertical:

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=13244
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=8784

I would recommend to go the emulation or port way, then you'd have the correct orientation. Pac-Man is featured in basically all consoles in a compilation of some sorts, or that plug'n'play stuff.

If pac-man is all you're looking for, and you want it to be horizontally oriented, there are those $20 joysticks that have games built in and just plug straight up to the inputs on your TV. As far as I know it's not possible to rotate the video 90' without some SERIOUS hardware.

That said, it would be possible to consolize any (raster) game pcb (games like pac-man and galaga will be turned the wrong way on a television screen though). I don't think you could do it with vector games because the video output is so radically different (tempest and star wars are vector games). Maybe if you had an encoder board that could encode vector signals to standard RGB signals, but this will require some serious hardware as well.

cheers,
-DT

dogtoy said:

If pac-man is all you're looking for, and you want it to be horizontally oriented, there are those $20 joysticks that have games built in and just plug straight up to the inputs on your TV. As far as I know it's not possible to rotate the video 90' without some SERIOUS hardware.

That said, it would be possible to consolize any (raster) game pcb (games like pac-man and galaga will be turned the wrong way on a television screen though). I don't think you could do it with vector games because the video output is so radically different (tempest and star wars are vector games). Maybe if you had an encoder board that could encode vector signals to standard RGB signals, but this will require some serious hardware as well.

cheers,
-DT

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Would it be possible to take apart one of those little crap $20 joysticks and build a better joystick around the board?

Yes, I know someone that put one of those Pacman joystick games into a full sized cab and got a NTSC to RGB decoder board to run the monitor.

Reznor007 said:

Yes, I know someone that put one of those Pacman joystick games into a full sized cab and got a NTSC to RGB decoder board to run the monitor.

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Here's a little thinker. Now, the pacman games use a 4 way joystick, right? How would I wire an 8-way joystick to only be 4-way? Another question would be, I found one of those plug and play tv games, and it has other games on it as well that need the 8 way stick. Is there any way I could wire up a switch that could trip a relay to shut off those other 4 inputs to make it a 4 way joystick when I only want to play ms. pacman? Just thinking out loud here.

I never thought i would say that but isn't it easier to play Ms pac man emulated on a Xbox with a decent stick?

Robert said:

I never thought i would say that but isn't it easier to play Ms pac man emulated on a Xbox with a decent stick?

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It probably would, but it's not for me. This is for my girlfriend, that's the only reason why I want to put this much time and effort into it, plus she really wouldn't get much out of an xbox anyway. Good thought, though.

Kaede's Disciple said:

Here's a little thinker. Now, the pacman games use a 4 way joystick, right? How would I wire an 8-way joystick to only be 4-way? Another question would be, I found one of those plug and play tv games, and it has other games on it as well that need the 8 way stick. Is there any way I could wire up a switch that could trip a relay to shut off those other 4 inputs to make it a 4 way joystick when I only want to play ms. pacman? Just thinking out loud here.

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the joystics are wired exactly the same way, but a 4 way stick will only hit one switch at a time, while an 8 way will lit one or two switches at once (for diagonals)

So it's -really- important to have a 4 way stick in for pacman, 'cause it's really unpredictable when you hit two direction switches at once.

Lime2K said:

the joystics are wired exactly the same way, but a 4 way stick will only hit one switch at a time, while an 8 way will lit one or two switches at once (for diagonals)

So it's -really- important to have a 4 way stick in for pacman, 'cause it's really unpredictable when you hit two direction switches at once.

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I have a pair of cheap stick I found on ebay that can be used 8-way or 4-way. There is a trapezoidal shaped piece of plastic that makes contact with the buttons, when flip one way or the other it turns the stick 4 and 8 way.

Kaede's Disciple said:

It probably would, but it's not for me. This is for my girlfriend, that's the only reason why I want to put this much time and effort into it, plus she really wouldn't get much out of an xbox anyway. Good thought, though.

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I don't mean to sound like an ass, but do you think she will even care or notice the difference? Most girls I've met that like pacman would freakout if you tried to explain the difference between 4 and 8 way sticks. I say just buy her the $20 stick and a pair of edible panties and call it a day.