Dreamcast to JAMMA.. Best WAY??

[JustinS]

Hey Guys,

Im sure that IM pretty late to the party but after a ton of hours worked I was able to save up and purchase a few Astro City cabs.
I am a Total Newbie on the subject and dont want to hack anything inside the cabs.

I have some PCBs but there is no way in the world I can afford some of the games I love including:

Street Fighter 3 3RD STRIKE
and Marvel Vs Capcom 2

I have heard that there is a pretty straight forward way to hook up a dreamcast to an astro city but its sorta hard to get clear answers about what works or doesn't work well.

MCGD?
Does some place still sell these?
Or
J-Pac From Ultimarc?
What works and doesnt work well?
I do own a J-pac but dont fully understand what is required for setup.
http://www.ultimarc.com/dreamcast.html

Is it just like this....??
Dreamcast > Dreamcast AV Converter > J-Pac > Jamma?

Your knowledge is appreciated.

 

[Biohazard53]

i did it two ways, first way to purchase a jamma fingerboard and hack a Dreamcast VGA cable to allow 15hz, solder each pin from the cable to the jamma board plug in the jamma connecter and that's it. I never figured out audio so I just wired up some computer speakers it was sloppy which is why I went with option 2

end result, about $30
http://www.neo-geo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206620

second option, more viable but a little more expensive (about $110) is to purchase Viletim's Console to Arcade Monitor adapter http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=28069 currently he's sold out of them but they allow hook up practically any console through a SCART cable, this works beautiful as it allows the speakers in your cab to be utilized through the jamma connector as the board has a built in audio amp. I am currently using this for my astro for xbox 360/ps2 and dreamcast.

Both of these options I used hacked controllers, I have heard alot of people having problems with the Ultimarc controller adapters and they are pretty expensive. any questions feel free to pm me

 

[JustinS]

IM pretty interested in this SCART to JAMMA Adapter.

Im looking at the instructions and its a bit over my head at the moment.
Could you take some pics and show how yours is set up when you get some time?

Very interesting.
Thanks

 

[Biohazard53]

sure ill get you a pic tomorrow sometime.

 

[not sonic]

i used my dc in a 15khz jvs cabinet with a modded vga box. picture was perfect, and didnt have to do up a jamma fingerboard.

though had i used it for more than just light gun games i wouldve had to do some pad hacks, hah.

 

[JustinS]

i used my dc in a 15khz jvs cabinet with a modded vga box. picture was perfect, and didnt have to do up a jamma fingerboard.

though had i used it for more than just light gun games i wouldve had to do some pad hacks, hah.

Do you mind showing how you did it? Pics ?

 

[Bay78]

I'm going to be doing mine soon. I'll still unclear aswell as to how to do this and can't seem to find many answers. I've ordered a jamma fingerboard from www.jammaboards.com and it was like $5 and I plan to wire up the controls and power to the fingerboard and then use my vga adaptor for video to the cab. I'm hoping to get sound out of the jamma fingerboard aswell but still have to do a lot of homework and if someone here can post pics that would help out A LOT you and me both. Good luck

 

[JustinS]

I can follow a picture schematic but its hard for me to visualize it without seeing it.
Any one who can link or bother to make one will be worshiped by several on this Forum since several of us would love to do this.

I Can't wait to see some of those pics BioHazard53

 

[Bay78]

Yep, I would love to see posted pics aswell

 

[norton9478]

Make sure to use a video amp.

 

[Biohazard53]

sorry guys i'm slacking ill try to get some tonight, been a little pre-occupied

 

[norton9478]

Hey Guys,

Im sure that IM pretty late to the party but after a ton of hours worked I was able to save up and purchase a few Astro City cabs.
I am a Total Newbie on the subject and dont want to hack anything inside the cabs.

I have some PCBs but there is no way in the world I can afford some of the games I love including:

Street Fighter 3 3RD STRIKE
and Marvel Vs Capcom 2

I have heard that there is a pretty straight forward way to hook up a dreamcast to an astro city but its sorta hard to get clear answers about what works or doesn't work well.

MCGD?
Does some place still sell these?
Or
J-Pac From Ultimarc?
What works and doesnt work well?
I do own a J-pac but dont fully understand what is required for setup.
http://www.ultimarc.com/dreamcast.html

Is it just like this....??
Dreamcast > Dreamcast AV Converter > J-Pac > Jamma?

Your knowledge is appreciated.

If you already have a J-Pac, then you would need this
"Dreamcast AV to J-PAC/Speaker Adaptor"
-Note: This is the ONE without the RGB amp as the JPAC already has an RGB amp.

Then you would have to wire the controls. I really don't like the JPAC control encoder (I guess it is good for PC), so I would bypass it.

I would recommend hacking a pair of controllers and soldering them directly to the edge connector on the JPAC. Use either a DSub 25 or two DB15 connectors so you can change systems.

 

[JustinS]

If you already have a J-Pac, then you would need this
"Dreamcast AV to J-PAC/Speaker Adaptor"
-Note: This is the ONE without the RGB amp as the JPAC already has an RGB amp.

Then you would have to wire the controls. I really don't like the JPAC control encoder (I guess it is good for PC), so I would bypass it.

I would recommend hacking a pair of controllers and soldering them directly to the edge connector on the JPAC. Use either a DSub 25 or two DB15 connectors so you can change systems.

Ive been reading that this type of setup doesnt really work that great.

Any comments on who is using it? I have never seen this setup working.

 

[norton9478]

Ive been reading that this type of setup doesnt really work that great.

Any comments on who is using it? I have never seen this setup working.

I use Ultimarc stuff all the time....

I have never used their JPAC, but I have used their Dream cast RGB Amplifier.

Worked great...

But occasionally, they can get cheap RGB cables which allow interference.

 

[chunblue]

In my AWSD, I'm using a J-Pac to wire up my controls and for my video I just take the VGA directly from the DC vga adapter to the VGA on my monitor.

That's one of the reasons why I love tri-sync monitors for the easy VGA capabilites.

I can post some pics, of the inside if anyone is interested.

 

[norton9478]

In my AWSD, I'm using a J-Pac to wire up my controls and for my video I just take the VGA directly from the DC vga adapter to the VGA on my monitor.

That's one of the reasons why I love tri-sync monitors for the easy VGA capabilites.

I can post some pics, of the inside if anyone is interested.

That sounds like a waste of money and tiem...

And you would get better off just hacking some controllers.

 

[JustinS]

That sounds like a waste of money and tiem...

And you would get better off just hacking some controllers.

Hey Norton do you want to show some of the guys here how to do that.
take a few pics and create a step by step or link them to a site that has already done this. Im sure several here would like to learn how.

 

[norton9478]

 

[chunblue]

Yea, I can't argue with that, I was lucky enough to purchase it with all that stuff included so it saved me some $$$. Although I do enjoy the easy ability to move the j-pac to any of my machines to experiment with different stuff.

I'm in the process of connecting my 360 to one of my cabs and I using a padhacked wireless controller, tested out pretty well so far.

 

[JustinS]

I think its awesome to have both options available to the Neo Community.
Both ways are helpful.

Thanks for the pics. Norton 9478

 

[JustinS]

I think I get the controller portion, It looks pretty straight forward,
Bought a soldiering Iron and 1lb of soldier + a Finger board.

Now,I hope to see some pics from Members here who have done this conversion and can take some pictures of the Dreamcast to Jamma portion . some links of how to do it would be awesome.
I have found a few online but weren't very helpful.


Any one?

 

[norton9478]

I think I get the controller portion, It looks pretty straight forward,
Bought a soldiering Iron and 1lb of soldier + a Finger board.

Now,I hope to see some pics from Members here who have done this conversion and can take some pictures of the Dreamcast to Jamma portion . some links of how to do it would be awesome.
I have found a few online but weren't very helpful.


Any one?

The video?

I seriously recommend:
Dreamcast to Arcade Monitor/Speaker Adaptor
http://www.ultimarc.com/dreamcast.html

You can't go wrong with that...

 

[JustinS]

The video?

I seriously recommend:
Dreamcast to Arcade Monitor/Speaker Adaptor
http://www.ultimarc.com/dreamcast.html

You can't go wrong with that...

Yeah Dreamcast to Arcade Monitor.
Do you have the Arcade Monitor/Speaker adaptor Norton?

 

[Electric Grave]

This is the way to go if you ask me, the scart works perfect with arcade monitors and the simple barrier strips allow for molexing which can result in multiple combination of consoles.

alec did it too and it loos insane, I'm about to get me a couple of this as well to pimp some HD remix online on the cabs, I'm really excited about this project.

Good luck!

 

[norton9478]

Yeah Dreamcast to Arcade Monitor.
Do you have the Arcade Monitor/Speaker adaptor Norton?

Yeah, I have the current revision... Which has the AV port on board.