HNG64 Driving Board Ressource & Information Thread

suicidekiller

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Ok guys, this is my personal information for the Hyper Neo Geo 64 Driving Board I would like to share with you. Since you can barely find any information about the Hyper Neo Geo 64 itself let alone the Driving board I thought this could be a perfect start for anyone who is interested in this piece of hardware. So I hope for your replies and contributions to make this thread grow and shed some light on this rather unnoticed piece of hardware.

I was always fascinated by the Hyper Neo Geo as a spiritual successor to the MVS. One can only imagine what would have been possible considering the power this arcade board has. Well, as we all know it never happened and only seven games were released. Back in '09 I bought myself a Rev. 2 board with 2 game kits (FF:WA & SS:WR2) from this UK-based seller who had all this NOS kits for cheap. Back then I didn't know much about arcade gear or about what to look for. Just had a supergun (which was luckily MVS-wired which I found out later), an MVS board and figured why not trying out the Hyper!? After all it costed me less then 100 bucks iirc. Also got me a Buriki One kit for cheap. The only game I had to pay quite a lot for was SS64. Undoubtedly one of the best fighting games on the Hyper.

However, to play one of the racing games was always a personal dream of mine and getting these cabs here is almost impossible (plus I don't have the space for it anyway). So after watching a video from lukemorse on youtube (find link below) where he hacked a Dreamcast racing wheel in order to play Round Trip RV (Road's Edge) on a candy cab I knew this would be something I want to do too. Admittedly this project has been backlogged for a long time - the video of lukemorse is over 5 years old...

Anyways, I got lucky and hopefully will be holding the driving board in my hand very soon. In the meantime I've gathered as much information as possible. For now I've created a pdf which explains the usage of the different Molex connectors on the board according to the Road's Edge manual wiring diagram (find both links below).

However, some issues remain unanswered the most urgent being the sound and the additional power line. I will try to list everything that comes to mind. In case you have anything else to add please feel free to reply.

  • Sound
    This is the biggest issue for now. As far as I've figured it the cabinet uses three different sets of speakers. Front, Seat and Dash. Correct me if I'm wrong, maybe there's even a fourth set (I will check the wiring diagram later to find out). But it looks like you can also get mono sound from the JAMMA harness as pin 10 and L are wired for (seat) speaker+ and -. However in lukemorse's video he tells us he has problems getting proper sound from the cab maybe due a missing amplifier. He then bridges pin 2 and 14 of the 15 pin connector to get a low level background music signal. I don't really see the sense in that but I guess he didn't know the pinout and did some trial and error.

    Does anyone know if the music and sound effects are played through every set of speaker or if certain speakers are reserved for SE and/or music? Would it be possible to bridge all the speakers in line to get a proper signal (maybe with an additional amplifier) or doesn't that work? And finally wouldn't it be sufficient to plug some speakers to pin 1-4 of the 15 pin connector to get sound from the board or does it need an amplifier?

  • 4 pin connector
    The next issue is the 4 pin connector. Since the JAMMA harness doesn't seem to need the +5V from the PSU I guess this is some sort of makeshift to power up the PCB. Then again lukemorse's video shows the board is working without any additional cable connected to the 4 pin connector through a standard JAMMA candy cab. So I'm fairly certain the JAMMA edge also takes the +5V from the PSU. The only problem that comes to mind is the Fighting Board Rev. 1 issue with with non-working boards when the cable is not connected. Since the Driving Board was released before the Rev. 1 Fighting Board I'd rather address this issue beforehand to avoid any possible damage. I've heard the additional lines are for splitting the +5V line due to it's enormous power usage. But I think that is just a myth because none of the games uses more than 2A on the +5V lines which is a normal value in my eyes.

    Anyway in short: Do you have to use the 4 pin connector to avoid damage to the board?

  • JAMMA harness
    According to the wiring diagram the JAMMA edge is not completely wired for JAMMA. That explains the additional Molex pin connectors. Again in lukemorse's video you see the game runs fine on a candy cab. So at least +5V and the start button should also work for the JAMMA edge. Does anyone know the exact pinout for the edge?

  • -5V?
    From time to time you can read the HNG64 needs -5V on pins E and 5 on the JAMMA edge. I haven't found any proof for that and I think it's a myth. Can anyone confirm?

  • Conic pin
    Pin 11 on the 12 pin connector reads 'Conic' but I haven't figured that one out yet. What's that for? Is it an additional speaker?

  • Force feedback
    The Road's Edge manual says something about Force Feedback. Through which pin is this one triggered? (maybe this conic thing above?)

These are the issues that come to mind for now. I'm sure there will be more in the future ;)

I've created a pdf with the pinouts I could find so far. Again if you have any additional information please let me know. Thanks in advance.

HNG64 Driving Board Molex and JAMMA pinouts
http://docdro.id/GaUSEVT

HNG64 Road's Edge Manual
https://de.scribd.com/document/331732387/Roads-Edge-Manual

Lukemorse showing his wiring of the Driving Board for a JAMMA cab (mind: not all connections are right imo)
 

xsq

Thou Shalt Not, Question Rot.,
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Jan 17, 2013
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7,414
Looking forward to updates :glee:

especially since the driving board is up and running now.......

img_20161209_173817_hu3s52.jpg


P.S.:
paging Xian Xi.
 

suicidekiller

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Hopefully I can finish the setup this weekend but I can't promise it.

I'm aware of the HNG64 price guide. It's a good start but as those Shooting and Driving Boards don't pop up too often it's hard to determine a good price. And yes, there are at least Road's Edge kits. Xtreme Rally/Off Beat Racer seems to be a lot rarer and I haven't seen any kits of it yet.
 

suicidekiller

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Just a little update in case anyone's interested. Yes I'm looking at you xsq ;)

I managed to get my Hyper Neo Geo Driving setup running and I could address most of the issues. Thanks a lot to NeoTurfMasta, he did a lot of groundwork. Concerning the sound I JAMMA-fied the board via his tutorial. NeoTurfMasta also pointed out the additional +5V lines from the four pin connector are not needed in his honest oppinion.

Regarding the other issues I haven't found out anything yet but they are also minor. At least the -5V myth is nonsense, my board runs fine without it. And the 'conic' thing and force feedback are not very important for me so I'll leave them for now.

For connecting the steering wheel I used alligator clips as I didn't want to alter the mainboard too much. Of course you could also unhook the molex pins and solder the cables directly but I saw no use in that.

Anyway, here's a picture of my setup. Enjoy :)

img_20170330_143345_h7wse8.jpg
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
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Feb 13, 2005
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22,294
Great work there suicidekiller! The HNG64 is a shelved piece of hardware and the driving/shooting games live in an alternate dimension, unless you have the dedicated cab that is ;)
 
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