Sigma Raijin - noob questions

antmavel

n00b
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Feb 19, 2018
Posts
23
Hi,

Played for the past 20 years (mostly retro - especially Saturn Jap - and current gen) but I am a total noob and just starting in jamma / neo geo / MVS and arcade world.

I have recently acquired a Sigma Raijin, I don't have it yet, but I am trying to figure out the way it works from a technical perspective.

1) If I understand correctly, I can connect any Jamma MVS game to the connector of the Sigma and it will play, correct ? Do I need to to anything ?

2) If I wanted to play a MVS Neo Geo Cart, do I need to buy first a motherboard (MV-1FZ, MV-1A, MV-1B...) specifically dedicated to this and connect it to the Sigma ?

3) The Raijin seems to have already 6 buttons for each player, I am reading a lot of thing around kick harness which I understand moved a 3/4 button configuration to 6 button. Would I need this for the Sigma or should this be already set up for 6 button ?

I didn't see any guide or any presentation of the Sigma Raijin anywhere so a bit lost here with the details.

Thanks,
 
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RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
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Dec 2, 2006
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8,788
I own a few sigmas.

1) If I understand correctly, I can connect any Jamma MVS game to the connector of the Sigma and it will play, correct ? Do I need to to anything ?

Yes, just connect the Sigma Harness and your set. You can adjust voltage accordingly on the Sigma Unit with a flat head screw driver. I recommend you get a RGB scart cable for best video output.

2) If I wanted to play a MVS Neo Geo Cart, do I need to buy first a motherboard (MV-1FZ, MV-1A, MV-1B...) specifically dedicated to this and connect it to the Sigma ?

Yes, You could use any MVS Mobo.

3) The Raijin seems to have already 6 buttons for each player, I am reading a lot of thing around kick harness which I understand moved a 3/4 button configuration to 6 button. Would I need this for the Sigma or should this be already set up for 6 button ?

Yes, You need to rewire the Jamma Harness for 6 Button Fighting games or buy a Harness that has CPS1 or CPS2 kick harness for 6 button games. You could buy this. https://www.tops-game.jp/products/detail.php?product_id=2559
 
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daskrabs

Ace Ghost Pilot
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You need an MVS cart and any 1slot MVS motherboard. Raijin will support 4 neo geo buttons, but button 4 is below button 1. 5 and 6 require a kick harness, for example for CPS1/2/3 games.
 

SpamYouToDeath

I asked for a, Custom Rank and, Learned My Lesson.
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The Raijin has a connector on the right-hand side that connects to the arcade game board. It doesn't have to be JAMMA - the Raijin has its own connector, and you need a harness that connects that to the JAMMA edge. (The signals are all broadly compatible, but the pins are in a different order - It's a straight through cable, just wires and plugs.)

To play Neo-Geo games, you need a Neo-Geo motherboard. The motherboard then connects to the Raijin via a harness. In general, arcade games have the computer hardware and the game software all on one board. Neo-Geo has software cartridges instead, like a game console.

You can wire the Raijin's buttons however you like. Each one has its own pin on the Raijin side of the harness; when you press the button, this pin is shorted to ground. The 12 buttons on the Raijin have 12 corresponding pins, and you can connect those to the game's inputs in any order. It gets a bit messy when using different games, though. The JAMMA standard only specifies 3 buttons, but there are 2 unused pins directly afterwards. So, in the Neo-Geo for example, the 2 unused JAMMA pins are used for D and select. Ideally you'd wire the Neo-Geo to the Raijin so that the Raijin buttons 4, 1, 2, and 3 were used as A, B, C, and D, to approximate the official Neo-Geo layout. But, then you'd be stuck using 4, 1, and 2 for typical 3-button JAMMA games.

A "kick harness" usually refers to an additional connector, besides the JAMMA edge, which has room for more button inputs. For a CPS-2 fighting game, for example, you'd wire the Raijin buttons 1, 2, and 3 to the usual JAMMA button inputs, and then wire the Raijin's 4, 5, and 6 on each player to the kick connector on the CPS-2 A board.
 

antmavel

n00b
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Posts
23
Thanks Razo, Daskrabs and SpamYouToDeath. Apologies but like I said I don't know anyone with a supergun or anything similar so I am really trying to learn things here:

1) If I understand correctly I can connect a PCB directly to the Sigma through the proprietary cable that you are provided with ? I will be getting one with my Sigma, I assume this a normal connector and not a kick harness correct ? https://imgur.com/a/8ZeMP

2) I saw people connecting to large yellow/blue/red consolized board, something for Capcom CPS2 "BOARD A + B" ? (like this https://imgur.com/a/7gCU5) Seems like depending on the kind of games you need different harness, I am pretty confused here.

3) I read your comments about voltage, why do you need to change the voltage ? Is that different for each game or per standard (e.g. Jamma, NeoGeo MVS...)

4) I checked a few videos and it seems that the Neo Geo MVS require some sort of large moterhboard with slots where you would then plug the MVS cart. Does this come with a special harness or is that the standard harness ? Or is that the kick harness that you setup once and then it's the one you use to connect to anything else going forward ?

5) If you want to install a kick harness, do you need to open the Sigma or is that something that you setup a end of the proprietary Sigma connector that you get in the box ? (basically like a converter set up at the end of the cable rather than straight at the output of Sigma)

6) How do people manage thee changes, I am just trying to figure how I could set up something that doesn't require me to change configuration each time I play a different thing or is this pretty much the way it has to be.

Thanks a lot again for your precious guidance and help
 
Last edited:

RAZO

Mayor of Southtown
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Posts
8,788
Thanks Razo, Daskrabs and SpamYouToDeath. Apologies but like I said I don't know anyone with a supergun or anything similar so I am really trying to learn things here:

1) If I understand correctly I can connect a PCB directly to the Sigma through the proprietary cable that you are provided with ? I will be getting one with my Sigma, I assume this a normal connector and not a kick harness correct ? https://imgur.com/a/8ZeMP

2) I saw people connecting to large yellow/blue/red consolized board, something for Capcom CPS2 "BOARD A + B" ? (like this https://imgur.com/a/7gCU5) Seems like depending on the kind of games you need different harness, I am pretty confused here.

3) I read your comments about voltage, why do you need to change the voltage ? Is that different for each game or per standard (e.g. Jamma, NeoGeo MVS...)

4) I checked a few videos and it seems that the Neo Geo MVS require some sort of large moterhboard with slots where you would then plug the MVS cart. Does this come with a special harness or is that the standard harness ? Or is that the kick harness that you setup once and then it's the one you use to connect to anything else going forward ?

5) If you want to install a kick harness, do you need to open the Sigma or is that something that you setup a end of the proprietary Sigma connector that you get in the box ? (basically like a converter set up at the end of the cable rather than straight at the output of Sigma)

6) How do people manage thee changes, I am just trying to figure how I could set up something that doesn't require me to change configuration each time I play a different thing or is this pretty much the way it has to be.

Thanks a lot again for your precious guidance and help

Yes, different Mobos require more juice than others. So say you are playing cps2 and you are pushing out 4.95v to the cps2, If you decide you want to play Atomiswave afterwards you will most likely be getting over 5v and might need to lower the voltage. A JNX atlas comes in handy since it has a digital voltage display on it and you don't have to keep getting out your multimeter to check voltage. Some Harness's like the one I sent you in that link have a digital voltage display wired to the harness.

The cps1/2/3 fighting games require a kick harness. You need to either wire a kick harness to your existing harness or buy one pre-made that already has a kick harness.
 
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