Interest in a mvs-scan equivalent for jamma boards?

[Shuri]

I've been juggling with this idea all summer.

Would there be any kind of interest for a big wiki site that would host high quality scans/pictures of known legit pcb boards of games? We already have the way excellent mvs-scan site, but what about something for regular jamma/non jamma titles?

There would be a few issues/conditions...

• The point was already raised in another thread that giving away too much info could help bootleggers get better at their craft. We can avoid this by only allowing pics of legit, confirmed boards.
• We obviously can't use stolen pics lifted from ebay/other sources. The Pics have to be fresh and original
• There should be standards for the submitted pics. Resolutions, lighting conditions, size, etc
• That means the site could use more bandwidth than God
• A wiki site is somewhat easy to use and setup, and would allow users to submit their own material. This could simply moderation and also; we all have lives and we don't want to spend our entire weekends sorting 30mb jpgs

There's so much info scattered around the internet on many forums; having some sort of centralized site would be useful. Let's not forget how the sega-naomi.com forums went down last year for 'an upgrade', and never came back. So much fucking info was lost in this, what a god damn disaster.....

I realise it's a big undertaking, but with time; a site like this could become an useful resource. There are so many variants of boards sometimes with the different regions, it's easy to get confused.

 

[Kid Panda]

It would also be beneficial to have shots of known bootlegs as well. I've got a handful of those as well.

 

[Skips]

Honestly it would be nice to have a General Neo-Geo.com Wiki site where not only scans can be posted but all the technical/modding information can be as well (for all consoles). Kind of a general purpose page people can go to to find answers before posting. Lets face it, you might find your answer with the search function but it can be a pain in the dick sometimes.

 

[EllertMichael]

That would be a great resource, for sure.
As of now gamesdbase.com has a fairly good collection of PCB pics, but they don't really describe them well (region differences, etc.) and they are missing a lot.

It would also be beneficial to have shots of known bootlegs as well. I've got a handful of those as well.

Absolutely. It takes an awful lot of scouring before you eventually know what to look out for when buying PCB's. A one-stop site like the one described would be fantastic for those looking to get into arcade stuff. Even some general articles on things like handling/care of PCB's, testing voltages, maintenance/cleaning, troubleshooting could be nice additions.

Maybe also include a list of reputable sources and also a list of known scammers/bootleggers in the arcade scene.

 

[coreykun667]

A centralized website would be quite handy for the community. It'd help a newbie like me be able to better gain info on arcade stuff. Owning a cab has been quite an experience. With a database, it'd be easier to help others get into this hobby. If I have problems with the cab, I'd have to go to a bunch of different sites. One centralized site would be VERY useful.

 

[SuperGun]

Over the last 15 to 20 years, whenever I needed dip switch settings, board pin outs, pcb pics, etc.
99% of the time I have always just gone to: www.crazykong.com

 

[LegoSlug]

Over the last 15 to 20 years, whenever I needed dip switch settings, board pin outs, pcb pics, etc.
99% of the time I have always just gone to: www.crazykong.com

Bookmarked. Didnt know about that one. Thanks.

Since this site seems to be retired, wouldnt hurt to have a regularly updated site, especially for alternate versions or even known boots

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

I'd love to see an idea like this get started. Would this cover pre-Jamma games? Or are those not as pressing an issue? What about Jamma boards that had their own individual games?

 

[MidnightMonkey]

Being the OCD nutjob that I am, this is probably one of the best ideas I've heard on here since I joined. You should write the admins on KLOV and see if they'll host the space for it, then everyone can contribute!

 

[Shuri]

I'd love to see an idea like this get started. Would this cover pre-Jamma games? Or are those not as pressing an issue? What about Jamma boards that had their own individual games?

I think it should cover everything actually. Pre-Jamma games were getting bootlegs too!

I don't know about the KLOV admins, they don't seem to care much about the forums anymore and their own database of titles is rather messy, but they do already have a huge database of infos.. And KLOV is very mainstream, I think people on this forum are far more knowledgeable

 

[Kid Panda]

Most of the bootlegs I have are pre jamma as a matter of fact. I just bought an Alcon that ended up being a bootleg Slap Fight. Needless to say I'm a little pissed. Plus it has repairs all over it that were not disclosed. Yea KLOV.

 

[loegan43]

I think it'd be a great idea. I've got quite a few boards I could photograph and contribute. Including bootlegs as well would be a good idea. Would definitely help to avoid them.

 

[Jonmkl]

I was thinking about this the other day actually, just having breakdowns of revisions and differences among regions on popular boards would be amazing. CPS1 and 2 are good examples where there are a lot of conversions and uncased games, and there are often small variations between the ones I see.

 

[KalessinDB]

I have a reseller account with Dreamhost that offers "unlimited" storage and bandwidth, I could probably help with hosting.

I put "unlimited" in quotes because it's standard unlimited fare -- if you use too much processor time on the shared server, they will ask you to pay for private hosting. But while this feels like it would be high bandwidth, I don't know necessarily that it would tax the server's processing power too much.

If someone's seriously interested, PM me and I can set up an account. I know I don't have too much of a name here, but I've dealt with mjmjr25 a fair bit here and on Racketboy and he can probably vouch for me.

 

[ebinsugewa]

Just host the images on imgur or some crap, and have a local backup in case they ever go down.

 

[Shuri]

I created a wiki using wikia.com which is free, but probably has tons of limitations, it also makes the site dependent of a company that could shutdown at any moment. Also I believe that when you reach a certain size, it will add banners and popups

I'm not exactly an expert wiki guy, but here are two small pages I made..

http://jammawatch.wikia.com/wiki/Sega
http://jammawatch.wikia.com/wiki/Sega_STV_(ST-V)

The text is obviously random filler for the STV page.

Accounts are easy to create, but this is just an example to get an idea on how I see this. From the SEGA STV page, the game listing would lead us to info about each title, each individual game page could list all the variants, versions, regional differences, kick-harness requirements, and also guides on how to create them.

I think it would be important to always give sources, this way people who dug out the infos originally dont feel ripped off.

This is just a 'feeler'

 

[ebinsugewa]

This is why I recommended just adding to the Arcade Otaku wiki if they're cool with it. http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Main_Page

No sense rewriting stuff that already exists in a better form somewhere else.

 

[aoiddr]

I don't know about the KLOV admins, they don't seem to care much about the forums anymore and their own database of titles is rather messy, but they do already have a huge database of infos.. And KLOV is very mainstream, I think people on this forum are far more knowledgeable

Yes, their database has a number of games with the wrong titles (example: the Taito F3 game Pop'n Pop is just listed under "Pop" on their site) and there are a bunch of missing games from the 2000s onward (like Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova 2, and half the Namco 246/256 games). I was using their game collection page to catalog my arcade games and it started to become a problem when I couldn't even find my games at all in their database.

 

[cools]

This is why I recommended just adding to the Arcade Otaku wiki if they're cool with it. http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Main_Page

No sense rewriting stuff that already exists in a better form somewhere else.

More than happy. It's not seen much work recently ( http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Special:RecentChanges )as the guys that re-purposed their OCD-tendencies to populate a lot of it have found other interests, but we have plenty of space, I keep the software up to date, and there are multiple backups kept in separate locations in case the worst happens.

Everyone is welcome to contribute - you don't need to post on the forum (although you do require an active forum account to log in to the wiki).

Just wish I could get hold of the arcade.info domain for it though

 

[Shuri]

awesome stuff!

I'll start taking pics of my boards this weekend. I don't have much stuff but eh, its better than nothing

 

[cools]

If it helps, what I do is work from two places. Since I'm primarily interested in the stuff I own, I hold my collection list on a personal page with links to games (whether or not the wiki pages for those games exist): http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/User:Cools

The links then contribute to the "Wanted Pages" list that gets autocreated here: http://wiki.arcadeotaku.com/w/Special:WantedPages

Showing me we could really do with a page for Capcom!

 

[Kid Panda]

Sounds good. I'll snap some pics of my boards and start posting the up over at arcade otaku

 

[nork69]

THATS a good Idea ! Lets go !
All the info in 1 place, that the best way to do it.

 

[Stompp]

That is an ace idea! Most of the stuff I own is quite common but I'll be contributing with whatever I can.

 

[nork69]

When do we begin ? I'm ready to help