Complete arcade newbie needs advices/help

[eleria]

Hello i'm a shmup fan, but i NEVER played on an arcade. (i've never actually seen ANY shmup arcade in the northeast of france)
So at the moment i am really into doujin games and ps2 converted danmaku.

I browsed the forum for hours looking for answers but to be honest i only ended up much more confused than before.
It seems the whole "arcade at home" world is pretty cryptic.

My dream would be to "one day" get a Mushihimesama and/or Mushi Futari.

Actually i would like to have an idea of the price of such a setup.

So here are my questions :

-Do know of some newbie guide to setting up such system?

IF not

-What system do the 2 games run on ? (atomiswave ?)

-What kind of monitor is the best (size/resolution, frequency?)

-What kind of cabinet would be the best ?


Any answers are gladly welcome ^_^

[Xuse]

How much are you willing to spend?

More money = more options.

[eleria]

The thing is i don't really know the prices on those stuff.
Once i know what is needed and once i look up the prices i will have a motivation to get the money i lack .
But seeing the games are over 1000$ i guess about 3 times that sum would be the maximum i could ever spend.

[Xuse]

Sounds like you want a Jamma Standard Arcade Cabinet.
Most of the popular cabs run monitors with 15/24khz resolution.
If you like shooters you'll probably want a cab with a rotating screen.

I'd Suggest: New Astro City, Egrett II or an Atomiswave

If you want a cabinet you'll need to find a local retailer or ebay seller for the best deal. Since the cabs are large, the farther it has to ship the more you'll have to pay. Most likely, all the cabs you'll find will be refurbished so you make sure you at least see pics of it beforehand.

Just getting it to your front door could cost you 500-1000 dollars.

Once you have the cab, you'll just need a Jamma board and maybe a power adaptor.

If you have 18 friends you could always order a shipping container for a huge discount!

[sven666]

So here are my questions :

-Do know of some newbie guide to setting up such system?

-What system do the 2 games run on ? (atomiswave ?)

-What kind of monitor is the best (size/resolution, frequency?)

-What kind of cabinet would be the best ?


Any answers are gladly welcome ^_^

1 - not in english afaik, sorry.

2 - both are jamma independent of any additional hard/software, read more about JAMMA here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamma

3 - 29" 15khz definetly!

4 - my fave jamma cabinet is the SEGA Astro City but Egret 2 is equaly good and functionally easier, atomiswave egret 3 is also a fantastic cabinet but the trisynch screen is not optimal for lo-res gaming.

price - alot, check out killercabs.com they sometimes have orders of cabs arriving in england, imo thats a reasonable drive from france.

[sven666]

check out killercabs.com they sometimes have orders of cabs arriving in england, imo thats a reasonable drive from france.

You can't drive from France to England...

yeah yeah very funny..

[eleria]

So... i need a jamma motherboard + the game is that right hmmmm?
(is it hard to change games?)

I naively thought "full kits" where independant of any other hardware.

Hmm... so, to sum up, i need:

-Game(s)

-Jamma MotherBoard

-Cabinet with 29" 15khz screen

-Power Converter

Thanks for the help sofar!

[Xuse]

Buy the cab and all you will need after that is the Jamma board aka. the game.

Unless you really want to build a custom cab!

[iatneH]

Read up a bit on a device called a "supergun". It is basically the functional internals of an arcade cabinet plus some extra hardware to display the picture on a normal television set. If you are in France, you may not need the extra television processing bit.

It is possible to make your own for under $100, so you will have more money left over for games. You can also build your own joypads or joysticks so you have a choice of controls too.

[eleria]

Thanks for your replies.

I guess i will aim for the supergun solution until i get enough money to get a cab.

I googled a bit but only found sites selling second hand mushi pcbs.
Anyone know of a/some good ones that sell new ones?

Also, i read up that amiga/atari screens are about the only good ones that handle 15 khz....
But those have horribly small sizes..... any ideas?

[sven666]

I googled a bit but only found sites selling second hand mushi pcbs.
Anyone know of a/some good ones that sell new ones?

Also, i read up that amiga/atari screens are about the only good ones that handle 15 khz....
But those have horribly small sizes..... any ideas?

you can buy brand new mushihimesama futari from fujitacommunications.com

supergun with component outputs and a good LCD/plasma will do the work niceley it can be tricky to find tho..

[iatneH]

Do your televisions in France use RGB SCART?

[bay]

So... i need a jamma motherboard + the game is that right hmmmm?
(is it hard to change games?)

Hmm... so, to sum up, i need:

-Game(s)

-Jamma MotherBoard

the games you mentioned are JAMMA compatible pcbs. there is no "motherboard" for these games. ex: there are no carts that plug into a motherboard, the pcb is the entire game.

JAMMA is a standard pin connection for arcade games. there are other standards as well as completely custom pin connections. all cave games, AFAIK, have been released on JAMMA compatible pcbs or motherboard/catridge systems.

so you'd buy mushi, 1 pcb, JAMMA compatible.
so you'd buy mushi 2, 1 pcb, JAMMA compatible.

to switch games you switch out the pcb in your cabinet. there is only 1 game per pcb.

[eleria]

Do your televisions in France use RGB SCART?

Well almost every single TVs in france now handle RGB signals, though i don't really know what SCART means ^^".


Edit : Wow.... Mushi Futari for 130000 Yen = 832 euro = 1079 dollar
That's cheaper than i expected

[iatneH]

SCART is just a plug which can carry RGB signal. If your television set can handle it, the supergun will be very very cheap to make since you will not need a video encoder.

[RotateMe]

SCART is just a plug which can carry RGB signal. If your television set can handle it, the supergun will be very very cheap to make since you will not need a video encoder.

Hmmm so if I'm not mistaken if I have a SCART RGB TV all I need is a supergun, a controller and the PCB and connect everything? Would be worth a thought. On the other hand it would be not such a great difference when I play like this or I play a PS2 port. So I guess a cabinet is the only way to go to have at least some real arcade feeling. Seems like some dreams will never come true

[Tigershark]

I have to say that I'm becoming more and more interested in the supergun option myself but it's all so confusing. Videogameimports.com have a good section on the best superguns to get and they recommend Pana and then Wintechno as the best options. Ideally I'd like to play it through some form of VGA set up to match my other stuff. I assume you can do this or does it have to be RGB?

[it290]

VGA is RGB, but most games, including Mushi, run at 15khz whereas your typical VGA monitor is a 31khz monitor. In order to use a regular VGA monitor you need another device called an upscan converter - the XRGB-2 is the most desirable model for arcade boards. However, this is another expense and the game won't look the way it was designed, so you're better off using an RGB-capable TV or 15khz monitor (such as an old Amiga monitor) if possible.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

VGA is RGB, but most games, including Mushi, run at 15khz whereas your typical VGA monitor is a 31khz monitor. In order to use a regular VGA monitor you need another device called an upscan converter - the XRGB-2 is the most desirable model for arcade boards. However, this is another expense and the game won't look the way it was designed, so you're better off using an RGB-capable TV or 15khz monitor (such as an old Amiga monitor) if possible.

The XRGB-2 is the only one that built-in support for the Toaplan & Seibu Kaihatsu produced arcade Jamma PCBs -- try them with the XRGB-2+ or even with the XRGB-3, one will get the "dreaded" screen scrolling problem -- this goes away with the XRGB-2 model. But you will an Japanese RGB 21-pin cable interface (or use Euro SCART & mod the XRGB-2 to accept SCART instead of Japanese RGB).

Also, one can turn on the "fake" scanlines for complete look on such a 31 kHz PC SVGA monitor setup (that is present on a true low-resolution 15.7 kHz CRT-based analog RGB monitor such as the Commodore Amiga 1080 & it's latter ilk).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[vmf425]

Is there no way to 'downgrade' the xrgb2+ to work like an xrgb 2, similar to how you can downgrade an xrgb-3 to work like an xrgb2+ without lag?

[jonny5]

try and track down a Sony PVM or an NEC xm29 monitor/tv.....they support all the various khz outputs used by arcade games and has composite, vga, component, s-video and rgb inputs.....both are large and square, which makes them perfect for tate'ing

[Sinneslöschen]

Do your televisions in France use RGB SCART?

Well almost every single TVs in france now handle RGB signals, though i don't really know what SCART means ^^".

SCART is actually French (Syndicat des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) but I think you call it "Péritel".

You can use a small and cheap supergun like this http://www.systemshock.info/bilder/mak.jpg with your TV and a Neo Geo Controller. Thats all you need, besides the games of course

[Ed Oscuro]

check out killercabs.com they sometimes have orders of cabs arriving in england, imo thats a reasonable drive from france.

You can't drive from France to England...

Via the Chunnel, don't be an Ugly American

Dunno about the license requirements and all that though.