4 Slot Neo Geo Motherboard- Japan region is Jamma?

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Battlesmurf
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4 Slot Neo Geo Motherboard- Japan region is Jamma?

Post by Battlesmurf »

Alright- I'm hoping someone can clear this up. I don't want to steer anybody in the wrong direction. I received this over an auction I'm maintaining. The auction is for a Japanese Region 4 slot Neo Geo Motherboard. I'm 99% certain they are MVS (Jamma edge connector).
Q: Just want to make sure that it is JAMMA as Japanese 4 slots are and it is going into a japanese canday (MVS) cab. it needs to be JAMMA without an adaptor please confirm what the title of your auction says because the body of the text says you need an mvs to jamma adaptor please explain. Nov-21-08
A: I'm not sure exactly what you mean- so please ask again if you need more clarification. MVS hardware uses the same connection edge as JAMMA but will not work 100% in a JAMMA Cabinet. The MVS standard handles sounds (stereo), the switcher button, maybe button 4 somewhat differently than standard JAMMA. Please see http://www.jammaboards.com/store/neogeo ... d_198.html for the adapter I'm talking about. If you have a cabinet pre-wired for MVS- you do not need this adapter.

So that A:) was me. Now- I get this back from the same guy:
No my cab is wired for JAMMA. Your auction states that this is a JAMMA board. Then it says you will need an adaptor to play on a JAMMA cab. FYI if you put the Japanese bios in an American 4 slot board then you should say so but saying that it is JAMMA in the title and then that it has Japanese bios is confusing, because the Japanese 4 slots are 100% JAMMA and need no adaptor. I am sure you know this as you obviously put your jap bios from your jamma board (which you are keeping) into an american (nonJAMMA) 4 slot which you are selling.
I'm having trouble taking it in- and I don't want to steer anybody in the wrong direction and upset anybody. Am I completely off base in assuming this guy might not understand what he's talking about and perhaps he's thinking that the BIOS chip determines whether or not it's Jamma or MVS?
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caldwert
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Post by caldwert »

As far as I know, I have a Japanese 4 slot in a Neo Geo Candy Cab and it is most definitely not Jamma. Then again I don't know dick about Neo Geo and all the versions, but I've never heard what he's talking about.
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Battlesmurf
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Post by Battlesmurf »

caldwert wrote:As far as I know, I have a Japanese 4 slot in a Neo Geo Candy Cab and it is most definitely not Jamma. Then again I don't know dick about Neo Geo and all the versions, but I've never heard what he's talking about.
Me neither. I might be wrong- but it's kind of hard to be polite with someone who accuses you of anything. I'm hoping to dig up a bunch of research prior to the cut off of the 12 hour revision point- so I have about an hour to figure out if my info is bad or if the bidder is mistaken.
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caldwert
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Post by caldwert »

I had to buy a Jamma to MVS converter to play Jamma games in the cabinet properly. Even then some games don't work right, such as anything Sega or anything Technos. So if I am to believe what he's saying, then my cabinet was imported here, then rewired to US spec and a US 4 slot put in? My cabinet came from Arcade Infinity years ago. I highly doubt they were doing this.
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Post by MKL »

He may be right to complain about the board being advertised as jamma in the auction title but obviously wrong about thinking Japanese 4-slots are jamma as opposed to non-Jamma US 4-slots. MVS multi-slots are all the same pinout wise regardless of region. They can be converted to jamma with a few simple mods if one doesn't want external adapters.
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lawnspic
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Post by lawnspic »

Neo Geo MVS boards come in three flavors. Two, four and six slot and have a different pinout on the connector. MVS is NOT Jamma. The one slots are Jamma, the pinout is the same.

The main difference is the audio pinout. (L and 10 on the harness) also the test switch has been moved and game select were added as well as a fourth button (D).

http://www.jammaboards.com/jcenter_jamma_pinout.html

http://www.boredstu.com/neogeo/hardware/mvspinout.html

http://www.hardmvs.com/

On the bios issue-

Bios determine's the rgion no matter what the cart is. Carts are multi region.
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gray117
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Post by gray117 »

^^ basically what lawnspic said ... don't know what your guy was on about when saying us/jap boards were different... maybe someone on neogeo can tell you if any random 4 slots were made or perhaps this guy has had some misplaced experience with modded boards? - who knows ?

Beyond that it comes down to-more-less semantics - buttons are added ...

I don't know people's exact definitions but if you say mvs isn't jamma then presumably anything that needs something like a harness or slight power adjustments or even color is not strictly jamma either?

Personally if it can power up and boot fine without blowing it up then I'd happily class it as jamma ... but hey ... each to their own ;)
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jonny5
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Post by jonny5 »

adding the 4th button to your loom is easy...but the audio is differetn than standard jamma

im not sure if it just wont work at all with normal jamma connectors, or if you just wont get audio....

1 slots work fine on straight jamma tho...that much i know for sure
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Chi_Ryu
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Post by Chi_Ryu »

gray117 wrote:Personally if it can power up and boot fine without blowing it up then I'd happily class it as jamma ... but hey ... each to their own ;)
Except you are routing amplified audio through the board to the wrong pins (in principal, you could damage the audio amp on the motherboard).

Whichever way you look at it, MVS is not Jamma. If nothing else, it craps up the audio output, breaking your "boot fine" bit :p
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Drakon
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Post by Drakon »

I recently bought a mvs off of ebay

but before doing so I referred to this lovely little page

http://www.hardmvs.com/html/PCBcompare.htm

just look at your hardware model and it will tell you right there if yours is jamma or not. As far as I know 4 slot and 6 slot mvs's are NON jamma. You can buy a jamma adapter for it on ebay or arcademvs.com

and if you don't know your hardware model then go to that page and click on all the model numbers until you find the picture that looks like your pcb (but there's only one 4 slot so I think that should be easy)

it's also good picking up a mvs with a socketed bios if you're one of those people who likes switching between regions on his mvs (different language, different blood settings, etc...etc)
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Post by Battlesmurf »

I actually blocked the guy after I said my piece. At one point he claimed me and HardMVS were wrong. I was 99.99% certain 4 slots were not jamma- and was willing to give a potential buyer the benefit of the doubt. I don't think I'd ever do business with that guy- he got pretty rude over it all :/
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Drakon
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Post by Drakon »

I dunno hardMVS wasn't wrong about my board
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Battlesmurf
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Post by Battlesmurf »

Drakon wrote:I dunno hardMVS wasn't wrong about my board
lol- honestly- I think they're spot on the money, too. It's just not possible for a 4 slot (with game switcher, etc) to be jamma spec as it is. The guy at one point made it sound as if I had switched the board to a japan bios- that true japan 4 slots are straight jamma.

Lol- just a reminder why I hate eBay.
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Drakon
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Post by Drakon »

Battlesmurf wrote:
Drakon wrote:I dunno hardMVS wasn't wrong about my board
lol- honestly- I think they're spot on the money, too. It's just not possible for a 4 slot (with game switcher, etc) to be jamma spec as it is. The guy at one point made it sound as if I had switched the board to a japan bios- that true japan 4 slots are straight jamma.

Lol- just a reminder why I hate eBay.
I don't hate ebay. I just take my time looking at peoples reps before deciding to bid. Honestly I've been buying from ebay for a long time and the couple of times there was a problem I got full refunds.
Last edited by Drakon on Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by lawnspic »

That guy knew nothing, if you had a cab and plugged it in you would be in for a little suprise. One in which you would want to kill the seller for misleading info. I can not stress this more MVS (2,4,6 slot boards only) IS NOT JAMMA and vise versa. YOU WILL COOK THE AUDIO AMP CIRCUIT ON BOARD.

Now on the other hand, my supergun has a stereo/mono switch for MVS and Jamma for my audio out phono jacks. If i have the switch in the wrong position it does not hurt anything because it is a passive signal to my receiver. If your running a MVS board in a jamma cabinet you wind up sending two +positive signals to the + and - on a passive speaker therefore overloading and destroying the MVS board. Not good, be cautious
Last edited by lawnspic on Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Drakon
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Post by Drakon »

lawnspic wrote:That guy knew nothing, if you had a cab and plugged it in you would be in for a little suprise. One in which you would want to kill the seller for misleading info. I can not stress this more MVS (4,5,6 slot boards only) IS NOT JAMMA and vise versa. YOU WILL COOK THE AUDIO AMP CIRCUIT ON BOARD.

Now on the other hand, my supergun has a stereo/mono switch for MVS and Jamma for my audio out phono jacks. If i have the switch in the wrong position it does not hurt anything because it is a passive signal to my receiver. If your running a MVS board in a jamma cabinet you wind up sending two +positive signals to the + and - on a passive speaker therefore overloading and destroying the MVS board. Not good, be cautious
yeah, believe me I went and researched all this stuff before deciding which MVS to buy. I don't get why the MVS just doesn't use stereo sound on pins off the board. Just a dumb design I guess. My stupid board has pins on it for stereo sound. And it also has a switch to have stereo sound through the jamma harness. So I call this the "if I get frustrated at my MVS I can just fry it" switch
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