Uzebox Forums

I think amongst arcade game collectors and enthusiasts a JAMMA Uzebox board has endless possibilities. There are a number of "lost" classic games out there that are either missing or never went into production which Uzebox hardware might be the perfect platform to bring them to life, such as Ms. Gorf, Marble Madness II, and the game Star Fighter from the movie "The Last Star Fighter" which somebody has designed an actual cabinet for, and a lost prototype like "Bouncer" which has left much information remaining on its production and design but ROM images might be gone forever.

I'd love to help design an indigenous "Uzebox cabinet", which would be of a unique design for Uzebox games but would be flexible enough to accomidate various control panel designs to support joysticks, trackballs, spinners, foot pedals, steering wheels, etc. Something that people could recognize at a glance and say "Oh yeah, that's one of those cool looking cabs for Uzebox designers"

I'm starting to get really interested in the idea too. Specially since I'm stuck with the regular Uzebox PCB...there's not a single AD725 left on the market. I'm guessing that's the Red Bull hacker promo boards that ate them all... Anyhow, I have time right now and willing to have some PCBs made at ITeadStudio. I'll dwelve into the schematics DaveyPocket made. Btw, any site with info on how those cabinets works (screen sync, JAMMA interface, etc)?

-Uze

Technical details like monitor sync I couldn't tell you offhand but people on the forums of KLOV.com would probably be able to point you in the right directions, many serious arcade game collectors hang out there (I'm Tornadoboy in the forums) and many of them are very skilled in electronics. Cabinet construction I could probably help you with, and here is a link to a picture of the JAMMA standard wiring pinout:

http://www.thesupergun.com/wp-content/u ... pinout.png

your typical cab uses a standard JAMMA harness to connect the game board to buttons, coin mech, speakers ( mono ) , service button and counter. ( Some JAMMA variation exists: example Neo-Geo uses normally unused pins for stereo sound ).



The newer standard is JVS, which uses a VGA signal/connector and encodes buttons, coin mech, service button and counter using a special protocol over a USB form factor cable. But since most JVS cabs are also JAMMA compatible via i/o boards , JAMMA is be the best way to go.

Most arcade monitor chassis out there use a 15.750 khz horizontal sync signal ( CGA ) , some 24.827 khz ( EGA ) , Newer ones , using a VGA cable instead of the JAMMA harness's pins, can do 31.469khz for 640x480 and some even supports 37.88 for 800x600. The cream of the crop are auto switching tri-sync capable, only a few arcade freaks such as yours truly have 'em. The signal is sent in RGB with a composite sync. Although the horizontal rate is constant, the vertical rate changes ( within the chassis's supported range ) to control the screen resolution's Y axis. The image is normally in possessive scan, but It is also possible to use interlaced mode to send a 15Khz chassis a 480 line image, like a TV. That's how one of my MAME mahcine is setup, the frontend uses a 480i , once game launches it runs at <240 line in progressive scan.

if you wouldn't live in another country , I'd ship you a 27" Kortek tri-sync I have laying around it has both RGB and VGA hook-ups.

I am not an expert, but BYOAC's monitor forum has several experts, including service techs.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.p ... d,4.0.html

Hope that helped !

cheers

There are several sites that have information on JAMMA configuration and parts. Check out http://www.jammaboards.com and http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spie ... Jamma.html

If anybody is making a batch of UzeBox Jamma PCB's, I'm sure there will be enough demand for them in the community. (myself included)

It was mentioned to me earlier by mapes about the Uzebox JAMMA board size and board size limitations in Eagle CAD, and yes, I am having problems with that. As you can see in the first prototype board, none of the leads on the edge connected are etched into the board, Eagle CAD would not allow me to place wires beyond that area. The edge connector was not added in Eagle CAD, that was added after I placed the Uzebox design on the board before I etched it. It would be very beneficial if I had the upgraded Eagle CAD license so I can make the board bigger, I will have to research in other PCB cad software or find a way to invest in an Eagle CAD license which will work with larger boards.

Something I would like to first discuss so we can get this cleared up: Sound amplifiers. Arcade machines require that the sound amplifier be on the motherboard due to only the bare speaker being placed on the cabinet. The only cabinets I know of that do not require a sound amplifier to be on the motherboard are Nintendo cabinets (Sound amplifier for those is built into monitor). The sound amplifier I have built into the current version of the Uzebox JAMMA works, but I am not too satisfied with it. I will post the schematics of the amplifier circuit when I get the chance (this post will be edited sometime today, for I am not at my computer).

EDIT - Schematic below:

maybe instead of making a JAMMA only version of the uzebox, it would be worth considering a uzebox with an optional harness molex header. and then you would just need to make a cable using one of these ( 4$ @ jammaboards.com )
I've personally used them to build 2 JAMMA adapters for consoles.

It would not be as cool as a JAMMA PCB looking uzebox , but it would be versatile. maybe it's just the whiskey ( Bushmills ) .. just a thought

codecrank wrote:maybe instead of making a JAMMA only version of the uzebox, it would be worth considering a uzebox with an optional harness molex header. and then you would just need to make a cable using one of these ( 4$ @ jammaboards.com )

JB-1_640x480.jpg

I've personally used them to build 2 JAMMA adapters for consoles.

I would not be as cool as a JAMMA PCB looking uzebox , but it would be versatile. maybe it's just the whiskey ( Bushmills ) .. just a thought

I like the idea, only problem is that the Uzebox JAMMA requires more parts than a standard Uzebox (Shift registers since there are not SNES controllers being attached, audio amp, and possibly have an extension cable for the SD card slot so that the SD card can be placed near the coin door for easy access). Maybe all of that could be attached to the harness device. But it sounds like in the end it might be better making a dedicated Uzebox JAMMA board since the idea is to have it mounted inside of a cabinet.

just had another crazy idea... given the dimensions of a quarter VS an SD card, I could even rig up something like...
Pulling out a coin mech is no big deal for me since since I run mame and I have buttons on the control pannel rigged in parralel with the coin mech switches.

of course , this would be optional, using a cable like this.

just had another crazy idea... given the dimensions of a quarter VS an SD card, I could even rig up something like...

Haha awesome idea!