Connecting a PC to an Arcade Cabinet

Most arcade cabinets are made up of the following parts:

Wooden or Plastic Cabinet Monitor - Usually standard resolution (CGA) Controls - Joysticks, trackballs, pushbuttons Game Board - Commonly referred to as a Game PCB Wiring Harness - Connects Game Board to Controls, Monitor, & Power Supply Power Supply - Converts AC voltage to AC or DC voltages required by Game Board Marquee - The big sign up top with the game name

An easy way to create a home Emulator Arcade cabinet is to buy a used arcade machine with a working monitor and controls. The computer and its power supply will replace the Game Board and Power Supply in the arcade machine. In order to use your computer in an existing arcade cabinet, there are a couple of interface considerations to make your computer work with the monitor and arcade controls. Arcade cabinets which conform to the JAMMA standard are easiest to use because there are ready made products which plug right into the Jamma Harness in the cabinet.

Most arcade machines use a CGA monitor which will not accept the VGA signals which are output from a regular PC. CGA monitors have a maximum resolution of 640x288 and input frequency of 15.7 kHz. A PC's VGA card outputs signals at a frequency of 31 kHz. Connecting a CGA monitor to a standard VGA card at 31 kHz will not work and likely cause damage to the arcade monitor. There are two widely recognized solutions to this problem. The easiest solution is to use a special VGA card in your PC called the ArcadeVGA which is sold exclusively by ULTIMARC. This VGA card has been reprogrammed to output signals at 15.7 kHz. The second solution is to use a program called POWERSTRIP or AdvanceMAME with compatible VGA cards to force them to output at 15.7 kHz.

The second consideration in using a computer in an existing arcade cabinet is interfacing the controls with the computer. Since the joysticks, trackball, and buttons are already connected to the wiring harness, it is