Step 1: New CRT Tube
Since it is now difficult to get original tubes for arcade cabs, especially the large 23 “tube in the tab Gigant i planned to install a normal TV tube which has the advantage that you now have a tuner, Scart connections etc .. The only eligible TV was a Bang&Olufsen MX6000. The tube was unloaded, expanded, built its own angle for installation in the wooden cab, the cab adapted for the new tube, and finally the tube installed. Then I rebuilt the bezel construction of the original TV so that it fits into the machine, combined with painted wood panels.
Step 2: JAMMA to SCART
Fortunately, the 15Khz RGB JAMMA signal is completely compatible with the standard RGB Scart signal, so you only need a simple adapter with 3 optional potentiometers to calibrate the RGB signal level which allowes you to connect a Jamma board to a Scart TV. I have tested this with a homemade cable and that was almost perfect. Therefore I bought a finished adapter on eBay and made some modifications because: a) the B & O TV should turn on automatically after the cab is started, b) The B & O takes about 10 seconds after which it gets power until it receives the 12V Scart signal registered at all, so I also needed a delay circuit for the 12V Scart signal. I have realized both with RC circuits and relays.
Step 3: 6-Button Mod
3 buttons are nice, but not enough for NeoGeo and other boards. That’s why I rebuilt the cab to 6 buttons per player. It was important that the acrylic plate behind the buttons looks the same as the original one. The challenge was that I needed a design that I could fit into the original steel bezel, since drilling the original bezel was not possible (the holes from the 3 buttons overlap with the 6s). The original “raster design” was thankfully designed by my friend mad.M. I have had this printed on PVC and placed behind the new acrylic sheet. The perfect distance from the new construction made of hardboard to the steel panel, I have created with 3D printed plates and discs.
Step 4: Easy PCB Exchange – NEO GEO MVS
The usual screwing the PCBs by means of spacers on the hardboard of the Cabs is frankly too tedious and uncomfortable. I have decided to attach all existing systems onto an acrylic plate which can then be inserted into the machine with one hand. A nice label gives further information about the PCB / console .. (yes I also build video game consoles). The first board was an original NEO GEO MVS, which I embellished with labels.
Step 5: Sega Dreamcast
A Sega Dreamcast has to be inserted into the cab. To get the console to the JAMMA standard, I needed a timer board. However, This board do have annoying text overlays, and it was not possible to configure the board permamently to hide the text. I have modified the board in a way so that a microcontroller takes over the work of configuring every time after switching on, a display shows the status and the video output was suppressed by hardware, so that only the Dreamcast video signal comes through. The result was perfect! Hydrothunder and Co on the arcade machine !!
Step 6: Microsoft XBOX
Also for the Xbox there are timer boards, and they are really good and cheap. Why the Xbox? Quite simply, no console could be modded like the Xbox and there is COINOPS, the ULTIMATE emulator frontend. Just by the design and the operation of Coinops the XBOX is the best that you can install in a cab, far better than retropy and Co and it looks just great when a fat, heavy Xbox cab works loudly in an arcade cab. I had to modify the board to get the coin slots working. In addition i installed a jamma to svideo converter which gave me the best possible picture on the b&o crt.
Step 7: Raspberry PI
Last but not least i wanted to wire up a Raspberry board. Because of all the raspberry-to-jamma adapters were to expensive for me i decided to build my own versions which works perfectly.
I also decided to mount a Pandoras Box on the acrylic plate because there was plenty of space left. Compared to to the other systems this thing is crap…