video

Hardware Used:
ATI 3D Rage 2 PCI
J-Pac
Samsung Standard resolution Arcade monitor

Software Used:
DOS win98 version
MAME .37
ArcadeOS

The video combination I chose was pretty classic for DOS MAME. I used an ATI 3D Rage 2 PCI card in combination with the J-Pac version 1 hardware, and mame .37 (the last to support tweaked arcade monitor mode) and ArcadeOS. You can use a higher version of DOS MAME but when I tried it I found some of the games were running at the wrong screen size or frequency. Another note, make sure you have ArcadeOS set to 8bit colour, and not 16, or some of the games will not work properly. I found the best resolution to be about 320 X 240. The reason I chose the ATI was because it was cheap and it had a reputation for being good at running at 15 kHz mode. It is also a PCI card and means that I could easily swap between it and my AGP card. I used the AGP for windows and the PCI for DOS.

Windows XP made this super easy, as even though I had set my PCI to be the booted card, my AGP was still the card windows preferred to use, which was fine by me as it is the faster of the two. I remember hearing something about a bios hack being available to keep the ATI in 15khz mode all the time, but I never figured out how to do it.

After doing some searching on google, it turns out that there are a lot better cards that can be used, but they are more expensive, and harder to get hold of. I've heard mixed reviews about the Matrox G400 cards. There is software available for them for the specific purpose of running an arcade monitor, and bios hacks as well, if I recall. It is supposed to work well in windows, but I have also heard that it gives poor image quality. I was thinking of getting one to test it out, but I didn't have the money. They are still about 40 pounds on ebay, even though they are an ancient card by today's standards. In comparison my ATI was about 10 pounds. The triton Blade 3D is also meant to be able to be set to run at 15khz full time, and is said to be able to run in windows, but I can find no more info about it other than this site. The Only other card that I have found that may by able to do something is this card. The Sigma X-card has an optinal RGB scart connecter and it should not be hard to hack together a cable that can connect it to an arcade monitor, or work out another solution. It should also work in windows.

If you're buying a J-Pac now, Andy has brought out a new version with an in built video amplifier, which makes the picture a whole lot brighter. This was a slight problem for me, as I was using the older model and the picture came out a bit dark, but it could be fixed by increasing the screen voltage at the cost of some colour bleed.

The reason I used DOS instead of Windows was mainly because it was easier for me to do so. ArcadeOS is a magical piece of software that makes your video card, (if it is supported), run at 15khz, which is just the right frequency for arcade monitors. For more information check out this site. It works in DOS and is the only software I have found that will accomplish this amazing task with such relative ease to set up. Not only does it do this, but it is also a fully-fledged front end for many emulators. I recommend using DOS MAME.37 just because it worked the best for me. I tried using AdvanceMame but it is VERY complicated to set up properly, and turned out to be more of a pain in the ass than it was worth. Apparently using advance VBE or some such thing, you can get windows9x to run in 15khz mode. I warn you now, it is not the easiest thing to do, and I would go for a hardware solution for windows, rather than this software one. There are a few good websites about running windows on an arcade cab.These will be put in the link section when I find them again.

MONITOR

This came with absolutely NO manuals, which is why it took so long to get a good picture. The guy who sold it to me didn't give me a write up on it or anything, but he did answer my questions about it when I emailed him, and was generally very helpful, even calling me up when I ran into real trouble. It took me hours and hours to get a stable picture on my arcade monitor. I fired up ArcadeOS, plugged in the ATI to the J-Pac and noticed a complete lack of a useable picture. At first I thought the monitor might be broken, or the ATI card might not be working properly, delivering its 15khz signal. But when I left my PC monitor plugged into it, it came up with an "out of range" box saying that it was getting a 15.9khz horizontal signal, so it, and ArcadeOS were obviously working properly. So it was on to messing about with the monitor.

Insert "you could kill your damn self warning"

Not wanting to electrocute myself, I took things easy at first. After mucking around with it for some hours and not getting anywhere I gave up. The next time I tried was when my "Crazy South African Friend"TM came over and offered to do it for me. Well, I thought, I rather he got electrocuted than me. He was pissing me off by this stage, telling me what an electronics whiz he was because his uncle was a mechanic or something, so I said, "sure, knock yourself out", or worse. Anyway, it was at this stage that I started making notes about what each switch and button did, because I had no manuals for any part of the machine. We managed to figure out what all the various knobs and switches did, or didn't do, and within about an hour or two we had a stable(ish) picture.

It was at this stage that I realized I didn't have the PS2 lead connected from the J-Pac to the PC. As soon as I plugged it in the screen went to crap. It started flickering like a firefly on amphetamines. So now we had to go through the whole hour-long process again. When we had finished we ended up with a picture that looked worse than before. Why this was I could not figure out. I had a stable (as in not rolling) picture, but it had this annoying wavy line going through it near the top. I emailed Andy Warne, and he was at a loss too. We couldn't figure out why we got a better picture without the J-Pac actually turned on. (Because without the ps2 connection the J-Pac wasn't drawing power for its video chip, or something). He suggested that I take out the chip, but I didn't want to do that, so I kept on thinking. I finally realized that there was one knob that I had no idea what it did. It was inside a metal enclosure that said WARNING HIGH VOLTAGE so I had stayed away from it until now.

But at this stage I didn't care, I was hell bent on fixing this damn machine. So I stuck a plastic butter knife in the slot of the knob and started turning, thinking that plastic would insulate me better than a metal screwdriver. BINGO, I had found the knob I was after. As soon as I started turning, the wavy line started to move up and down the screen. By combining this knob, and the others I was finally able to get a fairly good stable picture. But it still would not fill the whole screen. I emailed the guy who I bought the cab from, and told him about my problems. He called me up, and told me all he knew about the cab, which at this stage was about what I had figured out. But with the extra bits of information he gave me, I managed to get the picture a bit better. I don't know if I could get it perfect, and I wasn't willing to stuff up the good picture I had now to try.

Now it came time to get the colours right. This was a matter of playing with the screen voltage and the contrast control and finding just the right level of brightness. Then, using the test screens in ArcadeOS I had to tweak all of the colour control knobs until all the colours were about the same strength and there was no colour bleeding. This is harder than it sounds, as it involves a lot of checking and re-tweaking until everything is looking as good as it can. So finally I gave in and accepted the fact that I now had as good a picture as I was probably ever going to get, short of buying a new monitor and the latest version of the J-Pac. And every time you move the cabinet you have to go trough the whole process again, coz something inevitably gets bumped out of alignment. That's basically as much info as I can give on my setup. Checkout the links for more info.