The Arcade Hardware Thread:

GuileWinQuote

For everything Real Arcade Hardware™ related, geared towards competitive fighting game players.
Everything from candy cabs to superguns, PCBs, & etc!

Show off your stuff and ask questions!

Quick Introduction Glossary for the Totally New

Candy Cab:
Japanese Style sit down cabinet
Jamma:
The universal arcade wiring standard that a majority of major arcade titles throughout the 90s used so games could be swapped out of cabinets interchangeably
Chamma:
Chinese Jamma standard
JVS:
The evolution of Jamma, most notably uses different connectors for i/o, audio, power etc. More modern titles uses this standard
Supergun:
A device that allows the play of arcade boards on consumer televisions without the need of the guts from inside an arcade cabinet
UD Convertors:
Used with superguns, a device that takes the signals from a modern USB controller and outputs it into a signal for the arcade board, made by Undamned
PVM:
A professional grade CRT

FAQ

How can I get an arcade cabinet?:
Patience. Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, forums, connections, & luck. It's a tough and very competitive market.

Useful Links

Aurich

I'll kick things off with some pics of my cabs. I run a private, invite-only weekly in SoCal, mostly focused on Capcom fighters, but with a mix of everything else fighting games as well as shmups and a rotating selection of general arcade stuff.

In a different life I'd love to have a more public space where I could share with more people, but well, I'm pretty short on room in my garage and hit max capacity some nights, and frankly a bit cautious of random people being at my house where my wife and kids are. So it goes. Regardless, I'm trying to keep the arcade spirit alive with the homies, these cabs don't mean much without bodies sitting at them.

I'm always down to talk shop with fellow collectors or arcade enthusiasts. This hobby takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot space, and increasingly a lot of money. Harder to come by cabs and games than it used to be, and the prices of everything are just skyrocketing.

I still find it very rewarding and worth it though. And I get to play offline with good people every week, and that alone is the best thing.

GuileWinQuote

I've seen your setup a lot on Twitter, it's absolutely gorgeous and your local scene is super lucky to have it. I love the neon signs too, they're so nice.

And to add to what you said, this hobby takes a lot more work, time, and ~~money~~ then what most would probably imagine. Finding a cab in the US (especially anywhere outside the west coast) is a battle in its own and it's just the first step in caring for the hardware.
Sometimes I cross my fingers when I power my machines on hoping that nothing has blown up inside these old machines since the last play session...
But once everything is arcade perfect inside AND outside the machine, it's a beautiful feeling having people over to play some 30 year old games...!

I have a smaller garage setup, but i'm still proud of it! I have a New Net City and a chopped Naomi Universal head2head setup, and a Chewlix. I live in Houston so the garage isn't ideal because of heat and humidity, but these next few months of sorta cold weather will get a lot of arcade play time.
As of right now I only let close friends come by to mash buttons, but in the future I would love to have a public space....

Aurich

That looks great! Wasn't that many years ago I only had a few cabs, started with an Astro City, then a Neo Candy 29, then a New Astro City. Once I got another pair of Astros and linked them is when I really got more serious and was hosting games regularly. I imported the Vewlixes in 2019, and added the Windy just this year.

If I were to get more LCD cabs I'd just get Chewlixes tbh. My Blue Diamonds are nice, and I Iove the arcade history they carry, but I wouldn't bother getting real Vewlixes again. Just not worth it. Modern arcade hardware is so boring now, it's all just Windows PCs, you might as well run Steam on a Chewlix and get a better experience in the end really.

GuileWinQuote As of right now I only let close friends come by to mash buttons, but in the future I would love to have a public space....

It's rough. I have a good amount of regular players, and a lot of them were strangers to me when I invited them. I have pretty good instincts for people, and it's worked out. But I'm careful now about who else I invite. If everyone who's "one of my players" showed up at the same time it would be hella crowded.

Not everyone is an every week regular and it works out fine. But I have a bit of a wait list for people who I'd be down to have come out some night but I'm not ready to really open up to more for still.

Balancing an arcade and your private space is a juggle.

Aurich

I should also add, the giant elephant in the room, is the pandemic. I closed for a year, and even now that we're all vaxxed I require masks. If things were different I might do more weekend events with a larger crowd. But as it is I definitely want to know who's coming.

My hosting night is Thursdays, so I'm about to head out and make sure all the machines are set up. 🙂

eggball

Been admiring the neon sign on twitter. I definitely want to get something like that made!

elliephil

How difficult is it to capture footage from JAMMA and stream it? Is this a matter of using converters or is it a bit more complicated than that? I.e. rewiring signal paths from the board itself?

It always looks so crispy and clean when being streamed and I'm wondering how much work goes into getting that picture quality.

Aurich

elliephil Depends, there are a lot of ways to do it. If you're seeing a stream from say NLBC where Art and Cruz put in the extra effort they're modding the original boards to capture direct digital output over HDMI.

There are other, less invasive methods, like using a Splitfire. I have one, but I don't stream, so it's sitting in a drawer for a "just in case" day. The main issue is arcade boards can put out some wacky signals and not every capture card can natively deal. You end up with a hardware chain with an OSSC or the like in there too.

Not my specialty though, since as I said I don't stream. We just play games, I don't worry about anything outside the room we're in.

ScareQuotes

Wow, your set ups look awesome! I really admire candy cabs - I hope someday I can get some.

My set up isn't anything fancy. Two Big Blues - the left one is authentic, straight from the factories at Capcom. It is a Hyper Fighting Cab and nothing else. No mods - I have updated the sticks/buttons to IL, as the Happ ones weren't so good. I spent a good deal of money hiring a guy who "fixed" the aging monitor - it looks as good as it can at this stage. Has significant Phosphorous burn and warping, along with a significant bleed in / sharpness issue. I have the screen squished to a compressed widescreen mode to offset these issues, as inaccurate as it is.

My faux Big Blue has Q-sound installed with an HF board hard-mounted and a CPS2 switch. I have quick d-connectors for the Q-sound/CPS1 audio, CPS1/CPS2 Kick harness changeouts. Along with some boards, I have a Darfksoft mod installed. The Sticks and buttons are IL, which feel nice. What gives this away as being in-authentic is the plexi CP and the cutaway being deep, resulting in the truncated IL Stick. Works for me and gives it a faux-sanwa vibe.

I've had a lot of good sessions with friends on these cabs. I have extended it to locals, but no luck in getting anyone interested in playing a a US setup, sadly.

And I had to highlight my cat Doom, who loves hanging out with us when we play. 😃

elliephil

I have some questions regarding CPS3.

The Darksoft SuperBios Multi does not require all of the CDs and cartridges which is great. The load times are still quite long when changing games. If I swap out the CD-rom drive for an SCSI2SD (SD card emulating as a SCSI hard drive), will this significantly lower load times?

I know there is a Darksoft Ultra Simm Multi available now which makes ROM switching almost instant, but it's going for $500.