Beginners Guide 1 - What you need to know to own or start collecting arcade games

Why you want an arcade machine in your house

In the early 80's everyone played arcade games. It was new and it took off really well. Few people had Home computers or consoles, and for the few that did, the capabilities of these were no where near that of a dedicated arcade machine. Graphics, sound and gameplay of arcade machines was far superior.

I don't think there are any games today that can match the popularity of early games like Pacman and Space Invaders. Modern games may have smooth full motion video graphics and surround sound. But moden games tend to lack in two very important things... Originality and game play. Today, how many pacman, space invader or even doom clones have you seen. Hundreds I can bet. Back in the 80's it was all new. Graphics and sound were quite poor in those days, memory was expensive, so game writers had to make people play their games by coming up with a new exciting game concept, they had to take the hardware to it's limited and use efficient smooth code. It all came down to playability, people would play games based on how fun and original they were. These days its all down to graphics.

The most likely reason for wanting to own an arcade machine is to bring back the fond memories of your miss spent youth, spending all your pocket money down the local arcade. Owning your favorite game really can bring back good memories. It does for me. I can't wait till I am in the position to own every arcade machine I remember playing in my youth (thats quite a few, so I am not sure where the space is going to come from.

You might want to add a feature to your games room, something to impress your friends, so why not pick a memorable game that everyone remembers. You'll be amazed how everyone who visits your house goes "Wow ... Space Invaders ... I remember that" You'll find it's impossible to send your friends home and you'll never get peace and quiet again!

How about a present for your kids? Even being brought up in a better graphics = better game society, kids find it amazing to own their own arcade machine no matter what game it is.

OK, so I want an Arcde Machine, but which one?

So whats a Jamma Cab then?

As mentioned above a Jamma cab is designed to support a wide range of games without modification. A group of Japanese game manufacturers got together in 1986/1987 and drew up plans for a comprimising standard so that Games could be swapped from machine to machine easily, new games could be purchased for old machines and it made life easier for operators and service engineers. A Jamma cab is a machine with :-

* A standard resolution monitor (can be either horizontal or vertical in different games, some Jamma cabs have a mechanism to allow the monitor to be rotated so you can play both)

* Each player will have 1 8-way joystick, 3 fire buttons and 1 start button

* Each cab has a single un-amplifed audio channel (the game pcb provides the audio amplifier)

* Each Jamma cab has an industry standard power supply, which provides +5volts, +12volts and -5volts. (Before Jamma games all had different voltages, like some required +25volt and -25volt etc)

* Most importantly, each Jamma Cab has a Jamma Harness, this allows you swap the game board with any other Jamma game board (this is simular to a PC motherboard, the game software runs on this) The reason for this is each pin on the Jamma connector has been assined a certain pin (like how a household plug always has the earth pin as the top pin, on a Jamma Harness pin 1 is always the ground pin)

Jamma cabs come in all shapes and sizes, this means if you have very little space you can purchase a very small compact machine, if you have an empty garage doing nothing then you can purcahse a full sized sit down machine with a 50" projection screen, the choice is yours.

Jamma cabs are much lower cost then dedicated machines. As a rule of thumb you can pick up a fully working one for around £100 - £200. The price of a Jamma cab tends to go up with the size of the machine and also importantly the size of the monitor. Price also depends on age, of course the older the cheaper. Brand new machines can go for several hundred pounds, and be equiped with the latest super-duper monitors and gadgetry, but for a home collector these are unnessasary. Someone starting out need only spend £100-£200 for a nice working 20" Jamma cab (Jamma cabs sizes refer to the diagonal size of the monitor)

CONSUMERS BEWARE! I have come accross several arcade game traders ripping the general public off, charging consumers that don't know any differnt £1000 or even more for an early 1987 model Jamma cab in a poor state of repair. You may have seen a few of these people on TV on 1980's programs telling people that you need to spend several hundred pounds to start out in collecting, shamelessly promoting themselves so they can bump their prices up.

This does endless damage for people like me. As a long term collector, I am aware of the true market value of a machine. For example a perfect mint restored Space Invaders, with very few plays on the counter might well fetch over £1000 on occasions. But then a faulty Space Invaders with parts missing, scratches on the paint and wood rot might well only be worth £50 due to the amount of money that would need to be spent on it to bring it up to scratch.

Once one of these people have been on TV saying they sell Space Invaders for £1000+ anyone who has a Space Invaders for sale wants £1000 regardless of the condition. I have turned up at many a house to look at machines advertised for sale in the paper, only to find they have a half rotton, pirate copy arcade machine in a terrible state, and the owner is there telling me all about how rare they are and how he can't sell it for less then £800 etc etc .. yeah right ... wouldn't give you £50 for that mate .... slam ....

If I can't buy cheap machines, then I can't sell cheap machines, and prices go up. Fortunatly there are still bargain machines to be found. So £100 good condition machines still exist. Remeber that when shopping around. Equally a truely rare machine in perfect condition will go for several hundred pounds and thats their true value. Well I have vented my anger so back to the guide ....

OK I've got myself a nice bargain Jamma cab, All I am getting is a blank screen when I switch it on

Thats because you have just bought a machine with no game in it. Imagine a newly built PC that hasn't had Windows installed on it yet, you need to get some games.

Arcade Game Boards, also refered to as Game PCB's are a circuit board, specifically designed to play one game and one game only. The software (image a Game CD for your PC) is built into this circuit board on Read Only chips. There are some exceptions to this rule as some games can be modified to play other games (this requires experience so we won't talk about that here) and some games are simular to a home console and so you can change the game by plugging different cartridges in.

Ok so lets imagine you have bought a Street Fighter 2 pcb (a very common Jamma game) Looking at the pcb, on one side you have a small rectangular section that sticks out from the rest. You will notice lots of gold or silver lines running in paralel) This is called the Edge Connector, and those lines are the pins. Inside your Jamma cab you will have a big bunch of wires which terminate at a (usually blue or green) plastic rectangular connector. You slide this over the PCB edge connector (The right way up) and then switch your machine on. If everythings working ok you will now have a working Jamma cab ready to play. If things don't work then you'll have to do some trouble shooting (Trouble shooting guide coming soon)

I'm bored of playing Street Fighter 2 now. What next?

But I want to play Pacman and thats not Jamma is it?

So I can play any game in my Jamma cab then with one of these Jamma Harness thingies?

Hmm thats where things get complicated. You can't play every game in your Jamma cab, but you can play more games then any other cab. Here are the exceptions. Common sense will dictate some of these.

Games that require custom controls like steering wheels and pedals, common sense says your Jamma cab doesnt have a steering wheel, so you won't be playing Sega Rally in it.

Games that require vector monitors. These are games that draw the screens using lines like Tempest and Asteroids. These require a different (very expensive) type of monitor

Games that require wierd voltages like +25volts to operate. you can get around this by adding aditional modules to your power supply though.

If in doubt ask the person you are buying the game from first, if they don't know or are not sure, DONT buy from them. Buy in confidence knowing your buying from someonewho knows the answers to your questions.