A |
|
| Arcade |
The place where you went to play your Arcade Machines during your youth of course! Now becoming very rare places. Most arcade's have now either been set on fire by their owners to get out with a nice insurance payoff, or have been turned into gambling pits filled with fruit machines. |
| Attract Mode |
This is the display that an arcade game does to temp you to come along and play. Here you will see things such as a title screen, highscore table, instructions or a demonstration of play. |
B |
|
| Bezel |
This is the part of the arcade machine infront of and/or around the monitor. For eaxample, these may be a cardboard surround around the monitor, this would be called the cardboard bezel. The glass in front of the monitor will often have artwork on it, this would also be called the bezel or glass bezel. |
| Board |
See also PCB.
See also PCB's for Sale |
| Button |
You press buttons to create an action in a game. Like the fire button to fire a shot in Space Invaders. Most games also have a Start button which you need to press after you insert your coin in order to start the game.
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
C |
|
| Cab |
Arcade Cabinet. This is the actual structure of the machine. Usually a combination of wood, plastic and metal, or sometimes all wood.
See also Arcade Machine for Sale |
| Cabaret |
This is a style of arcade machine, smaller than the normal full sized upright machine. This can also sometimes be called the "Mini" or "Mini-Myte" A popular style with Atari and Midway in the early 80's, though usually the number of cabaret games made would be only a fraction of the number of upright games made. Cabaret games do not usually feature full artwork like the larger upright games, and usually have woodgrain vinyl sides. |
| Cap Kit |
This is a kit of electronic components used to restore the picture quality of older monitors. Capacitors dry out over time resulting in various things happening to the picture, from wobbles, funny colour and interference, to the monitor not working at all. Very often these low cost kits is all that is needed to restore a monitor to its full glory. |
| Cocktail |
Small arcade games, like a coffee table, often found in British pubs in the early 80's, quite popular now with collectors as most people seem to be able to pursuade their wives to let them have a small table in the house rather that a large arcade machine. Usually players sit oposite each other at the table. When it is the turn of the player on the other side, the screen usually flips over so that the other player can see everything the right way up. |
| Coin Door |
Metal door on the front of an arcade machine which houses the coin-mechs and also a collection box where the money inserted into the machine is stored. |
| Coin-Mech |
The mechanism that allows you to insert coins into the machine. Older games have metal mechanical mechs, which basically check the coin is the right size and weight and then drop it through a switch, these were prone to people cheating them (by using a coin on a string etc) Modern mechs are electronic and use inductance coils to sense the density of the coin amongst other things and are much less prone to being cheated. Older mechanical mechs can only take one type of coin (hence why older machines have 2 or 3 coin slots) modern mechs can be programmed to take pretty much any coin and award different numbers of game credits depending on the coin inserted. |
| Control Panel |
This is the panel at the front of the machine that houses the player controls, such as joysticks and fire buttons |
| Control Panel Overlay |
This is the artwork normally applied to the control panel as a vinyl or plastic piece (some panels do not have an overlay and instead have the artwork printed directly onto the metal) |
| Credit Switch |
Often found inside the coin door, this is a button that allows you to add a credit to a game without having to insert a coin |
| D |
|
| E |
|
F |
|
| Free Play |
A setting available on most (but not all) arcade games, that allows you to be able to start and play the game without having to insert a coin or use the credit switch |
| G |
|
H |
|
| Harness |
The internal wiring of the Arcade Machine, this is where everything (monitor, joysticks, buttons, power supply, coin mech) are connected to the central location, the game PCB.
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
| Hantarex |
A European monitor manufacturer, one of the most common makes of monitor found in older games in this country.
See also Beginners Guide to Arcade Monitors |
I |
|
| Interlock Switch |
A safety switch fitted to most machines. If the back door is opened while the machine is on the interlock switch cuts the power to the machine. |
| Isolation Transformer (ISO) |
An isolation transformer does pretty much what it says. It provides the power to the arcade monitor, isolated from the mains. This is for safety. Some modern arcade machines don't need an isolation transformer as the isolation is done on the monitor itself, but most do have them, definatly all older (80's games) do have them so never try to bypass them or replace them with a non-islating tranformer. |
J |
|
| Jamma |
Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association - This is a standard which was set by a group of Japanese manufacturers to make it easy to swap game pcb's between cabs without having to modify them. The standard also defined the type of monitor to be used (resolution) and the controls to use including the number of buttons. (2 players, 1x 8way joystick each, 3 fire buttons each and a start button each)
Generic machines which adhere to the Jamma standard are known imaginativly as 'Jamma Cabs'
See also Arcade Machine for Sale |
| Joystick |
A lever, usually with a ball on the end. You use your hand to point the lever in the direction you want to go. Some games allow you to only move left and right whereas some games allow you to move in 8 directions.
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
| K |
|
L |
|
| LOPT |
Line Output Transformer. This is the part of the monitor that generates the high voltage (around 14,000 - 25,000volts) These parts often fail especially in older Hantarex monitors.
See also Beginners Guide to Arcade Monitors |
M |
|
| Marquee |
This is the sign (usually screen printed plastic) with the name of the game. On upright machines, this is usually found at the top of the machine and is illuminated by a strip light bulb. On some games (such as Atari cabaret games) this is found below the control panel) |
| Monitor |
Very simular to a domestic television. This is where you see the game action happening.
See also Beginners Guide to Arcade Monitors
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
| Monitor Glass |
The glass sheet usually found in front of the monitor (see also Bezel) |
| Multimeter |
An essential piece of test equipment for anyone who owns an arcade machine. Allows you to perform basic voltage tests and adjustments amongst other things. Measures voltage, current, resistance and somethings other things such as the ability to test transistors, capacitors etc. |
N |
|
| New Old Stock (NOS) |
This is a term to describe a part for an arcade machine, that is original and has been manufactured some time ago. The part will be brand new and un-used, but may have been stored for many years. If restoring an arcade machine, it is usually favourable to find NOS parts rather than reproduction parts. |
| O |
|
P |
|
| PCB |
Printed Circuit Board - In an arcade machine the arcade game is actually a complete computer with the game built into it. The PCB is like a computer motherboard but instead of the game being on a CD or a Floppy Disk it is built into the chips and therefore the game loads up straight away everytime the arcade machine is switched on.
See also PCB's for Sale |
| Power Brick |
Used to describe a power supply, where the majority of the components are encased or attached to a metal or wooded block |
| Power Supply |
You plug your arcade machine into the mains. Some parts inside the machine need different voltages, so the power supply divides up the voltages and distributes them to the different parts inside the game. If you think of toys and games that you can plug into the mains, you usually have a black plug called a Power Adapter, this converts the mains voltage into lower safer voltages that the toy or game can work with. This is what happens inside an arcade machine on a larger scale.
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
| Q |
|
| R |
|
| Raster |
This is the type of monitor found in most arcde games, it works like a television, building up the picture our of hundreds of vertical lines. |
S |
|
| Side Art |
As the name suggests, this is any artwork found on the sides of an arcade machine |
T |
|
| T-molding |
This is the plastic trim found on the edges of the wood on most arcade machines. Usually black in colour, but some (mostly older) games have coloured T-molding such as Pacman, Galaxian and Donkey Kong |
| Trackball |
Like an upside down computer mouse, instead of moving the mouse around you spin the ball in the direction you want to move.
See also Arcade Parts for Sale |
| Transformer |
A transformer takes mains voltage (240v in the UK) and steps it down to a much smaller voltage that the electronics in an arcade game can handle better. The output from a transformer is in AC voltage, addditional power supply components are used to turn the tranformer output into DC voltage the the internal components of an arcade machine need. |
U |
|
| Upright |
This is the most common type of arcade game you will come across. They are the ones where the player stands infront of the machine to play them, they are the fullsize arcade machines unlike the cabaret or mini type games. |
V |
|
| Vector |
This is a type of game found in the late 70 to early 80's. Instead of using a rasta monitor with solid objects, the graphics are drawn using a series of lines. The benefit is high resolution sharp graphics and high speed drawing (it takes less time and memory to draw a vector screen than a rasta one) |
W |
|
| Wells Gardner |
An American monitor manufacturer. Very commonly found in older USA games and also many Atari games imported into the UK.
See also Beginners Guide to Arcade Monitors |
X |
|
| X-Y Monitor |
The type of monitor used to display Vector games |
| Y |
|
| Z |
|
| |
|
