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VGA->RGB

Started by bullis1, August 07, 2005, 05:12:23 AM

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bullis1

Alright, this is my situation; I have a Daytona USA arcade cabinet with original mechanics and monitor. I would like to know how to hook up a PC VGA signal to the arcade cabinet's monitor. The JAMMA harness is of course intact. Would modifying your average VGA-to-RGB cable (such as the ones that SONY used to make) be a good starting point, or am I looking at something much more complex here? Would using a TV-out card be a better idea, and converting s-video to RGB? I have already worked out all other connections (sound, steering, coin slots, etc.) to map the arcade tech to a PC, but the video has me stumped. I'd hate to pull the original screen and replace it with a VGA monitor, but it looks like I may have to. I'm living in the NTSC regions if that makes a difference. Sorry for this post being on the long side, but I want to be clear. Thanks in advance for any help/info you can offer.

viletim!

It's not too difficult. The usual way to do it is simply connect the R/G/B/H/V signals from your PC's video card directly to the arcade monitor and run some special software that plays with the card's video timings to output "standard resolution" RGB. Some arcade monitors require a video amplifier (like this one or that one) to display a reasonable image.

What operating system/software are you planning to run? If it's going to be one of those arcade emulator in an arcade cabinet type things then take a look at AdvanceMAME.

Also, Ultimarc makes a video card designed for this sort of thing - for those with money to spend.

bullis1

Well, actually, there isn't really an OS involved in this project. It is a stand-alone game. I've made a custom "arcade" board using mostly PC parts that houses a 3D car-combat game that me and a friend are currently part-way through developing. But that's another story. Anyway, I customized a version of MS-DOS to get the whole thing running. Basically, you turn on the machine, and the game loads straight away. It is possible that I could include a program such as AdvanceCab in the boot-process. Thanks viletim!

Unfortunately, I've forgotten the pin-outs for VGA, but a quick search should help.