Arcade Newbie Thread

[panzeroceania]

Ok, so I decided to start a Q&A thread for budding arcade collectors on the basic components required, etc.

I am a beginner, so this is going to be a lot of questions.

As far as I understand it, most arcades have some basic parts

The Motherboard --- this usually (from what I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong) is the main part of the system, it has all the boards that contain the CPUs, GPUs etc. if you are a console gamer, a simplified way of thinking of this, is this is the console.

The Media --- whether they be their own PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Cartridge, Disc, Hard Drive, or other media, these are the games.

The Power Supply --- from what I've heard you can also use certain PC power supplies to power your arcades.

The Monitor --- some games require CGA, some EGA, and some VGA you need an RGB monitor that can do one of those depending on the game

The Control Panel -- This includes the joystick and pushbuttons, or if it's a specialty arcade, the racing wheel, or whatever input device is used, I'm fairly certain they will have their own PCB, or be connected to some I/O board, this part I'm not clear on so someone please help me clarify.

The Cabinet -- This one is optional but it is the housing used for arcade machines anywhere but home use, they are durable and usually fairly cool looking, to use this to make money you'd need an operating coin slot as well.

what other components are found in some arcade units commonly that I've forgotten? are there typically audio boards? or anything else like that?

I'm looking into getting several arcade kits, and maybe eventually getting a candy cab if I can afford it.

My interest is primarily in all Sega arcade boards but I also have an interest in the CPS2, Neo Geo, the namco boards that are based on the PS1 and PS2, but mostly the sega boards.

I also have a few odd questions.

1. could an arcade board based on a system (dreamcast, PS1, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox) be modified to play the home console games? I know there wouldn't be any real purpose to this, just curious.

2. I have ZERO interest in pirating games, but just out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone had ever made something similar to a flash cart for any arcade machine?

I'm excited about learning a lot more about arcade boards, particularly the Naomi and Hikaru boards. If anyone has any please fill me in on some of the details, screenshots would also be awesome.

Also it'd be great to see pictures of any of your arcade cabinets.

Thanks for your time!

[NFG]

I started typing detailed replies, but the quicker answer is: there are no quick answers.

Every game is self contained, and because they're not swapped often in arcades, many of them have a lot of custom connectors, adaptors, cables, controllers etc.  If you stick to JAMMA games, it'll be a lot easier.  Most arcade users get a Neo Geo, a CPS2 and a couple of other JAMMA boards, and rarely get anything more complicated than a stick and three butons on the CP.

No one can explain EVERY situation to you.  Pick a game, have a look at it, and see what parts you don't understand.  Ask questions about that.

As for your questions:
1. Usually not.  Arcade boards usually have faster clocks, more RAM, and incompatible media.
2. There's not really any point: Every board is different, no flash cart would be useful outside its home platform.  There's a dozen different popular cart-based consoles, but a thousand different PCBs.

[panzeroceania]

thanks for the reply Lawrence.

Does anyone have a Naomi board? I'm probably most interested in that platform as it has a fair amount of games for it.

[Drakon]

1: probably not, but it's possible to build adapters to play console system in an arcade machine

2: there's plenty of bootlegging with arcade boards.  You get everthing from entire bootleg pcbs to a pcb that has swapping rom boards where the rom board is either a bootleg, converted game, or multi game board.

you also forgot to mention one of the biggest problems with arcade collecting.....that would be suicide batteries.....where your arcade board commits suicide unless you find a way to replace the battery in time or find a way to modify the board so it no longer needs the battery