A sort of sequel to my last Jamma related topic, this came in the mail today:
This is a Sega Saturn to Jamma conversion kit. It's intended, like the MGCD Dreamcast, to let arcade operators run Sega Saturn games on arcade cabinets. This one is a bit generic, the kit itself doesn't seem to have a name or specific manufacturer but there are tons of this same kit out there for lots of systems, namely PS2 and Xbox. This specific kit seems really, really old; the components on it look much older than Xbox kits I've seen.
Unlike the MGCD Dreamcast to Jamma kit, this kit has some pots on the conversion board to change the R, G, and B intensity, along with a volume pot.
The kit interfaces to the saturn through these little custom controller boards...
And on the back is a normal saturn video cable. This one outputs RGB from the console.
Both the video output and the controller boards connect to the timer board using this edge connector.
Atop the timer board is this weird daughter board. I have never seen this kind of board before, and I'm not too sure what it does. Newer versions of this kit have no connection for this type of board, and thus it isn't labeled anywhere. I think it *might* be some sort of on-screen display that is genlocked over the game image, but I'm not sure. The unit doesn't have any images over gameplay, but it might need to be enabled with dipswitches. Which, speaking of...
These dipswitches control how much time each credit gives you, and also how many credits are needed for time. I.e. 2 credits for 1 minute. I have no idea what the settings are, as finding info about this older board is near impossible. I'll have to go through them one by one to check out what settings there are.
The output is standard JAMMA. Adding a bit of weirdness to the mystery board, it has 4 wires soldered onto the JAMMA edge connector running to the mysterious board to a port labeled "Header". Looking up the JAMMA pinout standard, those wires are running to Player 1 and Player 2's up and down buttons (directions on the joystick). Weird....
The unit itself works much like the MGCD Dreamcast -- the unit disables the input from the controllers until there is time on the timer board, which is added by coins. Unlike the MGCD Dreamcast, this kit doesn't do any screen reading stuff to interface directly with certain games. That provides a bit of universal game access, but they are all of the "timer" variety. The thing outputs the Jamma standard - 3 buttons per player plus coin and start, plus RGB. The timer board itself is powered by the +5 from the Jamma Harness, but the saturn itself is powered by a normal outlet. 3 button only support would normally be quite a killer, but since the controller board is completely exposed, it would be an absolute snap to rig up a kickharness for extra buttons on the cabinet. Otherwise, it's still perfect for things like Fighters Megamix, which only use 3 buttons anyways.
This kit was pulled from a real cabinet and was actually used back in the 90's. The saturn used in this conversion is actually a PAL saturn, and thus it requires 220V input and I need to use a Step up converter and a terminal changing adapter (which I luckily have spares of laying around) to get it running here in the US. I could swap out an NTSC Saturn, but I don't particularly feel any need to. I dropped a PAR Saturn cart inside and thus can play the entire saturn library (although, amusingly, I have to insert credits for time to boot the game from the PAR menu).
All in all, cool as shit, if only to get Fighters Megamix working on a real deal arcade cabinet.
This is a Sega Saturn to Jamma conversion kit. It's intended, like the MGCD Dreamcast, to let arcade operators run Sega Saturn games on arcade cabinets. This one is a bit generic, the kit itself doesn't seem to have a name or specific manufacturer but there are tons of this same kit out there for lots of systems, namely PS2 and Xbox. This specific kit seems really, really old; the components on it look much older than Xbox kits I've seen.
Unlike the MGCD Dreamcast to Jamma kit, this kit has some pots on the conversion board to change the R, G, and B intensity, along with a volume pot.
The kit interfaces to the saturn through these little custom controller boards...
And on the back is a normal saturn video cable. This one outputs RGB from the console.
Both the video output and the controller boards connect to the timer board using this edge connector.
Atop the timer board is this weird daughter board. I have never seen this kind of board before, and I'm not too sure what it does. Newer versions of this kit have no connection for this type of board, and thus it isn't labeled anywhere. I think it *might* be some sort of on-screen display that is genlocked over the game image, but I'm not sure. The unit doesn't have any images over gameplay, but it might need to be enabled with dipswitches. Which, speaking of...
These dipswitches control how much time each credit gives you, and also how many credits are needed for time. I.e. 2 credits for 1 minute. I have no idea what the settings are, as finding info about this older board is near impossible. I'll have to go through them one by one to check out what settings there are.
The output is standard JAMMA. Adding a bit of weirdness to the mystery board, it has 4 wires soldered onto the JAMMA edge connector running to the mysterious board to a port labeled "Header". Looking up the JAMMA pinout standard, those wires are running to Player 1 and Player 2's up and down buttons (directions on the joystick). Weird....
The unit itself works much like the MGCD Dreamcast -- the unit disables the input from the controllers until there is time on the timer board, which is added by coins. Unlike the MGCD Dreamcast, this kit doesn't do any screen reading stuff to interface directly with certain games. That provides a bit of universal game access, but they are all of the "timer" variety. The thing outputs the Jamma standard - 3 buttons per player plus coin and start, plus RGB. The timer board itself is powered by the +5 from the Jamma Harness, but the saturn itself is powered by a normal outlet. 3 button only support would normally be quite a killer, but since the controller board is completely exposed, it would be an absolute snap to rig up a kickharness for extra buttons on the cabinet. Otherwise, it's still perfect for things like Fighters Megamix, which only use 3 buttons anyways.
This kit was pulled from a real cabinet and was actually used back in the 90's. The saturn used in this conversion is actually a PAL saturn, and thus it requires 220V input and I need to use a Step up converter and a terminal changing adapter (which I luckily have spares of laying around) to get it running here in the US. I could swap out an NTSC Saturn, but I don't particularly feel any need to. I dropped a PAR Saturn cart inside and thus can play the entire saturn library (although, amusingly, I have to insert credits for time to boot the game from the PAR menu).
All in all, cool as shit, if only to get Fighters Megamix working on a real deal arcade cabinet.
