----------------------------------------------------------------------------. Title : Arcade Game Pinouts : Date : 09-January-2003 : Source : taken from the Conversion FAQ v1.1 : by Doug Jefferys, Steve Ozdemir : and pinout identification by Tim Lindquist : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------. : +---------. : 1) Pinouts \ : ------------`---------------------------------------------------------------. : 1.1) JAMMA. : : The JAMMA standard was invented in 1985; any game older than : this will not be JAMMA. JAMMA (Japan Arcade Machine Manufacturers' : Association) is a standard 56-way connector used on many arcade : boards to simplify conversion of cabinets from one game to another. : The majority of newer games use a subset of this pinout. Some games : (i.e., Street Fighter) which need extra buttons have extra : connectors for these additional controls. The JAMMA connector has a : .156" (3.96mm) pin spacing edge connector (male on the game board). : For reference, here is the JAMMA pinout: : : --------------------------------------------------------- : Solder Side | Parts Side : ----------------------------+---------------------------- : GND | A | 1 | GND : GND | B | 2 | GND : +5V | C | 3 | +5V : +5V | D | 4 | +5V : -5V | E | 5 | -5V : +12V | F | 6 | +12V : - KEY - | H | 7 | - KEY - : Coin Counter #2 | J | 8 | Coin Counter #1 : Lock Out Coil #2 | K | 9 | Lock Out Coil #1 : Speaker (-) | L | 10| Speaker (+) : | M | 11| : Video Green | N | 12| Video Red : Video Sync | P | 13| Video Blue : Service Switch | R | 14| Video GND : Tilt Switch | S | 15| Test Switch : Coin Switch #2 | T | 16| Coin Switch #1 : 2P Start | U | 17| 1P Start : 2P Up | V | 18| 1P Up : 2P Down | W | 19| 1P Down : 2P Left | X | 20| 1P Left : 2P Right | Y | 21| 1P Right : 2P Button 1 | Z | 22| 1P Button 1 : 2P Button 2 | a | 23| 1P Button 2 : 2P Button 3 | b | 24| 1P Button 3 : | c | 25| : | d | 26| : GND | e | 27| GND : GND | f | 28| GND : ---------------------------------------------------------- : : 1.2) Konami. : : We're also including the Konami standard pinout, as it was : also used on many games by many different manufacturers. : : ------------------------------------------------------ : Solder Side | Parts Side : -------------------------+---------------------------- : -5V | A | 1 | +12V : Speaker | B | 2 | Speaker : 2P Button 2 | C | 3 | 2P Button 1 : 2P Left | D | 4 | 2P Right : 1P Start | E | 5 | 2P Start : 1P Button 2 | F | 6 | 2P Up : 1P Button 1 | H | 7 | Service Switch : 1P Right | J | 8 | 1P Left : 1P Up | K | 9 | 2P Down : Coin (1) | L | 10| Coin (2) : 1P Down | M | 11| Coin Counter #1 : 1P Button 3 | N | 12| Coin Counter #2 : Video Green | P | 13| Video Blue : Video Red | R | 14| Video Sync : | S | 15| : GND | T | 16| GND : GND | U | 17| GND : +5V | V | 18| +5V : ------------------------------------------------------ : : +---------------------. : 2) Identifying pinouts \ : ------------------------`---------------------------------------------------. : Identifying pinouts of unknown boards can be difficult. : We offer the following approach: : : 1) Do you already have a copy of the game's pinout? If so, : you're done. (Make sure you've got the *right* copy of : the game's pinouts. Moon Cresta, for instance, was made : by at least four different manufacturers, three of whom : used different pinouts...) : : 2) Is the manufacturer shown? If so, who are they, and do : you have any copies of pinouts by the same manufacturer? : If so, compare them; do they "make sense" if you try them : against the method outlined in steps 4-8) below? : : 3) If it's a Japanese name, and a fairly new board, and it's : got a 56-pin connector, it's probably JAMMA. Still, it : always pays to double-check before you plug something in : based on your assumptions. There *ARE* 56-pin connectors : which aren't JAMMA, so the double-check is still important. : : 4) Okay, now you're desperate :-) Get a list of all the : pinouts that you *DO* know. : : 5) Eliminate any pinouts with connectors that don't match : the board in question. : : 6) Look at telltale markers, like the power pins; you should : be able to identify +5V and GND fairly easily by tracing : backwards from some TTL chips. Using this, and the number : of pins on the connector, should allow you to eliminate a : few more pinouts. : : 7) With the few pinouts you have left, look for audio and video : pins. These are generally grouped together; two pins going : to the same location (often a heat-sinked audio amplifier : chip) will probably be audio, and four pins, three of which : go to one chip and a fourth of which goes to a nearby chip, : will likely be video. Large groupings of pins that go : through resistors and/or diodes will likely be control : input pins. : : 8) *NOW* do you have a match? If so, start "experimenting"; : make a few assumptions and try powering the board up : without any video or controls connected and "experiment" : by looking for fluctuating signals (characteristic of video : or audio) on the pins. This is a fairly involved process, : but can be simplified greatly by use of a partially- : constructed adaptor to your current wiring harness. : (Indeed, this is one of the reasons adaptors are fairly : popular; they often get created through the process of : determining the pinout from an otherwise unknown board) : : Note that this can be something of a risky procedure if you : don't know what you're doing. For your first few times, : you may want to do everything except powering up the board. : Write down your best guesses, describe the board, and ask : the 'net if anyone out there recognizes it and knows the : pinouts. You might just get lucky, and if your guesses : were right, you'll give your self-confidence a great boost. : : 2.1) Determining pinouts with a volt meter (more ways to figure it out). : : We know where +5V and ground are because almost all EPROMs have : +5V on the upper right pin (notch facing up) and ground on the : lower left pin, so we use our volt meter on the ohms setting to : find the pins on the edge connector with close to 0 resistance to : those pins on an EPROM. +5V and ground is enough to power 90% of : the boards out there. : : We now need to find the video outputs. First, connect video : ground to any ground and turn the power on. Then, take the : composite sync wire and run it along the remaining pins until : you get raster. It's safe to run it along any pins we like at : this point because all we have hooked up right now is ground and : +5V, both of which are safe to touch with the sync wire. Even : with no colors hooked up, you can tell when you find sync because : you will get solid black raster, which is different from no : raster. You will know. Next, we need some color. Green video is : almost always right next to sync, so try touching the green video : wire to the pin left of or right of the sync. If you get a green : picture, swell. Otherwise, keep touching pins until you get a : green picture. Once you've found it, red and blue are sure to be : near by. Usually red is on the opposite side of green and blue is : opposite sync. Try those first, if not, the layout is usually red,: green, blue all in a row, so try either side of the green video. : Now we have power and video. If the picture colors look wrong : (red skies and blue explosions), try swapping around the colors : until things look right. : : Next we need to find the sound output. Sound amps almost always : need +12V for power. Power traces are usually thicker than inputs : and video, so we need to look for a thick trace that goes over to : the audio amp section of the board. Speaker + and - are usually : right next to the power. If the part number on the amp is : readable, it's usually pretty easy to find the pinouts for the : amp on the internet and double check your suspects that way. : : Next is inputs. This is pretty easy. Just take a wire, hold one : end to ground and run the other end along the remaining pins, : being carefull to avoid the power pins, until you get a credit. : That will be either coin 1 or coin 2. Repeat until you get : another credit on a different pin (which will be the other coin : input or the service switch) or until the game starts. Make note : whether it started a 1 or 2 player game so you'll know which it : was. Power down and repeat to find the other start pin. Once a : game is started, just repeat to find up, down, left, right, fire, : jump, or whatever else there is. : : Some boards need -5V to power audio or if the board has 4116 RAM : chips, they need -5V, too. -5V is on pin 1 of of 4116's (upper : left pin, notch facing up), so use your meter to find the -5V pin : on the edge connector. : : -5V is sometimes used for audio on some Konami games, but most : Konami game pinouts are listed on www.spies.com/arcade, so go : check there. =) (section provided by tim@arcadecollecting.com) : : 2.2) Unused connectors. : : If there are empty connectors on the board, don't panic. Some : boards have "test connectors" that are unused during normal : use. If you don't know whether a certain board or board set : is complete, ask the 'net if anyone knows "how many boards : and connectors were used in XYZ". : : +----------. : 3) Adaptors \ : -------------`--------------------------------------------------------------. : 3.1) Jammatization. : : Adaptors are one of the easiest and cheapest approaches to : doing conversions; this is why JAMMA cabinets are so popular : among collectors, even among those of us who prefer "classic" : games. Large collectors will often accumulate a series of : adaptors for their games, all of which convert to a standard : pinout, usually JAMMA. Although the process is the same as : building any other type of adaptor, the "random-raster-game : to JAMMA" conversion is so common that it has become known : colloquially as "Jammatization". : : 3.2) Construction techniques. : : There are two main approaches to adaptor construction. The : "right" approach for you will depend on what set of parts you : can most easily replace. : : Both approaches involve an XX-pin (female, and "XX" depends on : the board in question) edge connector for the non-JAMMA board : and a 56-pin "finger board" (a straight piece of PCB, also : known as a "male-to-male" connector), and a 56-pin (female) : edge connector for the JAMMA side. : : 1) Skip the 56-pin connector and solder the wires directly : from the XX-pin connector to the finger board. The : resulting finger board end of the adaptor can be plugged : directly into your JAMMA harness. You'll use one finger : board per adaptor. : : The end result would look something like this: : : --------< <---------->~~~~~\/~~~~~~~~~~------< : TO --------< <---------->~~~~~'\/~~~~~~~~~------< DIG : JAMMA --------< <---------->~~~~~~'\/~~~~~~~~------< DUG : WIRING --------< <---------->~~~~~~~'`~~~~~~~~------< PCB : HARNESS --------< <----------> /~~~~~~~~~------< : --------< <---------->~~~~~~' : 56-pin male-male Wires that map 44-pin : female PCB with JAMMA pinouts female : edge straight to 44-pin Dig edge : connector traces Dug pinout. connector : : Alternatively... : : 2) Instead of soldering the wires to the finger board, solder : the wires from the XX-pin connector to a 56-pin connector. : Plug one end of the finger board into the 56-pin connector, : and the other end into your JAMMA harness. : : Rather than using a finger board for each adaptor, you're : using one 56-pin connector per adaptor, as the finger board : can be used between different adaptors. : : The end result is reproduced here for quick reference. : : -------< <----------> >---------~~~~~\/~~~~~~~~~------< : TO -------< <----------> >---------~~~~~'\/~~~~~~~~------< DIG : JAMMA -------< <----------> >---------~~~~~~'\/~~~~~~~------< DUG : WIRING -------< <----------> >---------~~~~~~~'`~~~~~~~------< PCB : HARNESS -------< <----------> >--------- /~~~~~~~~------< : -------< <----------> >---------~~~~~~' : 56-pin male-male 56-pin Wires that map 44-pin : female PCB with female JAMMA pinouts female : edge straight edge to 44-pin Dig edge : connector traces connector Dug pinout. connector : : Like we said right at the introduction, the "right" : approach for you depends on your resources; this is a : perfect example. If you live near a surplus store that : has 56-pin female edge connectors for $1.00 apiece, but : you only have a few finger boards, grab a big pile of : connectors go with method 2. If it's easier to use : mail-order, and finger boards are half the price of edge : connectors, get a big pile of finger boards and go with : method 1. : : +----------------------------------------. : 4) RGB, Sync, polarity, and all that rot. \ : -------------------------------------------`--------------------------------. : 4.1) The Basics. : : Rick Schieve has written a text file on raster video basics; : check out reference {9.3.6} (Raster Monitors) in the bibliography : for more information, but we'll summarize the high points here. : : All raster monitors use generally the same set of inputs - : RGB, and some form of sync. RGB stands for "Red, Green, and : Blue", and denotes the colors of the beams. Sync is for : "synchronization", the process by which the electron beam in : a raster monitor sweeps across the screen. : : (You may have heard the terms "horizontal", "vertical", and : "composite" sync. For now, just consider "horizontal" sync to : be the sync pulse at the end of each line on the screen, the : "vertical" sync to be the pulse at the end of each screenful : of data, and "composite" sync to be a magical combination of : both. We'll get into the gory details soon enough :-) : : So far, so good, right? : : Wrong. While all these signals are common to raster games, : they come in different (and alas, incompatible) flavors. : Working around these difficulties can be one of the more : confusing problems for someone doing conversions. That's : where this FAQ comes in. We'll try and describe the common : variants, and give a few examples of games that use them. : You should be able to extend the approach to other games. : : 4.2) RGB polarity. : : While all raster monitors accept RGB inputs, they can have : either positive or negative logic. The majority of games use : positive logic (when the voltage is on, the electron gun turns : on, and you get a bright image), but Nintendo games use : negative logic, which works the other way around. : : RGB signals are analog signals; you'll need an analog inverter : to get around the problem; a CMOS hex inverter (say, a 4069), : which is designed to invert digital signals, won't work. To : be more precise, it theoretically *shouldn't* work, but on : the practical side, a few people have tried it and actually : managed to make it work. Your mileage may vary. One tip: if : you try this, make sure you ground all of your unused inputs. : : Meanwhile, the "right way" is to use an analog inversion : circuit for each of the three RGB signals. It requires a : +12V, -12V, and -5V supply, but some power supplies will : supply all three voltages. Thanks to Paul Kahler for the : original schematic and document. : : R3 : +-----/\/\/---------+ : | | : | |\ +-- +12V | : R1 | | \ | | : Input ------/\/\/------+-----|- \ | : | |LM318 \______|_______ Output : -5V --------/\/\/------+ +--|+ / : R2 | | /| : | | / | : | +-- -12V : GND : : R1, R2, and R3 are all identical resistors. A value of roughly : 10K should provide good results. The LM318 is a high-frequency : op-amp. Its pinouts are as follows: : : 1 Comp/bal 8 Comp : 2 -in 7 V+ : 3 +in 6 output : 4 V- 5 Comp/bal : : The "Comp" pins may be ignored. An LF356 might also work, but : the 741 is not recommended. : : 4.3) Sync polarity. : : Now that we can generate the RGB signals our monitor requires, : we still have to put the signals on the screen in an orderly : fashion. The is what the "sync" signals are for. : : Again, we run into the problem that some boards produce : negative sync, and some don't. Fortunately, since all sync : signals are digital, the process is much simpler; using a : *really* fast CMOS hex inverter is a perfectly legitimate way : around the problem. A TTL inverter should also work; all sync : signals generally operate at TTL levels. Still, this is dicey : business, so your mileage may still vary. : : 4.4) Composite versus Separate Sync. : : Now that you know how to invert syncs, you're ready for the : last bit - the two flavors of syncs and how to mix and match : them. : : Older monitors often had separate sync inputs; one for : horizontal sync (the retracing of the beam across the screen), : and one for vertical sync (the return of the beam from the : bottom of the screen to the top of the screen). : : Newer games (but also many older ones) used monitors which : accepted composite sync; the two signals were combined together : on the board, and a bit of circuitry in the monitor determines : whether a given sync pulse is a horizontal or vertical retrace. : : If you have an older game that outputs separate syncs, and : a newer monitor that can only accept composite sync, you can : combine the two using digital logic. Simply "OR" the two : signals together with a TTL chip to obtain the composite sync : signal. : : Since both composite and separate syncs can be positive or : negative, it may be necessary to invert the composite sync : signal after the ORing stage. If this is the case, just : use a NOR gate instead. : : 4.5) Sync shortcuts. : : If you've got schematics for your games, take a closer look : at them. The game's wiring harness may show separate syncs, : but the schematic itself may show that there are unused pins : for composite sync. All the old Williams games (Defender, : Stargate, Joust, Robotron, etc...) are like this, as is : Atari's Missile Command. : : A little schematic-browsing can make your life much easier. : : One last cheat -- if your monitor only supports separate : sync, you may be able to get away with connecting a composite : sync signal to either the horizontal input or to both inputs. : No guarantees, but you might as well try it as a "first shot". : : +------------. : 5) Inversion. \ : ---------------`------------------------------------------------------------. : 5.1) Smoke and mirrors. : : Some games have mirrors in the cabinets which reflect the : video output. This is great, if you're playing Asteroids : Deluxe in the original cabinet. This sucks, however, if : you're trying to put an Asteroids Deluxe boards in a : conventional Asteroids cabinet. Most of these games have pins : on their edge connectors for X- and Y-inversion; pulling these : pins high (+5V) or low (GND) will invert the image in the : appropriate axis. Play around until you've got something : that looks right on your screen. : : 5.2) Cocktails, anyone? : : To further complicate things, some games have "cocktail" pins, : which are pulled high or low depending on the wiring harness. : On upright games, the signal on the "cocktail" pin tells the : game *not* to invert the image when player 2 is up. On : cocktail machines, the signal tells the game *to* invert : player 2's image. : : Finally, and this is the *really* weird one, some games use : both approaches -- a PLAYER1 and a PLAYER2 pin, for instance, : were used on the Asteroids cocktail machine, both to activate : and de-activate the two players' control panels, but also to : control video inversion. : : Our point here is not to confuse - merely to say that if the : game appears upside-down or backwards for no apparent reason, : you should probably take a closer look at the pinouts. It's : amazing the number of variations that are out there, and it's : sometimes a miracle that things show up correctly at all! : Again, our earlier rule of thumb applies: If you don't like : what you see, play with it until you do. : : As a last shot - sometimes it's not on the pins at all. More : recent games control their "cocktail" versus "upright" behavior : by means of a DIP switch setting. Fiddle with these if you : think you've tried *everything*... : : 5.3) It's *STILL* upside-down! : : Finally, with vertically-mounted games, there are no : guarantees. Some manufacturers believed that a monitor : should be rotated 90 degrees to the right, and some believed : it should be rotated 90 degrees to the left. So you're not : the only person who's confused. The whole industry was : confused at one time or another, and this is the historical : result. : : What this means is that if you've tried all of the above : techniques, and you've got a game designed for a vertically- : mounted monitor, you may be out of luck. The manufacturer of : that game used the same monitor, but they turned it the other : way around. : : You can get around this by reversing the wires to the : deflection coils on the neck of the monitor (and if you're : really fancy, installing a switch to go back and forth : whenever you like), but like most monitor work, this is a : fairly advanced modification, and we recommend that you be : absolutely certain that you know what you're doing before you : try this. : : Remember, monitor hacking can be a dangerous sport unless you : know what you're doing and take proper safety precautions. : Keep in mind that with all the space you've saved doing : conversions, you can probably squeeze in another cabinet. : Replacing *yourself* is much more difficult. If you've never : hacked on a monitor before, ask some folks on the 'net about : proper safety procedures (such as discharging the tube, etc.) : before you begin. : : +---------------------------------------------------------------------------.