[HN Gopher] JAMMA Video Standard
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       JAMMA Video Standard
        
       Author : ingve
       Score  : 126 points
       Date   : 2021-08-15 07:16 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mistys-internet.website)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mistys-internet.website)
        
       | notRobot wrote:
       | Very interesting article, but title isn't super accurate. From
       | the article, JVS is an I/O (or just input?) standard, not video
       | standard.
        
         | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
         | The standard itself also covers video, it's just that the video
         | part is little more than "use a regular VGA connector and one
         | of these approved modes", so converting that part isn't the
         | sort of thing one writes an article about.
        
       | codetrotter wrote:
       | > If I can't go to the arcade, at least I can bring a favourite
       | game home, right?
       | 
       | Wait, you guys have arcades where you live?? There used to be a
       | proper arcade in my city years ago but it shut down.
       | 
       | These days the closest we get are a couple of bars that have lots
       | of arcade games. But it's not the same. Because it feels like a
       | bar, not an arcade, even though arcade machines are there.
       | 
       | Where can I move to that there are real arcades?
        
         | heisenbugtastic wrote:
         | Denver: https://the1uparcadebar.com This place is awesome,
         | beers, games, bar food.
        
         | dfxm12 wrote:
         | Can you describe what a "real" or "proper" arcade does feel
         | like, if not a place with lots of arcade games?
         | 
         | Maybe one of these would fit your description: galloping ghost
         | in IL, Asheville pinball museum in NC, Game Galaxy in TN.
        
           | zeven7 wrote:
           | A chain option I assume you can find lots of places depending
           | on whether OP considers it a real arcade or a bar: Dave &
           | Buster's
        
       | TacticalCoder wrote:
       | Noooo HN, don't get me started again : )
       | 
       | I've got a vintage arcade cab at home, with its old CRT, since a
       | few years now: originally it wasn't a JAMMA cab then someone
       | modified it to be JAMMA because at some point JAMMA "won" in the
       | arcade world. Everything is still working, including the money
       | slots (they're still using old 20 "Francs", belgian coins that is
       | and I still have 4 of these coins). But I wired a button to the
       | pin that adds money: easier/faster. I put one my PCB in "free
       | play" mode too (using dip switches on the PCB itself).
       | 
       | I've got a few original PCBs and some bootlegs, all vintage.
       | 
       | But mostly I'm hooking a Raspberry with a Pi2JAMMA adapter and
       | then I've got thousands of games working (most are crap, some are
       | little gems).
       | 
       | When it's all JAMMA it's convenient: I can just swap PCBs or the
       | Raspberry Pi and turn the machine on and everything just works.
       | 
       | On a semi-related sidenote many criticize old arcade game saying
       | they were "exploitative because you had to put coins" but,
       | honestly, I find that complete bullshit. If you played these
       | games a bit, you could get good at it and finish the game on one
       | credit, playing for 30 minutes or even 45 minutes on one coin.
       | 
       | I can guarantee you: many modern games are much exploitative than
       | these old arcade games. Be it in-game ads or in-game buying or
       | all the A/B testing to make sure its addictive etc.
       | 
       | Another benefit of these old arcade games: they're simpler, which
       | kids do love. My six years old daughter loves our arcade machine
       | and often asks me: _" Dad please, can we turn the arcade on?"_. I
       | don't have to worry about her getting ads or disturbing videos or
       | being spied upon.
       | 
       | Then of course playing Robotron 2084 with two joysticks, as it is
       | meant to be played (no buttons used in that game) is great. The
       | fast-paced action, incredible responsiveness and original
       | controls (one joystick to move in eight directions, the other
       | joystick to fire in eight directions) makes for timeless fun.
       | 
       | I don't play games on PCs / console since a very long time. But
       | once in a while I turn on the good old arcade and play a bit...
       | 
       | It's a great thing to have at home.
       | 
       | Wife loves it: it's in the living room. It has presence too.
       | Visitors typically loves it, even if they're not into videogames
       | at all.
       | 
       | It also doubles as a very convenient laptop stand!
        
         | flatiron wrote:
         | Are you running the latest version of mame on your pi? I've
         | always used amd64 on my arcade cab so I can not run 20 year old
         | mame builds.
        
           | TacticalCoder wrote:
           | I should know better (I've got lots of RPis I installed
           | myself) but in this case I really don't know: a friend of
           | mine just dd'ed his working setup on to a memory card.
        
         | Nbox9 wrote:
         | > If you played these games a bit, you could get good at it and
         | finish the game on one credit, playing for 30 minutes or even
         | 45 minutes on one coin.
         | 
         | This varies a bit depending on the game, but it's safe to say
         | that the average play on an average arcade game is much less
         | than 30 minutes per credit. For example, one game of Dance
         | Dance Revolution typically consists of three 90 second songs
         | with the option of earning a fourth bonus song as a reward for
         | skill. Factoring in sixty seconds for menus between songs a
         | player will play between 7-10 minutes a credit. This number is
         | much closer to what the average game targets. You'll see
         | similar numbers in pinball and racing games.
        
           | dfxm12 wrote:
           | For the aforementioned robotron and games of that era, you're
           | mostly limited by your skill. You won't get a game over until
           | you die. Look up a record breaking score run. It'll last
           | hours. Of course, you can't get that good until you sink a
           | ton of credits into the game...
           | 
           | It was mostly in the 90s when they figured out they should
           | probably limit game length per credit, like a restaurant
           | trying to turn over a table as many times as possible. Stuff
           | like NBA Jam and Street Fighter II set the stage for that
           | even before DDR.
        
       | Jeema101 wrote:
       | Some of the terminology used in the arcade world is a bit
       | confusing, so just to clarify:
       | 
       | 'JAMMA' is the original arcade standard developed in the 1980s.
       | It specified a standardized edge connector pinout to interface an
       | arcade PCB with the rest of the arcade cabinet (i.e the power,
       | video, sound, and controls).
       | 
       | 'JAMMA 2' aka 'JAMMA Video Standard' aka 'JVS' was/is a successor
       | standard that made things a bit easier by using separate
       | connectors for video, I/O, etc. instead of putting everything on
       | one giant edge connector. That standard is what this article is
       | about.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Amusement_Machine_and_Ma...
        
       | detaro wrote:
       | RS-485 over USB connectors... AAAAHHHH! (Presumably to reuse
       | common connectors and cheaply available cables over more custom
       | things, but still a bit surprising for something as simple as
       | RS-485 - seeing this more nowadays with devices using HDMI and
       | USB3 cables, because they are cheaply available cables with
       | somewhat defined performance for highspeed signals)
        
       | zinekeller wrote:
       | It's just titled "Exploring JVS", but if clarification is needed
       | "video" should be dropped out of the HN title.
        
         | city41 wrote:
         | If the title was just "JAMMA Standard", then that would suggest
         | the original JAMMA standard from the 80s. JVS is its successor,
         | and unfortunately has a confusing name.
        
       | gugagore wrote:
       | from the title, I expected this to be a standard for video
       | signals (like NTSC), and was excited to learn about a video
       | standard I had never heard of.
        
       | darig wrote:
       | Absolutely no one calls it JVS... it's JAMMA. Explore that.
        
       | btown wrote:
       | Asking the question that the title (incorrectly) implies: were
       | there standard formats or codecs in which arcade games _encoded_
       | their promotional intro videos that would loop to bring in new
       | players? Or was this more or less at the manufacturer 's
       | discretion? As one of the most storage-hungry assets compared to
       | game logic, textures, and audio, there must have been tremendous
       | attention placed towards reducing the size of those videos.
        
         | ZFH wrote:
         | It's generally called 'Attract mode', and at least from what I
         | recall from the golden era arcade games (from the mid '80s up
         | until the mid '90s) it's never an intro video, rather something
         | done completely in-engine. Unless you're thinking lasergames,
         | but that's ... all video.
        
           | gugagore wrote:
           | You must mean
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Laser_Games , which
           | uses the random-access capabilities of a laserdisc player.
        
         | Nextgrid wrote:
         | I think a lot of demos wouldn't be videos, instead it actually
         | plays the game for real by feeding it a set of pre-recorded
         | inputs.
        
         | anothermoron wrote:
         | Isn't the attract mode just a demo using in-game graphics most
         | of the time ?
        
         | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-15 23:02 UTC)