MAMEWorld Forums - Hardware - New guy here: MAME in SF2 Cabinet

> Hi Guys,
>
> About 5 years ago I setup a custom controller that I used the I-pac with. My PC ran
> MAME and CP3 Emulators well, which I outputted to my big screen in my living room.
> All of this stuff was rarely used and so bulky and cumbersome to set up, the
> controller and PC has stayed in the garage and collected dust.
>
> Over the weekend I managed to get my hands on a classic SF2 machine, see here:
>
>
> While I love the original SF2 game, I'd like to be able to play the other versions of
> SF2 (Hyper, Alpha 3, marvel vs. capcom) as well as SF3 Third Strike. This reminded me
> of my MAME setup that I had going a few years ago.
>
> I'd like to be able to play the MAME games in this SF2 cabinet, while retaining the
> ability to play the original SF2 Jamma.
>

I'll help aslong as you don't mutilate the cab

> I'm thinking I can go about this a few ways.
>
> Controls:
> Since I already have the I-pac interface, I could wire up the I-pac along with the
> wires that connect to the original SF2 jamma in parallel, I would think they could
> work simultaneously. Or to make things easier, I could buy the J-pac and plug it into
> the Jamma connector, and maybe get a Jamma switcher to make swapping between MAME and
> the original SF2 Jamma easy.
>
> What would you recommend?

J-Pac is by far the best method. You might wanna just unplug the harness from the old board and plug it into the PC as and when you need it. Same goes for power, and infact, disconnect the powersupply AC when using a PC, otherwise you could damage it.

> Display:
> I need to somehow be able to see the output from the PC on the Arcade monitor. I saw
> that Ultimarc makes this ArcadeVGA card, but its only available in PCIe, and
> unfortunately my PC has only AGP or PCI card slots.
>
> Would I be able to use soft15hz for this? How would I be able to tell?

People still sell their old ArcadeVGA on forums and eBay, especially the AGP one.

> Emulation:
> The MAME I used to run was MAME32, and that was several years ago. What is now the
> standard MAME that people use? I had to run SF3 Third Strike using a separate
> emulator, I believe it was called CPS Emulator. From what I recall, it ran pretty
> well.
>
> Are there MAMEs that can run SF3 Third Strike along with all of the other games
> without me having to run separate emulators? I'd like to be able to have everything
> in one emulator.

The current build of MAME emulates the CPS-3 which ran those games I believe. Since not many like to use the "vanilla" build of MAME, look about for frontends and choose one you like the look of.

> Thanks in advance for your help.