Author: pcbjunkie

I rewrote and updated the IC label tool to run on the current web platform. The tool is now back and functioning again.

The repository for common device pinouts is here. Let me know if you would like to see other devices added.

The tool itself is here:

• Single Image Pin Label Tool
• Tiled Image Pin Label Tool

Single image requires the correct DPI of your printer to generate label of the correct size. Tiled image can be scaled to fit the size of your printer’s paper.

In addition to this rewrite, I put in several code and functional enchancements:

• Changed the default DPI setting to 600 instead of the usual 203 for thermal label printers.
• Added PDF generation capability which should help with printing at the correct size.
• Fixed a bug with fontsize scaling when changing DPI.
• Font size can now also be changed in the tool.
• Default font is larger and more clear.
• Added device name to the generated lablel.
• Added pin 1 marker.
• Added padding to each image tile to make cutting labels easier.
• Cleaned up the tool HTML pages to make it more intuitive.
• Fixed several other bugs.

Enjoy!

There’s been barely any time to work on new designs but I’ve made some progress. The following new adapters have been designed and are in prototype stage at the moment:

• Nintendo Cabinet Adapter – to play JAMMA boards in your DK upright or other cabs.
• Nintendo TKG3 Cabinet Adapter – to play JAMMA boards in your DK cocktail.
• Nintendo TKG3 to TKG4 Adapter – converts TKG3 (small) DK board to TKG4 (big) pinout.
• Taito Grand Champion – for the Taito driving game.
• Taito Buggy Challenge – for the other Taito driving game.
• Cinematronics Ataxx – for the trackball Cinematronics strategy joystick / trackball game.
• MCR Cabinet Adapter – play JAMMA games in your Midway MCR cabs.

These have been completed and tested and are now either available for sale or soon to be released.

• Atari Cloak and Dagger – for the 2 joystick Atari Classic
• Atari Liberator – for the Atari trackball game.
• Artic Mars – the the uncommon Artic game that is not a bootleg.
• The Pit – The Zilec / Centuri boulder dash like game.
• Jack the Giant Killer – Cinematronics. Should also be compatible with other Cinematronics / Hara Industries games.
• SNK Marvin’s Maze – For SNK’s game of the same title, and a couple of other ones.
• Polaris – Taito. May work on other Tatio games.
• Cook Race – Common bootleg version of Burgertime.
• Zaccaria. For games like Jackrabbit, Money Money.
• Atari Pole Position. For the popular driving game licensed from Namco / Atari
• Bally Sente SAC-1. Main adapter board tested and working but adapter requires additional control mappers..
• Bally Midway Super Pacman – For Midway’s North American release of Super Pacman.
• Astro Invaders – Stern / Konami. Cage system developed for Stern by Konami.
• Astro Fighter – DECO / Sega Gremlin. Unique pinout.
• Nintendo Donkey Kong TKG3 – For the small 3 stack variant of Donkey Kong and Radar Scope.
• DECO Mad Rider / Mad Alien. DECO cage system. Unique pinout.
• DECO Cassette – For the DECO Cassette cage system.
• Operation Thunderbolt – for the Taito gun game.

These are still work in progress.

• Taito L-Shape Space Invaders – This is for the original Taito, non-North American version of Space Invaders. Prototype stage.
• Tehkan World Cup – This also covers the other two games in the pinout class, including Tee’d Off, Gridiron Fight, and of course Tehkan World Cup. This is for the non-bootleg boards that use trackballs. Joystick -> trackball conversion is built in.
• Gorf – The Midway cage system. Adapter includes video conversion (YUV -> RGB) and sound amplification. All cage games like Wizard of Wor, Gorf, Robby Roto have unique pinouts. Working prototype stage.
• Wizard of Wor – Midway cage. See above. Working prototype stage.
• Atari Warlords – For the uncommon atari spinner game. Joystick to spinner conversion included for testing. Prototype stage.
• Bally Midway MCR. For the MCR-1, 2, and MCR-3 system boards. This adapter also requires control mapper boards. Working prototype stage.
• Bally Midway Monoboard. For MCR monoboards. A number of MCR games exist on this system (Two Tigers, Sarge, Demolition Derby), as well as unique games (Rampage, RPM Racing, Xenophobe, Spy Hunter II). Control mappers required. Prototype stage.
• Sega Gremlin G80 – Cage system. For games like Astro Blaster. Supporting only raster for now. Working prototype.
• Sega Gremlin VIC / Dual – For games like Invinco, Head On 1/2, Depth Charge and many others. Both Black and White and color games will be supported. Early prototype.

Probably one or two more that I’m forgetting about. I have also switched pcb fabrication to another vendor which produces better boards. There were too many quality issues with the old vendor. Many of the older adapters, about 2 dozen of them, were updated with additional features, better silkscreen quality and improved soldermask.

Keep an eye out for these on my store or this site. Thanks for checking this out and your continued support!

I’ve completed and am about to release JAMMA adapters for the earliest DECO hardware. This includes the following:

• Mad Alien
• Astro Fighter
• DECO Cassette System

With the release of the above, about 95% of the DECO / early Data East pre JAMMA boards can now be converted with my adapters. I will still need to verify compatibility for Space Fighter and Super Break which I believe are compatible with Astro Fighter.

Thanks to Brian (Scuba) and Patrick+Sam for helping make this happen!

I have been sitting on these for too long. I have had barely any time these days to update this site and support any more new products, but with the quite obvious slowdown in the hobby, this is probably a good time.

The new JAMMA adapters are:

• Zaccaria
• Cinematronics / Jack the Giantkiller
• The Pit

Between the three, there is a total of about a dozen new games that can be converted. Check the updated conversion guide for more info.

I haven’t posted an update in a while. At this point, with 120 JAMMA adapters, the majority of my time is spent filling orders and less developing new projects. While I had some help a while back, it didn’t work out and I’m now back to doing all of the work myself. This includes assembly, running the store, filling orders, packing and shipping.

Nevertheless, I managed to design a number of new adapters recently. Here’s the list and status:

• Taito L-Shape Space Invaders – This is for the original Taito, non-North American version of Space Invaders. Prototype stage.
• Tehkan World Cup – This also covers the other two games in the pinout class, including Tee’d Off, Gridiron Fight, and of course Tehkan World Cup. This is for the non-bootleg boards that use trackballs. Joystick -> trackball conversion is built in.
• The Pit – The Zilec / Centuri boulder dash like game. Ready for release.
• Gorf – The Midway cage system. Adapter includes video conversion (YUV -> RGB) and sound amplification. All cage games like Wizard of Wor, Gorf, Robby Roto have unique pinouts. Working prototype stage.
• Wizard of Wor – Midway cage. See above. Working prototype stage.
• Jack the Giant Killer – Cinematronics. Should also be compatible with other cinematronics games like Zzyzzyxx, Freeze, and possibly others as many run on this hardware, though that hasn’t been confirmed and verified. Ready for release.
• Polaris – Taito. May work on other Tatio games. Ready for release.
• Cook Race – Common bootleg version of Burgertime. Ready for release.
• Zaccaria. For games like Jackrabbit, Money Money. Zaccaria made many games with unique pinouts and only a handful with this pinout here. Ready for release.
• Atari Warlords – For the uncommon atari spinner game. Joystick to spinner conversion included for testing. Prototype stage.
• Atari Pole Position. For the popular driving game licensed from Namco which has a different “Atari” pinout. Analog controls are simulated with a mictrocontroller. Late prototype stage.
• Bally Sente SAC-1. For the cart system. The adapter requires additional control mappers as controls for each cart are pretty much unique. Beta testing nearly complete.
• Bally Midway MCR. For the MCR-1, 2, and MCR-3 system boards. This adapter also requires control mapper boards. Working prototype stage.
• Bally Midway Monoboard. For MCR monoboards. A number of MCR games exist on this system (Two Tigers, Sarge, Demolition Derby), as well as unique games (Rampage, RPM Racing, Xenophobe, Spy Hunter II). Control mappers required. Prototype stage.
• Bally Midway Super Pacman – the second iteration of this adapter with less confusing front entry female connectors. Beta testing.
• Astro Invaders – Stern / Konami. Cage system developed for Stern by Konami. Unique pinout. Ready for release.
• Astro Fighter – DECO / Sega Gremlin. Unique pinout. Prototype stage.
• Nintendo Donkey Kong TKG3 – For the small 3 stack variant of Donkey Kong and Radar Scope. Beta testing.
• Sega Gremlin G80 – Cage system. For games like Astro Blaster. Supporting only raster for now. Early prototype.
• Sega Gremlin VIC / Dual – For games like Invinco, Head On 1/2, Depth Charge and many others. Both Black and White and color games will be supported.
• DECO Mad Rider / Mad Alien. DECO cage system. Unique pinout. Design complete, starting prototype stage.
• DECO Cassette. Design complete, starting prototype stage.

Probably one or two more that I’m forgetting about. Keep an eye out for these on my store or this site. Thanks for checking this out and your continued support!

This site is going to be migrated to a new service provider in the next couple of days. The site may go down temporarily as this takes place.

There are some issues booting earlier versions of Retropie on new versions of the Raspberry Pi4 manufactured in 2022… not that you would be able to get one anywhere. If you do manage to get a new Pi somehow, Retropie 4.8 will address this issue for you.

Tearing and jitter on a Pi4 is still horrible and I would strongly suggest everyone avoid the Pi4 for emulation for the time being.

That said, the images are now available on the PJ images page right here. Please report any issues.

The company that does the hosting for me had a datacenter failure, and many of my virtual servers got corrupted in the process. This has been going on for the last few days.

This is a fresh restore from an earlier backup. Some pages and files, mainly the retropie images for the PJ adapter, are still missing. I’m working on it and most of the stuff should be back online this evening.

I’m going to take the opportunity to make some software updates as well, and may do periodic restarts as this takes place.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

Here’s my newest robot controller. I’ve been working on more of these, in fact I have completed several already, just haven’t had a chance to do a proper write up about them.

These controllers are just some of the projects my son and I did a while back as a learning excercise, with the end goal to automate some wire, shrikwrap cutting and pin bending tasks that we do around here.

Check out the project page here. I’ll be posting some videos of this thing in action when I get around to it. In the mean time you can grab the gerbers and source code and start using these to make your own cutting projects.

This was developed as open source and open hardware project. It was made to be easily understood for a beginner and can be made using inexpensive and readily available parts. You can modify this design for any purpose you feel appropriate. I can only provide minimum support and no warranty of any kind.

Short post today….

So it turns out that some of these BurgerTime don’t use composite sync and will have issues connecting to a JAMMA setup.

I’ve been sitting on this information for a few months already, got distracted and forgot to post it. It came back to me when I found this version of the board for sale recently. So… here it is, the information on this specific issue and a mod to address it can be found at the following page:

Data East 20 Pin Video Connector

Hopefully this will be useful to someone out there.