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November 17, 2010

Arcade JAMMA Testing Tool.

I made a tool to quickly test the JAMMA connector on an arcade machine. The tool had a on board PIC Micro Controller that had a selection to display a color bar pattern or a grid test pattern. Voltage was indicated by 2 LEDs and one LED bar graph.

This tool made testing VERY fast, just unplug the game board and pop in the tester. It tested for:

  • 12VDC – Yellow LED on/off
  • -5VDC – Red LED on/off
  • 5VDC – LED bar to indicate 5V level
  • Color bar pattern output to the monitor (15KHz only)
  • Grid test pattern output to the monitor (15KHz only)

Description of what JAMMA is:

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″ pin spacing edge connector (male on the game board).

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