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| Ven
0th Post
 
New Customer
|  "Japanese Arcade Supplies"
, posted Sat 11 May 03:16
I figure this is a good place to ask.
I need conclusive reports, pictures, or information on the following:
1. Suppliers of Japanese Arcade Parts and Control Panels that ship to the U.S.
2. The good/bad/differences between OEM Sega, Capcom, Taito, and other arcade supplies (especially the stuff in a Sega Astro City cabinet) and third party replacement hardware, from companies such as Sanwa or Seimitsu.
Or if you've just played on Japanese sticks, and have any information to relate, please post. I'm trying to build a FAQ on this, because it's been like pulling teeth to find any information on the subject. It seems that since information is so readily available in Japan, there's no comprehensive guide to Japanese arcade repair, service, and assembly online.
I'm really looking for information on what makes a really good arcade stick, and how the different brands of sticks and buttons match up.
I'm especially interested in brand-comparisons between joystick and button switches, and how the joystick guides work (especially the "optional" sub-guides). I'm wondering if there's industry standards for all of this, and third-party parts are frequently used as replacements...or if the only good replacements you can get are ordered directly from Sega or Capcom.
Heh, I don't know where else to ask this kind of thing, except on a Japanese bulletin board, where I'd come across sounding like a two-year-old. MMCafe seems as close as one can get to the Japanese fighting game enthusiast market without actually being fluent in Japanese, or in the country...so I figured it was worth a shot.
Thanks for reading.
- Ven
P.S.: Has anyone seen those new GGXX replacement control panels by Sammy? Pretty slick...
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| Professor 1534th Post
MMCafe Owner
     
|  "Re(1):Japanese Arcade Supplies"
, posted Sat 11 May 08:56:
I'm not too keen on the subject, but let me try to help within the knowledge I have.
River Service (Link Here) seems to do Export services. NSCX deals cabinets as well, though they're a bit more expensive (I guess they're new machines).
Most arcades either use Versus City or Astro City. They're cheap (20,000-40,000 yen per unit second hand), they're not too hard to do maintenance, their control panels are compatible to each other, and they're the standard for arcades. Often times, even NeoGeo games are seen running on them in Japan. (IMO, it's harder to see them running on authentic Neo cabinets.)
From public statistics, the AstroCity & New AstroCity weighs 93KG while Versus city weights 200KG and New Versus City weighs 224KG, but I think this is because the Versus city is being counted by a set of two cabinets.
Machines in arcades are usually set for one person per cabinet with two of them placed back to back for versus play. (Example Here, though it's a Mah-jong control panel.)
I'm not sure if they're all automatically compatible to 15,24, and 31KHz on the monitor, since I've been hearing that some of the machines which requires a dip-switch configuration to change the frequency have been engountering problems when trying to run Tekken4. New Namco games apparently have a conflict issue with machines that can't change their frequencies automatically. This might be fixed in future releases, but who knows.
As for the machine parts, the third parties (Sanwa, etc) should be safely considered the standard- most arcades buy the cheap materials, but they don't break so easily. You can just buy or order them from any electronics shop that deal with arcade machines. It was only a few weeks back that I bought a spare of standard button and joystick tip from a electronics shop as accessories for my desk.
I assume that most arcades use parts from Sanwa or Seimitsu. (No operator seems to bother contacting game makers for machine parts.) I've seen many arcades use one of the JLP-TP-8 series (the ones with the plain *silver* stick, with a ball tip).
The standard button used in arcades are the push-in types. That would be the row of #17 Here. On a side note, I've never seen any arcade use the screw type.
Hope I was of some help. Humnnn.
Finally Commas Can be used in the signature.
[this message was edited by Professor on Sat 11 May 09:09] |
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