Introduction:

The purpose of this guide is to offer novices in the arcade collecting hobby some basic help when it comes to the differences in the most basic two types of arcade board specification standards, JAMMA and Non-JAMMA.

Undoubtedly if you have searched for anything relating to arcade games on eBay then you have probably come across several types of auction pages stating that they are selling either JAMMA compatible or Non-JAMMA compatible arcade game boards or machines. This guide will hopefully clarify what those types mean so you can get started experiencing the wonders of the home arcade!

Conflicting Standards:

The early arcade game cabinets, since the very first arcade games decades ago, were manufactured by a wide range of different companies. There was no real standard way of wiring up the insides of an arcade cabinet, so most companies just wired it in the way they felt best. Unfortunately, this means that almost every one of the early machines has a different wiring configuration for connecting the game board to the monitor, coin slots, control panel buttons, etc. This presents a huge challenge if you ever wanted to swap a particular game inside an arcade machine out with a different game, as the wiring has to be re-worked for every specific game board.

The New JAMMA Standard:

Starting around the mid-80's, a new standard way of hooking up the internals of arcade machines was created in Japan and it was named JAMMA (Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers' Association). This new standard was adopted by most game companies that were manufacturing arcade games since it helped to simplify hooking up machines and reduced costs in swapping game boards to replace older games with newer ones.

Conclusion:

Basically, all this means is that if you buy an arcade cabinet or game board from a seller on eBay, make sure you contact them to find out if it is either JAMMA or Non-JAMMA compatible. If you have a JAMMA-wired arcade machine, you can buy any JAMMA-compatible arcade game board and hook it up...it's basically plug-and-play! There are thousands of JAMMA-compatible arcade boards on eBay to choose from and it's a great feeling being able to swap games out so quickly.

If you want to play a game that is Non-JAMMA compatible, then a specially wired adapter will be necessary to re-route the wiring to make it playable in your machine. Some of these adapters are hard to find and need to be custom built by hand.

If you need any more information about arcade parts or hardware in general, or would like help in understanding more about arcade wiring, don't hesitate to contact me at either my eBay store or JAMMAPARTS.com home page.

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