I was only pondering the idea of building such a system when I discovered AdvanceMAME and decided to see what would happen if I hooked up the output of the computer I was using to the original (very old) monitor in my Millipede.

I dug around in my bizarre collection of computer cables late one night and found a high quality VGA cable with 15-pin connectors on both ends (most of the time these days the cables are single-ended and are built into the monitor). I hacked one end off the cable and combined it with a monitor connector cut from an old arcade wiring harness I had in my spare parts pile. I used these instructions since they seemed straight forward and didn't involve any parts I didn't already have on hand.

Much to my shock, it more or less worked the first time. By this I mean I got a picture - albeit oriented the wrong way - when I fired up Pac-Man in AdvanceMAME. The desire to finally build a fully working machine was growing.

The details of how I got things configured from a software perspective are discussed later, so I will focus right now on the hardware side of the process.

As previously mentioned, the wiring is basically a good quality shielded VGA cable with one end removed and replaced with an appropriate connector for a Wells-Gardner arcade monitor. I stripped the wires, kept the shielding out of the connections (except where appropriate), soldered them cleanly and wrapped them all in electrical tape. I'm still using the cable I created that night in the final product since it has not given me any trouble.

The original monitor I used for testing was a very finicky Wells-Gardner that is likely original to the Millipede (putting it somewhere on the order of 20 years old). It didn't handle variations in the refresh rate and horizontal frequency very well, the colors were pretty washed out, and it was meant for a higher voltage input than that produced by a modern VGA card. The voltage issue results in a more gray image in places where it should be a solid black. More modern arcade monitors handle this kind of TTL input very nicely now.

Having gotten comfortable with the possibilities, I decided to experiment with quite a few video cards to see how both the software and the monitor would behave. As it turns out, the motherboard video hardware on the Dell I am using happened to be the best of the bunch. It is a rev 92 ATI 3D Rage Pro. I tested a Matrox Millenium G200, an old Diamond Stealth 3D Pro, a Riva TNT 2 and a few others. None of them handled as well as the motherboard Rage. Even that situation improved when I discovered some SVGALib patches that I will discuss later in the software section.

I also was not going to build my machine around the decripit monitor I was using for testing. I ordered a factory refurbished Wells-Gardner Univeral Mount K7200 arcade monitor directly from the manufacturer. The refurbished units are new but factory repaired and carry a shorter warranty. The price, however, was just over half the cost of a new one and well worth it. With their modern circuitry, these monitors handle VGA TTL power levels perfectly and are far more adaptable to various refresh rates and horizontal frequency changes. They also have their adjustments knobs on a board attached to a long cable. If you've worked on classic arcades you will know the frustration of having to make fine tuning adjustments from the back of a cabinet where you can't see what you are doing without a mirror. This new design is a breath of fresh air.

Software battles aside, the first major hurdle was out of the way once I had these elements in place.