Monitor Connection:
You can connect a PC monitor (DVI or VGA) or an arcade monitor or
both at the same time. Extended desktop mode is supported. NOTE: Clone
(Duplicate) mode is not supported.
The arcade monitor or multi-frequency monitor always connects to
the15-pin D connector on the card.
The PC monitor connects directly to the DVI port (digital LCD) or using
a VGA plug adaptor (VGA monitor).
Connecting a PC Monitor:
PC Monitors (including conventional or flat panel) MUST be
connected
tothe DVI port. If you connect to the VGA port you will get no picture.
Digital DVI monitors just plug in. CRT VGA monitors with a 15-pin VGA
plug will need the DVI adaptor plug.
Connecting an arcade monitor:
If you are using a J-PAC :
Simply plug the J-PAC VGA cable into the connector on the card.
The J-PAC has a built-in video amplifier for monitors that need a
higher
signal.
If you are using an arcade monitor with our Video Amp:
Some monitors (
not Wells-Gardner) need a 5 volt
video RGB signal and the ArcadeVGA card supplies 1 volt. To boost the
signal level you can use our Video Amplifier. This comes with a VGA
cable.
Connect the RGB, Sync, GND screw connectors to the monitor inputs.
The video amp needs no separate power source as it takes power from
theArcadeVGA card.
Full information on the video amp can be found
here:
Direct Connection:
If not using a J-PAC or video amp, many monitors (including all
Wells-Gardner) can accept a 1 volt signal level that the
ArcadeVGA card supplies. So with these monitors you can make you own
cable (See
here
for details.) or use our pre-made VGA connection cable. This cable has
a connector for Wells-Gardner arcade monitors and also can be used as
the base for a custom cable for other monitors as it has labelled
ends.Note we are unable to supply fully assembled cables for monitors
other than Wells-Gardner as there is no established standard connector
or pinout for arcade monitors in a non-JAMMA setup, so we would not
know what connections your monitor has. If your monitor has a single
sync input (composite sync) you can connect the H-Sync and V-Sync wires
together. The ArcadeVGA card always sends negative H and V sync in all
video modes, so this method works fine. The connections on the
VGA
breakout cable are marked as follows:
R, G, B = colours
H = horizontal sync. H and V sync can normally be connected togetherfor
most monitors to produce composite sync.
V = vertical sync
- = ground
Connecting a Multi-FrequencyArcade Monitor (eg
Wells-Gardner D9400 or D9800)
These monitors can run from 15Khz scan rate up to 31Khz or
above.
Plug the cable supplied with the monitor into the VGA port. If you are
using a J-PAC in your cabinet, the video section of the J-PAC is not
used.
After installing the ArcadeVGA drivers you will be able to select the
monitor type.
Starting Up
Boot the PC. A normal boot screen should be displayed. You
will almost
certainly have to adjust the monitor for the correct picture size and
centering. If the picture is rolling vertically, adjust the V-Hold
control. The ArcadeVGA card produces vertical sync in the range of
50-60 Hz so you may need further adjustment to find an eventual setting
that locks within this full range. Horizontal hold is not expected tobe
adjusted but Wells-Gardner monitors sometimes show a slant at thetop of
the screen which can be cured by adjusting this control.
If you have both an arcade and a PC monitor connected, the
arcademonitor will not display a picture until Windows starts.
Windows XP Driver Install.
Install the card into the AGP or PCI express slot. The card must be
installed to install the drivers.
If Windows displays a message "New Hardware Found" you MUST quit this
and not let the standard Windows drivers install.
If your PC has previously had any ATI card installed, you will need to
remove the existing ATI drivers. Do this by downloading and running
this utility:
Start (or restart) Windows. The Windows screen should be displayed at
640 X 480 interlaced, 16 colours. To use the ArcadeVGA built-in modes
the ATI driver needs installing. Insert the Ultimarc CD. Run the driver
Setup program in the correct folder (XP). Reboot as
prompted.Windows may ask if you want to replace newer files with old.
You MUST choose to replace all the files.
Right-click on the desktop, select "properties" and set the colour
depth to "32 bit colour".
Blue Screens in XP Windows XP may try to invoke the built-in
Microsoft ATI driver and this will not work with the ArcadeVGA card,
and causes a blue-screen error. If you see this ,re-start and hold down
"F8" and choose to start in Safe Mode, then install the ATI driver from
the ArcadeVGA CD. To do this, you will need to enter device manager,
right click on the expanded video card listing under 'Display Adapters'
(or, the undesignated option, if the device has not been recognized at
all, and has a yellow X next to it), clickon properties, go to driver
tab, and click on 'update driver'. This is the only way to install the
driver in safe mode, as attempting to install via ATI's setup utility
will produce error messages and result in a failure to install. You
will need to point the driver install to the correct
location on the CD as mentioned in "Forcing a driver install", further
down this page.
Windows 7 and Vista 32/64 Install.
The
AGP card does not have Vista drivers, but you
can use the XP drivers by following the "forcing a driver
install"procedure, below.
For the
PCI Express card, Install as follows:
Connect a PC monitor to the card using the DVI port. Or, if you
don'thave a DVI PC monitor or the adaptor, connect the PC monitor to
the VGA port.
If you are using the VGA port, you will get no picture on the PC
monitor until Vista has completed its boot sequence, and auto-installed
it's own ATI drivers. Unlike XP, Vista standard ATI drivers WILL work
in a basic way with the ArcadeVGA.
When a picture appears, run the Ultimarc CD and select "Vista/W7
drivers"and follow the instructions.
After the drivers have installed, reboot as prompted.
Configuration After Driver Install
After you reboot, the TriSync config utility will start.
Select your correct monitor type.
This configures the card to permit the 640x480 and above resolutions to
be displayed non-interlaced at 31Khz scan or above. This results in
better picture quality for these resolutions but you can only do this
if your monitor can display 31Khz scan or above. If its a standard-res
arcade monitor it will not.
The top selection leaves the configuration unchanged. You can run this
utility later if you upgrade to a multi-frequency monitor. To revert
back from multi-frequency to standard res, you can simply re-install
the drivers.
After you have installed the driver, check that it is correctly
installed by clicking on the Galaga icon on the taskbar.You should
see the following which is a list of all available resolutions:
MAME Configuration (General)
This step is VITAL. If you do not do this you will not get
any of the benefit of the ArcadeVGA card.
By default MAME is configured to stretch and re-process the picture to
fit on whatever resolution your PC happens to be running at. YOU DO
NOTWANT THIS TO HAPPEN because using the ArcadeVGA card you can have
un-distorted video with a one-to-one pixel mapping.
The basic changes you need to make are:
HARDWARESTRETCH MUST BE OFF
YOU MUST USE DIRECT-DRAW NOT DIRECT 3D
SWITCH RESOLUTIONS MUST BE ENABLED
The command-line switches to do this if running Mame from a commandline
are:
-videoddraw -nohwstretch
-switchres
Configuring DOS MAME (DMAME.EXE).
DO NOT configure for an arcade monitor.
If you have changed from defaults, ensure: TWEAK = NO, VESAMODE =VESA3,
SCANLINES = NO
Use the command-line mentioned above.
Configuring Windows Command-LineMAME (MAME.EXE)
NOTE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS OF MAME WILL NOT GIVE GOOD RESULTS. YOU NEED
TO DO THIS STEP:
You will need to check/edit the MAME.INI file, which should reside
inthe Mame folder. If this file does not exist, you will need to run
from the command-line:
MAME -CREATECONFIG
After the INI file is created, open with Notepad and check the
following (this is from MAME 0108. Earlier versions do not have all
these options)
#
# VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video ddraw
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect none
pause_brightness 0.65
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0
#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch 0
#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 0
switchres 1
MAMEWAH.
This front end deserves special mention because it is ideal
for usewith
the ArcadeVGA card and Windows, especially if used in a cabinet with no
keyboard. We also like it because it has integrated support
foron-the-fly downloading of I-PAC key codes. It can be downloaded from
mameworld.net
MAMEWAH supports 640 X 288 mode in Windows for a
flicker-free non-interlaced display with an arcade monitor. (to
configure this, look in mamewah.cfg and change the "640 X 480" to "640X
288").
When using this front end, the easiest way to ensure you have all games
correctly configured is to run the AVRES utility after installing MAME
(see below).
MAME32.
MAME32 is basically MAME with a built-in GUI and is a reasonable choice
when not using a cabinet (ie you have a keyboard connected). It is
notas good at supporting 640 X 288 as MAMEWAH (above) but slightly
easier to configure as it works "out of the box".
Ensure the default settings in MAME32 are as follows (version
108,earlier versions differ)
Display Tab:
VideoMode: DirectDraw
Stretch Using Hardware = OFF (if this is greyed out you have
notswitched Windows to 16 or 32-bit colour mode)
Screen Tab:
Screennumber = 0
Screen = \\.\DISPLAY1
Resolution, Size = Auto (or select from drop-down list in game as
required)
Switch Resolutions to fit = ON
The screenshot below shows the open drop-down for "Size" in Mame32
v108. This is where you can select the resolution for each game.
Selecting a resolution for each game.
TheArcadeVGA card has the following built-in resolutions:
| H |
V |
Horizontal Refresh (Arcade Monitor) |
Vertical Refresh (Arcade Monitor) |
Horizontal Refresh (VGA Monitor) |
Vertical Refresh (VGA Monitor) |
| 240 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 256 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 256 |
256 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 256 |
264 |
15Khz |
58Hz |
31Khz |
58Hz |
| 288 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 296 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 304 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 320 |
200 |
(321 X 200 in Windows) 15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 320 |
240 |
(321 X 240 in Windows) 15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 320 |
256 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 336 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 352 |
256 |
15Khz |
60Hz Vert on Horizontal Mon |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 352 |
264 |
15Khz |
58Hz Vert on Horizontal Mon |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 352 |
288 |
15Khz |
51Hz Vert on Horizontal Mon |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 368 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 392 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 384 |
288 |
15Khz |
51Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 400 |
256 |
(401 X 256 in Windows) 15Khz |
53Hz, Mortal Kombat etc |
31Khz |
53Hz (Note some LCDs cant displaythis) |
| 448 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 448 |
384 |
Not Available |
|
48Khz (Requires Multi-Freq Mon) |
70Hz |
| 512 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 512 |
288 |
15Khz |
51Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 512 |
384 |
Not Available |
|
48Khz (Requires Multi-Freq Mon) |
70Hz |
| 512 |
448 |
15Khz |
60Hz Vert on Horizontal Mon |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 512 |
512 |
15Khz |
58Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 632 |
264 |
15Khz |
57Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 640 |
240 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 640 |
288 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 640 |
480 |
15Khz |
60Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| 800 |
600 |
15Khz |
50Hz |
31Khz |
60Hz |
| Higher Resolutions |
Not
Available. "Dummy" resolutions are used. Right-Click and "Properties"
to change back to a lower resolution if accidentally selected. |
Various. Requires Multi-Frequency Monitor or PC Monitor |
These are in addition to all the normal VGA text/graphics modes.
NOTES:
The resolutions which show no vertical rate in the table have an
arbitrary rate which is the result of scanning the required number of
lines at 15Khz. They are mostly around 50Hz. Arcade monitor timings
prevent these resolutions from being displayed at 60Hz.
Note about 224-line resolutions (eg Neo-Geo): The
list does not contain any 224-line resolutions for the reason that is
explained fully in the Arcade Monitor FAQ, basically arcade monitors
cannot display these modes without top/bottom borders (otherwise the
vertical refresh rate would be > 60Hz), so using a 240 line mode
instead gives
exactly the same result. (ie MAME
inserts the borders instead of the resolution mode).
The ArcadeVGA card allows your PC to exactly duplicate the original
game-boards video logic. To do this the resolution must match that of
the original game, or be slightly higher (giving small borders). For
the best gaming experience, you can over-ride MAME's choice of
resolution. MAME often does not pick the best resolution. Here are some
pointers: Choose a resolution that has an H and V value equal or
slightly greater than the original game unless there is a resolution
that is only a few pixels less, in which case choose this one. For
vertical games on a horizontal monitor, choose a horizontal resolution
which is about double the game resolution as you want side borders. The
resolutions of 352 Horizontal are especially suited to vertical games.
You will find that vertical resolutions of 240 and 200 or less are
indistinguishable from each other. The reason for this is given on the
arcade
monitor FAQ page. A few games with a vertical
resolution of between 301 and 450 will need Hardware Stretching because
arcade monitors cannot display these resolutions, see
arcade
monitor FAQ for the reason.
Auto-Resolution Utilties.
There are currently two utilities which can be
used to generate INI files for MAME which tell the program which
resolution to run every game.
MameWah Resolution Tool Can be downloaded
here
Or Gavin Bensons Utility
here.
This will handle the format of newer MAME versions
and has a few other enhancements.
Both these utilities will scan the game list and generate INI files
which specify the best resolution for each game. After running once,
you don't need to worry about choosing the resolutions again. MAME will
always run every game at the optimum resolution.
Windows desktop modes on an
arcade monitor
| H |
V |
|
| 640 |
288 |
Non-Interlaced |
| 640 |
480 |
Interlaced |
| 800 |
600 |
Interlaced |
| 1024 |
768 |
XP and 2000 Auto-Pan only |
(this information does not affect gaming, only Windows desktop)
Switching desktop resolutions in
Windows.
To switch resolutions, click on the "galaga ship"
taskbar icon. This is
installed with the ArcadeVGA drivers. If you do not have this
installed, you can download the utility
here. Simply add it to the
"startup" group so it runs when Windows is started. This utility allows
all of the modes available on the card to be selected.
In all Windows versions, you can save resolutions as schemes and assign
a hot-key to select from the control panel. See the ATI help file for
details (red ATI icon).
Rotating the desktop for vertical
monitors.
Right-click on the ATI taskbar icon. Select "Rotation" choose correct
value.
Using other DOS Applications.
Any application which directly writes to the VGA registers will
over-ride the VGA card internal modes. One such app. is Advanced MAME.
If you do use this version, you will need to configure it for an Arcade
Monitor so that it will write the correct timings directly to the card.
Advanced MAME uses it's own timing modes not the card's built-in timing
modes. The ArcadeVGA card has a lower dot-clock limit than ordinary
cards so you will be able to set very low resolution modes in Advanced
MAME.
Some other old DOS apps also write directly to the VGA registers and
these will not work properly.
Using other Windows Applications.
Windows applications such as 3D games should run normally on an arcade
monitor provided they can run at 640 X 400 or 800 X 600 resolution,
which is the maximum an arcade monitor can display in interlaced modes.
PC monitors have no restrictions of course.
Using the TV-Out Connector.
We do not support using TVs for gaming for the reasons we
explain in
the
Arcade
Monitor FAQ (poor TV picture
quality). There is no benefit in using the
TV-out connection of this card over any other VGA card.
Forcing a Windows Driver Install.
This procedure may be necessary if the driver does not
appear to
install for any reason.
From Control Panel, click "System", "Hardware", "Device Manager".
Open up the Display entry and right-click the entry "Ultimarc
ArcadeVGA". Select "Update Driver".
Select "No, not this time", for searching the web for drivers.
Select "Install from a list or specific location".
Select "Don't search, I will select the driver to install"
Select "Have Disk"
A file open dialog will be displayed. Navigate to the location of the
INF file on the Ultimarc CD as follows (assuming D is your CD drive)
Windows XP and 2K: D:/AVGAdrivers/XP/2KXP_inf
A list of available drivers will be displayed, select "Ultimarc
ArcadeVGA".
Complete the install process. Do not choose to reboot at this time.
Ignore any warning about the driver not having been tested with your
hardware.
Can I use a
25Khz (Medium Res) monitor?
Its possible but 25Khz medium-res monitors are rather limiting for MAME
and not ideal. Very few games will be able to run at native
resolutions. If you have a monitor which is capable of being set to 15
or 25, then its best to set it to 15.
You will not get any usable boot screens on a 25Khz monitor, and all
games will need to run in one resolution, with hardware-stretch enabled
for almost all.
To set it up:
First install the drivers using a PC monitor on the DVI port. Then run
the Tri-Sync Utility. Then set the resolution to 512 X 384. (or you
could use 448 X 384).
Now disconnect the PC monitor and connect the medium-res monitor. There
will not be a visible screen until Windows has finished loading.
Programming notes.
If you are a programmer wanting to write or modify a front-end to use
with this card, the following info might be useful:
The ArcadeVGA card enumerates all the in-built resolutions as VESA3
modes. So to get the mode list, the application should do the following:
INT 10 call to get the mode number list
INT 10 call on each of the mode numbers in the list to get the
resolution for each mode.
Then set the required resolution using an INT 10 call.
This is all completely standard VESA programming. The full INT 10 calls
and sample code for getting the mode list is available in a VESA
document which can be downloaded from www.vesa.org.
Troubleshooting.
Jumping/Flickering screen in MAME games:
You have not configured a resolution for the game. MAME does not seem
to be able to select the correct resolution for most games (MAME devs
please note!), and just runs at the default (Windows desktop)
resolution. You will need to check the correct game resolution
(displayed on the game start screen or right click, "properties") and
then select and save a matching or higher resolution (or perhaps a very
close lower resolution).
PC Not booting at all, no disk activity:
If you are using a home-made arcade monitor cable, check the wiring.
The only pins that should be used are the colour, sync and ground pins.
All other pins such as Monitor ID, etc should not be connected.
Connecting the wrong pins could cause a 5 volts power short.
Picture in Boot / DOS but nothing in Windows:
Some older motherboards, especially VIA chipset boards, need an AGP
driver to enable the slot. Check the motherboard info.
Only getting 640 X 480 resolution in Windows. No 32-bit colour
mode selectable:
Maybe the driver is not correctly installed. Try re-installing the
driver.
Vista and Windows 7 Information
AGP Card: Although the Radeon 9250 chip is not on
the Vista compatibility list, we have performed basic testing and found
no problems although you cannot use "Aero" modes.
To use Vista 32 with the 9250 (AGP) card:
First install Vista with a graphics card which is on the Vista
compatibility list
Then, shut down, install the ArcadeVGA and power on. Vista will install
it's own driver. DO NOT REBOOT AT THIS TIME
After the Vista driver is installed, install the ArcadeVGA driver using
the "forcing a driver install" method, above.
PCI Express Card. Full Vista/W7 32 and
64 WDDM drivers for the
PCI Express card included
on the release CD.
