List of Japanese Control Boxes / Superguns - Info & photos

[waiwainl]

I thought about it and, indeed, I guess I have an answer for the designs.
We need to remember that all these superguns are made by very small companies. Japan is a country where it is quite easy to start a company and it has a a lot of these small companies. This is not professional work by our standards, it is more handmade products. Really think "otaku" here.

In fact, I would say that it is impressive that so few people produced so great items. And, of course, they don't have designers at hand.

I didn't know these were all small companies. Now that you mention it, it makes sense!
Still glad I opted for a MAK Strike (small and compact) and my custom stick with DB15 input

[Braintrash]

I had one, it was very well built. But I like my sturdy joystick.

[NGAES]

Wished they'd put something other than LS-32's in these though.

[Braintrash]

You can change it.

[NGAES]

Yes of course. But these guns don't use the mounting panel but screws into the plastic housing. These vary on most sticks.

[Braintrash]

I believe a fair share of them are not plastic.

[Braintrash]

The manual is just a file with unattached printed sheets of paper. Part of them being the English manual of the Gonbes by Jammaboards. Otherwise, it's fully Japanese.


I ordered the two available harnesses: one comes with the voltmeter and the other one is plain.


The box is standard, without any logo or inscription. My seller was smart enough to pack that box into another with more protection. Proven useful.


It's really well packaged.


And the goods are a-showin'.


Standard S-Video and Video cables. Quality seems good.


VGA cable, standard too, quality seems good too.


Scart cable, of course Japanese. Standard too, good quality too.


Unpacked yet, my little boards, just in case.


Namco System 12 kick harness. Now, quality really shines, it even has a little dongle in order to not plug it the wrong way.


CPS2 kick harness. Plugs into the CPS1 kick harness which is part of the JAMMA harness itself.


Did I mention it's well packaged?


They thought about everything and as a result, it arrived without any damaged. Thank you seller!


It's heavier than the Boardmaster but also smaller.


First look, it's gorgeous.


The whole package, along with an added HDMI cable (3 meters) and a Watt & Co (French design brand) Japanese into French plug adapter. Note it doesn't do conversion since you don't need it.


On the right side is the JAMMA plug. It's standard, unlike many other superguns and the maker even put a key into it so that you can't plug the harness the wrong way. It was one of the things I wanted to add myself, so I'm pretty happy it was already took for me, without even asking. But, please keep in mind that while the plug is standard, it's NOT exactly JAMMA, since pins e and 27 are not the ground but the players 1 and 2 sixth button, it was necessary to keep things compatible while allowing the kick harness integration.


Left side is for the switch button, the jack audio output, with volume control, two VGA outputs, a 5V DC output plug and the fuse.


Behind is no less porn: S-Video, Video, RGB, HDMI and another VGA output.


They really thought about everything, with center pads.


Three thumb screws and you access the insides; think Hori VLX Premium here. But I quickly tested Seimitsu levers and buttons and not my cup of tea.


The Gonbes board. Nothing special here, but I plan to customize it.


This is the rapid fire board, custom I believe.


The video output boards. One for HDMI, another one for third VGA, S-Video and video.


You can see the JAMMA plug. Everything is pretty well made and clean. Definitely not the Boardmaster.


And the panel itself. If someone has got an aero city panel full size layout I can print, I would like to see if it is the same. Otherwise, it really screams quality, here, it's really impressive, although it's up to Kernow to say.

[Braintrash]

Just took sizes:
width: 50 cm
height: 11 cm (without the sticks, add around 6 cm with them)
depth: 20 cm

[trev1976]

Looks great.. they have thought of everything.

Id be interested to know what the video quality is like via HDMI/VGA.

[Braintrash]

They forgot the scanlines. ;-(

[zumbito]

Are these control boxes 100-220v compatible or are just for Japan/USA?

[Braintrash]

Depends.

The Combo AV EX+'s PSU has a switch.

[Braintrash]

Before anything, I had to pull the switch of the PSU from 110V to 220V. Was kinda hard because not much room, but you basically do it once, so no big deal. Then, using my Japanese to French plug adapter, everything went on without an issue. The PSU used is this one: http://smunchina.en.made-in-china.com/p ... -12V-.html

I immediately noticed that the included fan is loud, but really loud. It will benefit from a change for a better one.
Also, sound is monaural, with only one speaker.

I'm getting used to the Seimitsu lever and buttons, although I'm still a Sanwa guy for now.

The harness has a voltmeter for 5V and 12V. You have a 3-position switch to change the output. It's really well made.

Otherwise, I hadn't much problems. Just had to configure the Gonbes a little (English language and output resolution) and everything went smooth.
Image is stable and smooth and some baords that caused me trouble with the Boardmaster (TMNT, by example) went fine with the Combo. I miss the scanlines, of course, but I noticed no lag at all. I did a perfect on first try in Shinobi's bonus stage and I tried many situations where timing is needed, no problem. I also played freestyle, letting enemies "surprise" me, commands responded without a fail.

All was tested using HDMI. Knowing that HDMI comes from the VGA output of the Gonbes, VGA should produce the same results. It is also confirmed by the maker that it indeed does produce the same results.

As for the pictures, first two were took with light on in the room. I turned light off thereafter. In some of them, you can see some ghosting, that you don't see in game; it's what you get taking pictures from an old LCD TV. ^^



































So, do I like my supergun? I LOVE it!

[NGAES]

Thanks for sharing. Wish they'd make it in a solid colour. I can see it getting a lot of smudge marks.

Do you have to open it up to adjust autofire rates?

[Braintrash]

Nothing prevent you from painting it.
I considered doing that, but nah, I like it this way and just take a good care. I'm buying it it's own dedicated cleaning microfiber cloth.

As for autofire, you need to open it to activate autofire but the rate can be controlled by the optional autofire rate control button.

[bloodhokuto]

I'm late to some of these updates to this thread. I am shocked that they still make these things! For some reason I thought that these big control boxes were discontinued years ago.

For scanlines, you can presumably run the output HDMI/RGB into a framemeister?

Did you order from that ec.tops website? If so, was it easy to do (I don't know how to read Japanese)?

[Braintrash]

Yeah, they still do, that's a lively market.

For scanlines, yeah, I can use a Framemeister, but I already have the Gonbes inside, so two converters chained ? Meh.
I have devised a potential internal solution. Planning is done, I must create and make the IC, order the components, solder them and then test it out. If that works, I will have scanlines up to 1080p without additional lag.

(And I will get 1080P by interfacing the Gonbes with a Raspberry. And before you ask, no, we don't know how to get scanlines with the Raspberry and we don't know if it even is possible.)

Now, I haven't looked much at the internals, so maybe using the Framemeister through the direct RGB (I think remember there's a direct RGB output, but must check and confirm)? I haven't one, so I don't know yet, but that another possibility, I haven't decided yet.

And, yes, ordered from the site, you have a button for English speakers. Just follow instructions.

[bloodhokuto]

Doing your own scanline mod? Looking forward to the result.

Interesting to see if HDMI > Framemeister would work nicely, but hopefully RGB output > Framemeister would be the solution for me. My only issue is the lack of a synch adjustment for RGB out, as this has caused me issues with certain boards (Capcom!) in the past.

Looking at the packages available, I can see there are standard, silent buttons, clear colour buttons and a 'full option' packages.

I seems that the full option is just standard plus svhs and auto fire control, svhs isn't a big del for me, but the autofire might be, I guess if you are paying almost £300 anyway, you may as well go all out!

As for the harness, it is not clear, but, from standard it comes with a CPS1 harness? and then you can upgrade to a built in voltmeter, and then add a CPS2 conversion cable?

Thanks for your feedback.

[NGAES]

Can audio be routed to the TV or is it the internal speaker only?

[Braintrash]

Audio can be routed to the TV, yes, but will be mono only, as per JAMMA standard.

Synch problems on the Framemeister are usually solved with a firmware update. You should check if you are up to date on the Framemeister side.

As for the harness, yes, you can choose on order which harness you want (with or without voltmeter). Both harnesses have a cps1 kick harness built in.
Then, you can order a separate CPS2 kick harness that will be connected between the PCB and the built in CPS1 kick harness.

Hope I am clear enough.