Castlemania Entertainment has just opened pre-orders on the new dual-RAM JAMMA MiSTer kit from Retro Castle. This is essentially the same amazing, low-latency JAMMA kit the creator Ivory has been selling for awhile now, but with support for dual-RAM sticks. This will allow the Sega Saturn core to function without restriction and it opens the door for any future cores that might require dual RAM sticks as well. It supports dual VGA + JAMMA output using the superior DAC that’s been thoroughly vetted, however it can not support analog + HDMI output. The price is $350 for the kit and it’s due to ship in February. More info after the links:
JAMMA + Dual RAM: https://retrorgb.link/dualramjammabundle
JAMMA I/O Board Only: https://retrorgb.link/dualramjamma
128MB RAM Sticks: https://retrorgb.link/mister128mbram
For anyone unfamiliar, using dual-RAM requires use of the pins that previously worked with the analog I/O board. That means kits like these use an HDMI to analog conversion circuit to output JAMMA. As a result, you’ll need to run your MiSTer in Direct Video mode, without the ability to output HDMI and analog at the same time. Lu recently did a video on Direct Video mode and the MiSTer.ini setup is exactly the same for using this JAMMA board.
Since this kit also has a dsub / VGA output, you can use it outside of an arcade machine, exactly like you would a standard MiSTer with dsub output: It can support RGBs, YPbPr and even Y/C via one of Mike Simmone’s adapters. Of course, when set to RGBs for JAMMA output, you can also run the dsub out into a scaler for streaming. If you’re on a budget, that’sPreview (opens in a new tab) actually a perfect use case for one of those cheap SCART to HDMI boxes!
You can still use the HDMI port if you’d like, but not at the same time as the analog video out – You’d have to disconnect the bridge for HDMI to work. That’s still really handy for setting up your MiSTer though, as you can prepare it all at your desk before connecting it to your arcade machine.
If you’re buying this as a dedicated MiSTer setup for your arcade machine, I strongly recommend checking out my guide and video that helps make this a much more streamlined workflow:
