Gfront - An Inside Look

Here are some pics I took about a year ago in Japan in a arcade shop named Gfront. Gfront is well known for having a great selection of arcade games and the high prices that they sell their games for.

Rows and Rows of arcade games.

Some Cave games and Arcade panels.

Some Superguns and Sega systems.

Some Atomiswave, Naomi and Neo Geo games.

The Sega Lindbergh

Well it took some time, But I finally added a Sega Lindbergh to my arcade collection. As everyone knows the Lindbergh was released in 2005 and had four different models: Lindbergh Yellow, Lindbergh Blue, Lindbergh Red, and Lindbergh Red Ex.

Each version of the Lindbergh had different hardware specs, the Lindbergh yellow was most powerful. Here are the specs for the Lindbergh yellow:

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 3.0G HT (800Mhz FSB - 1MB L2 Cache)
GFX : NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPU
GFX Memory : 256MB (256 bit GDDR3)
OS : Montavista Linux
GFX Capabilities : Vertex Shader 3.0, Pixel Shader 3.0
Audio : 3D audio synthesizer chip onboard, possible to have 64 sounds playing simultaneously, 5.1 surround output.
Video output: One analog D-Sub, Two Digital DVI outputs.
Display : Single or dual monitor support. Can output the same picture to each monitor or different pictures on each monitor, the resolution for each of the 2 monitors can also be different.
Sound output: The two front speakers have RCA connectors, SPDIF for full surround.
Resolution : HDTV (High Definition)
RAM : 1024MB 184pin DDR SD-RAM PC3200 (2x 512MB DDR 400 sticks)
LAN : 10/100/1000 TBase Gigabit Network
Other : DVD Drive Support, USB2.0 (x4) - Sega ALL.NET online support.
Connector Format : JVS
Protection : High Spec original security module

The Lindbergh in my collection is the Red model, however all the hardware parts have upgraded with Lindbergh yellow parts .

Here is a list of some of the games released on the Lindbergh:

2 Spicy
After Burner Climax
Ami-Gyo
Ghost Squad Evolution
Harley Davidson: King of the Road
House of the Dead EX
Hummer
Hummer Extreme Edition
Initial D Arcade Stage 4
Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Kai
Initial D Arcade Stage 4 Limited
Initial D Arcade Stage 5
Lets Go Jungle
Lets Go Jungle Special
Outrun 2 SP SDX
Power Smash 3 / Virtua Tennis 3*
Primevil Hunt
Psy Phi
R Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing
Rambo*
Sega Race TV
The House of the Dead 4*
The House of the Dead 4 Special
Virtua Fighter 5
Virtua Fighter 5 Version B*
Virtua Fighter 5 Version C
Virtua Fighter 5 Version D
Virtua Fighter 5 R
Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

*Games in my Collection

Top of system

Side view

Inside Look

Nvidia GPU

Sound Card and JVS

Hard Drive

Boot Up Screen

Splash Screen

Game is loaded and read to play. The whole boot process takes around 55 seconds.

Video Coming Soon!

The Tatio Type X3

Taito has released a picture of the next gen Type X3 hardware. No hardware details have been released at this time.

Knights of Valour 3

Knights of Valour 3 has been released for the PGM 2. Its always good to see a new 2D Beat em up being released.

Image from SuperPang from Arcade Otaku

Link of gameplay- http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMjY1ODQ1Nzc2.html

Official site - http://www.igs.com.tw/product/act/

Fun Factory Arcade

Here are some pics of the Fun Factory Arcade in Hawaii:



Here is a quick video of the Arcade:

King of Fighters XIII

So I was finally able to get KOF 13 for the Tatio Type X2 today. And I must say, its the best King of Fighers I have ever played. Even better than KOF 98. The game play is very smooth and the artwork is truly a sight to see. SNK also did a great job on the character stories the occur within every round of the fights.

The following videos come from my Tatio Type X2 version of KOF XIII:

Namco's System 357 B - An Inside Look

The System 357 B is the Arcade hardware that runs Tekken 6 BR.

Top of the System 357 B

System 357 B with tray pulled out.

Bottom of System 357 B

The GPU of the System 357 B

Sega Naomi Universal Cabinet

The latest cabinet that I added to my collection is the Sega Naomi Universal. Also added two new arcade games to my collection: Tekken 5 DR and Tekken 6 BR

Sega Astro City

The Sega Astro City is the 1st Arcade cabinet I ever owned. It uses a Jamma connector and has a 29" monitior.

New Tekken Tag 2 Video

I have added 10 new videos to my youtube account, Enjoy.

Mortal Kombat 9 Arcade Cabinet

So Mortal Kombat 9 was released on Tuesday. If you wanted to see how it looks in a true arcade cabinet, here you go.

Here is a video of the cabinet in action:

Mortal Kombat 9 - Hidden Fighters

Mortal Kombat 9 - Classic Noob Saibot Fight

Mortal Kombat 9 - Classic Smoke

Mortal Kombat 9 - Classic Reptile Fight

Mortal Kombat 9 Information and Videos

Mortal Kombat 9 - Goro and Kintaro Fatalities

 

Mortal Kombat - Kratos Fatality

Mortal Kombat - Kano's 2nd Fatatity

Mortal Kombat - Kabal's Fatality

Mortal Kombat - Babality on Raiden

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition for PS3 and Xbox 360

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 - AOU 2011 English Trailer

The Sega Naomi 2

The Naomi 2 is Sega's upgrade to the Naomi. The Naomi 2 has four times the amount of main memory and graphics memory that Dreamcast has, and twice that of the Naomi. The Naomi 2 has two PowerVR GPUs running in SLI, while the Naomi has only one PowerVR GPU and the Naomi 2 has two Hitachi SH-4 CPUs while the Naomi only has one CPU.

Some Naomi 2 games could not be ported to the Dreamcast because the games would have a great loss of texture detail. The Naomi 2 is Fully backwards compatible with all Naomi and GD-Rom games.

One game on note was the Virtua Fighter 4 series. IT was not ported to the Dreamcast but was ported to the Playstation 2. The GPU in the Playstation 2 was strong enough to display the game. However due to a lack of memory in the Playstation 2, the texture detail that was used in the arcade version had to be cut down.

If Sega had released the Dreamcast with the hardware that was used in the Naomi 2, the console battle may have turned out different. But that is a debate for another day.

Naomi 2 Specs:

CPU : 2 x Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : 2 x PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC-CLX2) GPU's - (under the fans)
Geometry Processor : Custom Videologic T+L chip "Elan" (100mhz) - (Under Heatsink)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Memory : 32 MByte 100Mhz SDRAM
Graphic Memory : 32 MByte
Model Data Memory : 32MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte
Media : ROM Board / GD-Rom
Simultaneous Number of Colors : Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
Polygons : 10 Million polys/sec with 6 light sources
Rendering Speed : 2000 Mpixels/sec

Additional Features : Bump Mapping, Multiple Fog Modes, 8-bit Alpha Blending (256 levels of transparency), Mip Mapping (polygon-texture auto switch), Tri-Linear Filtering, Super Sampling for Full Scene Anti-Aliasing, Environment Mapping, and Specular Effect.

Games

Club Kart
Club Kart : European Session
Club Kart Cycraft
Club Kart Prize
Jet Squadron
King of Route 66
Sega Driving Simulator
Soul Surfer
Virtua Fighter 4 *
Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution *
Virtua Fighter 4 Final Tuned *
Virtua Striker 3 *
Wild Riders

* Games in my Collection

The Sega Naomi

Sega's 128 bit arcade hardware is called the Naomi. NAOMI stands for (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) and in Japanese it has the meaning of beauty above all else.

With the Naomi Sega brought alot of advance features into arcades, such as the advancement of the JVS connection interface, Digital Game Networking and the use of GD-Roms. The Naomi has the 2nd largest game libary behind only the Neo Geo MVS.

A common misconception is that a Sega Dreamcast is the same as a Sega Naomi. This is not the case. The Naomi has twice the amount of main memory and graphics memory than the Dreamcast. Also the Naomi has four times the sound memory than that of the Dreamcast, the reason for this is because the Naomi does not spool redbook audio from the GD-ROM drive, everything is loaded into memory.

There are some arcade collectors who will not have anything to do with the Naomi because of two factors: The JVS connection type and Power requirements. Most arcade cabinets were designed for Jamma games, this ment that if those cabinets were to be used to play Naomi games, they would have to use a JVS to Jamma convertor.

Now this is where the Power requirements kick in. Both the Capcom I/O and Sega v 2.0 I/O can power a Naomi and a Naomi cart game. However neither Capcom I/O and Sega v 2.0 I/O can power the GD drive or a Naomi 2 by itself, a additional power supply is needed. The power supply that is needed is not the same one you would find in a computer (however there are ways to make a computer psu work).

Note that the GD Rom drive can be used with either the Naomi or Naomi 2.
(more on the Naomi 2 later)

Here are the specs for the Naomi:

CPU : Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 32 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte
Media : ROM Board (maximum size of 172MBytes) / GD-Rom
Simultaneous Number of Colors : Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
Polygons : 2.5 Million polys/sec
Rendering Speed : 500 M pixel/sec
Additional Features : Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha-Bending (transparency), Mip Mapping (polygon-texture auto switch), Tri-Linear Filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment Mapping, and Specular Effect.
NAOMI GAME LIST

18 Wheeler
Airline Pilots
Akatsuki Denkou Senki *
Boat Race Ocean Heats
Capcom Vs SNK *
Charge'N'Blast
Cosmic Smash
Crackin' DJ
Crackin' DJ 2
Crazy Taxi
Dead or Alive 2
Dead or Alive 2 Millennium *
Death Crimson OX
Dengen Tenshi Taisen Janshi Shangri-la
Disney Magical Dance
Dynamite Baseball
Dynamite Baseball '99
Dynamite Deka EX
Exzeal
F1 World Grand Prix
F355 Challenge 2 : International Course Edition Twin
F355 Challenge Twin
Fish Live
Formation Battle In May
Giant Gram 2 : All Japan Pro Wrestling In Nippon Budokan
Giant Gram 2000 : All Japan Pro Wrestling 3 Brave Men Of Glory
Giga Wing 2 *
Guilty Gear X *
Gun Beat
Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai 3
Illmatic Envelope
InuNoOsanpo
Jambo! Safari
Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta!
Marvel Vs Capcom 2 *
Melty Blood Actress Again
MushiKing : The Battle of the Beetles
MushiKing II
MushiKing III
MushiKing IV
MushiKing V
Oshare Majo Love and Berry / Fashionable Witch Love and Berry
Out Triggers
Pocket Shooting
Project Justice *
Puyo Puyo Da!
Puyo Puyo Fever
Puzzle Kurutto Stone
Quiz Ah Megamisama! / Quiz Ah My Goddess!
Radilgy NOA *
Ring Out 4x4
Samba de Amigo
Samba de Amigo ver.2000
Sega Marine Fishing
Sega Strike Fighter
Sega Tetris
Sky Champ
Slash Out
Star Horse
Star Horse 2001
Star Horse 2002
The House of the Dead 2
The Typing of the Dead
Tokyo Bus Tour
Touch De Uno!
Touch De Uno! 2
Toy Fighter / Waffupu
Virtua NBA
Virtua Striker 2 Ver.2000
Virtua Tennis / Power Smash
Virtua Tennis 2 / Power Smash 2 *
Virtual On Oratorio Tangram M.S.B.S.Ver.5.66
Wave Runner GP
World Series 99 / Super Major League 99
WWF Royal Rumble
Zero Gunner 2
Zombie Revenge *

* Games in my Collection

Last Hope Pink Bullets - Limited Edition

The latest Neo Geo MVS game has been released. Last Hope Pink Bullets has excellent Gameplay, Graphics, and Sound. I recevied my copy on last Friday, Here are some videos of my 1st playthough.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Stage 6

Tatsunoko V.S. Capcom Arcade Kit

The PGM 2

A upgrade to the PGM Arcade system.

Game List

Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou
King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match Hero *
Knights of Valour 2
Knights of Valour 3
Oriental Legend 2

* In my Collection

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Gameplay

Here is a new Gameplay video for Tekken Tag Tournament 2:

Capcom CP SYSTEM II (CPS2)

The CPS2 was one of Capcoms earlier arcade systems. CPS-2 Game boards come in six different colors, one for each language region and the rent version. Some great games were released on this system such as Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Pro Gear.

Here are board color codes:

Green : Japan
Blue : U.S.A. and Europe
Orange : South America
Grey : Asia
Yellow : All (Rent version)
Black : All in one unit
Grey and Orange game boards require the main 'A' board of matching color to work. Green and Blue boards are totally interchangeable meaning Green game boards will work on a Blue 'A' board and visa versa. A Yellow case shows a game is the rent version and these were made to fit 'A' boards as required.

Specs:

Main CPU : 68000 @ 16 MHz
Sound CPU : Z80 @ 8 MHz
Sound Chips : Q Sound @ 4 MHz
Color Palette : 32 bit
Total On Screen Colors: 4096
Colors per tile : 16 (4 bits per pixel)
Object Number : 900 (16 x 16 pixels)
Scroll Faces : 3
Resolution : 384 x 224
Maximum Rom Capacity : 322 Megabits

Game List:

1944 : The Loop Master
19XX : The War Against Destiny
Alien Vs. Predator *
Armored Warriors / Powered Gear
Battle Circuit
Capcom Sports Club
Choko
Cyberbots : Fullmetal Madness
Dimahoo / Great Mahou Daisakusen
Dungeons & Dragons : Shadow over Mystara
Dungeons & Dragons : Tower of Doom
Eco Fighters / Ultimate Ecology
Galum Pa!
Giga Wing
Hyper Street Fighter II : The Anniversary Edition
Jyangokushi : Haoh no Saihai
Ken Sei Mogura
Mars Matrix : Hyper Solid Shooting
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter
Marvel Vs. Capcom : Clash of Super Heroes
Mighty! Pang
Pnickies
Progear / Progear no Arashi *
Puzz Loop 2
Quiz Nanairo Dreams : Nijiirotyou no Kiseki
Ring of Destruction / Super Muscle Bomber
Rockman 2 : The Power Fighters / Mega Man 2 : The Power Fighters
Rockman : The Power Battle
Street Fighter Alpha / Street Fighter Zero
Street Fighter Alpha 2 / Street Fighter Zero 2
Street Fighter Alpha 3 / Street Fighter Zero 3
Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha
Super Gem Fighter / Pocket Fighter
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo / Super Puzzle Fighter 2 X
Super Street Fighter 2 : The New Challengers
Super Street Fighter 2 : The Tournament Battle
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo / Super Street Fighter 2 X
Vampire : The Night Warriors / Darkstalkers : The Night Warriors
Vampire Hunter 2 : Darkstalkers Revenge
Vampire Hunter : Darkstalkers Revenge / Night Warriors : Darkstalkers Revenge
Vampire Savior 2 : The Lord of Vampire
Vampire Savior : The Lord of Vampire
X-Men : Children of the Atom
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter
*In my Collection

The Sammy Atomiswave

The Atomiswave was Sammy's version of Sega's Naomi hardware. It is not as powerful as a Naomi, but it is equal to a Dreamcast. Because it was not as powerful as a Naomi, It cost less to produce and was cheaper for arcade owners to buy. In the end, the  Atomiswave was made for arcade owners who wanted most of the power of the Naomi but with the standard Jamma connection. The Naomi used the JVS connection type.

Specs -

CPU : Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU (200 MHz 360 MIPS / 1.4 GFLOPS)
Graphic Engine : PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
Sound Engine : ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHZ (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
Main Ram : 32 megs
Main Memory : 16 MByte
Graphic Memory : 16 MByte
Sound Memory : 8 MByte
Media : ROM Board
Simultaneous Number of Colors : Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
Polygons : 2.5 Million polys/sec
Rendering Speed : 500 M pixel/sec
Additional Features : Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha-Bending (transparency), Mip Mapping (polygon-texture auto switch), Tri-Linear Filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment Mapping, and Specular Effect.
Network : It is possible to connect the systems on the network using both 56K modem or broadband connection using the AW-Net.

Game List

Chase 1929
Demolish Fist
Dirty Pigskin Football
Dolphin Blue *
Extreme Hunting
Faster Than Speed
Force Five
Guilty Gear Isuka
Guilty Gear X Ver. 1.5
Hokuto No Ken / Fist Of The Northstar *
Horse Racing
Kenju
Knights Of Valour : The Seven Spirits
Maximum Speed
Metal Slug 6 *
Neogeo Battle Coliseum *
Premier Eleven
Ranger Mission
Rumble Fish
Rumble Fish 2
Salaried Worker Golden Taro
Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden
Sports Shooting USA
Sushi Bar
The King Of Fighters Neowave
The King Of Fighters XI

*Denotes game is in my collection.

Mortal Kombat 2 Arcade Cabinet

Here is the latest Cabinet to be added to my collection. This Mortal Kombat 2 cab was in great shape. The cab has a brand new RCA crt tube that has zero burn in with a cap kit parts. I took the Midway jamma box that I made out of the Astro city and put it in the MK2 cab. The cab came with MK2.

Notice the control Panel, MK2 uses 5 buttons, UMK3 and MK4 uses 6 buttons. I was never a fan on the default layout which had the run button in the bottom left coner of a panel. I have seven buttons  installed so that depending on who is playing (a person with small or large hands) can easily get to the run button.

For all the purist out there, I do have a stock UMK 3 panel that has not been modied. :-)

Creating a Jamma Motherboard Case

So I wanted to add a few Midway arcade games to my collection and one thing stood out to me: They are all just bare motherboards. All of my other games (CPS 2, Neo Geo, PGM, Type X2, ) are all enclosed in a shell of some type. This a huge factor in storing and protecting games when they are not in use.I needed a functional way for playing and storing my Jamma PCB's. I plan on putting 3 games in one case. The games are Killer Instinct 2, UMK 3, and MK 4.

Here is my solution:

I went to a local salvage store and found a old Sony CD player that held 250 cds.

Here is the inside of the Sony player. Time to clean it out.

All cleaned out with a full view of the tray.



Top of the case

Going to use shelf magnets to hold the Plex Glass door in place. The door will only be used when the case is not used in the cab and is being stored on a shelf.

Deciding on the final placement for the plex door.

Full view of the case without any PCB trays.

Case with Plex Door.

PCB tray 1 and 2 installed.

Braces for PCB tray 3 installed.





Case with with Plex Door

UMK 3 pcb installed on tray 1. Cut the length of the Tray.

Installed tray 2 over the UMK 3 pcb.

Mortal Kombat 4 mounted on tray 2.

Mortal Kombat 4 mounted on tray 2 - side view

Mortal Kombat 4 mounted on tray 2- With Plex cover

Jamma Case in Astro City

Jamma Case in Astro City - Wide View