21.8.2008 - Cor blimey guvnor, strike a light, luv a duck (etc.)
- No, you’re not seeing things, after an over 2 year hiatus I’m actually really honest to goodness updating the site. So what happened?
2 things (more or less);
1) I went to the ATEI in January 2007 and Sega had the Lindbergh, Taito had the Type-X, Konami had their pc in a black box and everyone else had a bought-down-the-market-PC-in-a-generic-plastic-cabinet-running-an-over-a-year-old-pc/console game. As far as I was concerned the era of interesting hardware and to a certain extent games was over. The one good game I saw (the Konami game where you threw real balls at a screen in a point blank style game) I was told wouldn’t make it over to the UK. I was so disillusioned at all of this that I just pretty much gave up and lost interest, after all, the whole reason I started this was my interest in, well, interesting hardware, and the PC is the epitome of boring hardware.
2) I started playing World of Warcraft (2 bazillion people can’t be wrong).
- If I lost interest why am I updating the site now?
- I realised that I don’t have to care about new games or hardware (even tho' the lions share of this update is about them), and I can concentrate on the old stuff that I do find interesting if I want.
- I started to feel guilty about all the "are you still alive?" emails and then I got a donation through my paypal thingy which make me feel crushingly embarrassed and guilty for not doing anything much for over a year (Hi Ian!).
- The steady stream of stuff that Guru, Tomas and Stefan sent me needs to go somewhere and was too good to let rot.
- My "System 16 to do" email folder was over one bazillion gig.
- I’ve pretty much finished WoW until the expansion comes out ;)
and after all of that, writing this as I have after doing most of the donkey work, I actually quite enjoyed doing it, who’d a thunk?
- On to other things now;
- Mail control, you’d (possibly) be amazed at how much strange email I get, so I thought I’d clear a handful of things up;
1) I don’t own any of the machines on the site, not even one (anymore, much to my disgust). It’s an internet based museum, so I don’t own anything and I don’t know where to get any of the machines outside of pointing people towards EBay, distributors or other auctions.
2) Apart from a (growingly distant) background in electronic engineering, I don’t actually know a lot about repairing old arcade machines, any schematics or diagrams I have are up and on the site, if it’s not there for public consumption then I don’t have it. I might be able to help a very few of you, but my replies to most technical queries are largely "has it caught fire? No? ok, someone might be able to fix it"
3) If you want me to add a section, run it by me first (I need to be interested enough in it), but then you need to send me the completed section including screenshots, cabinets etc.
- The other day my mum took my kids out for the day, during this they went down to a seafront arcade to play on "the machines" as she calls them. Now bear in mind my kids are 3 and 6, she was horrified to see what I figured out was a house of the dead 3 or 4 sitting next to the motorbike game they wanted to sit on. I’ve never really thought about it as it’s never affected me before, but why are 18 rated (or at least extremely gory) games allowed in an area where anyone can see and play them? If this was a film then it wouldn’t be allowed and I don’t want my very young kids seeing someone’s head blown off piece by piece, even if it is a zombie.
If arcades are trying to push themselves as family entertainment nowadays to survive then I think they should probably sit these machines at the back in the 18 rated area each arcade has where the large payout fruit machines live. /rant
- A small note about Naomi GD-Rom, it's largely been discontinued and developement for any 2D games seems to have moved back to the Naomi ROM board, GD-Roms were getting too expensive to produce, so Sega dropped them..
- Due to the massive amount of updates I've made, I may have forgotten to credit people, if that person is you let me know! Beleive it or not I've still got a fair bit to do, but (hopefully) nothing on this scale for a while, that's what I get for letting 2 years of information pile up ;)
- I wrote most of this update on the laptop whilst sitting on a deckchair in France, it makes the screen hard to see, but I can just about cope with writing updates at 37ºC and a steady supply of beer with the distant sound of the kids going mental in the pool. I needed a good couple of days to wade through my emails and other such nonsense, I’ll have to actually update the site with everything I’ve done when I’m back in England, but that’s just a lot of copy/pasting and other trivialities, which isn’t the end of the world ;)
Then I wrote the rest whilst sitting at home after tearing the medial collateral ligament in my left knee and not being able to move, ho hum...
- So, with all that said and done, let’s get on with the update!
Atari - Updated link to The Last StarFighter fan page, thanks to - Håkon Galstad.
- Added info about Street Drivin’ using a Multisync II board, thanks to Luigi30.
Capcom - Added a Taito Type X2 Hardware section.
- Added Tatsunoko Vs Capcom, Street Fighter IV, Fate : Unlimited Codes and Sengoku Basara X with screenshots to Taito Type X2 Hardware.
- Added note to Rockman EXE: Battlechip Stadium on System 246
- Added Chokosoku Card Racer to System 246 Hardware.
Irem - Added PCB picture to M27 hardware thanks to Stefan Lindberg
- Moved WW3 from unknown to M27 Hardware, thanks to Stefan Lindberg
- Added proper Demoneye X screenshot with correct colours.
Konami - Added note about Viper Hardware being 3DFX Voodoo3 based.
- Added not about Bemani Firebeat having a DVD and CD drive, not 2xCD’s, thanks to Chris Balcum.
- Relabled Frogger as they were mixed up, thanks to Steven Gregory.
- Deleted Percussion Kids as it’s not a Konami arcade gamebut an IGS game, thanks to Eddie.
- Updated Pyson Hardware, thanks to Guru
- Added the very very rare Chequered flag sitdown cabinet, thanks to Tomas Dahlgren via Stefan Lindbergh.
- Moved Para Para Paradise 2nd mix to Firebeat hardware, thanks to Keaton Hughes.
- Added Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2 / Dancing Stage SuperNOVA 2, Pop’N Music 14 Fever, Pop’N Music 15 Adventure, Pop’N Music 16 Party, GuitarFreaks V3, DrumMania V3 to Bemani Playstation 2 Hardware
- Added cabinet and screenshot pics to Guitar Freaks V3, Drum Mania V3, Pop’n Music 14. Pop’n Music 15, Pop’n Music 16 on Bemani Playstation 2 Hardware.
- Added Dance Dance Revolution X, Guitar Freaks V4 Rock X Rock, Drum Mania V4 Rock X Rock, Guitar Freak V5 Rock Infinity, DrumMania V5 Rock Infinity, Beatmania II DX 14 : GOLD, Beatmania II DX 15 : DJ Troopers and JUBEAT to Bemani PC Hardware
- Added cabinet photo to Thrill Drive 3 on PC Based Hardware.
- Added cabinet photo to Silent Scope EX on Viper Hardware.
- Added cabinet photo to Gashaaaan on Unknown Hardware.
- Added GTi-Club Supermini Festa!, Action Deka / Action Cop, Silent Hill The Arcade, Crazy Streets Thrill Drive, Frogger Hop Trivia, Pro Evolution Soccer/Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2007, Pro Evolution Soccer / Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2008 and…..Akumjao Dracula : The Arcade (I think I just heard RB spontaneously combust) to PC Based Hardware.
- Added better cabinet photo to Tsurugi on Viper Hardware.
Midway - Added Sarge Cocktail to MCR3 Hardware, thanks to Bill Esquivel
- Moved Top Gun from 8080 Hardware to Electromechanical Hardware, thanks to Bobby Tribble.
Namco - Added System 357 Hardware page.
- Added Tekken 6 to System 357 Hardware page.
- Moved Taiko no Tatsujin 7 and 8 from System10 Hardware to System 246 Hardware.
- Added Taiko no Tatsujin 9, 10 and 11 with cabinet photos to System 246 Hardware.
- Added Kinnikuman Muscle Grand Prix 2 to System 246 Hardware with screenshots.
- Added Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 and screenshots to TriForce Hardware.
- Split N2 Hardware into normal and N2 Satellite Hardware Pages.
- Added Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3, Final Turn / Ace Driver 3, MotoGP DX and Animal Kaiser to N2 Hardware.
- Did you ever wonder where the Namco O.R.B. went? , well, I added Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield to N2 Satellite Terminal Hardware, go have a look…
- Added New Space Order to N2 Satellite Terminal Hardware
- Added Wii Based Hardware, no games yet.
- Added Soul Calibur 3 Arcade Edition to System 246 Hardware as there’s a version for both 246 and 256, thanks to Donald Swany.
- Moved Final Furlong to Gorgon Hardware, thanks to Phil B.
- Renamed Photo Battle on System 10 Hardware and added cabinet pictures, thanks to Bobby Tribble.
- Moved Phozon to Super Pac-Man hardware, thanks to Richard Macareno.
- Added Minnade Kitaeru Zennou Training to System 246 Hardware.
- Added Pac-Man 25th Anniversary Edition, OnePy Berrie Match to Unknown Hardware.
- Added The Battle of Yu Yu Hakusho: Shitou! Ankoku Bujutsukai! To System 256 hardware.
- Added cabinet photo to Chou Dragonball Z / Super Dragonball Z on System 256 Hardware
- Added cabinet photo and screenshots to Submarines on Namco System 12 Hardware, changed it to prototype and added a note, thanks to Guru & Arcadeflyers.
- Added cabinet photos to Alpine Surfer, Armadillo Racing, Dirt Dash Super System 22 Hardware
- Added cabinet photos to Final Furlong, on Gorgon Hardware.
- Added cabinet photos to Angler King, Panic Park, Time Crisis 2 on System 23 Hardware.
- Added cabinet photos to Crisis Zone, Final Furlong 2 on Super System 23 Hardware.
- Added cabinet photos to Gun Survivor 2 : Biohazard Code Veronica Sega Naomi Hardware
- Added cabinet photos to Time Crisis 3 and Vampire Night on System 246 Hardware
- Deleted Over Khun from System 12 Hardware, mistranslation of Oh! Bakyuuun
Sega - Added Naomi Multiboard Hardware page, thanks to Tomas Dahlgren for sending in information about the single screen Airline Pilots to make me think of the idea and guru sending me a picture of the mutliboard pcb crate.
- Moved Airline Pilots, F355 Challenge, F355 Challenge 2, Sega Strike Fighter to Naomi Multiboard Hardware page.
- Added single screen versions of Airline Pilots and Sega Strike Fighter to Naomi hardware.
- Added note about Lindbergh Hardware on Montvista linux, thanks to Per Ole Klemetsrud.
- Added R Tuned: Ultimate Street Racing, Hummer, Sega Race TV, Primeval Hunt, Initial D Arcade Stage 4, Initial D Arcade Stage 4: Kai, Initial D Arcade Stage 4: Limited, 2 Spicy, Lets Go Jungle, Lets Go Jungle Special, Rambo, Ghost Squad Evolution, House of the Dead EX, Virtua Fighter 5 R, Virtua Fighter 5 Version B, Virtua Fighter 5 Version C, Virtua Fighter 5 Version D, Outrun 2 SP SDX to Lindbergh Hardware
- Added MJ4, Champion Cup Football Intercontinental clubs 2006-2007, World Champion Cup Football International Clubs 2007-2008, Answer x Answer, Answer x Answer 1.1, Answer x Answer Premium, Answer x Answer DX, SNC, SNC Ver 2.0, Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush, Derby Owners Club 2008: Feel the Rush V2.0, Club Majesty Formal and Club Majesty Extend to Lindbergh Satellite Hardware.
- Added better screenshots and cabinet pictures to Ami-Gyo, House of the Dead 4, House of the Dead 4 Special on Lindbergh Hardware.
- Added Europa-R Hardware page.
- Added SEGA Rally 3 to Europa-R Hardware Page
- Moved Mushiking from Naomi GD Rom to normal Naomi Hardware, thanks to Wovou
- Added Dynamite Deka EX, Disney Magical Dance, Exzeal, Mamonoro, Melty Blood Actress Again, Akatsuki Denkou Senki, Illmatic Envelope, Mushiking II, Mushiking III, Mushiking IV and Mushiking V to Naomi Hardware. (Apparently no more GD-Rom titles are being made, hence the shift to standard Naomi)
- Added Melty Blood Act Cedanza Ver B to Naomi GD-Rom.
- Added Guilty Gear XX Accent Core to Naomi GD-Rom.
- Added Marine & Marine, Beatle DASH! and Thomas The Tank Engine to Aurora Hardware.
- Added Manic Panic Ghosts to Chihiro Hardware.
- Added Sangokushi Taisen 3, MJ3 Evo and Quest for D: The Battle Kingdom to CHIHIRO Satellite Hardware.
- Moved Warball from Unknown to System 2 Hardware, thanks to Arcadeflyers/Iggy Drougge.
- Added screenshots for Wing War 360 on Model 1 Hardware, thanks to Craig Walker.
- Added Maru-Chan de Goo! screenshots for the STV hardware, thanks to Segadult.
- Added information about Hikaru Hardware sound have 2 AICA’s, thanks to RB.
- Added some small information about the 2 Triforce versions (one with upgradable RAM modules, one without).
- Added better cabinet photo to After Burner Climax on Lindbergh Hardware.
- Added cabinet photo to Ghost Squad, House of the Dead III, Outrun 2 SP on Chihiro Hardware.
- Added better cabinet photo to Samba De Amigo and Shakka to Tambourine on Naomi Hardware.
- Added better cabinet photo to Soul Surfer on Naomi 2 Hardware.
- Added better cabinet photo to Top Skater on Model 2C Hardware.
Taito - Added Vortex and screenshot to Unknown Pre 1990 Hardware, thanks to Tormod.
- Added Vertexer and screenshot to Unknown Post 1990 Hardware.
- Moved Galactic Storm and Chase Bombers from Unknown Hardware to 68020 Hardware and added screenshots and hardware information, thanks to Bryan McPhail and Hau.
- Moved Zooo from GD-Rom to GNET, thanks to Guru.
- Added PCB pictures to Birdie King Hardware, thanks to Guru.
- Moved and renamed Daikaiju no Gyakushu from unknown to Z80 Hardware, added screenshot and hardware information.
- Added notes about music for Legend of Kage on Z80 based hardware, thanks to Stefan Lindberg.
- Added better screenshots to Xii Stag, Night Raid, Psyvariar Medium Unit, Psyvariar Revision, Super Puzzle Bobble and Raycrisis on G-Net Hardware, thanks to Guru.
- Moved King of Jurassic from unknown hardware to Type X Hardware.
- Added Dinomax, DinoKing, Dragon Quest Monster: Battle Road, The King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match, Raiden IV and Zoids Infinity EX Plus to Type X Hardware page.
- Added Battle Gear 4 Tuned to TypeX+ Hardware.
- Added TypeX2 Hardware page, with hardware pictures.
- Added TypeX2 Satellite Terminal Hardware page, with hardware pictures.
- Added (deep breath) Battle Fantasia, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Half Life 2: SURVIVOR Ver. 2.0, KOF Maximum Impact: Regulation A, KOF Maximum Impact: Regulation A2, Samurai Spirits Sen / Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny, The King of Fighters XII, Trouble Witches and Wacky Races on TypeX2 Hardware.
- Added Aquarian Age Alternative, Eternal Wheel and Lord of Vermilion on TypeX2 Satellite Terminal Hardware.
- Moved Chase H.Q. 2 and D1GP Arcade from TypeX+ to TypeX2 Hardware.
Misc - Added Mushihime Sama Futari Black, Deathsmiles and, Muchi Muchi Pork! with screenshots to Cave 3rd Generation Hardware.
- Added Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou Black Label to PGM Hardware, thanks to Sven. (I need screenshots!)
- Added better screenshots to World Rally.
- Added better screenshots to Tokyo Cop on Gaelco 3D Hardware.
- Added Golden Tee '98 Tournament Edition, Golden Tee '99 Tournament Edition, Golden Tee 2K Tournament Edition,Golden Tee Royal Edition Tournament and Golden Tee Supreme Edition to Incredible Technologies 32-Bit Hardware.
- Added screenshots to Eleven Beat : World Tournament on Seta Aleck64 Hardware.
Other Bits - I’ve taken the opportunity recently to invest in some old cartoon boxed sets for the kids (no, no, really, they’re for the kids), and I forgot how great some of the old stuff was, this will mean *nothing* for anyone outside of the UK, but Trapdoor, Chorton and the Wheelies and Dangermouse all made me smile all over again. In these days of over-the-top rampant political correctness, watching people being told to “shut your face you great fat blubberhole” just makes me laugh out loud.
- The boys also got a Scalextric for Christmas, I knew there was a reason I had kids,
Cheers,
Toby
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