List of Sega arcade system boards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Triforce (arcade system board))
Jump to: navigation, search

The following is a list of arcade system boards released by Sega.

Contents

[edit] Sega G80

Sega G80 was an Arcade system board released by Sega in 1981. The G80 was released in both raster and vector versions of the hardware.

[edit] G80 Specifications

[edit] Sega System 1

Sega System 1 was a type of arcade hardware used in various Sega arcade machines from 1983 until 1987. For most of its run it coexisted with Sega System 2 (1985 - 1988) and as a result had many similar features (the only major difference being that System 2 had two separate circuit boards instead of one). In its four year span it was used in some 20 different arcade games including Choplifter, Flicky, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, and Wonder Boy.

[edit] System 1 Specifications

  • Main CPU: Z80 @ 4 MHz
  • Sound CPU: Z80 @ 4 MHz
  • Sound Chips: SN76496 @ 4 MHz and SN76496 @ 2 MHz
  • Video resolution: 256 x 224
  • Arcade components were contained on one circuit board.
  • Featured the use of 2 layer backgrounds, sprites, and hardware collision detection.[2]

[edit] Sega System 16

The Sega System 16 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1985. Over its lifespan, roughly forty games were released on this hardware, making it one of Sega's most successful arcade platforms. It was produced in two variants, the System 16A and System 16B.

In order to prevent piracy, as well as illegal bootleg games, many System 16 boards used an encryption system. A Hitachi FD1094 chip, containing the main CPU as well as the decryption key, was used in place of a regular CPU.

The System 16's pairing of a Motorola 68000 CPU and a ZiLOG Z80 coprocessor would prove to be a popular and durable arcade hardware configuration well into the 1990s. Capcom's CPS-1 and CPS-2 boards were built on a similar foundation, as was SNK's Neo Geo hardware. Sega would later use the 68000/Z80 combination to power its Genesis/Mega Drive home console.

[edit] System 16 Specifications

  • Main CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz
  • Memory: 16kB + 2kB (System16A) [3]
  • Sound CPU: ZiLOG Z80 @ 4 MHz (5 MHz in System 16B)
  • Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2151 @ 4 MHz (+ NEC uPD7759 ADPCM decoder in System 16B)
  • Display Resolution: 320 x 224
  • Colors: 4096
  • Graphical Capabilities: 128 onscreen sprites, 2 tile layers, 1 text layer, 1 sprite layer, sprite scaling. Note only System 16B supports sprite scaling.[4][5]

[edit] Sega X Board

The Sega X Board is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1987. It was noteworthy for its sprite manipulation capabilities, which allowed it to create high quality pseudo-3D visuals. This trend would continue with the Y Board and the System 32, before the Model 1 made true 3D arcade games more financially affordable.

[edit] X Board Specifications

  • Main CPU: 2 x MC68000 @ 12.5 MHz
  • Sound CPU: Z80 @ 4 MHz
  • Sound Chip: YM2151 4 MHz & SegaPCM @ 15.625 MHz
  • Display Resolution: 320 x 224
  • Board composition : Single Board
  • Hardware Features : 256 Sprites on screen at one time, 4 tiles layers, 1 text layer, 1 sprite layer with hardware sprite zooming, 1 road layer, can draw 2 roads at once, translucent shadows [6]

[edit] Sega Y Board

The Sega Y Board is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1988. Just like the X Board before it, the Y Board was known for its sprite manipulation capabilities.

[edit] Y Board Specifications

  • Main CPU: 3 x MC68000 @ 12.5 MHz
  • Sound CPU: Z80 @ 4 MHz
  • Sound Chip: YM2151 4 MHz & SegaPCM @ 15.625 MHz
  • Display Resolution: 320 x 224
  • Board composition: CPU board + Video board
  • Hardware features: a sky gradient; a first sprite layer, which plugs into a full-screen rotation; a second sprite layer on top of them, which has priority; full sprite zooming and scaling on both sprite planes.[7]

[edit] Sega System 18

The Sega System 18 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1989. System 18 had a very short run of games but most boards on this hardware were JAMMA standard. Most of these games also have the "suicide battery" as associated with Sega's System 16 hardware.

[edit] System 18 specifications

  • Main CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 10 MHz
  • Sound CPU: ZiLOG Z80 @ 8 MHz
  • Sound Chip: 2 x Yamaha YM3438 @ 8 MHz + Ricoh RF5c68 @ 10 MHz (8 Channel PCM chip, remarked as Sega Custom 315)
  • Display Resolution: 320 x 224
  • Colors: 4096
  • Board composition: Main board + ROM board
  • Graphical Capabilities: 128 Sprites on screen at one time, 4 tile layers, 1 text layer, 1 sprite layer with hardware sprite zooming, translucent shadows[8]

[edit] Sega System 24

The Sega System 24 was an arcade system board released by Sega in 1988. It was produced for coin-operated video arcade machines until 1996. Some games released using this hardware include: Bonanza Bros., Hot Rod, and Gain Ground.

[edit] Sega System 24 Specifications

The System 24 used two Motorola 68000 processors at 10 MHz. One was for booting, while the other was used by the game. The board holds 1360KB of RAM and 256KB of ROM. It was the first Sega arcade system that required a medium resolution arcade monitor. The color palette was 4352 selectable from 32,768. The system could support up to 2048 sprites on-screen at once.

Sound was driven by a YM2151 at 4 MHz; it was capable of delivering 8 channels of FM sound in addition to a DAC used for sound effects and speech synthesis. Early System 24s loaded their program from floppy disks. Later, some games such as Bonanza Bros. used CD-ROMs or hardware ROM boards to store games. No matter which storage device was used, a special security chip was required for each game an operator wanted to play.[9]

[edit] Sega Mega-Tech

The Sega Mega-Tech Logo

The Sega Mega-Tech was an arcade system developed by Sega Europe in 1989. It is based on Sega Mega Drive hardware, and more or less identical. Its operation ability is similar to Nintendo's PlayChoice-10, where the credits bought give the use a playable time period rather than lives (usually 1 minute per credit), and can switch between games during playtime.

A few things were omitted, such as the expansion hardware allowing for Sega-CD or Sega 32X as these were not developed at this point, so would not likely be offered as an arcade expansion. The PCB for the Mega-Tech also includes the ability to display to a second monitor, which contains a list of the games installed in the machine and also displays instructions for controlling the game, 1 or 2 player information, and a short synopsis of each game. The second monitor also displays the time left for playing.

Since the machine was basically a Mega Drive with timer control for arcade operations, porting games to the Mega-Tech was an easy task and so many games were released, most of them popular titles such as Streets Of Rage, Revenge Of Shinobi, Golden Axe, Sonic The Hedgehog and many more. The ability was also added for the machine to play Sega Master System titles, though fewer Master System titles were ported than Mega Drive titles. Some include the original Shinobi, Outrun and After Burner.[10]

The Sega Mega-Tech was released in Europe, Australia, and Asia (including Japan), but not in North America.

[edit] Sega Mega-Play

The Sega Mega-Play Logo

The Sega Mega-Tech system was soon replaced by its successor, the Mega-Play, a JAMMA based system. This system utilized only 4 carts instead of 8. This version also utilizes traditional arcade operations, in which credits bought are used to buy lives instead.[11]

Like the Mega-Tech, The Sega Mega-Play was released in Europe, Australia, and Asia (including Japan), but not in North America.

[edit] Sega System C-2

Sega's System C-2 is a Jamma PCB used in arcade games. This hardware is based closely on the Sega Genesis hardware, the main CPU, the sound processor and the graphics processor being the same[citation needed]. The CPU clock speed is slightly faster (10 MHz instead of 8 MHz), there is no Z80, and the sound chip is driven by the CPU. The DAC is also replaced by a UPD7759, the same as the System 16 hardware. 17 known games were created for the System C-2 hardware.

[edit] System C-2 Specifications

  • Main CPU: MC68000 @ 8.948862 MHz
  • Sound chip: YM3438 @ 7.670453, SN76496 @ 3.579545
  • Optional Sound Chip: UPD7759 @ 640 kHz
  • Video resolution: 320x224
  • Hardware Features: Line scroll, column scroll and a raster interrupt with 2 background planes (one with an option window), a sprite plane and several levels of priority
  • Board composition: Single Jamma board.[12]

[edit] Sega System 32

The Sega System 32 Logo

System 32 was an arcade platform released by Sega in 1991. It was the first 32-bit arcade system. It succeeded Sega System 24 with a 32-bit RISC processor at 16 MHz. Notable titles included Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Rad Mobile, Outrunners, and SegaSonic the Hedgehog.

There was also another version of this hardware, called System Multi 32. This was similar to the original, but had dual monitors for each game.

[edit] System 32 Specifications

[edit] Sega Model 1

The Sega Model 1 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1992. During development of the system, Sega went to General Electric Aerospace (which would become part of Martin Marietta, later Lockheed Martin) for assistance in creating the 3D hardware. The first game for the system, Virtua Racing was designed to test the viability of the platform and was never intended to be released commercially, but it was such a success internally that Sega did so anyway.

However, the high cost of the Model 1 system meant only six games were ever developed for it; among them the popular fighting game Virtua Fighter.

[edit] Model 1 Specifications

[edit] Sega Model 2

The Sega Model 2 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1993. Like the Model 1, it was developed in cooperation with Martin Marietta, and was a further advancement of the earlier Model 1 system. The most noticeable improvement was texture mapping, which enabled polygons to be painted with bitmap images, as opposed to the limited monotone flat shading that Model 1 supported.

Despite its high pricetag, the Model 2 platform was very successful. It featured some of the highest grossing arcade games of all time: Daytona USA[15], Virtua Fighter 2, Cyber Troopers Virtual-On and The House of the Dead to name a few.

Model 2 has four different varieties, commonly referred to as Model 2, Model 2A-CRX, Model 2B-CRX and Model 2C-CRX. While Model 2 and 2A-CRX use a custom DSP with internal code for the geometrizer, 2B-CRX and 2C-CRX use well documented DSPs and upload the geometrizer code at startup to the DSP. This, combined with the fact that some games were available for both 2A-CRX and 2B-CRX, led to the reverse engineering of the Model 2 and Model 2A-CRX DSPs.

[edit] Model 2 Specifications

[edit] Sega ST-V

ST-V (Sega Titan Video game system) was an arcade system board released by Sega in 1995. Departing from their usual process of building custom arcade hardware, Sega's ST-V is essentially identical to the Sega Saturn home console system. The only difference is the media; ST-V used ROM-cartridges instead of CDs to store games. Being derived from the Saturn hardware, the ST-V was presumably named after the moon Titan, a satellite of Saturn.

The majority of ST-V titles were released in Japan only, but a notable exception was the port of Dynamite Deka, which became Die Hard Arcade. Games released for the ST-V includes the arcade version of Virtua Fighter Remix, Golden Axe: The Duel and Final Fight Revenge. The shared hardware between Saturn and ST-V allowed for very "pure" ports for the Saturn console.

The Sega Titan Video game system Logo

[edit] ST-V Specifications

[edit] Sega Model 3

The Sega Model 3 is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1996. It was the final culmination of Sega's partnership with Lockheed Martin, using the company's Real3D division to design the graphical hardware. Upon release, the Model 3 was easily the most powerful arcade system board in existence, capable of over one million polygons per second. The hardware went through several "steppings," which increased the clock speed of the CPU, as well as minor changes to the board architecture.

Well known Model 3 games include Virtua Fighter 3 (1996), Sega Super GT (1996), Daytona USA 2 (1998), Sega Rally 2 (1998), & The Ocean Hunter (1998), although it is the rarest of them.

[edit] Model 3 Specifications

[edit] Sega NAOMI

The Sega NAOMI Logo

First demonstrated in 1998 at JAMMA, the Sega NAOMI (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) is the successor to the Sega Model 3 hardware.

A development of the Sega Dreamcast home game console, the NAOMI and Dreamcast share the same hardware components: Hitachi SH-4 CPU, PowerVR Series 2 GPU (PVR2DC), and Yamaha AICA based sound system. NAOMI has twice as much system memory, twice as much video memory, and 4X as much sound memory. Multiple NAOMI boards can be 'stacked' together to improve graphics performance, or to support multiple-monitor output. A special game cabinet for the NAOMI, NAOMI Universal Cabinet, houses up to sixteen boards for this purpose.

The other key difference between NAOMI and Dreamcast lies in the game-media. The Dreamcast reads game data from GD-ROM optical disc, while the NAOMI arcade-board features 168 MB of solid-state ROMs or GD-ROMs using a custom Dimm board and GD-ROM drive. In operation, the Naomi GD-ROM is read only once at system powerup, transferring the disc's contents to the DIMM-Board RAM. Once the download is complete, the game executes out of RAM, thereby reducing mechanical wear on the GD-ROM drive.

Unlike Sega's previous arcade platforms (and most other arcade platforms in the industry), NAOMI is widely licensed for use by other game publishers. Games such as Mazan, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Guilty Gear XX were all developed by third-party licensees of the NAOMI platform. An offshoot version of the NAOMI hardware is Atomiswave by Sammy Corporation.

After nine years of hardware production, and with new game titles coming in 2008 like Melty Blood: Actress Again and Akatsuki Blitzkampf AC, NAOMI is considered to be one of the longest running arcade platforms ever and is comparable in longevity with the Neo-Geo MVS.

[edit] NAOMI Specifications

  • CPU: Hitachi SH-4 CPU with graphic functions and 128-bit SIMD @ 200 MHz (360 MIPS and 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 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: 5 Million polys/sec
  • Rendering Speed: 500 M pixel/sec
  • Additional Features: Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha Blending, Mip-Mapping, Trilinear filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment mapping, and Specular Effects.[18]

[edit] Sega Hikaru

An evolution of the NAOMI hardware with superior graphics capabilities, the Hikaru was used for a handful of deluxe dedicated-cabinet games, beginning with 1999's Brave Fire Fighters. Since it was comparatively expensive to produce, Sega soon abandoned the Hikaru in favor of continued NAOMI and NAOMI 2 development.

[edit] Hikaru Specifications

  • CPU: 2x Hitachi SH-4 CPU with graphic functions and 128-bit SIMD @ 200 MHz (360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS)
  • Graphic Engine: Sega Custom 3D
  • Sound Engine: 2x ARM7 Yamaha AICA @ 45 MHz with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM
  • Main Memory: 64 Mbytes
  • Graphic Memory: 28 Mbytes
  • Sound Memory: 8 Mbytes
  • Media: ROM Board (max 352 MBytes)
  • Simultaneous Number of Colors: Approx. 16,770,000 (24-bit)
  • Resolution: 24 kHz, 496x384, 31 kHz 640x480
  • Polygons: 2 Million polygons/sec
  • Lighting: Horizontal, Spot, 1024 lights per scene, 4 lights per polygon, 8 window surfaces.
  • Effects: (at least) Phong Shading, Fog, Depth Queueing, Stencil, Shadow, Motion blur
  • Others Capabilities: Bitmap Layer x 2, Calender, Dual Monitor (24 kHz)
  • Extensions: communication, 4 channel audio, PCI, MIDI, RS-232C
  • Connection: JAMMA Video compliant

[edit] Sega NAOMI 2

The Sega NAOMI 2 Logo

In 2000, Sega debuted the NAOMI 2 arcade system board at JAMMA, an upgrade of the original NAOMI with better graphics capability.

NAOMI 2's graphics-assembly contains two PowerVR CLX2 GPUs, a VideoLogic Elan chip for geometry transformation and lighting effects, and 2X the graphics memory for each CLX2 chip. (Each CLX2 has its own 32MB bank, as the CLX2s cannot share graphics RAM). Architecturally, the NAOMI 2 is similar enough to the original NAOMI that both can play NAOMI games without modification.[19][20][21]

With the NAOMI 2, Sega brought back the GD-ROM drive. For both NAOMI and NAOMI 2, the GD-ROM setup was offered as an optional combination of daughterboard expansion known as the DIMM Board, and the GD-ROM drive itself. The DIMM board contained enough RAM to allow an entire game to be loaded into memory at start up, allowing the drive to shut down after the game has loaded. This heavily reduces load times during the game, and saves on drive wear and tear.

[edit] Triforce

The Triforce is an arcade system board developed jointly by Nintendo, Namco, and Sega, with the first games appearing in 2002. The name "Triforce" is a reference to Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series of games, and symbolized the three companies' involvement in the project. The system hardware is based on the Nintendo GameCube with several differences, like provisions for add-ons such as Sega's GD-ROM system and upgradeable RAM modules.

The Triforce (arcade system board) Logo

The Triforce was initially believed to have twice as much 1T-SRAM as the Gamecube (48MB instead of 24MB), but this was disproven by a teardown analysis of a Triforce board.[22]

[edit] Triforce Specifications

[edit] Sega Chihiro

The Sega Chihiro Logo

The Sega Chihiro system is a Sega arcade system board based on the architecture of the Microsoft Xbox. The 733 MHz Intel Pentium III CPU and the NVIDIA XChip graphics processor are common to both. Unlike the Xbox, Chihiro can support up to 512MB RAM, through add-in memory modules. And Chihiro games are distributed on Sega GD-ROM media, instead of standard DVD-ROM used by the Xbox.

Because the Chihiro and Xbox share the same hardware architecture, porting from the Chihiro is theoretically easier than porting from a different arcade platform. In practice, the much smaller memory-capacity of the Xbox (64MB), presents a formidable challenge for home-conversions of arcade titles which use Chihiro's larger memory configuration. (The Xbox release of OutRun 2, was able to retain the look and feel of the arcade original, a 512MB Chihiro platform, through the outstanding efforts of the programming team.)

[edit] Chihiro Specifications

[edit] Sega Lindbergh

The Sega Lindbergh platform is a Linux-based embedded PC. Sega had originally planned to use the Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the basis for the arcade board, but instead opted for an architecture based on standard PC hardware.

According to Sega-AM2 president Hiroshi Kataoka, porting Lindbergh titles (such as Virtua Fighter 5) to Sony's PlayStation 3 is generally easier than porting to Xbox 360, because the Lindbergh and PS3 use a GPU designed by the same company, NVIDIA.[26]

The Sega Lindbergh Logo

[edit] Lindbergh Specifications

The Sega Lindbergh standard sit-down cabinet uses a 1360x768 WXGA LCD display.

[edit] Sega Europa-R

The Sega Europa-R is an arcade system board developed by Sega Amusements Europe.

Sega has again chosen a PC-based design for this Arcade Board.

[edit] Europa-R Specifications

[edit] Sega Ring series

The Ring series of arcade machines are also based on PC architecture. Initially announced models include RingEdge and RingWide. The first game for the Ring platform is Border Break, running on the RingEdge. On February 10, 2009, Sega approved a patent for two controller designs, one that looks similar to the Sega Saturn 3D pad with a added touch screen device and one that looks similar to the Sega Genesis 6-button pad.[28] The 2 pieces of hardware will have Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 2009 as its operating system.

Sega also approved a patent for USB Flash Memory cards and Hard drive on July 7, 2009.[29] Because of these patents, rumors have been spreading that Sega is going to release a new console based on RingEdge hardware in 2010 or 2011. Sega has yet to clarify exactly why these patents were issued, possibly because these rumors may be true. However Skeptics still remain at large as the original article claiming the RingEdge as a console(or basis) guised himself as a Mr. Zach Morris who has been linked by much of the fanbase as a liar(the 2004 Shenmue 3 and Crazy Taxi 4 hoaxes as well as claiming the lindbergh to be a console itself).

[edit] RingEdge

The RingEdge is the main console of the Ring Series. It has better graphics and a larger storage than the RingWide.

[edit] RingEdge specifications

[edit] RingWide

The RingWide is more basic than the RingEdge, and only has 8GB(Compact Flash) of storage, while RingEdge has a 4 times larger storage(Because of the use of the RAM Drive or SSD).

[edit] RingWide specifications

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Sega G80 Hardware Reference". http://www.cityofberwyn.com/simulation/gameHardware/G80ref1.20.txt. 
  2. ^ "Sega System 1 game and hardware information". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=693. 
  3. ^ "SEGA AGES Vol.33 FANTASY ZONE COMPLETE COLLECTION" SEGA Release on 2008-09-11 in Japan.
  4. ^ "System 16 (A version) at System 16 - The Arcade Museum". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=700. 
  5. ^ "System 16 (B version) at System 16 - The Arcade Museum". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=701. 
  6. ^ "X Board at system16.com". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=698. 
  7. ^ "Y Board at system16.com". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=699. 
  8. ^ "System 18 at System 16 - The Arcade Museum". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=702. 
  9. ^ "Sega Museum - Sega System 24 Hardware". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=708. 
  10. ^ "Mega-Tech". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=706. 
  11. ^ "Mega Play". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=707. 
  12. ^ "Sega System C-2 information at System 16". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=705. 
  13. ^ "System 32 hardware information and game screen shots". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=709. 
  14. ^ "Model 1 at system16.com". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=712. 
  15. ^ System 16 - Model 2 Hardware (Sega)
  16. ^ "Sega Titan Video at System 16 - The Arcade Museum". http://www.system16.com/sega/hrdw_stv.html. 
  17. ^ "Model 3 Step 1.0 at system16.com". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=717. 
  18. ^ "NAOMI technical overview". http://www.segatech.com/arcade/naomi1/index.html. 
  19. ^ "NAOMI 2 GD-ROM Hardware". System 16. http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=726. Retrieved 2006-08-02. 
  20. ^ "NAOMI 2 Hardware". System 16. http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=725. Retrieved 2006-08-02. 
  21. ^ "NAOMI 2 Satellite Terminal hardware". System 16. http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=727. Retrieved 2006-08-02. 
  22. ^ "Triforce hardware analysis". http://debugmo.de/?p=72. 
  23. ^ "System16 - Sega Triforce". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=728. 
  24. ^ "Triforce Hardware". http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/pcbs/triforce.html. 
  25. ^ "Chihiro hardware specifications and known games". http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=729. 
  26. ^ "VF5 port to PS3". http://ps3.ign.com/articles/716/716043p1.html. 
  27. ^ "Pictures of actual Virtua Tennis 3 bootup exposing Linux". http://arcadebelgium.forumactif.com/viewtopic.forum?t=523. 
  28. ^ "Controller and expansion unit for controller". http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7488254.html. 
  29. ^ {{cite web|url=http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/7556197.html |title=Card stack reader, card thereof, card case, method for manufacturing card, game machine using the same, computer-readable storage medium on which game program is recorded}}
  30. ^ "RingEdge/RingWide arcade system specs (Japanese)". http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20090220/ring.htm. 
  31. ^ セガ、次期業務用ゲーム汎用基板「RINGEDGE」・「RINGWIDE」を開発