List of Sega arcade system boards

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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 it's 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. Throughout its lifespan, there would be around forty games released on this hardware, making it one of Sega's most successful hardware designs. 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.

[edit] System 16 Specifications

[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 [5]

[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 noteworthy for its sprite manipulation capabilities, which allowed it to create high quality pseudo-3D visuals. This trend would continue with the System 32, before the Model 1 made true 3D arcade games more financially affordable.

[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. [6]

[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 hardwre 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[7]

[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 4MHz; 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.[8]

[edit] Sega Mega-Tech

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 incredibly 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.[9]

[edit] Sega Mega-Play

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.[10]

[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 (10MHz 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.[11]

[edit] Sega System 32

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, 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 system meant only six games were ever released; among them the popular fighting game Virtua Fighter. The Model 1 would pave the way for the Model 2, one of the most popular arcade system boards ever developed.

[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 essentially a continuation of the Model 1 hardware. One of the most noticeable improvements was the presence of texture mapped polygons, as opposed to the flat shading used in Model 1 games.

The Model 2 was a very successful system; much more so than the Model 1. It featured the highest grossing arcade game of all time, Daytona USA.

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

The ST-V Logo (Ver.1)
The ST-V Logo (Ver.1)

ST-V (Sega Titan Video game system) was an arcade system board released by Sega in 1995. Unlike existing arcade hardware at the time, the ST-V's hardware was essentially identical to their home console system, the Sega Saturn, with the only difference being that the Saturn used CDs to store games, while the ST-V used cartridges. This allowed for very "pure" ports from arcade to the console, but the system was not as successful as Sega had hoped.[citation needed] The majority of ST-V titles were released in Japan only. Being derived from the Saturn hardware, the system was presumably named for the moon Titan, a satellite of Saturn.

The ST-V Logo (Ver.2)
The ST-V Logo (Ver.2)

[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) and Sega Rally 2 (1998).

[edit] Model 3 Specifications

[edit] Sega NAOMI

The Naomi Logo
The Naomi Logo

The Sega NAOMI (New Arcade Operation Machine Idea) is a development of the Sega Dreamcast technology as a basis for an arcade system board. The first NAOMI hardware was demonstrated in 1998 at JAMMA as the successor to the Sega Model 3 hardware. The use of mass produced hardware allowed for a sharp reduction in the cost of complete arcade cabinets.

The NAOMI and Dreamcast share the same system-architecture. Both systems use the same Hitachi SH-4 CPU, PowerVR Series 2 GPU (PVR2DC), and Yamaha AICA based sound system. NAOMI packs twice as much system and graphics memory, and 4X as much sound memory. And although the NAOMI and Dreamcast operate at the same speed (clock frequency), multiple NAOMI boards can be 'stacked' together to achieve better graphics performance or a multi-monitor setup. The other key difference between NAOMI and Dreamcast lies in the game-media. The Dreamcast typically loads data from a GD-ROM during a game. NAOMI games either use only solid-state ROMs without a GD-ROM, or else load data from a GD-ROM only once at the start of a game to avoid wear and tear on the hardware. The NAOMI system is capable of storing 168 MB of data.

NAOMI boards can be used in special game cabinets (NAOMI Universal Cabinet) where a theoretical maximum of sixteen boards can be used in a parallel processing format.

Unlike most hardware platforms in the arcade industry, NAOMI is widely licensed for use by other manufacturers. Games such as Mazan, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Guilty Gear XX are examples of NAOMI-based arcade games that are not Sega products. 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 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 Blending, Mip-Mapping, Trilinear filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment mapping, and Specular Effects. [16]

[edit] Sega NAOMI 2

In 2000, Sega debuted the NAOMI 2 arcade system board at JAMMA. NAOMI 2 offered improved graphics performance; by substituting the graphics-assembly of the previous NAOMI board with a new assembly composed of two PowerVR CLX2 GPUs and a VideoLogic Elan chip (for geometry transformation and lighting effects). NAOMI 2 also doubled the NAOMI's graphics memory from 16MB to 32MB, to enable more detailed graphics (each CLX2 has its own 32MB bank, as the CLX2 does not share graphics RAM). Architecturally, the NAOMI 2 is similar enough to the original NAOMI that both can play NAOMI games without modification.[17][18][19]

With the NAOMI 2, Sega brought back the GD-ROM drive. For both NAOMI and NAOMI 2, the GD-ROM drive was now offered as an optional daughterboard expansion. The GD-ROM drive contained additional memory to allow caching of an entire game, speeding-up load times and reducing drive-wear.

[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, including double the amount of 1T-SRAM, as well as provisions for add-ons such as Sega's GD-ROM system and upgradeable RAM modules.

[edit] Triforce Specifications

[edit] Sega Chihiro

The Sega Chihiro system is a Sega arcade system board based on the architecture of the Microsoft Xbox.

The Chihiro system shares some features with its Xbox cousin, notably the 733 MHz Intel Pentium III-class CPU and the NVIDIA XChip graphics processor. Unlike the Xbox, Chihiro has the ability to receive RAM upgrade modules in configurations from 64 MB upwards (some examples have 512 MB). Its primary media source is provided by the Sega GD-ROM system, as opposed to the DVD-ROM used by the Playstation 2 and Xbox.

Because of the near-identical configuration of Chihiro and the Xbox, it is theoretically easy to port software between the two. In practice, however, difficulties have been experienced due to the few differences. For example, the Xbox port of OutRun 2 briefly ran into trouble due to the differing memory capacities: the Chihiro version runs in 512 MB, but the coders had to compress this for a 64 MB system.

[edit] Chihiro Specifications

[edit] Sega Lindbergh

The Sega Lindbergh is an arcade system board developed by Sega.

While Sega had originally planned to base the Lindbergh around Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware, a PC-based design was eventually opted for instead. Due to the similarity to PC architecture, there has been talk about emulating this system even before its release, although Sega has referred to extensive anti-piracy techniques to be employed in this architecture.

According to Sega-AM2 president Hiroshi Kataoka, use of an NVIDIA GPU means that it is generally easier to port Lindbergh based games, such as Virtua Fighter 5, to Sony's PlayStation 3 than to the Xbox 360[23].

The Lindbergh Logo
The 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.

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


[edit] Europa-R Specifications

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sega G80 Hardware Reference.
  2. ^ Sega System 1 game and hardware information.
  3. ^ System 16 (A version) at System 16 - The Arcade Museum.
  4. ^ System 16 (B version) at System 16 - The Arcade Museum.
  5. ^ X Board at system16.com.
  6. ^ Y Board at system16.com.
  7. ^ System 18 at System 16 - The Arcade Museum.
  8. ^ Sega Museum - Sega System 24 Hardware.
  9. ^ Mega-Tech.
  10. ^ Mega Play.
  11. ^ Sega System C-2 information at System 16.
  12. ^ System 32 hardware information and game screen shots.
  13. ^ Model 1 at system16.com.
  14. ^ Sega Titan Video at System 16 - The Arcade Museum.
  15. ^ Model 3 Step 1.0 at system16.com.
  16. ^ NAOMI technical overview.
  17. ^ NAOMI 2 GD-ROM Hardware. System 16. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  18. ^ NAOMI 2 Hardware. System 16. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  19. ^ NAOMI 2 Satellite Terminal hardware. System 16. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
  20. ^ System16 - Sega Triforce.
  21. ^ Triforce Hardware.
  22. ^ Chihiro hardware specifications and known games.
  23. ^ VF5 port to PS3.
  24. ^ Pictures of actual Virtua Tennis 3 bootup exposing Linux.