Best arcade PCBs (non-Neo Geo, non-fighting)

[shmupsrocks]

In your opinion which are the best arcade PCBs outside of the Neo Geo MVS platform and outside of the fighting genre.

[GaijinPunch]

Ketsui with suction cup.

[brokenhalo]

Depends on what you're looking for. If you need something to fight off bad guys, I'd recommend a CPS2 board. Decent size and weight. Plastic shell makes it pretty easy to grip and swing. Makes a pretty satisfying THWACK sound when you bring it down on somebodies skull. I conceal-carry a Progear at all times.

[shmupsrocks]

Ketsui looks awesome! Is it PCB only or was it ever on one of the motherboard platforms?

[shmupsrocks]

For CPS2, I need to figure out the best way to go purist on the suicide battery issue.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Just replace it now and then. With a little soldering skill it is not impoasible to do (and desuiciding is now possible from what I understand, so it is not fatal if it dies).

The topic is a bit broad as there are tons of amazing non fighting arcade games. Are you looking for suggestions to purchase? Do you have a preference of vertucal vs horizontal gamea? Do you have a budget you're buying within?

[shmupsrocks]

I haven't even been a video game guy in 20 years but something got me re-interested in shmups and Neo Geo and that led to arcade PCBs in general which is just so cool. I have a good handle on the Neo Geo library now but wondering what are the best real arcade games outside of that platform besides fighting which doesn't interest me much yet. Not constrained by budget here.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

For shmups, a good CAVE shmup never goes amiss. All depends on what one you enjoy and what you can get at a decent price. I'd steer clear of any shmups that are a pain to play without autofire though - there's a number of them out there that do not have autofire and are hell on the fingers to play.

CPS-2 motherboard gives you access to a few games: Giga Wing is a rarity in that I enjoy it just fine without autofire, and it's very accessible to play for beginners as well as enjoyable to score. It also allows you to pick up the more expensive ProGear, which is a bit trickier to play but a solid CAVE shmup with built in autofire options nevertheless. Battle Circuit was also one of the best beat 'em ups ever made for arcade, and that's CPS-2 if I recall.

If you want something that gives you something older and more classic as a novelty option, I'd recommend one of the Namco Classic Collections. They made two compilation PCBs (as well as a PS2 port that was a kind of combination of them) that have 6 games - 3 original games and 3 newer arrange modes. The first one had Galaga, Xevious, and Mappy. The second had Dig-Dug, Pac-Man, and Rally-X. The arrange modes has 2 player simultaneous play for the games except Mappy and Rally-X.

Aqua Rush is probably among my fave puzzle games to fire up, sadly it's a bit hard to find though, but there's also Mr. Driller G which is fantastic. Great single player and a fun 2 player VS mode (Survival is the only VS mode worth playing - do not play Race as it's rather awful compared to Survival).

The Atomiswave also had some amazing games such as Dolphin Blue. I'm also very partial to Hokuto no Ken which is extremely silly and amazingly fun to play even if the balancing is rather ridiculous.

Generally speaking, I would avoid Konami boards - most of Konami's beat em ups are actually rather bad compared to Capcom's offerings, with bosses that require esoteric strategies, flaky hit detection, bosses that randomly break out of hitstun at will, etc. X-Men arcade and TMNT arcade were problematic there. Also the hardware was not as robust and there are several really good games such as Sunset Riders and Wild West COW Boys of Moo Mesa that had sound chips that tended to die. If you get a Konami board, be prepared for a higher likelihood of needing repairs in the near future.

[Jeneki]

Here's the process I used to decide which PCBs to invest in:

1) Recall what years I was playing in arcades, or what years my main interest in certain genres was peaked. For example my general arcade knowledge is late 80s to mid 90s so I started there, however my favorite shmups are mid-90s to early 2000s so most of my shmup searching was there.

2) Look up what games released around that time, and see which ones I remember and would like to play again. From here I expanded my search to similar games, from the same time frame. I've found several of my current favorites this way.

4) I know you may feel this is unnecessary, but it's very important and should not be skipped: Try them out in MAME for at least an hour. You may _think_ you will play a game a lot, but trust me that is often not true. Be sure a game holds your interest before buying.

From there I knew exactly which games I wanted to get. Next came the hard part: Having patience, and waiting for availability and budget. Some took several years but eventually it came together.

[llaoyllakcuf]

There was a similar topic from ages ago which I am reminded of: viewtopic.php?t=1204 (wow at those price estimates!)


To answer the subject, I think it's best to just use an emulator and play a whole variety of games first, then decide what to actually buy/collect based on your own preferences. There are even filters in MAME to sort out games by genre, manufacturer, year of release, etc. That's pretty much what I did before getting into the real hardware.

Personally, I like shooters that were released from the mid '80s to '90s the most, as they are what I experienced in the arcades during my prime gaming years. This classic thread has an abundance of good titles to check out; I discovered many of my favorites thanks to that one.

I don't necessarily look for games that are on a specific format, only the ones I love playing. They are made on various arcade systems & hardware.

Not to sound too discouraging, but just be prepared to spend a fortune for any of the popular or rare titles these days. For instance anything by CAVE or Raizing you can expect to pay upwards of several hundreds to thousands of $$$ for a single game, either from auctions, PCB shops or forum sales. In some cases you may have trouble even finding a copy of a particular title. It is nice when you finally do track down that hard to find cool game though

Ketsui with suction cup.

That suction cup (with accompanying flyers in baggie) is the stuff of legends...

[Sumez]

Since you're asking in a shoot'em up forum, you might as well just check out the annual vote for the top 25 shmups. A vast majority of the games in that list are originally arcade games.

Of course, since this topic is placed in the off-topic section, maybe you are also looking specifically for non-shooters?

[shmupsrocks]

I see a lot of the voting threads for the top 25 but where are the final results posted?

Besides eBay, where can I find the games?

[pegboy]

for Japanese PCB, Yahoo Japan Auctions is your best bet.

[shmupsrocks]

If I have a working MVS setup (supergun + OSSC), do I need anything besides the motherboard and game to play a Taito F3 game?

[Sumez]

Nope, Taito F3 is standard Jamma (+ 1 button I think, similar to MVS's two extra), though something like Arkanoid Returns will require a special spinner controls to play correctly.

[shmupsrocks]

Are there different regions of motherboard and game for Taito F3 that I need to watch out for? On eBay it looks like all of the games are Japanese.

[gameoverDude]

Are there different regions of motherboard and game for Taito F3 that I need to watch out for? On eBay it looks like all of the games are Japanese.

Sure, but there is a way to mod your Taito F3 board to take any region carts. There are some blockers on the F3's cart connectors which are placed differently based on region. Remove them, & you're good to go. The author uses a soldering iron to melt them out... if that's how you're going to do it, be careful!
https://www.solvalou.com/arcade_taitof3.php

It's possible to change the game's language by reprogramming a certain EPROM. All localisations of the game (Japan, English, Europe) are in an F3 cart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dHAFCTFdIc
And here's UK Retro Gamer's demonstration of making a Taito F3 region-free. This is done with a Dremel drill instead.

[shmupsrocks]

I'm really going to try to keep everything north of the JAMMA rail stock. I guess that means locating English F3 boards and an English F3 motherboard?

Also for standalone PCBs without a separate motherboard I guess there isn't a region to match but are they typically a particular language?

[gameoverDude]

I'm really going to try to keep everything north of the JAMMA rail stock. I guess that means locating English F3 boards and an English F3 motherboard?

True. Most but not all of the Japanese cart games will also have English (actually, USA) or Europe (rest of world) versions.

IINM, Land Maker only got an actual release in Japan, but there is a world proto. This one just says "You Win" instead of showing victory quotes (unlike the USA PS1 port Builder's Block, which I guess has translations of the Japanese ones).

The standalone PCBs are preset to a certain language, similar to the carts. You could turn a RayForce into a Gun Lock with that same region hack.

[andsuchisdeath]

"What are the best pcbs?".

Hahaha.

Hey guys, what are the best CDs?
What are the best books?!

Haha, hey OP, maybe you should reevaluate your hobby, man.

[egg_sanwich]

What are the best forums to spam with useless threads

[SuperDeadite]

HEAVY BARREL

[Austin]

I do enjoy boards that take some form of removable media (like carts). It makes it easier to have a library of games without taking up a closet's worth of space. Sega ST-V is a good example of this and a main board is still pretty cheap to acquire. Some of its games are still reasonably priced too (Die Hard Arcade, Puyo Puyo Sun, etc). There aren't a lot of shmups on it, but there are some fine ones at the very least, like Radiant Silvergun and Soukyugurentai.

This isn't a replacement for the real deal, but if you're not familiar with a lot of arcade titles and you need to get your feet wet quickly without resorting to PC emulation, picking up a Pandora's Box to use on a cab or super gun isn't a bad idea. These are super cheap as well and have hundreds of games from a wide variety of arcade platforms (Neo Geo, CPS1, CPS2, and more). You can dabble around with that to figure out what games you may want to buy, and anything you don't is at least still there to toy with in the future.

[shmupsrocks]

Do carts seem less prone to failure than standalone PCBs?

Is the Sega STV easy to get working with a supergun and OSSC?

That's a brilliant idea regarding Pandoras Box. I don't want to bother with PC emulation, just want to plug and play. This will let me try stuff out.

[Sumez]

Sega STV is standard JAMMA and should work just as well with a supergun as any other regular arcade PCB.
That said, some of the games (usually the 3D ones) might not work with some screens. I haven't looked into why, but I assume it's because they are 480i? In that case, it shouldn't be a problem with any consumer TV, but I've had arcade cabs that refused to display them.

Do carts seem less prone to failure than standalone PCBs?

Carts are just as prone to failure as stand alone PCBs.
But I'd say carts have an advantage in the sense that by splitting logic between a mother- and daughter-board there are fewer components on each that can fail. Even if your Neo Geo motherboard fails, you can exchange it and still play your working carts, etc.
Cartridges also have the advantage that they come enclosed in a plastic shell that protects components from exposure. Regular arcade PCBs rarely have that, but you can make them yourself (acrylic "sandwiches" is a popular solution).

Honestly it eventually has more to do with the quality of the individual cart/pcb. PGM carts are very prone to failure, but I've never had an F3 cart fail on me. I've had two Neo Geo carts fail on me. CPS2 carts are prone to suicide.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Also with the Taito G-Net arcade platform, electrical static discharge can render the actual motherboard useless (but if you have a handy Version 2 upgrade eprom, it can be reflashed and revived back to 100% working condition). Wearing an "anti-static" wrist strap (very wise & cheap investment/insurance, indeed) is a smart idea when dealing with those rare and valuable arcade pcbs these days. Of course with the arcade pcb hobby, it's a given that one is bound to come across a few arcade pcbs that are not working correctly or dead -- then it'd need to be fixed by someone who could revive it from the dead or in sick condition. Sometimes, it could be a simple matter of "flexing" the single-layered arcade pcb to resolve those pesky slight graphical errors that appear out of the blue and the "corrupted sprites" issue goes away (assuming if the audio portion is working 100%, of course).

Some folks have even put their arcade pcbs in the dishwasher to get 'em all super and sparkly "clean as a whistle" -- just have to make sure that every single drop of moisture/water is gone before powering it up from a cold boot (or else you could end up running into trouble/problems down the road). I just use the ol' standby of compressed air in a canister for those dusty and never been cleaned used arcade pcbs (that have seen better days in the past) + using an artist kneadable eraser on the 56-pin jamma edge pinouts to get them all clean and shiny along with a Q-Tip dabbed in some rubbing alcohol swabbed on the gold pins themselves does the trick for those aging & decrepit arcade pcbs.

You'd be surprised at some of those old arcade pcbs from the 1986-1987 era with the standard jamma edge pinout that have never been properly cleaned (since they were used in the arcades, game centers or out on a street location route by arcade operators or vending machine employees out on the job to service such arcade games in such public venues such as pizza parlors, fast food joints, movie theaters, bowling alleys, etc) and they still work 100% to this day upon being powered up. The ol' adage of "nothing lasts forever" applies to the arcade pcb hobby spectrum as well and some fellow shmuppers have resorted to having two or even more of the same exact arcade pcb on hand as "back-up insurance" (just in case one pcb decides to "bite the dust") or to salvage/raid parts from two non-working arcade pcbs to make a 100% working pcb that's been revived/resurrected from the dead. It's a given in this day of age.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[FinalBaton]

"What are the best pcbs?".

Hahaha.

Hey guys, what are the best CDs?
What are the best books?!

Haha, hey OP, maybe you should reevaluate your hobby, man.

[billcosbymon]

Ah, shmups rock. the troll from neo-geo forums.