Anyone play/own Namco's 1998 Tenkomori Variety Shooting PCB?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Sure, I see that an ocassional mention of the rare Namco 1998 produced vertical oriented shmup of Tenkomori Shooting appears here on the Shmups.com site from time to time.

Does anyone own/play the rare Namco Tenkomori Shooting PCB?

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Here's some new relevant info regarding the Tenkomori PCB -- actually there are TWO different language versions of the Tenkomori PCB:

*the original Japanese version simply states "Tenkomori Shooting" on the title screen...

*the second version which is an all-English language version states "Tenkomori Variety Shooting" on the title screen...
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I've only tried out the "all-English" version of Tenkomori PCB myself.

My question is this: Is there a "dip switch setting" to change from original Japanese language to English setting option (or would I have to get some burned EPROM chips to do that particular language conversion)?

The first time the all-English language version of Tenkomori Variety Shooting appeared at the 2002 California Extreme show (did not appear for the 2003 one) but did return for the 2004 & the recently held 2005 CAE shows held at the San Jose Convetion Center in the spacious Parkside Hall. (I missed the cool 2005 CAE talk forum event about how the Starcade show of the early 1980's was born...damn! I used to watch Starcade back in the early 1980's...lots of cool arcade games I've never seen or played since then.)

I recall that Namco did not release Tenkomori Variety Shooting for the USA arcades and was for the Japanese arcades only, otherwise it would've gotten a wider release stateside.

I'd have to say that it's cool to learn that an "all-English" language version of Tenkomori Variety Shooting PCB does exist...a shmupper doens't see one of those rare shmup PCBs very often even today.

I recall that the eBay.co.uk auction that ended on 8/31/05 for a Japanese language version of Tenkomori Shooting PCB fetched a cool 278 British pounds = $317.00+ U.S. dollar exchange rate.

It would seem that the Tenkomori PCB is powered by a Namco System 10 arcade motherboard (please correct me if I'm wrong) since it uses similar PSX-type of graphical processing power for the actual gaming engine -- a polygonal-based engine really.

And is the Tenkomori PCB output in true stereo output ability or is it just "mono" output only?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Dave_K.]

Its Namco System 12, and yes it stereo capable. I had asked Excellentcom about this game about 4-5 months ago, they found a source and offered me a board for $195, but I turned it down. Emulation was just about done (maybe completed by now).