Reading a recent post about the emulation cabinet reminded me that a few years ago I came across the great PCE shooter Gunhed in an arcade cab.
The guy playing it was so good that I couldn't get on to play the damn thing . . .but it's certainly the strangest arcade shmup I've seen because, as far as I'm aware, it was never made as a coin-op.
Has anybody else ever come across one of these . . .
Shoot, dodge, collect . . .it's the ONLY way to be !!
Now that I've seen the picture at that link, there's something in the back of my mind that I saw a magazine article about this in an old copy of C&VG or some mag similar.
I have a lot of PCE shooters on Jap CD (probably worth a few quid by now) . . .but I sold my Turbo Duo a while back and I just use the latest Magic Engine emulator on the PC.
Works a treat . . .one of the best emus out there. Using a USB PS2 pad, the shmups play really well.
I wonder how rare those PCE Jamma cabs are because, in all my years of arcade spotting up and down the UK, I've only ever seen the one.
Shoot, dodge, collect . . .it's the ONLY way to be !!
They had Gunhed in an arcade cab in my local computer game shop years ago and also had Ultimate Tiger too. It was essentially a PC Engine but instead of credits, you fed money in to keep the timer going.
There were also a couple of these at the back of a local cafe too around the same time.
What's interesting about those uber-rare TurboGrafx-16 Jamma PCBs, they'll play both JPN region Hu-Cards & U.S. Turbo Chip carts without the need for a Hu-Card convertor. How cool is that? Of course, a handy TurboEver Drive flash cart placed inside the cart slot of a TG-16 Jamma PCB would be even better imo. However, the typical TG-16 Jamma conversion kit consists of a single player control panel setup at best (not something good if you've got a two-player co-op gaming session going on {i.e. - PCE Aeroblaster two player session comes to mind).
But yeah, I recall playing Blazing Lazers housed inside an American Dynamo upright cab with the famous "you can't miss it" eye-catchy neon colored stylized backlit TG-16 marquee at the local Game Station Arcade #2 in Modesto, CA, back in early March of 1990. It was there for a few months and simply vanished never to be seen nor played ever again. It was an interesting & obscure arcade Jamma PCB oddity to say at the very least (as none of my other local arcade hangouts ever got in a TG-16 Jamma conversion kit anyways). And yes, you had to feed it a steady supply of quarters to keep your current gaming session going or else, it'd go back to the usual attract screen/demo mode run sequence/cycle. In retrospect, if the timer functionality aspect was disabled, then you'd, certainly, get your money's worth if you paid a quarter per credit with a typical TG-16 Jamma PCB setup.
What's quite peculiar about this TG-16 Jamma PCB is that, NEC never had it distributed for the Japanese game centers back in 1990 (despite the serious yen put into it to get it developed/created in the first place). They could've easily done so to better promote the PCE platform in the game centers (it'd be a no-brainer in hindsight). Fascinating to learn that it was distributed in the UK as well beside the usual USA TG-16 Jamma PCB conversion kit sightings. It's been said that it'd take no more than a mere two minutes to change the current PCE/TG-16 software and all related signage/marquee/screen bezel into a new one if it needed be according to the arcade operator's desires/wishes with the TG-16 Jamma setup to keep the profits rolling in.
There's a very informative article in the February 1990 issue of Video Games & Computer Entertainment that talks about the TG-16 Jamma PCB and it's background origins. According to the article, the prototype TG-16 PCB used a special Hu-Card propetiary format and regular Hu-Cards/TG-16 Turbo Chip carts weren't compatible with it, period. But with the limited number of TG-16 Jamma PCBs that did go into production, those were able to play both JPN region Hu-Cards & American Turbo Chip carts without any hassles whatsoever for the prospective arcade operators/owners that were interested in acquiring one for their arcade establishment(s). So it'd be a matter of ordering the desired TG-16 Jamma game software/signage to rake in the $$$ (or just buy the latest PCE or TG-16 software at retail and do business going that particular route/method).
