The Official Cool PCB You Just Got Thread!

[Artemio]

Only a hardware nut would like such things. Nice get Artemio!

I could browse a macro picture gallery of hardware for hours... =)

[robivy64]

Only a hardware nut would like such things. Nice get Artemio!

I could browse a macro picture gallery of hardware for hours... =)

Yes.

So could I

[opt2not]

I got this in the mail today.
1941 Counter Attack

Daimakaimura get.

Some nice gets lately AKRATEN!

[AKRATEN]

thanks!
I have been on a serious Capcom kick lately.
I want to score a Strider at some point soon too.

[cvaniafan]

I could locate and source another Bonk's Adventure PCB (Kaneko) that I found interesting for its uncommon looking, never heard or read anything about this version. So I thought interesting to share this with you, so if someone has any info about it, would be much appreciated !

Let me explain : the most known looking for Bonk's Adventure is a single board integrating both the mother and roms, I took a pic of the one I got a couple of years ago, here it is :



But I recently found another version with 2 boards, a removable rom board inserted in the same size mobo (exactly looking like Great 1000 Miles Rally 1&2 PCB's for instance), :

As you can see, one of the chips on the mother board part has a glossy sticker with a "Bonk ACME No 005" printed.

So I decided to separate both boards to check the rom one. And this is what I found :



At first glance, I thought it was a conversion because although the stickers on some chips have the Kaneko logo, they are hand-written with a pen ! But I noticed the japanese kanji drawn as well in the writings. Also, all the other chips without sticker are factory-printed with a rom code starting with "PC600106.42" for example. I checked the rom info on mamedb.com, and it seems Bonk's Adventure is the only one Kaneko game with the "PC***" reference, so I assume it is 100% official ?
All the chips are socketed, not soldered. I compared it with a Great 1000 Miles rom board and it's definitely not looking the same.

Strangely, I couldn't find on the web any report of this 2-boards version of Bonk's Adventure.
Do you think this could be a prototype version of this game ?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It could be an early revision of Bonk's Adventure PCB that Kaneko whipped up. Interesting to learn of such a two-layered PCB affair with the rare Bonk's Adventure PCB. None of my local arcades in the Modesto, CA area ever got in such a rare Bonk's Adventure PCB though -- I had learned of it's existence thorugh a single picture in a Video Games & Computer Entertainment issue back in 1990 promoting the newest arcade PCB conversion kits at the AMOA trade shows (that weren't open to the general public anyways). The really odd thing is one of my local arcades did get in, is a rare Toki Jamma PCB conversion kit (complete with backlit full-sized Toki marquee) and had it up & running back in the early 1990s on a generic Dynamo cab setup (it wasn't distributed in big numbers for the American arcades though).

Tis a shame that an Air Zonk arcade PCB from the likes of Kaneko/Red/Hudson Soft was never properly released either (in the 1992-1993 timeframe)...now that would've been ace in my book.

I've got a Psikyo Strikers 1945 II World Version PCB that has both a motherboard and daughterboard setup or a two PCB layered affair if you will (although the single-layer S-1945 II PCBs are more commonplace these days). I'm not sure if it's a prototype S-1945 II PCB (or it could be an early revision PCB at best). Is another one of those intriguing arcade PCB mysteries that's still unanswered to this very day.

Of course, it'd be interesting to learn the background stories behind such rare two-layered arcade PCBs straight from the ex-staff arcade developers/publishers such as Kaneko and Psikyo themselves.

It's a known fact that arcade devs/publishers would produce a single arcade PCB for specific trade shows and get shuffled/lost into the great unknown years down the road & somehow land in the hands of a private arcade PCB hobbyist/collector years later. Take for instance, Banpresto/NMK's rare loke-test Super Dimensional Fortress Macross PCB with some different stages/sprites/cut scenes compared to the general released SDFM PCB (with different content added instead) that was released to the Japanese game centers & the USA courtesty of Fabtek back in 1992. The loke-test SDFM PCB still hasn't been rom-dumped yet.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[system11]

Strangely, I couldn't find on the web any report of this 2-boards version of Bonk's Adventure.
Do you think this could be a prototype version of this game ?

Yup, you've found a prototype.

Today I received:



Rolling Thunder 2
Xexex

The Xexex is showing signs of the typical cap leak on the custom. Irritating, it's not a fun job replacing those caps. I actually bought it just to compare against one I thought I'd fixed but wasn't sure about, to find that I have.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That reminds me in regards to prototype based arcade Jamma PCBs, there are three known prototype cabinets of Atari Games' Freeze arcade puzzler that were made in-house (but never released for the American arcades). One showed up at the 1998 California Extreme shown as a full cab setup set on "Free Play". Not to mention that it was running on modified Atari Jaguar hardware was interesting/peculiar in itself. It surfaces from time to time at CAX but has a "Not for Sale" sticker on it. It was recently shown at the 2012 CAX show with little fanfare/hype.

Strangely enough, a lone barebones proto Freeze PCB has appeared on eBay in the past with an BIN price of $399.99 & later on, at a whopping $499.99 BIN pricepoint and no takers as of yet. And of course, the barebones AG's Freeze PCB is owned by Sacramento Amusements (same folks whom had a sales booth at the previous 2003 & 2004 CAX shows). That's not too far from the Atari Games' joint based out of Milpitas, CA back in the early 1990s.

Fascinating tidbits about the proto Freeze PCBs/cabs but it's all true.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Bloodreign]

Daimakaimura get.

Awesome, you lucky bastard.

[undamned]

But I recently found another version with 2 boards

Neat!
-ud

[cvaniafan]

@ PC Engine Fan X! and system11 : Thanks for the words and infos, I had the confirmation it is an official proto version.
I played the game on both boards to compare and it's exactly the same.

[system11]

@ PC Engine Fan X! and system11 : Thanks for the words and infos, I had the confirmation it is an official proto version.
I played the game on both boards to compare and it's exactly the same.

Make sure you get the chips dumped as a backup - while the game is the same, the code may be slightly different.

[AKRATEN]

Daimakaimura get.

Awesome, you lucky bastard.

oh man thanks , I have been looking around for this one for a while.
It was definitely worth the wait.

[cvaniafan]

@ PC Engine Fan X! and system11 : Thanks for the words and infos, I had the confirmation it is an official proto version.
I played the game on both boards to compare and it's exactly the same.

Make sure you get the chips dumped as a backup - while the game is the same, the code may be slightly different.

I can't do that by myself ^^ And I definitely do not plan to mail the chips to Guru or anyone else !
But the code might be not 100% identical, indeed. By default, I had the feeling the proto version is a bit more difficult than the regular version, though perhaps it's just a wrong feeling.

[system11]

@ PC Engine Fan X! and system11 : Thanks for the words and infos, I had the confirmation it is an official proto version.
I played the game on both boards to compare and it's exactly the same.

Make sure you get the chips dumped as a backup - while the game is the same, the code may be slightly different.

I can't do that by myself ^^ And I definitely do not plan to mail the chips to Guru or anyone else !
But the code might be not 100% identical, indeed. By default, I had the feeling the proto version is a bit more difficult than the regular version, though perhaps it's just a wrong feeling.

If the hardware is slightly different it's likely that the code ROMs are too, those are the ones you really want to worry about. It would be worth finding a collector near you with a ROM reader, even if you don't share the images they protect the investment.

I wish it was the same as the PC Engine game though!

[cvaniafan]

I wish it was the same as the PC Engine game though!

It is PC Kid adapted for the arcades, which means the game runs faster, supports 2P, is graphically superior compared to its console counterpart (they are beautiful here, as are the sprites and boss), but is also shorter (there is a good amount of levels, but they are very short), more difficult, even a bit frustrating from time to time because it's obviously intended to eat all your coins and the game is more on the dynamic beat-them-all and scoring sides than platforming.
Well, some people love this game.... As the big fan of the NEC PCE Bonk games I am, I admit I have mixed feelings on this arcade version. It's still a good game anyway, but not a masterpiece I think.

[moh]

EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE.

[opt2not]

There you go moh! Finally...

[moh]

There you go moh! Finally...

it's a perfect conversion. The american board is rare as hell, and I can't stand the voices in the japanese version!! So this will do until I found a legit US version one day

[trap15]

Perfect conversion? Unlikely. The Progear boards used a different memory (typical PC "DIMM" memory) than normal CPS2 games (normal SRAM memory). So it's basically not possible to have a "perfect" Progear conversion.

[blackoak]

Does that difference in memory affect the game in any way? Curious, as I have a progear conversion too.

[moh]

I've spent a fair amount of time playing this in mame, and I havent seen any differences. Are there?

[jepjepjep]

I used to have a legit US board, and it used eproms instead of the SIMM memory.

These will play identically, in fact the SIMMs only store graphics data. The program code is always on eproms (even on the Japanese version) and there is no difference in gameplay (unless someone notices a bug in the phoenix code, but that seems unlikely since it's been around for a long time without any complaints).

[drauch]

I can't imagine it affecting actual gameplay, but more of an "it's not official" quirk. Which you can count me in for owning a conversion as well. Saves you about 100-200 dollars, which is enough money for me to lie to myself and tell me it's a real Progear board.

[Skykid]

There you go moh! Finally...

it's a perfect conversion. The american board is rare as hell, and I can't stand the voices in the japanese version!! So this will do until I found a legit US version one day

Remember you can't submit scores to the hs thread on the default difficulty setting, it's easier. Crank it up.

[Dave_K.]

it's a perfect conversion. The american board is rare as hell, and I can't stand the voices in the japanese version!! So this will do until I found a legit US version one day

Then get an original grey Asia verion. Its basically the english version with voices removed, etc. just in a grey case.

[Drachenherz]

Moh, congratz on the progear!

[cools]

I've spent a fair amount of time playing this in mame, and I havent seen any differences.

[Casey120]

There you go moh! Finally...

it's a perfect conversion. The american board is rare as hell, and I can't stand the voices in the japanese version!! So this will do until I found a legit US version one day

Buy a Phoenixed original Japanese board , that still uses the PC "DIMM" memory if that matters anyway and you can put it on any region you want, right ?

[bababaloo]

Not specialy today, but over the last weeks.

Starting with Ibara:



But also ESP Ra.De.:



And last but not least Game Tengoku - The Game Paradise:



Now to fully enjoy those games, I'll need to rotate my screen