I missed out on a Tekken 5 auction that ended at ¥ 1,200 which kinda made me sour. But on the bright side I’ve managed to do a couple of other bargains.
CPS2 Mobo
Not that I have any games for the CPS2 but what can I say? I’m a hardware nerd. Honestly CPS2 is one of the platforms I haven’t checked into much yet but I’m looking forward to disassembling it 😉
I will however from now on be on the lookout for Progear no Arashi so Mono can have back the copy I’ve borrowed from him.
Random kick harnesses
Been trying to round up all the plugs, pins and cables I’d need for assembling kick harnesses for the Naomi and the System 246 but kinda lost interest for the moment so I landed two harnesses.
First one’s seems to be some kind of Blast City/Astro City from something else harness. Not really sure if it’s gonna be useful.
If you know what it is I’d appreciate if you could drop me a line.
Second one is a pair of CPS2/3 kick harnesses. Presumably these should work for the Naomi as well since I connect it through the Capcom I/O adapter. I’ll know as soon as they’ve landed.
Sega 5380 key
Ok, this one’s been a nightmare. They’re as rare as diamonds and worth their weight in gold! My New Astro City didn’t come with any keys. Luckily a friend had a spare that I could borrow so I didn’t have to break into my cab, but I’ve been looking for one since the summer.
Tekken 5 Control Panels
Really looking for a 2L12B panel I stumbled upon this pair of Tekken 5 panels and since I at the moment only have a 2L6B panel they’ll at least will let me play Tekken 4 and Soul Calibur II for now.
Bezel filler for flat monitors
I swapped the original MS-9 monitor for a Toshiba Pure Flat since it will allow me to play hi-res games as well but being flat it needs a filler for the gap between the monitor and the bezel.
This project will take a while since the front of the pure flat is much deeper than the MS-9 (it doesn’t curve in the corners) I will have to mount it behind the enclosure in order to make it fit. More on that later.
All in all, I think it’s gonna be a fun X-mas this year 😀
System 246 from Namco was introduced in 2001 along with its first game; Ridge Racer V. It is based on Sony PlayStation 2 hardware modified for arcade purposes.
Much like Sega did with the Naomi, the System 246 was widely licensed by Namco. Therefore there’s no exact specification for the System 246 as it was slightly modified for many of the games. Both Capcom and Taito released their own versions of the System 246. There’s four different revisions of System 246; A, B, C and a driving variant. Some games are very tightly coupled with a certain revision whereas other games work on two or all three and even the newer System 256. The 246 is capable of outputting both 31 kHz (VGA) and 15 kHz (CGA). Resolution, output level, sync frequency and sync signal are controlled via the DIP switches on the front of the unit.
The case fully disassembled. The motherboard slides in under the DVD shelf.
Top and bottom views of the 246 B motherboards (including the mounting plate). Didn’t take it apart further this time since the boards apparently had been recently cleaned. The battery needs a change from time to time.
The motherboard fits snugly under the DVD rig. Sliding it in place gave me a bit of headache. Took me a while to figure out that the guides got stuck on the case (the red circle). I needed to press the guides from below for it to slide all the way in.
The inside of the case with everything in place, except for the DVD cover. As you can see the DVD player isn’t screwed to the case. It’s only kept in place by the rubber feet on all sides. Not sure if the case fan is original but sounds horrible and needs to go. It’s a standard 60 mm fan so there shouldn’t be any problems finding a quiet(er) replacement.
Connecting the 246 to your JAMMA cabinet
In order to connect the System 246 to a JAMMA cabinet you’ll need an adapter board. The most common being the one on the left.
The JAMMA connector serves buttons one through three. All other buttons can be found on the 10 pin AMP EI connector to the right. For fighting games you’d normally find the punch buttons on the JAMMA and the kick buttons on the AMP EI. Hence its commonly used name “kick harness”. Exactly which buttons are served on each connector differs between games. For instance, in Tekken 4 only two buttons (punch) are connected through the JAMMA and the other two through the kick harness (kick). But in Soul Calibur 2 all three buttons on the JAMMA are used (punch/kick) and only one button on the kick harness (guard).
10 pin AMP EI pinout
1
GND
2
NC
3
P1 Button 4
4
P1 Button 5
5
P1 Button 6
6
NC
7
P1 Button 4
8
P1 Button 5
9
P1 Button 6
10
GND
The 4 pin AMP EI connector is used for connecting the right speaker in stereo mode. The left speaker (or mono) is on the JAMMA.
4 pin AMP EI pinout
1
Not used
2
Not used
3
Right speaker (+)
4
Right speaker (-)
On the front of the case you find four DIP switches. They control game mode, output level of the video signal, sync frequency and sync signal.
DIP Switch Settings
ON
OFF
1: Mode
Test mode
Game mode
2: Video signal output level
– 31 kHz
0.7 V p-p
0.7 V p-p
– 15 kHz
3.0 V p-p
0.7 V P-P
3: Monitor sync frequency
31 kHz
15 kHz
4: Video sync signal
Composite sync
Separate sync
Specifications
The hardware is based on Sony PlayStation 2 and as noted before the specs for the System 246 differs some due to modifications for specific games.