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by pragma_x 124 days ago
What I think is truly amazing is how truly rare it is to see a home console move into an arcade platform, instead of the other way around. Almost always, the home system was derived from lessons learned from more expensive, rugged, and elaborate arcade hardware.

Sometimes, this overlap was quite profound but not 100%. NeoGeo home consoles famously use the same hardware and software as their arcade counterparts, but the game cartridges were not pin-compatible. The Nintendo VS line were technically the same as a Famicom/NES, but not the same build; the software has subtle differences. Perhaps the Nintendo PlayChoice would count but again, it's not like they used NES mainboards to build those.

So, the idea of taking a Nintendo console mainboard and grafting it to SEGA-designed components so it can run in a dedicated arcade cabinet, is just wild to me.

2 comments

The era of bespoke arcade hardware died in the late 90s really. They couldn’t really keep up with consoles / PC with a declining market. By the early 2000s arcades were mostly console derived, beyond the Sega trio of Naomi (Dreamcast), Chihiro (Xbox) and Triforce (Gamecube), Konami and Namco mostly used PlayStation 2 derived hardware. By the late 00’s we were mostly looking at PC based stuff.
Things are much more nuanced than this, at least on SEGA's side.

The Mega Drive derivated from the System 16, but was itself converted into an arcade system.

Titan-Video derivated from the Saturn, according to sources online.

NAOMI/NAOMI 2/Hikaru were derivated from the Dreamcast during development, and there is significant overlap in specs between them and the DC.

Chihiro derivated from the OG Xbox.