Nintendo Famicom in Sega World !?!

I popped in to the Sega Hi-Tec Land in Shimonoseki Station yesterday while waiting for the wife to finish shopping. While I was there I watched the staff clean out the Initial D arcade machine. Ooh, how tempting it was to nick that GDRom system. Anyway, I noticed this very odd Astro City arcade cabinet with two Famicom controllers hanging out of it. I took a look at the screen and what did I see ? Yep, Mario Bros on the Famicom runing from a coin system. Next to that was some dig dug effort in the snow and Gradius. My question is are these arcades real arcade systems (ie JAMMA boards) or just Famicoms with some dodgy system hooked up to them?

Luckily I had my new mobile phone on me so I could take a picture for you to see.


I snapped this picture just for ASSEMbler himself I'm sure he'll like it.


Yakumo

 

looks like a hack to me, i do know that nintendo made offical nes/famicom coin ops for the U.S. but never for japan as far as i know, still intresting that there would be such a hack for the arcades in japan for nes/famicom.

 

Yeah, those controllers really make it look like a hack. There WERE a few official Nintendo arcade machines that ran stuff like Super Mario Bros. - they were the Playchoice, Playchoice 10, and some VS. system - here's a bit of info: http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/nes/history/nes_arcade.html

It COULD be a legit Playchoice system in that cabinet (provided it got a Japanese release) but I'm not sure why they'd wire up Famicom controllers rather than just utilize the sticks and buttons already on the machine.

 

I saw a Dreamcast arcade set up like this once too. It was just a normal Astro City cabinet with two Dreamcast controllers connected to it. That was running Justice Gakoen (Rival Schools 2) and Power Stone 2. If it is a hack then I'm very surprised they can get away with it.

Yakumo

 

Well, why not, if they own the cabinet
Personally I think it a waste of one of the best cabs ever made, when you can just connect it to a normal TV.

 

I sort of remember playing Super Mario Bros. VS - you needed to make like 999 coins and the jumps were harder, and powerups were far between.
Is that right, or is it lost within my hallucinative childhood?

 

Gotta be Playchoice like the guy said, unless its running under some sort of emulation. Playchoice is usually a multi cart system, but my local arcade had a single jamma Super Mario Bros, maybe they utalise Playchoice with a single pcb card with removed bios?

One suspects after the recentish Hyper SF in Japanese arcades, a mild retro arcade revival may be on the cards.

 

They look like authentic Famicom controllers to me, so I'd guess at a real famicom with a weird setup attached.

 

It's probably not a real Famicom as Famicom only works with COMPOSITE video. Probably it's a Playchoice (or a HEAVILY modified Famicom w/ PPU swap) with... Famicom controllers attached.

 

Also judging by the picture the game isn't using NTSC color, it looks far more like Playchoice RGB which is darker and bolder.

 

There are real Nintendo Mario Bros arcade boards, other than Playchoice 10 or whatever, check ebay.co.uk they are on there a lot, most aren't JAMMA though.

 

Most likely was one of these or something similar: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=32&products_id=44&PHPSESSID=4549340092664f3c46a6986aaa5b385b
Not sure of the technical legality, but I'm pretty sure there's something about the games not being licensed for public exhibition or as money-making schemes.

 

wow, thats a nice camera.... here in the us they look like shit

 

Yes there were, but not *Super* Mario Bros., which is what that is. The original Mario Bros. was a single-screen platformer.

And that does look too good to be anything but RGB. Still, kinda weird it has original Famicom controllers poking out of it - especially when the original FC only had RF out! AFAIK it was totally impossible to mod the FC/NES for RGB outputs, unless you stole some sort of chip off a PlayChoice 10 or soemthing similar.

 

Ok, I went back to the arcade today to ask the staff about it. Here's how the conversation went.

Yak - Can you tell me what's inside this Astro City cabinet please.

Guy - It's Mario.

Yak - Yes, I know but what is it running on?

Guy - It's a game center game.

Yak - Err, ..... yes I know that but can you tell me the hardware type?

Guy - i don't understand.

By this point I thought I was asking something strange because of my Japanese.

Yak - Well that game is Kashira Moji D (Initial D) and runs from a Naomi 2 GDROM system. That game is Capcom Vs SNK 2 which runs from a Naomi system. So this is Mario but what system is it running from.

Guy - Ahh... I understand. It's a Famicom

Yak - Is it a normal Famicom because these are normal Famicom pads.

Guy - It's a modified Famicom for game centers.

Yak - Can I see it?

Guy - Sorry, you can't see it.

Yak - OK, thanks.

Guy - Your welcome (follows with some nods of his head and a stupid grin)

Anyway, there you have it. According to the guy as Sega Hitec Land Shimonoseki Station it's a modified Famicom. Sounds more like a dodgy hack to me but who knows.

Yakumo

 

Isn't there a Famicom made to do subtitling that outputs RGB?

 

There is, but I somehow doubt they tracked that down just to recycle it as an arcade game...

 

Well, theres a famicom in there...so it's not a playchoice...and thats further supported by the famicom controllers...(though it's possible they hacked apart a set)...so what is it?

 

I'd say that if it is a modded Famicom, it's definately a dirty hack of some variety - especially with the pads, but that's just my opinion.

 

It's definitely the VS Unisystem version of SMB. If you look at the coin counter in the picture you will notice that three digits are displayed, but only two digits are displayed in the Famicom version. Plus if you look at the instructions above the controls, you can see the "VS" in the game title. The VS series of games are basically arcade adaptations of Famicom titles. Some of the VS games use a custom palette, which is why the colors seem a bit different from the Famicom SMB.