Retail Dreamcasts inside Arcade Cabs.

[Bomberhead]

A few years ago i worked in a hotel that had an arcade in it. I was playing some silent scope when an arcade repair guy came in to work on the Crazy Taxi Machine. I started talking to the guy while he opened up the crazy taxi cab and to my amazement there was a retail looking Dreamcast inside the cab. He opened it up and blew on the the laser eye a little and put a disk back in. I was so confused. What kind of witchcraft was this?

[sayin999]

There were dreamcast to jamma conversion boards that existed back then. It is possible someone used a jamma to dreamcast board to keep costs down instead of buying a standard naomi board.

[MottZilla]

I've heard of this before too. But it was never clear what software they were using. Were these official discs?, hacked versions on CD-Rs?

[Tchoin]

Well now, that's interesting, never heard of that.

sayin999 seems to be hitting the nail, using the jamma to dreamcast board to keep the costs down seems quite reasonable.

Do you remember any other specific details about that cab?

[dark]

How would they make someone pay to play if it was playing a retail version of a DC game?

[sayin999]

usually it is on a timer I believe. But I forget how the jamma setup detects and determines what play time is covered in costs.

[Cyberghost]

A lot of the arcade cabinets I see in Mexico have game consoles in them. Some dont even use arcade controls, but rather just leave the original console controllers mounted to the top :nod: Yet, they still require to insert coins to keep the time going. They way I see it, is theres a timer, once you insert the coin, you can play, and when time runs out, the game says you need to reconnect the controller. So I think the timer just simply disconnects the controller, seems simple enough.

[feder]

I saw that too in the arcades! One time they were repairing a Virtua Tennis machine, and it had a retail looking Dreamcast, back then I didn't know much about Arcade hardware, but it always seemed odd to me.

I also saw a similar kind of setup, but with a PS2 instead. At a local arcade they were fixing a Time Crisis 3 cab, but instead of using a Namco board, they used a PS2! After you inserted the coin in the machine, the gun would choose the options in the menu automatically, and after losing all your lives, the gun would lock itself, preventing you from choosing to continue unless you inserted a coin (the game itself was set to Free Play, but the cab had it's own credit counter).

[Yakumo]

they use those DC kits in some of the shitty arcades in Japan They just make the game run on a timer. The most cool kit I've seen allows you to use Saturn control pads on ANY PCB. The local indie arcade uses these kits for some games along with the standard control stick so you have a choice.

yakumo

[XerdoPwerko]

This Dreamcast setup was not quite common in my area, but the Xbox-on-a-timer is pretty much in every corner store, downtown.

Sure enough, it's got the huge Xbox controllers bolted to an arcade cabinet, and it pauses the machine completely when the time is up. There's Neo-Geo emulators, and NES emulators and retail games on hard-drives.

My first time playing Dreamcast was in an arcade-like situation, though. Many places downtown, and most comic stores at the time, would simply skip the arcade part and would just charge you for an hour of use of a TV and console.

You could play PSX or Saturn for about 10 pesos an hour back in the day. Dreamcast and PS2 became common in the early 2000s too.

[HEX1GON]

I might be wrong, but I read somewhere that it's illegal to buy a game and make it pay to play in public. I'm not talking about those arcade cabs bomber said but just a TV and Console.

There also these arcade setups you can buy called "GameGate" that use XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 systems with two widescreen TVs all in 1 box.

[Bad_Ad84]

Id imagine the retail license states you cant do that.

Any legit arcade would have a special license at a guess. Much like video/dvd rentals

[Mystical]

I might be wrong, but I read somewhere that it's illegal to buy a game and make it pay to play in public. I'm not talking about those arcade cabs bomber said but just a TV and Console.

There also these arcade setups you can buy called "GameGate" that use XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 systems with two widescreen TVs all in 1 box.

they look pretty cool

[MottZilla]

I might be wrong, but I read somewhere that it's illegal to buy a game and make it pay to play in public. I'm not talking about those arcade cabs bomber said but just a TV and Console.

You're right. Atleast in the US, Coin-Op machines must be licensed. But also the retail games being used even if on a timer are not licensed for such use and probably illegal. The arcade manufacturers would not like you doing such things, they want you to buy the real arcade version.