Namco System 2

Burning Force arcade PCB (1989) - which runs on the Namco System 2

The Namco System 2 is a 16-bit arcade system board that was first used by Namco in December 1987, and a major enhancement for their earlier Namco System 1 arcade system board (which was introduced in April of that same year); it was later succeeded by the 3D Namco System 21 "Polygonizer" arcade system board, in 1988.

Final Lap was the first game to use this board, and also the first to allow up to eight players to play simultaneously, when four two-player cabinets were linked together; the following year, six more games using this board were released, which were Assault, Assault Plus, Ordyne, Metal Hawk, Mirai Ninja and Phelios. In 1989, they released Valkyrie no Densetsu (the sequel to Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu), Dirt Fox, Finest Hour, Burning Force, Four Trax, and Marvel Land - and, in 1990, they released Kyūkai Dōchūki, Final Lap 2, Dragon Saber, electromechanical Golly! Ghost!, Rolling Thunder 2, and Steel Gunner. For 1991, they released Super World Stadium, Steel Gunner 2, and Cosmo Gang the Video (which featured characters from a "redemption" machine); in 1992, they released Bubble Trouble: Golly! Ghost! 2, Suzuka 8 Hours, Super World Stadium '92 (and its Gekitōban variant), Final Lap 3 and Lucky & Wild. Then, in 1993, they released Super World Stadium '93 Gekitōhen and Suzuka 8 Hours 2, and the board was retired after six years.

Namco System 2 specifications

Board composition:^[1]

• CPU Board @ 49.152 MHz
• Graphics Board @ 33.3 MHz
• ROM Board

Main processors:

• Main CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 12.288 MHz^[2] (16/32-bit instructions @ 2.1504 MIPS^[3])
• Sub-CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 12.288 MHz (16/32-bit instructions @ 2.1504 MIPS^[3])
• Sound CPU: Motorola M6809 @ 2.048 MHz (8-bit instructions @ 0.86016 MIPS^[3])
• MCU:
  • Hitachi HD63705 @ 2.048 MHz (8-bit instructions @ 2.048 MIPS^[4])
  • Namco C68 (Mitsubishi M37450) @ 8.192 MHz^[1] (8-bit instructions @ 1.024 MIPS^[5])

Video:

• GPU: Namco Custom chipset^[6]
  • C45 Land Generator
  • C102 ROZ Memory Access Controller
  • C106 OBJ X-Axis Zoom Controller
  • C107 Land Line Buffer
  • C116 Screen Waveform Generator
  • C123 GFX Tile Memory Decoder
  • C134 Object Memory Address Generator
  • C135 OBJ Line Matching
  • C145 Tile Screen Memory Access Controller
  • C146 OBJ Line Buffer Steering
  • C156 Pixel Stream Combo
• Video resolution:^[1]
  • Display resolution: 288×224 (horizontal) or 224×288 (vertical) pixels
  • Overscan resolution: 384×264 (horizontal) or 264×384 (vertical) pixels (264 scanlines)
• Refresh rate: 60.606 Hz^[1] (60.606 frames per second)
• Colors:
  • Color palette: 16,777,216 (24-bit RGB)^[7]
  • Colors on screen: 16,384 (64 KB palette RAM^[1]) to 32,768 (with shadows^[1])
• Graphical planes:
  • Variable-sized display window
  • 3 scrolling 512×512 tilemap layers (64×64 characters)
  • 1 scrolling 512×256 tilemap layer (64×32 characters)
  • 2 fixed 288×224 tilemap layers (36×28 characters)
  • 1 fixed rotate/zoom tilemap layer
  • 1 sprite layer
  • Roadway generator (driving games only)
• Sprite capabilities: Zooming & rotation,^[1] line buffering^[6]
  • Sprites on screen: 128^[7] displayed at once
  • Sprites in RAM: 2048 (16 banks with 128 sprites each)^[1]
  • Sprite sizes: Variable, from 8×8^[1] to 64×64 pixels
  • Colors per sprite: 256 (8-bit)^[1]
  • Sprite pixels/texels: 33.3 MHz video clock cycles,^[1] 549,450 texels per frame (60.606 frames per second), 2081 texels per scanline (264 scanlines), 128 sprites per scanline

Sound:

• Sound chips:
  • Yamaha YM2151 @ 3.57958 MHz: 8 FM synthesis channels
  • Namco Custom C140 @ 21.39 kHz: 24 stereo PCM channels @ 21.39 kHz sampling rate
• PCB supports volume, treble, bass, and balance audio adjustments via potentiometers

List of Namco System 2 arcade games

• Final Lap (1987)
• Assault (1988)
• Assault Plus (1988)
• Ordyne (1988)
• Metal Hawk (1988)
• Mirai Ninja (1988)
• Phelios (1988)
• Valkyrie no Densetsu (1989) - sequel to Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu
• Dirt Fox (1989)
• Finest Hour (1989)
• Burning Force (1989)
• Four Trax (1989)
• Marvel Land (1989)
• Kyūkai Dōchūki (1990) - World Stadium-style baseball game which features characters from Yokai Dochuki
• Final Lap 2 (1990)
• Dragon Saber (1990) - sequel to Dragon Spirit
• Golly! Ghost! (1990) - electro-mechanical videogame hybrid
• Rolling Thunder 2 (1990)
• Steel Gunner (1990)
• Super World Stadium (1991)
• Steel Gunner 2 (1991)
• Cosmo Gang the Video (1991) - fixed shooter which features characters from a redemption game released in the previous year
• Bubble Trouble: Golly! Ghost! 2 (1992) - electro-mechanical videogame hybrid
• Suzuka 8 Hours (1992)
• Super World Stadium '92 (1992)
• Super World Stadium '92 Gekitōban (1992)
• Final Lap 3 (1992)
• Lucky & Wild (1992)
• Super World Stadium '93 Gekitōhen (1993)
• Suzuka 8 Hours 2 (1993)

References

External links

• Namco System 2 hardware page at System16.com - The Arcade Museum
• Namco System 2 (driving games) hardware page at System16.com - The Arcade Museum
• Namco System 2 driver code in MAME