Skip to content

Arcade & Console — Preservation Wiki

A knowledge archive on arcade cabinets, consoles, PCBs, their repair, game conversions and mods.

Preservation principle

All content lives as Markdown versioned in git. The site is only a render: the knowledge outlives the software. CC sources reused with attribution; forums summarised and referenced, never copied verbatim.

Categories

  • Consoles

    Sega (Master System, Mega Drive, Mega-CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Gear) · Nintendo (NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, Game Boy, GBA, Virtual Boy) · NEC (PC Engine, Duo, PC-FX) · Atari (2600-7800, Jaguar, Lynx) · Sony (PS1) · SNK, Bandai, 3DO, GCE Vectrex.

  • Cabinets

    Sega candy cabs (the "City" series): Aero · Astro · New Astro · Blast (tri-sync) · Versus (back-to-back) · Net (networked). CRT monitors, wiring, JIS.

  • PCB / arcade

    Capcom CPS-1/2/3 · SNK Neo-Geo MVS · Sega System 16/24, Model 1-3, ST-V, NAOMI, Atomiswave · Taito Type X · IGS PGM · Konami 573 · Namco 246.

  • Repair

    Step-by-step procedures: recap, diagnosis, component replacement.

    (built into the pages — e.g. Mega Drive recap)

  • Conversions & multi

    Converts (CPS-1/2/3, Neo-Geo) and multi-game solutions (Darksoft, NeoSD…).

    (e.g. CPS-2 converts · arcade multi)

  • Mods

    Per-mod technical sheets: RGB/HDMI, ODE/flashcarts, IPS screens, region-free, audio, PSU, softmods — with install, before/after and where to buy.

    (e.g. NESRGB · ODE · handheld IPS)

  • Mega Drive / Genesis

    Revisions & sound, illustrated teardown, annotated boards, full recap across all revisions, mods, add-ons.

  • Capcom CPS-2

    A/B architecture, region colours, suicide battery & de-suicide (battery replacement, security reprogramming).

  • Sega Astro City

    1993 candy cab: monitor, "City" series, CRT tuning, restoration, mods.

📷 Photos to take

A photo tracking list records, page by page, the shots still to take (bare boards, battery/cap areas, connectors). Ticked off as we go.

The red thread: preservation

Each family has its preservation trap, handled page by page:

  • Suicide / encryption: CPS-2 & CPS-3 (battery), CPS-1 (Kabuki/Dash), Sega System 16 (FD1094), Neo-Geo MVS (no suicide, but battery leakage).
  • Recap: Game Gear (mandatory), Mega Drive Model 2, CRT monitors (Nanao MS8/MS9), Dreamcast/Mega-CD PSUs.
  • ODE / battery-less: Saturn, Dreamcast, Mega-CD, CPS-3, NAOMI (netboot).

Project status

  • ✅ Infrastructure: MkDocs Material, identity + navigation, git backend, manuals/photos archived locally (survive dead links).
  • ✅ 20+ systems documented (consoles, arcade PCBs, cabinets, monitors).
  • ⏭️ Coming: more mods/cap kits/repairs, photos, server deployment.

Review & corrections

How this space is used

Spotted a wrong value, an outdated procedure, a chip reference that does not match your board? Say so here, with what you observed (model, board revision, serial number, measurement). Every report is cross-checked against a source before anything changes — an unverifiable correction is published as “reported by …, not cross-checked” rather than silently applied.

Reading is open to everyone; posting requires signing in with Discord. Reports from the wiki's declared reviewers are handled first; anyone else's are read too, but go through a human before anything is changed.