Konami M2¶
The strangest arcade hardware in this wiki: it is built on the 3DO M2, a console that never shipped. Panasonic cancelled the machine; Konami had bought the technology and put it in arcades. Five games between 1997 and 1998 — and hardware with no consumer equivalent anywhere.
Identification¶
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Konami, on 3DO M2 technology |
| Years | 1997-1998 |
| CPU | two PowerPC 602 @ ~66.67 MHz (66.6667 MHz crystal) |
| System chip | 3DO CDE2 (QFP208, marked 9701 B861131 VY21118 / 3DO 02473-001-0F) |
| Other clocks | XTALIN / XTALOUT / XBUF: 18.000 MHz · CPUCLK: 25.2000 MHz |
| Game media | CD-ROM |
| PCB format | Konami proprietary |
A ghost console
The 3DO M2 was to succeed the 3DO. Panasonic bought the technology and then abandoned the consumer launch. Konami M2 boards are therefore, in practice, the only M2 hardware ever sold — alongside a few Japanese in-house units.
For preservation that changes everything: there is no donor home console, no spare parts from the consumer market, and no published manufacturer documentation.
Expected clocks — measurement table ✅¶
| Component | Expected clock | Role |
|---|---|---|
| PowerPC 602 | 66.6667 MHz | Main CPU — two of them |
Two identical CPUs, two possible faults
The board carries two PowerPC 602s. Erratic behaviour or a lock-up can therefore come from either — measure both before concluding.
Notable games¶
Tobe! Polystars (1997) · Total Vice (1997) · Battle Tryst (1998) · Heat of Eleven '98 (1998) · Evil Night / Hell Night (1998).
What emulation does not do yet¶
MAME covers the platform (konami/konamim2.cpp, driver by Phil Bennett), but the
driver lists its own outstanding work — and it says something about the hardware:
- texture compression is not rendered correctly;
- the PowerPC 602's “Protection Only” mode is not handled;
- Tobe! Polystars and Heat of Eleven '98 run at the wrong speed;
- Heat of Eleven '98 soft-locks when Japan is chosen as a team.
Why that is worth knowing
If you compare a real board against an emulation video, the differences do not prove your board is faulty. On this platform, emulation is not yet a reliable reference for speed or for textures.
Common faults¶
| Symptom | Probable cause | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Will not read the CD | worn CD drive | The dominant failure point on any CD machine |
| Erratic behaviour | one of the two PowerPC 602s | Measure both |
| No picture | CDE2 or power | The 3DO system chip has no replacement |
| Wrong textures or 3D | hardware — or simply a comparison against imperfect emulation | See the box above before suspecting the board |
Repair (technician)¶
- No part can be sourced. The CDE2 and the M2 set were never sold to consumers: no donor console, no spares. Diagnosis is by comparison, repair by salvage.
- Two CPUs: do not stop at the first one.
- The CD drive is this generation's usual consumable.
→ Methods: PCB diagnosis · Recap
Procedure — a dead board, step by step ✅¶
What this adds
The general method lives in PCB diagnosis. This is its application to this platform: the same order, but with the values actually expected here, so you do not have to go back and forth.
Tools: multimeter, oscilloscope (or frequency counter), current-limited bench supply, desoldering braid. → Tooling
If the board is still in a cabinet
A CRT holds its charge with the machine unplugged. → CRT safety
1. Inspection, power off. Corrosion, cut tracks, oxidised EPROM legs, leaking SMD capacitors, dubious earlier repairs.
2. The connector, before anything else. A large share of "dead boards" are a contact problem, not a fault. Clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and reseat — not with an abrasive eraser on a gold edge, which takes the plating off and brings the problem back worse. It costs two minutes and settles the question.
3. Power, measured on the board. Aim for +5.0 V measured as close as possible to where power reaches the board — not at the PSU output: the drop is in the loom, and that is exactly what makes a board boot on the bench and not in the cabinet. Where you probe depends on this board's connector — JAMMA edge, JVS loom or a proprietary harness — plenty of makers kept one long after JAMMA arrived — see Identification above. → Wiring Check −5 V and +12 V too if the sound stage uses them. Suspected short: bring it up current-limited and find the hot spot.
4. /RESET. It must release after power-up. Held low = the CPU never starts. A 1–2 Hz loop is not the reset circuit, it is the watchdog: the CPU is crashing at boot, so look at the bus, not at the reset.
5. Clocks — the values expected on this platform.
- PowerPC 602 → 66,6667 MHz (CPU principal — deux exemplaires)
6. Bus. Activity on the main CPU's address lines tells you whether it is running or frozen. Frozen with good clocks and good reset → work RAM, bus buffers, ROMs.
7. It boots but the picture or the sound is wrong — that is another job: see Common faults on this page, then signal tracing.
Modernisation & mods¶
- ⚠️ Do not host CD images — method only.
- Rarity: this is probably the most fragile platform in this wiki as far as sourcing parts goes.
Photos / assets¶
(To take: the whole board, the two PowerPC 602s, and above all the 3DO CDE2 with its full markings — few people have seen that chip.)
Sources & attribution¶
Text (synthesised here; sources listed for attribution):
- MAME —
src/mame/konami/konamim2.cpp(BSD-3-Clause / GPL, driver by Phil Bennett): two PowerPC 602s at 66.6667 MHz (M2_CLOCK), the 3DO CDE2 in QFP208 with its full markings, the XTALIN/XTALOUT/XBUF at 18.000 MHz and CPUCLK at 25.2000 MHz clocks recorded on the layout, the list of five games; and the driver's declared outstanding work — texture compression, the PPC602 “Protection Only” mode, wrong speeds in Polystars and Heat of Eleven '98, and the latter's soft-lock on choosing Japan — https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/konami/konamim2.cpp
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.