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Namco System 10

Namco's last PlayStation generation (2000), dropping the ROM board for NAND flash: no cartridge, the game lives in flash on the board. Mr. Driller 2, Point Blank 3, the first Taiko no Tatsujin… Cheap and compact, before the move to PS2 (System 246).

Identification

Field Value
Manufacturer Namco
Year 2000
Base Sony PlayStation (PS1)
Media NAND flash (on the board) — no ROM board
Variants Type-1 · Type-2 (different protection/decryption)
I/O JAMMA / Namco / JVS per game

Architecture (≈ PS1)

Block Chip Role
CPU MIPS R3000A (PS1) game logic
GPU custom Sony (PS1) 2D/3D rendering
Sound PS1 base (SPU) / customs
Media NAND flash game data, often encrypted (Type-2)

The System 10 replaces the ROM board with NAND flash (embedded): more compact, cheaper. Type-2 boards add decryption of the NAND data (protection). Emulated in MAME (namco/namcos10.cpp).

Security & preservation

  • Type-1: fairly direct NAND.
  • Type-2: encrypted NAND data → you need the decryption (reverse-engineered for emulation) to read/image cleanly.
  • Priority: image the NAND while it still reads (flash ages). → Namco converts guide (incl. System 10 NAND).

What the Mr. Driller G kit manual says ✅

⚠️ The same prohibition, a fourth time at Namco — and in Japanese

The Mr. Driller Great PC board kit manual (Namco, Japanese, 54 pp.) carries the prohibition this wiki has already recorded on ND-1, System 11 and System 12:

"テスターなどによる導通検査はしないでください。PCボードのICがテスターの内部電圧で破壊 され、機能しなくなることがあります。" — "Do not carry out continuity checks with a multimeter or the like. The board's integrated circuits can be destroyed by the instrument's internal voltage and stop working."

✅ Four Namco platforms, four manuals, the same reason given — ⚠️ and the practice reaches beyond Namco: the earlier Moon Cresta manual from Nichibutsu says the same thing: it is not voltage measurement that is targeted, it is the ohmmeter mode, the one that injects a voltage into the circuit under test. → ND-1 · System 11 · System 12

ⓘ This manual is in Japanese, where the other three were in English. The rule is therefore not a translator's caution for export: it is the original instruction.

⚠️ A JAMMA board that will not go into a JVS cabinet unaided

The data sheet lists two standards — JAMMA and JAMMA VIDEO (JVS) — but the manual warns at once:

⚠️ "(株)ナムコ製「CYBERLEAD（サイバーリード）」等の JAMMA VIDEO 規格（JVS）対応筐体への取付け にはサイバーリード変換 PC ボードキットまたは EXIO PC ボード（共に別売）が必要です"

Fitting this board in a Cyber Lead therefore needs one more part, sold separately — a Cyber Lead conversion PCB kit or an EXIO board. ⓘ And the supply is not the same on each side:

Connection What the manual requires
JAMMA edge +5 V ± 5 %, 2.5 A minimum · and +12 V ± 5 %, 2.0 A minimum
JVS terminal ⓘ +5 V ± 5 %, 2.5 A minimum — and nothing else

⚠️ "適合しないものを使用すると火災などの原因となります" — a non-conforming supply is given as a cause of fire, not as mere instability.

Data sheet and test mode, as printed
Item Value
Dimensions 268 × 230 × 30 mm
Mass 580 g
Environment indoor use only · 0 to 50 °C · humidity 10 to 85 %, no condensation
Monitor orientation horizontal
Scanning ⓘ interlaced / non-interlaced, switchable
Sync ⓘ composite / separate, switchable — ⚠️ "only when fitted to a JVS cabinet"
Frequencies horizontal 15.75 kHz · vertical 60.0 Hz
Control panel (pair) 4-way lever ×2 · button ×2 · start button ×2

ⓘ The manual dates the two standards it cites, which is rare: JAMMA STANDARD (JS), defined in 1986 by JAMMA, covers the edge connector of game boards; JAMMA VIDEO STANDARD (JVS), defined in 1996, covers the link between the board and its peripherals. Two different objects, ten years apart.

The test mode, from the contents: DISPLAY TEST (with DIAGONAL to switch interlaced/non-interlaced, COLOR EDIT / COLOR BAR for colour balance, and CONVERGENCE for size, position, aspect and distortion) · SWITCH TEST · SOUND TEST · GAME OPTIONS · COIN OPTIONS · ⓘ A.D.S., data on past play · DATA CLEAR, erasure and return to factory values.

⚠️ And a disposal warning: "本製品を火の中に投げ入れないでください。本製品に使用されているリチ ウム電池が爆発してケガをするおそれがあります" — the board carries a lithium battery, and the manual forbids throwing it in a fire.

ⓘ The kit also holds an extension stereo harness — "a harness for connecting the sound in stereo" — a title sheet, and two stickers for the rules and the controls.

Notable games

Mr. Driller 2 / Mr. Driller G, Gunbalina / Point Blank 3, Panicuru Panekuru, Star Trigon, Golgo 13 (arcade), Gamshara, Keriotosse, and the first Taiko no Tatsujin (drum)…

Common faults

Symptom Likely cause Lead
Won't boot corrupt NAND / decryption (Type-2) Image/reflash; protection diagnosis
Corrupt graphics video RAM / NAND RAM test, NAND dump
No sound SPU / customs Sound-stage diagnosis
Lost settings RTC/config battery Replace
No image Power, R3000A, contacts Base diagnosis

Modernisation & mods

The common ground for every JAMMA board

Video, power, control panel and upscalers depend on the cabinet rather than the board: everything is centralised in Modernising a cabinet. To run the board outside a cabinet (at home, on a display): supergun.

  • Battery 🟢: a save battery is fitted (settings/counters/RTC). A leaking battery corrodes traces — check and replace it before it leaks → save batteries.
  • Flash storage 🟡: data in flash/SIMM — reprogrammable, but a failed block is permanently lost: image it before working on it → PCB preservation hub.
  • Scan rate 📺: PlayStation-based (Sony GPU) → standard ~15 kHz output, a 15 kHz chassis is fine. (Derived from the platform documented above — the screen configuration lives in the GPU device rather than the driver, so it is not measured here.)
  • FPGA / emulation: see the Emulation & FPGA section below.

Repair (technician)

  • PS1 base (R3000A + Sony GPU): PS1 fault families (recap, GPU/RAM).
  • NAND flash + Type-1/Type-2 decryption: the program is in encrypted flash → without the right decryption it won't boot (per-game protection, not a hardware fault).
  • Sound: PS1 base (SPU) / customs — diagnose the sound stage.
  • Capacitors: recap PSU + audio (possible SMD electrolytics).

→ Methods: PCB fault-finding · Recap · Traces & vias

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. There is no measurement table for this platform — MAME's sources yield nothing usable for it. Any frequency quoted under Architecture on this page serves as a marker; otherwise compare against a working board rather than against a number: an invented value condemns healthy parts. → PCB diagnosis

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.

Emulation & FPGA

  • Emulation: MAME (namco/namcos10.cpp) — Type-2 NAND decryption included.
  • FPGA / MiSTer: no core (a full PS1 base).

Lineage

After the System 11 / System 12 (ROM board), Namco moves to NAND — before the System 246/256 (PS2).

Photos / assets

(To add: System 10 Type-1 vs Type-2 board, NAND flash.)

Archived original documents ✅

Manufacturer document archived locally, found on Internet Archive on 13 August 2026 and identified from its title page. ⚠️ The item declares no licence — kept for preservation, provenance named.

  • PDF — namco-mr-driller-g-pcb-kit-manuel-jp.pdf — Mr. Driller G ミスタードリラーグレート — PC ボードキット 取扱説明書, namco (株式会社ナムコ), ref. 499-170, 54 pp. The cover states JAMMA 規格対応: it is a board kit, to be fitted in an existing JAMMA cabinet. Via Internet Archive

Sources & attribution

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.