Skip to content

Sega Lindbergh

Sega's first arcade hardware on standard PC architecture (2005): a Pentium 4 + GeForce 6 under embedded Linux (MontaVista). Virtua Fighter 5, OutRun 2 SP, After Burner Climax, The House of the Dead 4… Security via a CF + PIC (AES) dongle. Active preservation through Lindbergh Loader (open-source).

The Lindbergh and its yellow lid — Sega's first x86 system.
The Lindbergh and its yellow lid — Sega's first x86 system. Photo uploaded by Mikel to Sega Retro, a site under CC BY 4.0.

Identification

Field Value
Manufacturer Sega
Year 2005 (The House of the Dead 4)
Base standard x86 PC (embedded Linux)
Media HDD / CF (encrypted game data)
Security security board: CF + PIC (AES-CBC)
I/O JVS
Variants Yellow (standard), Red, Blue, Silver (different CPU/GPU specs)

Architecture (PC)

Block Chip Detail
CPU Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.0E (Prescott) 800 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2, Hyper-Threading
GPU NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GS (AGP) 256 MB GDDR3 (GeForce 6 series)
RAM 1 GB DDR-400
OS MontaVista Linux (embedded)
Media HDD or CF game data
I/O JVS + a game-specific I/O board

It's an x86 PC in an arcade case: Sega's first step toward standard PC (before RingEdge/Nu). The colour variants (Yellow/Red/Blue/Silver) differ in CPU/GPU per the games' needs.

Security & preservation (the real topic)

  • Security board: a PIC + a CF card perform AES-CBC decryption of the game data and store the keys. Without the right security board, the game won't decrypt.
  • Preservation:

  • Lindbergh Loader (open-source, Linux): emulates/loads Lindbergh games on a modern Linux PC — designed to replace a dead Lindbergh board in a real cabinet (active preservation).

  • TeknoParrot: partial support for some games (sometimes unstable / behind a paywall depending on the case).

⚠️ We describe the method; no BIOS/keys/games hosted. The open-source tools (Lindbergh Loader), however, are worth preserving.

Notable games

The House of the Dead 4 (2005), Virtua Fighter 5, OutRun 2 SP, After Burner Climax, Initial D Arcade Stage 4/5, Ghost Squad Evolution, Let's Go Jungle!, R-Tuned, Sega Race TV, Virtua Tennis 3, 2 Spicy, Primeval Hunt, Rambo.

Faults & repair

Standard PC hardware → PC maintenance + specifics:

Symptom Likely cause Lead
Won't decrypt / boot Dead security board (CF/PIC) Critical board; back it up; see Lindbergh Loader
Overheating / GPU crash GeForce 6800 (fan/paste) Clean, re-paste, ventilate; recap if needed
HDD/CF end of life media wear Image the disk while it still reads
Reboots ATX PSU, capacitors Replace the PSU / recap
Dead controls JVS I/O / harness JVS 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.

  • Hard disk ⚠️: a perishable medium — image the drive before it fails, then consider an SSD/CF replacement → PCB preservation hub.
  • Scan rate 📺: PC-based hardware — VGA output (31 kHz and above). ⚠️ A 15 kHz chassis is incompatible: you need a VGA/tri-sync monitor or a computer display. (Derived from the platform's PC nature documented above — not measured from MAME.)
  • FPGA / emulation: see the Emulation & FPGA section below.

Repair (technician)

  • x86 PC (Pentium 4 Prescott): diagnose like a PC — ATX PSU, RAM, motherboard caps (Prescott runs hot → frequent overheating/fan issues), GPU variants (Yellow/Red/Blue/Silver).
  • CF + PIC security (AES-CBC): the game is encrypted; without the correct security card it won't boot — not a hardware fault.
  • HDD/CF: wear → imaging (if the key is available).
  • Capacitors: recap PSU / motherboard.

→ 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.

This platform is a PC

Most of what kills one of these is not on a board: the disk, the dongle, the BIOS settings or the OS. Go through those first — the procedure below still applies to the rails and the boot, but stripping a machine that simply will not boot off its disk wastes a day.

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 / loader: Lindbergh Loader (Linux, open-source), TeknoParrot (partial). No FPGA core (a full PC).

Lineage

Sega's first PC-based board, before Europa-R (driving), RingEdge / RingWide (2009) and Nu / ALLS. For console-based 3D, see Chihiro and Triforce.

Manual (archived)

Photos / assets

(To add: Lindbergh (Yellow) motherboard, GeForce 6800, CF/PIC security board, JVS I/O.)

Sources & attribution

Image:

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.