TGM arcade board

Thread in 'Hardware' started by JeanPR, 28 Sep 2012.

  1. Hi Everyone,

    I have a TGM arcade daughterboard I picked up in Tokyo a good few years ago and would either like to get it up and running or sell it on to a good home (I've never booted it). Does anyone have any advice or would be interested?

    I think I need a zn-2 motherboard and a supergun to get it going, does anyone have any advice for getting something in the UK?

    Thanks

    Jean
     
  2. Edo

    Edo a.k.a. FSY

    The supergun is no problem; if you have any skills with a soldering iron and a bit of free time, you can knock one up quite cheaply. Or if you just want to buy one, a Vogatek is a very cheap solution - the Mk 3 has a SCART socket, so is perfect for use in the UK. The guy who makes them is pretty unreliable, but there should be plenty of reliable guys selling them on.

    As for the ZN-2, they're unfortunately quite rare to find on their own. You may just have to buy a cheap mother/daughterboard set, like Street Fighter EX2, and use the motherboard off that for both games. With a bit of patience you could probably pick up SFEX2 from YAJ for about £40-50. (EX2+ is considerably more expensive though.) Also, tops-game currently has an EX2 for ~£66 (8400JPY) listed on the capcom page. (The Street Fighter EX series are criminally underrated btw...)

    Another possibility is modifying a Taito G-net motherboard, since the G-net also uses a ZN-2 as its base, which is physically identical to the Capcom ZN-2 (apart from the placement of a single resistor). I don't know how much work is involved in this, but I would assume at the very least it'd involve flashing a different bios.
     
  3. Do all ZN-2 games have swappable motherboards? I think I read somewhere that not all of them do (I'm not sure, it was a long time ago, and I can't find any links).
     
  4. Edo

    Edo a.k.a. FSY

    I'm pretty sure that they are. There are literally only 7 games for the Capcom ZN-2 (TGM, Rival Schools, SFEX2, SFEX2+, Tech Romancer, Star Gladiator 2, Strider 2), and they should all be interchangeable. I have however read of people trying to run ZN-2 games on a ZN-1 motherboard, and then getting confused when they didn't work, this might have been what you read about a long time ago.

    From a thread on the neo-geo.com forums:
     
  5. Edo

    Edo a.k.a. FSY


    $249 for Tech Romancer is very pricey, especially when you consider that a ZN-2 with Tech Romancer and 4 other daughterboards sold for less than that about a year ago: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Arcade-pcb-board-CAPCOM-ZN2-5-games-STRIDER-2-/110774923365. Sure, you're getting all the art and the control panel, but they all look like they've seen better days. Less than $100 for Rival Schools seems like a pretty good deal though.

    Just in case it's of interest to anyone, G-Front is currently listing a TGM daughterboard for 3000JPY (approx $38 or £24)
     

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