Hyper NG64 v. M2 - Shooter

[awbacon]

Now I know that the comparison is odd, but I was watching an attract video from Evil Night, one of the few games that used the Panasonic M2 hardware (originally the 3DO M2 before it got cancelled, damn I waited all summer one year for it too!) it rather reminded me of Beast Busters Second Nightmare.

I was lucky enough to find a Beast Busters cabinet in the wild, outside of Vail, Colorado about 4 years ago. Was at a hotel-resort I was staying at while covering the U.S Freeskiing Open. I put fistfulls of quarters into it, and loved every minute, especially considering it was Neo-Geo hardware, a company I knew of but had yet to get into gaming wise at home.

I saw that turfmasta on Youtube had uploaded an entire playthrough of Beast Busters, and when I watched it side by side with the attract video of the Konami Arcade M2 unit w/ Evil Night I thought to myself

Considering the on-paper superiority of the M2, the Hyper NG64 really holds up well as a platform. Such a shame it didn't get the support / sales it deserved

Just a random thought I wanted to share

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5x8wX0MhTw

Evil Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zjCaUNTiig&feature=PlayList&p=202CB61ACC2F6FD2&index=1

Beast Busters Second Nightmare - Stage 1

 

[kernow]

I also waited all summer for M2 I was going to get the addon.

Fail.

 

[awbacon]

Bastards Panasonic were...I went and bought a damn 3DO at full retail, and they screw me on the M2

I still look at my copy of D2 for the Dreamcast and wonder what the M2 D2 would have been like. The videos make it look much more interesting of a story than what we got in the final Dreamcast version

 

[complexz]

i had no idea evil night was based on m2 hardware, a local arcade had that one...nobody ever played it...myself included. i would have at least given it a credit or two if i knew it was based on a hardware i was always curious about.

its certainly not too impressive looking in all honesty anyway. even for its time

 

[awbacon]

Lucky you actually saw an Evil Night unit in the wild.

I always check the arcades I see, hoping to find something running on the M2. I always had a fascination w/ it.

From what I remember, Evil Night, Total Vice, Polystars, and Heat of 11 Soccer (might be wrong name) all run on the M2. I've been trying to find a Polystars board forever

But that was just food for thought that I think both HNG 64 and M2 looked very similar

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

I have a Total Vice board, and I do have to agree that the quality of both systems arent too far off. Theres are a couple of M2 guys on Assembler who are working on patching the arcade board games to play all M2 games. My Vice board wont play anything else yet, but hopefully they will work that out soon.

I have always wanted to play the M2 version of D2, but honestly I still really liked the DC version. As long as you play the uncut import version. Damn, I may have to bust that game out again...

Oh, one more thing. The Total Vice game has parts of the intro song to KOF '98. "Play that shit just like you got your mother fucking....." I havent listened to it in a while, but I can post a MP3 of the track.

 

[awbacon]

I'd like to hear the mp3

I always wanted D2 for M2. Sure D2 on dreamcast is fun and has a great story, but I still wish someone would leak anything that exists for the M2 version, if anything is left at all

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

Here soon I'll see about posting a compairson video of Evil Night and Beast Busters. I got in an Evil Night board, and after some help, got the board to boot. Long story short, the EN board can suidice on you if the RTC battery dies.

So thats finally worked out and I should have the rig finished in a week or so. I'll post a nice capture of the entire game and not from a hand cam like the ones on youtube. Unfortunately I cant capture Vice since it doesnt run in standard res like all the other M2 arcade games.

Maybe its my bias, but I do think the hyper looks better.

Back to D2: I dont think anything will ever be leaked, I think Eno was pretty protective over it.

 

[awbacon]

Damn, you found a M2 board? Ive been looking on and off forever...always find them when I dont have the money haha

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

Damn, you found a M2 board? Ive been looking on and off forever...always find them when I dont have the money haha

I have a Total Vice, Evil Night board and the FZ-35 kiosk unit. I wish I could get a hold of a dev system...

 

[awbacon]

I've been trying for a Polystars board first, since I doubt I have the skills to wire up a light gun replacement. I'd love to get my hands on a kiosk unit too, but its beyond my budget

Just curious...where did you find these? I always like hearing a good M2 story. My #1 system I wish I had / was released

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

Wish I had a good M2 story...

I got everything off of eBay. Back in 2005 a seller had tons of the kiosks for sale, I was lucky enough to have one with a disk inside. I heard several people didnt get those with theirs. They were selling about $30 each. Last one on ebay went crazy high this last week. Maybe it a good sign that someone is working on some stuff for it. Only "game" thats out for it is a homebrew demo of a shooting game. I have a feeling that if we were to see a rise in homebrew stuff, it would be for the arcade boards as they have more memory than the kiosks.

Same thing with the arcade boards. Found them cheap ($50-$100) on ebay over the last few years. Lucky enough to get a buy it now when they first popped up.

 

[awbacon]

You must just have all the luck. I have never seen any M2 boards come up at all. Only thing I ever came across before it sold was a full box of dev kit shit, and it went for thousands of dollars. I almost bid on it, but at the last minute decided I was insane to spend that type of cash (especially considering that the M2 scene is so tiny)

I was always fascinated with the M2...was an early adopter of the 3DO, and I still have my original FZ-1 hooked up to the tv. So pissed when the M2 was cancelled.

Lemme know if you ever come across any M2 boards for sale and nobody has bought em yet, since I've been trying to track one down for years. Never even seen one in the wild.

I still wish the original D2 would get leaked somehow. Comparing the footage of the M2 build to the Dreamcast game, the Dreamcast version really pales in comparison 'thematically' I think. D2 on Dreamcast had an entertaining story and some good gameplay, but the open world portion kind of sucked (but who am I to say that? I own both the US and JPN versions of the game)

 

[awbacon]

I am curious though...how did you set up for the absense of a light gun for Total Vice and Evil / Hell Night? Was it just a plug and play controller through a Supergun or something more elaborate?

I always wanted Polystars just cause it was a schmup and seemed like it would take a regular 4 button controller w/ no problems.

The only place I find any good info is the Assembler boards, and its still just a trickle of info there. Anywhere else you would suggest to read up on it?

 

[NeoTurfMasta]

I am curious though...how did you set up for the absense of a light gun for Total Vice and Evil / Hell Night? Was it just a plug and play controller through a Supergun or something more elaborate?

I always wanted Polystars just cause it was a schmup and seemed like it would take a regular 4 button controller w/ no problems.

The only place I find any good info is the Assembler boards, and its still just a trickle of info there. Anywhere else you would suggest to read up on it?

I am using a light gun for TV and EN. Lightgun games usually have extra pinouts on the board that the guns attach to, so the jamma just keeps the standard i/o. You have to have a CRT to use the guns. I rigged a PSOne lightgun for them and it works perfectly. I'll probably do a full capture this week sometime.

Polystars only needs one or two buttons. You can either have air and ground fire on the same button or have them separate.

As far as more info, there really isnt anywhere better than Assembler that I have found. If you stick with Polystars, Heat of 11, and Battle Tryst you wont need to worry about any optical gun pinouts. But trust me, its much easier then people think.

Just create some saved searches on ebay, they'll come up eventually.

 

[awbacon]

bumping this...if anyone reads it and knows of a Polystars board for sale, let me know!