Taito Type X2 Hardware

Myrddin

After a recent thread about a beatiful looking Candy Cab for sale, a few of us had our interests peaked when pics of it appeared apparently running the arcade version of SF4.

It's worth noting that this technology is all PC based, with mostly off the shelf components. Here's the list from the wiki:

Taito Type X²
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Embedded SP2 [3]
CPU: Intel LGA 775 CPU. Supported CPUs include Celeron D 352, Pentium 4 651, Intel Core 2 Duo E6400
Chipset: Intel Q965 + ICH8 (dg31pr +ich7
Video output: 640×480 (VGA), or 1280×720 (HDTV 720p)
RAM: 667/800MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Supported capacities 512MiB, 1GiB, 4GiB.
GPU: PCI Express ×16-based graphics. Supported GPUs include ATI RADEON (x1600Pro, x1300LE) or NVIDIA GeForce (7900GS, 7600GS, 7300GS)
Sound: Onboard Realtek HD 7.1 channel Sound (supports add-in sound cards)
LAN: 1000BASE-T 10/100BASE-TX
I/O ports: 1x JVS, 4× USB 2.0, 1× serial (max 2), 1× parallel port, 2× PS/2, 2× SATA
Audio inputs: AKG C535EB Stage Microphone, line-in (Surround 7.1)
Audio outputs: 7.1, SPDI/FX
Expansion Slots: 1× PCI Express ×16 (used by video card), 1× PCI Express ×4, 2× PCI
Storage: SATA 3Gbit/sec Hard Drives
As the name implies, Type X² is a natural evolution of Type X and X+ that allows the use of newer PC technologies introduced after the unveiling of its predecessors. Like its predecessors, the specs of Type X² are comparable to that of a contemporary PC.

Compatibility: Due to platform specific drivers (Windows XP Embedded), games running on Taito Type X will NOT run on the Taito Type X² platform and vice versa.

Link here.

Unfortunately, because the technology is so common, it means certain people were able to dump the contents of the arcade hardware, & make them available to run via a standard pc (which meets the required specs). While emulation itself isn't the biggest problem, it's bootlegging for profit which is the biggest danger here. Unruly arcade operators have been known to use mame based cabs in recent years, thereby profiting from games they havn't actually purchased.

Technically it's not emulation involved here, as the games are essentially Windows XP based (XPe), therefore they only have to be coaxed/spoofed into thinking they are on genuine hardware. Thankfully, the dumps themselves don't seem to be widespread throughout the internet. So hopefully, the piracy of these games won't affect future publishing or use of the hardware.

Here's the genuine retail kit, as you can see, it's more or less a PC



And just as a proof-of-concept, here is a Taito Type X2 game running on my own pc:

[







It doesn't display perfectly on my tv, so I'm missing a bit of the bottom of the picture but you ge the idea. Please don't ak me for the launcher/game files, they are already deleted. I only posted them to prove it can be done, I've actually no interest in the game itself

So has anyone played any real TYPE X2 units here?

purplec

any one played on real Type X2? Yes I have.

Thats it on my old cab

Myrddin

purplec wrote: »

any one played on real Type X2? Yes I have.

Thats it on my old cab

A Type X2 board? You lucky sod. I've removed the pic as it's no longer freely available on the web

LoGiE

I didn't know they released a Chase HQ game on this format... gimme!

How much did that set you back purplec?

Myrddin

LoGiE wrote: »

I didn't know they released a Chase HQ game on this format... gimme!

Extreme levels of want

purplec

The boards come up quite often for roughly 450-650 depending on the model as there a few different types.

I traded mine for a sega Chihiro as I have a naomi gun cab and I want to play VCOP3.

purplec

Thats sterling by the way

K.O.Kiki

How did you go about acquiring a cab, anyway?

o1s1n

I'm fairly sure he bought it from our wonderful resident cab dealer Mitchomagic.

Myrddin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

How did you go about acquiring a cab, anyway?

Yeah Mitch tends to sell a lot of cabs, he gets REAL nice ones too.

Yreval

EnterNow wrote: »

So has anyone played any real TYPE X2 units here?

Played the arcade version of Blazblue CS at Q-Con back in June.

:cool: