I haven't yet found a teardown or pictures of the insides that show this very clearly, but it's neat to learn how they did it. I just assumed it was simply CRTs but that clearly wouldn't work, not without ugly bezels. These days you could just get a super-wide LCD, though.
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anyway, the key diagram is from here, read this for some more info on Dairus: http://shmuplations.com/darius/
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Also check out this flyer they used to sell Darius. It's just so sweet.pic.twitter.com/FcKzsVYt12
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And a screenshot of the game at native resolution. It's so freakin' wide!pic.twitter.com/kMLrlJY54T
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And finally, the other reason you might know of this game: It originated the "A GIANT ENEMY BATTLESHIP "EVIL NAME" IS APPROACHING FAST!" shmup meme.
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Some more info because
@DaleJ_Dev was asking about it: The custom system powering it was no slouch either. It used a dual-processor system using 8mhz 68000s, and for graphics it used a custom Taito tile-mapping chip, the PC080SN.1 reply 4 retweets 76 likesShow this thread -
They just used three of them, in fact, one for each screen. These were all mapped into the same memory space, so the three-screen display "just worked". Image from: https://www.facebook.com/AndysArcade/posts/finally-finished-a-taito-darius-pcb-repair-this-morning-that-has-been-waiting-fo/1459480580812799/ …pic.twitter.com/HEk8t09JVZ
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Sound was generated on a board that had two Z80 CPUs, each running at 8mhz, and dual Yamaha YM2203 chips, which each provided 3 channels of FM synthesis.
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arcade game development is interesting compared to how nearly all modern game dev works. Imagine you want to make a game, but you have to design the hardware to run it first. It's a miracle they ever made any money!
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Replying to @Foone
The cabinets cost a LOT; you had to be sure a game was going to do well in your arcade before dropping the four to five figures on it.
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In Poland (and I presume other countries) there was this entire gray market where people would build cheap generic cabinets and come up with converters so that you could just transport PCBs around and plug them into whatever “universal” cabinet you cobbled together.
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Well, most hardware complied with JAMMA after a certain point, and universal cabs were definitely a thing. When I saud "cabinet" though I meant the whole thing; they were sold at a profit unlike consoles.
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