Namco System 246/256/Super 256 Arcade Hardware

[RetroRepair]

Since the Namco System 246/256 etc hardware is based on the PS2 and in fact the bios currently loads and attempts to run the encrypted games, is support for these systems planned or something the team might take on?

I imagine the protection might cause a headache or two depending on how far detached from magic gate it is, but in theory it shouldn't be too different from the retail PS2s to emulate?

It'd be very interesting to see this happen, I don't think MAME will have these working, at least at any resonable speeds for a long time yet.

Here's evidence of the BIOS loading in PCSX2 btw: http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Namco-system-246

[refraction]

Maybe one day, i know nullDC had the arcade stuff working, which is kinda cool, but we shall see, i know nothing about the arcade machines

[RetroRepair]

nullDC only handles Sega Naomi stuff since it's based heavily on the Dreamcast. The PS2 and it's arcade counterparts are pretty similar from what I understand, I think one of them even has a (modified) retail ps2 pcb inside it.

MAME will struggle with it for a good few years yet since it's obviously not able to take advantage of other hardware than the CPU.

Would be interesting to see something happen with this hardware, if any emulator could do it, it'd be pcsx2