Namco System 22

SYSTEM22 POINT ROM PCB

The Namco System 22 is the successor to the Namco System 21 arcade system board co-designed with the assistance of graphics & simulation experts Evans & Sutherland. It was first released in 1993 with the game Ridge Racer. It was essentially a continuation of the System 21 hardware design, where the main CPU provides a scene description to a bank of DSP chips which perform all necessary 3D calculations. Additional graphical improvements included texture mapping, Gouraud shading, transparency effects, and depth cueing thanks to the Evans & Sutherland 'TR3' chip/chipset, which stands for: Texture Mapping, Real-Time, Real-Visual, Rendering System.

A variant of the system, called the Super System 22, was released in 1995. The hardware was largely similar to the System 22, but with a slightly higher polygon rate and more special effects possible.

Both Super System 22 and System 22 can render significantly better graphics, more polygons with sharper texture-mapping, running in higher resolution and at a higher framerate compared to the graphics capabilities of the original Sony PlayStation, the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64 video game systems, but much less than what the Sega Dreamcast can produce.^{[citation needed]}

According to Namco America the twin seat Ridge Racer arcade unit sold to distribution for $11,995.00 in 1993.

System 22 Specifications

• Main CPU: Motorola 68020 32-bit @ 24.576 MHz
• DSP: 2x Texas Instruments TMS32025 @ 49.152 MHz (exact number of DSPs may vary)
• Sound CPU: Mitsubishi M37702 (System 22 Games) or M37710 (Super System 22 Games) @ 16.384 MHz
• Sound Chip: Namco C352
• + Namco Custom Chips

List of System 22 Games

• Ace Driver (1994)
• Ace Driver: Victory Lap (1995)
• Cyber Commando (1994)
• Rave Racer (1995)
• Ridge Racer (1993)
• Ridge Racer 2 (1994)

List of Super System 22 Games

• Air Combat 22 (1995)
• Alpine Racer (1994)
• Alpine Racer 2 (1996)
• Alpine Surfer (1996)
• Aqua Jet (1996)
• Armadillo Racing (1997)
• Cyber Cycles (1995)
• Dirt Dash (1995)
• Prop Cycle (1996)
• Time Crisis (1995)
• Tokyo Wars (1995)

External links

• System 22 at System16 - The Arcade Museum