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The Astro City Mini's 37th game is something called Dottori Kun. At first glance, this looks like a rip - it's a very basic pac man clone, with only one ghost, no pills, no sound, and only the barest amount of colour, selectable with the service button.
But if you look closely at the listing in the menu, there's something curious. All the other games list the PCB board type and release year, but for Dottori Kun, the year is missing, and the PCB is "embedded PCB." What gives?
In Japan, arcade cabinets were standardised (and, to some extent, still are) around a board called JAMMA. This board handled all input and output, including power, buttons, sticks, video, audio, even cab lighting and the like.
This allows arcade owners to switch out games by simply removing the old game PCB from the JAMMA master board and inserting a new game.
The Astro City itself is a JAMMA cabinet, designed to hold any and all games you care for. You can build a unified look for your arcade.
The Astro City itself is a JAMMA cabinet, designed to hold any and all games you care for. You can build a unified look for your arcade.
So SEGA are happily churning out JAMMA-equipped Astros, but unfortunately Japanese law states that you can't ship electronic items in an unfinished state, which these cabs effectively are without a game PCB fitted.
Enter, Dottori Kun.
Enter, Dottori Kun.
Dottori Kun is a tiny PCB, made as cheaply as possible, to be used as a pack-in game for Astro City cabinets. Sega had to produce something to comply with the law (and also offer basic cabinet testing) but they knew that arcade owners were going to replace it ASAP.
So Dottori Kun is an ultra-simple, playable game, based on Head On, a game produced for Sega in 1979. Before the astro mini, it is likely barely anyone has played it save arcade owners and a few curious MAME users.
But it's a cool bit of history, and I'm glad it's here.
But it's a cool bit of history, and I'm glad it's here.
This, and the inclusion of the never ported golden axe sequel, is why I feel M2 are the best at what they do. A lot of companies throw out mini systems with a bunch of games, but only M2 are interested in the historical value of these. The only non-sega instance is Star Fox 2.
