Back in early 2008, Taiwan-based IGS released a new hardware platform called the PGM2. It was a JAMMA machine with excellent 2D capabilities, 4-player support and it accepted cartridges. They released one game with the hardware, the superb Oriental Legend 2 but after that, very little else (a DoDonPachi game for the Taiwanese market and a version of KOF98UM and Knights of Valour; thanks for the corrections guys). One system I like to compare the PGM2 to, would be the Crystal System by Brezzasoft. It was a cart-system made for 2D games which also had a fun beat ’em up as it’s “launch” title and very few games to speak of.
That will all begin to change for the PGM2 next month in December when a new game is released for the system called Ochaken Puzzle where the closest game I can compare it to would be Columns. The Ocha Ken are popular characters by Sega Toys and several handheld games have been released based upon these characters with this marking the first time the series will hit the arcade as a video-only title (thanks to Nomax’s info in the comments, there was a trading card arcade game based on these some years ago). Following that in 2011, a second game will be released for the platform called Jigsaw World Arena, a unique 1-4 player game where you control a small character who runs around a playfield, grabbing jigsaw puzzle pieces and placing them down in their proper place. Below is a video of both Ochaken Puzzle and JWA that were taken at this year’s AOU show. We don’t know how much of the games have changed since then but based upon these videos alone they seem fun and they will probably be fairly cheap. But is there an option for English? That’s the one thing that killed Oriental Legend 2 at my arcade – the game is straightforward enough to grasp with a little effort but not enough people were willing to give it that effort because of the Chinese text in the game (it has a little English on select parts). A third game is also in the works for the PGM2 but nothing is known about it at this point other than it will be an action oriented game of some sort.
Ochaken Puzzle
Jigsaw World Arena
AM-Net Blog has further details including more flyer scans.
“They released one game with the hardware, the superb Oriental Legend 2 but after that – nothing”
“The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match Hero” runs on this system too. But it’s a bootleg so I don’t know if it matters…
“with this marking the first time the series will hit the arcade”
Some years ago, Sega published an Ochaken arcade game. It was a trading card game à la Dinosaur King, Mushiking, etc (in the same cabinet).
Thanks for the correction. I hadn’t heard of the bootleg but yeah, I don’t think that would really count anyways since we’re looking for official support. 🙂
The King Of Fighters 98 unlimited match on PGM 2 is not a bootleg.
It is a official release for the ASIAN / Taiwanese market
IGS also liscensed Dodonpachi Dai Ou Jou for PGM 2 as well and was released in the Asian market as well earlier this year.
http://ikotsu.blogspot.com/2010/07/dodonpachi-daioujou-pgm-2-cave-igs-2010.html
Are you sure about KOF98UM? I have always seen it listed as a Taito TypeX game:
http://coinopexpress.com/products/pcbs/taito_type_x.html
http://www.highwaygames.com/products/view.php?id=3444
Here is a picture of the kit box
http://media.photobucket.com/image/pgm%202/westtrade/Arcade%2520Systems%2520and%2520Games/PGM2box.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fpgm%202%2Fwesttrade%2FArcade%20Systems%20and%20Games%2FPGM2box.jpg%3Fo%3D18
Flyer scan
http://media.photobucket.com/image/pgm%202%20kof%2098/merlin196/KOF9820New20Hero.jpg
Picture of motherboard + game cart with documentation
http://media.photobucket.com/image/pgm%202%20kof%2098/westtrade/Arcade%2520Systems%2520and%2520Games/PGM2systemwithKOF98.jpg
There is also a Knights of Valour game on PGM2 as well
King Of Fighters 98 Ultimate match is on both PGM and Taito Type X
Thanks for the links and info I’ll fix the post accordingly.