The NeoGeo 2 we never got - IGS PGM Arcade Hardware | MVG 

Thanks for such an in depth look at this much overlooked arcade hardware. I run a large retro arcade here in Australia and as big fans of the Neo Geo and PGM systems, we’re proud to have original versions of Martial Masters, Espagluda, Demon Front, The Gladiator and Knights of Valor 2. I believe it’s important to still have a public venue somewhere to be able to access and play these gaming treasures

I just wanted to thank you for covering stuff like this. It's basically documenting history for future generations.

13:10 holy crap, that boss sprite appearing on screen looks awesome and impressive for the hardware.

Fun Fact: Spectral vs Generation fighting game is based on Japan-only RPG Spectral Force series and Generation of Chaos series made by Idea Factory, the same developers who made Hyperdimension Neptunia series.

3:55 Just a small point of contention here on aspect ratio: These older machines used CRT's, so the aspect ratio is determined by the dot clock of the motherboard, not the pixel count (or the CRT). So it's not a 2:1 aspect ratio unless you convert the signal into digital square pixels, which never happened back then.

I love that this turned into a hidden gems video more than anything, thanks for the heads up, some of these I didn't even know existed and I will be checking them out on my MiSTer.

That was awesome. I wasn't even aware of this hardware until coming across your video. Thank you!

Holy crud. I was not expecting that Wavefront to sound the way it did, but it was amazing.

A spiritual successor to the MVS with more new brawlers, shooters and fighters? Yes please!

I remember playing some of those titles in MAME pre-2008. Glad to see a comprehensive video on IGS PGM

Man neo geo was legendary when I was growing up. It was so rare and had a mystique to it almost haha. It was so so unattainable though back then. This is so cool that you make this content man..nostalgic.

Nice kit, was really popular in Neo Geo circles in the early - mid 2000s.

Hey, pretty good show Taiwan! Even though it was made when 2D was well on its way out of the door, you could have told me its games were CPS2/3 or Neo-Geo and I would have been none the wiser. DDP Daiou Jou, Martial Masters, and The Gladiator look fantastic even for the day, and the first mentioned has effects that almost fool me into thinking there's 3D hardware!

Wonderful video MVG! This is just what I like to see from you. Love learning about the hardware and emulation!

I remember playing demon front at the local arcade and loving it, I've been trying to emulate it for years but never could figure what system it was for, thank you for this video, truly.

I notice that some of the games on the IGS collection have some input lag, but when you set the language to Chinese, reduces it and setting the screen to less than full further helps. This is noticeable in Martial Masters especially. Setting it back to English after you play it in Chinese, seems to keep the input lag reduced; but you have to do this each time you start the game. Also notice that when you hit the home button while playing; the entire Switch OS, seems to lack until you turn the game off. Any ideas as to what could be causing this from a technical perspective? Hope a patch fixes these issues. Thanks for brining these awesome games into greater awareness. Great stuff!

CAVE may not say it out right but Dodonpachi II is canonized in a way in DaiOuJou's after-action screens. Very rare export variant of DaiOuJou simply calls the game Dodonpachi III, and it was not dumped until recently.

Wow, I never heard of this at all! Very cool learning about! The similarities to the Neo Geo MVS are uncanny!

the M2 release of Ketsui on PS4 is one of the best rereleases of all time. Having access to one-off PCBs of the game is a total M2 touch.

Thanks for the video, MVG! I learned a lot from it! Taiwan really were secret hardware wizards in the 90s, and every new thing I learn is so fascinating.

Mad respect for mentioning CAVE. Thanks again for amazing videos.

Thank you for covering this. Absolutely loved this video. ❤❤❤ Cave is by far my favorite shmup developer of all time.

Great to see you again MVG. I use to play the Poly Game Master by IGS back in Hawaii. It was an amazing piece of hardware that few knew and even to this day. Glad you're giving the proper exposer towards it bro. Such an underrated unit. I posted this up on the Neo-Geo thread for others to benefit on the forums over on AtariAge for you bro. Thank you for sharing this with us and keep up the great work you always provide for the community. 8^) Anthony...

Mate big fan of most of your vids but LOVED this one. some history on the hardware, comparisons and info on the games. very excellent and hope to see more with similar topics!

Always love watching your videos to learn more. I try to watch a wife range of things on RU-vid, daily. So anything retro gaming, modern gaming, tech, cars, music, comedians, podcast, etc is a must for me most times. So you sir, have provided me with invaluable information over the years. Even when I don't understand dev talk or coding/programming, I still listen as I know a tiny bit about computers. And I learn along the way. So thank you. Your videos are so interesting and coming from a dev yourself means a perspective many don't have. Super valuable.

I have never heard of IGS before. Looks really cool. I'm going to go check it out now. Thanks MVG for showcasing this system.

The PGM is a cool platform. It was weird learning of another Neo Geo-like system while emulating arcade games, but that's due to its unusual origin being a system that came out of Taiwan and with the Asian market in mind. As much as Demon Front looks and feels like a Metal Slug clone, I like how they made it distinct with the art direction and certain gameplay features. Demon Front ends up being a slower game that is more defensive in my opinion. The Gladiator is fantastic, though some of the later bosses are really tough and hard to figure out. For that game, I don't mind credit feeding my way through it and I always have fun with it. The control scheme is interesting. I know the game holds quite a few major secrets that I only know about from some foreign RU-vid videos. One of them showed a boss in the game that I have never seen elsewhere, though I have no idea how to encounter that one. I did follow along with another video and managed to successfully rescue the character, Fong Yu, that is a captive at some point to find one of the harder-to-find hidden paths which led to others. There's another part where you have to manipulate the enemies to trigger soldiers who throw logs to get them to position explosive barrels next to each other, then having the manipulate an enemy(by evading) who shoots fire to detonate those barrels. There is video of this. I remember ending up at an unusual stage that had palm trees. It's crazy how many paths and secrets are in that game. It's a shame there isn't more documentation about it.

Just wanted to thank you for your videos. I don’t know much about classic gaming or many of the topics you cover but your videos are well-produced and enjoyable, even when I wouldn’t otherwise be that interested in the content in another format. Keep up the good work!

Taiwan had the right idea, the rest of the world gave up on sprites too soon.

I've heard of the IGS PGM years ago but no one seemed to have much information about it. Granted, I didn't look hard enough because I knew nothing about it. This got my attention. Wow. I'll have to look into this.

Loved this deep dive. Thank you. And good to know the system and cardridges are pretty affordable. I might get one for Deamon front, I always wanted to try that title.

Even though I have not frequently played any video game since the 1980s (more than 1 joystick/1 button is too much like schoolwork), these videos are fascinating. They're like alien archaeology. The effort that's been required to plook imaginary adversaries for the last few decades is very impressive. I regard them with bemused observance!

These types of videos are great! Keep them coming!

What an interesting video! Going in I thought it would be about the Neo Geo Hyper 64 and was pleasantly surprised

The Cave outuput on this board was legendary.Back in the day when i was into shmups I remember being let down when ketsui wasn't converted on ps2 as the other cave games were, despite being the most requested port. I read that there was a problem replicating a sort of reverse scrolling in one of the levels of the game on ps2, and so for their strict arcade perfect policy they decided to not porti it to ps2.

These are the best type of mvg videos. Great job!!

Very good and thorough video, nice job!

That was a brilliant video MVG, really enjoyed it. Gonna check this out as I'd never even heard of it before now.

Thank you for the blessed tribute!

This is obscure as hell and I love it!

Excellent video, niche topic but really appreciate seeing this. I'm picking up a PGM to play some Cave games and it's cool to dive into the history of how this ended up one of the only affordable ways to play these games on the original (albeit bootleg) hardware.

the vibes on your editing are really something unique! you really care about the music in it and it shows! another great video!

Awesome video, got my sub. Keep 'em coming, please!

Huh.. never knew about the ARM portion of the system/games. That could make for an interesting hybrid core on MiSTer both utilizing the FPGA and built-in ARM processor. Hopefully we see it one day!

The video that was missing on the PGM, thank you.

Oh wow! Nice find never heard of this one before

@17:22 whoa i had no idea KoF98 had a new edition devoloped on new h/w - gonna have to check this out! it never ceases to amaze me how little of the arcade library ive actually dabbled in despite scanning the entire library multiple times so thank you!

You forgot to mention Ketsui got released on the PS4 courtesy of M2 part of the Shot Triggers line. Not to mention, Dodonpachi Daioujou is getting released on PS4/Switch as part of Shot Triggers but no release date on that yet since the recent presentation focused on Zero Wing and Hellfire and I hope the next M2STG presentation focused on Daioujou and I’ll definitely pre-order it once it’s announced (hopefully before Christmas but that’s just me).

fascinating stuff, thanks for this video

That's pretty cool. I had the pleasure of playing with a home NeoGeo thanks to a close friend growing up. It was a different time being able to be consumed with a video console for an entire afternoon. Looking at the PGM shown here was pretty neat!

Super fun video such obscure hardware

MVG your content is gold!

Wow - cracking video!

Love this kind of videos mvg

Thanks for the timely vid! IGS collection on switch is viable when played on a 4:3 monitor. Of course, audio issues remain.

what a coincidence, I just learned about Martial Masters yesterday. Nice to learn about the hardware behind it!

Interesting stuff, thanks!

Loved this episode!

It's a shame that the Switch bundle isn't great (it basically had the same sound problems that the emulation of PGM games have on Mame), because honestly, IGS made a lot of great games for the PGM, and they also "saved" Cave with the success of Dodonpachi II: Bee Storm, so they have a lot of points in my book.

Amazing video, thanks!

Love this episode

Oh, I didn't know the IGS collection was actually available in the west! A shame if the conversions are less than stellar though, despite the language switch-trick. Though I would like to know if the Gladiators still support 4 - player multiplayer, whether couch co-op or online only?

Looks awesome

awesome video about awesome hardware that had awesome games on it! a little sad to hear that the IGS collection is kinda messy, i was really looking forward to grabbing it. hopefully they push out some patches that improve the experience and add more user options.

Great timing with the IGS Arcade Collection now out

I'm a big fan of the Dragon Worlds and Photo Y2k games. Especially photo y2k, a genre usually done on touch screen, but that prevents all the 2-player competitive aspects that the PGM games really played up.

RAD!!! I hope that IGS collection comes to other consoles and PC. Hopefully they fix the issues you brought up. It would be so cool to own these games but in the proper state to enjoy them.

I went all out on this consolized arcade machine a couple years ago. Spent like $700 on Spectral V Generation, had Demon Front, Martial Masters (maybe the most underrated fighting game ever made), Knights of Valour, etc. Even had an acrylic etched IGS panel on top to make it feel more like a console. Played the crap out of that thing. Some great games

LOVE YOUR CONTENT!! 👍👍🙌💯♥️

So awesome to see shmup content on this channel!

Miss this kinda content😮

Being Taiwanese, I'm sad that I missed out on this. These look like great games.

You've inspired me to give Gladiator a try sometime.

ouuu I want to play the Gladiator, I never knew it existed. Thanks for this video. I Must play it!

OMG I knew I had played a Metal Slug clone with gnomes somewhere, for years I was starting to think it was all a dream XD

Nice info thanks! I've considered buying Neo Geo and PGM hardware but there's not quite enough games I really want to play to justify, so the MiSTer is the perfect substitute, I really hope there's an IGS PGM MiSter core one day!

Learned something new!

Nice episode! Kind of surprised there are still things in gaming I hadn't been familiar with 😅

Excellent job, I never watch stuff like this but you held my interest!

Love your channel and videos. Just wish I was smart enough to know what you are talking about most the time.

15:52 IGS classic arcade collection Thank you MVG

They sure got their money's worth out of ARM7. I had no idea it was that old. I only last year got a device that was ARM8, so that's quite the lifespan. For that matter, the hardware was serious overkill for the time, even at only 20mhz.

Keep an eye on that barrel battery on your arcade PCB. I've seen those take out a lot of computers by quietly spilling their guts.

Hello There is a modern day equivalent to the Neo Geo call the Exxa Arcadia. It a custom PC with a 4 slot cartridge. The carts are basically M.2 SSD's. But the Arcadia is very cool in a age where arcades have largely left module design. There a lot of really cool games. Like Blazing Chrome with arcade only levels and characters

3:18 damn this is hitting different

I'm so thankful for Emulation. My eyes watered while playing Neo geo games that I couldn't be able to afford back then. Thw 2d sprites are just so good especially with the right shaders and filters.

Great video. A lot of the technical stuff goes over my head, but I love learning about obscure video game hardware that I, personally, never heard of. Keep up the great work, MVG 👍🏾

I'm a developer, but not the right kind to have any idea what you're talking about when you get technical. Thanks for fantastic videos. I was pretty young in the 90's, so I just barely remember this stuff but never even saw most of it. Altogether fascinating. Thank you.

neat hardware and cool games

Interesting, never heard of this before.

Awesome video, I've been fascinated by this system since I first played Demon Front, Thanks for the background on this hardware; interesting stuff!

I'm rather curious now, you've done quite a few videos on arcade boards and how they're protected and cracked in particular, have you considered doing an overview of how these boards are actually set up in cabinets?

I was impressed my Martial Masters when I played it on MAME, but I didn't know it was part of a bigger platform.

I lived in Shanghai in 2003-2007, it had a lot of PGM machines there, overall great system with awesome games, i spent a lot of coins on this beatemup about Three Kingdoms era.

Very cool.

Super 👍

I was worried this video was going to upset the PGM hardware prices but seems like most people are emulating. Lucky :)

Those games look fun as hell

Wow, interesting hardware.

I loved this video. I had never heard of this platform, it has some truly stunning games. Thank you for this.