Is This The Ultimate FPGA Arcade System? - Multisystem 2 Arcade Is Now Available

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Hello. Multi-system 2 arcade from our good friends Hea here is now available to order. Hit us with the facts then, Richard. Okay, this is everything you need to know. We've got the Multi System 2 Arcade launching on May the 6th at 2 p.m. UK time. It's an open pre-order. Uh no limited batch size and no order cutoff date. We've got all of the raw components for the first batch. Uh we just need to buy the bare PCBs and manufacture them. So, we intend to start shipping in early August or before if we can, but we're aiming for early August.

[00:00:35]The sales price for the Multi System 2 Arcade is $215 excluding VAT, that's $290, $247 excluding tax, tariffs, and shipment costs. Um, and if you also are an operator or someone who wants to buy more than two, maybe save five, we've got a special deal on a five-pack multi system 2 arcades uh for $999.99, which gives you a decent saving. Uh, all of the units come in a 3D printed quick fit enclosure with guide rails. They come with it as well and your little audio knob. So, as seen here, this is how you'll get your mod system to arcade. Just tell us Richard at the very high level what is the ethos behind multi system 2 arcade? Why why did you feel it had to exist?

[00:01:24]>> Because FPJ technology is great for emulating arcade machines. It's accurate. It can be um very good for input latency and uh for emulating some of those really difficult to uh get hold of chips.

[00:01:38]>> Uh but mainly because there wasn't anyone doing it as an all-in-one and sort of properly really. It was all a bit of a cobbled together thing with boards on boards and extra add-ons and things like that. And if you wanted to do it yourself, it gets quite complicated because you need amplifiers and you didn't input devices and you can buy lots of modules separately, but then it all gets a bit complicated. So, we wanted to do a not necessarily one sizefits-all, but certainly could cover a wide range of arcades. It's not just jammer. That's why we've called it system to arcade because it can cover a wide range of arcades. But really, I wanted it to exist in the world. So, that's why we did it. Definitely. Let's get into the facts. That's what we're here for today.

[00:02:15]>> Do you want to just give us a quick tour of what it is because it has changed slightly since the preview version which we showed some months ago. There's some different connectors and things on there. So, just take us through each bit of >> the multi system 2 arcade.

[00:02:29]>> That's right.

[00:02:29]>> Which you can use on Jammer, but it's called Arcade.

[00:02:32]So, we've now got it in a snap fit quick fit enclosure, which you can just pop the top off really easily without any screws or fittings. And the board itself just snap snap fits into the bottom.

[00:02:44]>> The case does have four corner screws, so you can just screw it straight into the side of your cabinet.

[00:02:50]You can just snap it snap the cover back on, get all the access to the connectors. It's also got these side rails, which is really nice. So you can screw in side rails into your machine, your your jammer cabinet or your um anything else, your cocktails, and then slide this in lining up with your your jammer connector. So that's the enclosure thing. Very simple, very functional. Uh but fairly neat. Uh we've got a control knob on there for the sound. So you can go all the way off up to very loud. It really is. Um and uh that's sort of that's sort of the outer looking um aspect of the design. On the inside we have the core FPGA, SD RAM and LPDDR RAM. And that's again a full fat mister.

[00:03:31]We could have cut that down because a lot of arcade cores don't need very much. They actually need 32 megabytes.

[00:03:37]But we specifically wanted to make it no limits. You know, we've not tried, we not made any compromises. We want to make this no limits because who knows what arcade cores and things will come out >> quite nicely with uh some announcements recently around the CPS3 cores being developed. So, um, some of those games are now coming on stream for the Mister so that you're not going to be hobbled by a smaller FPGA on this. Okay, >> that's right. Um, and we've got stereo sound cuz Jammer itself is normally mono. That's that's quite standard for most Jammer cabinets, but a lot of cabinets um do have stereo. So, you can take your speakers directly off here.

[00:04:11]This is a 10 watt class, the amplifier, and you can take your speakers directly off to go to the cabinet, which we've done in the Road Blasters cab. And uh yeah, that's quite a nice way to do that. You've got line out if you want to have your own audio amplification.

[00:04:24]You've got your SD card as usual. You've got four uh USB ports, and there's another two headers on the board, which you can solder in if you want to add even more, but we think four's good enough for most purposes. You've got your VGA, which is really CGA for arcade frequencies, but it can go all the way up to the same things as Mister does with its VGA outputs. You can have all the same outputs um for CRTs and other things as well >> because some of the later arcades did start to use 31 GHz.

[00:04:53]>> That's right.

[00:04:54]>> VGA monitors essentially, didn't they?

[00:04:56]So, >> you can you can do all of the low res, medium res, and high res all the way through that. The native outputs will come out unless you enable the scaler and then you can get up to really high resolutions as well. So, yeah, uh we've got a built-in control doc arcade and that's quite significant, quite important. We spent quite a lot of time doing that. It will be spun off as a separate little board as well. So, we will have a separate control do arcade that you can plug in. But, of course, this is all built into here, which we can do lots of player inputs. We've got all the way up to nine player input buttons. So, we got the up, down, left, right, and all the >> nine buttons per player.

[00:05:29]>> Per player. Yeah. So, we've got the kick harness and the extra expansions. We've got analog inputs for things like throttles, steering wheels, um track balls. Well, track balls are separately.

[00:05:40]Okay, so we've got the analog controls, and we've also got the track ball controls. Uh, and a little deal switches just to set what functionality you need.

[00:05:48]There's it's got a quite quite a lot of options. You can use track balls with joystick buttons. You can use joystick buttons with uh track ball buttons and all sorts of things. So, there's there's a good combination of a mix in there.

[00:05:57]We've got the jammer connector.

[00:05:58]>> Just before you move on, that is the inputs are controlled through the the control dock, which is baked on board.

[00:06:04]That's also available as a separate product, >> but on the separate product, that's flashable. you can release firmware updates to update that. Is that still the case on here?

[00:06:13]>> Yes. Yes. Yeah, we'll be able to update the firmware on here as well because we do see it evolving over time, but we spent quite some time making sure it's compatible with all of our modular arcs that we've got now and in the future as well as uh anything you might want to do really. So there you can configure certain things. There's even sensitivity on the track on the um uh track ball inputs. So you can have high or low sensitivity. So, we've tried to think of as many things as possible for this initial release, but yes, you will be able to update that as well.

[00:06:40]>> And while we're on controls, also it's printed on the 3D printed case here, CPS1. So, that's a CPS1 kick harness.

[00:06:47]There was someone asking on um Discord the other day about CPS2 and things like that. How would you connect that up?

[00:06:54]>> Yeah, the only difference between a CPS1 and a CPS2 is a CPS2 has got a big 34-way box connector and hardly any of the pins are used. that it's exactly the same pin connections, >> right?

[00:07:06]>> But there's just a bigger connector. So, we didn't want to put a massive CPS2 connector on because to be honest, a lot of the vintage arcade machines are CPS1.

[00:07:14]There's a lot of them. There's less CPS2 and there's even less CPS3. Um, we could wire them up with the amount of pins we've got, the amount of IO we've got, you can wire up all of those cores, right? So, it really just depends on Yeah, you might have a little adapter if you've got one in your dedicated CPS2.

[00:07:30]you'll have to go from CPS2 to CPS1.

[00:07:32]They exist. They're very, very common.

[00:07:35]>> Or expansion boards, which we'll come to later. Yeah.

[00:07:38]>> So, we've tried to cover as many as we can, but we wanted to put CPS1 on there because it is the most common connector that you just >> push straight on.

[00:07:45]>> Um, so yeah, that's that's our sort of IO. We got a few little trimmers.

[00:07:49]There's a a sync trimmer just in case you get a funny arcade monitor that needs a little bit of trimming on the sink. Um, and a few other bits. can have some fans if you need to just in case your machine is incredibly illventilated and you want to actually try and um ventilate the the cabinet, but you don't need any cooling, any force cooling. Does come with a little heat sink on there as well.

[00:08:11]>> Yeah, that's about it from functionality point of view. We've got the amplifier, we've got all the other bits and bobs on there. Um, the expansion connector was something you all gave us feedback on back in way back in November when we first showed the prototype and said, "What else would you like to see?" And a people said, "Well, we need the snack connections. We need to be able to use light guns and we need other expansion to do who knows what." So, >> and is this made possible in part by the way that Heb's multi system broke out those extra extra IO that isn't on a standard mister? Okay.

[00:08:44]>> Yeah. So, we've got extra IO on here as well as all the IO we were using um for all of the functionality. Otherwise, we would have had to we couldn't have ditched things like the analog because you need that for running arcade machines. So, you couldn't get any IO anywhere else. We had to use that extra IO. So, we've got that there available.

[00:09:00]And um yeah, we we intend to produce some extra little add-on boards.

[00:09:04]>> So, on the case there's a little lid that pops up and then you put an add-on board in there.

[00:09:08]>> Yeah.

[00:09:09]>> Uh have you got anything in mind for an add-on board? Well, I think some of the some of the generations of hardware, so say like Atari system one has a certain set of connectors on and it would be quite nice to be able to say if you buy this add-on, you can plug in your connector as well.

[00:09:22]>> Put this in gauntlet and you can put your full controllers straight into those connectors.

[00:09:27]>> So, that would be quite nice. And then there might be some other ones where we need dedicated steering inputs on the snack connections uh because you maybe you're using um the optical connections for spinners or other things and you might want to have also a steering wheel um force feedback. Would that be possible?

[00:09:43]>> Yes. Oh, absolutely. So, would that be an add-on for feedback? That would that would almost definitely be an add-on because you have drivers that you would put on there for things like lamps for Chase HQ that we might want to flash or uh a rumble motor or even things like um uh uh the solenoid that's in what's the >> point blank kicks. No, I was thinking of um cuberts.

[00:10:07]So the song you really wanted to get authentic and drive that song >> that that kicks every time you fall off >> 20 years ahead of you there.

[00:10:24]>> It's fine. But but yes, that that's exactly what that little expansion connector is for. And we really want to support the arcade community and do things like that. But we we we need to know what people want.

[00:10:34]>> Yeah. and his development in part is also built around the arcade archive and our own requirements to keep this is why we're sat amongst a bunch of arcades that are currently not working or in different states of repair >> because this is going to be a key part to um keeping them working while we're repairing them. Some of them, I dare say, will have these in forever just because they're so troublesome and we want people to be able to play them and and this is about preserving the experience of being able to play them through putting them in original cabinets and letting you use the original controls and monitor and everything like that. So, >> it is going to really help um our arcade museum.

[00:11:11]>> Yeah. And even the fact we've got these extra little pins that are all the jammer pins, but you can solder in headers and have connectors coming off.

[00:11:18]So we may end up having for our own uses little adapter boards that that sit there. So this can be sat in a machine with the real board running and then if there's a problem, we can just switch it over straight to here and go right, we can just keep that running and then fix the board and while that's while that's being fixed, we can know that's running.

[00:11:34]So that's why it's sort of hackable and customizable. You can you don't have to use that jammer connector. There's other other connectors you can use on there if you want to make dedicated um singleuse systems and things like that. So, you mentioned the cost in your just the facts bit at the start.

[00:11:50]>> Uh, and there is a short pre-order window. There is.

[00:11:53]>> Tell us why that's happening.

[00:11:55]>> Yeah. So, we've opened an art about doing just a batch and selling it. And we know people don't necessarily like that because you have to guess what size batch it is. Recently, we just did a batch of the Game Boy cartridges adapters and we sold out instantly because we got it wrong. People want people wanted more than we thought.

[00:12:13]>> And then people are frustrated because it's not in stock. So, it's not in stock. So, really, we didn't want that to happen. But also, we're in a tricky situation where we've bought all the components, we haven't bought the bare PCBs, and we haven't manufactured them.

[00:12:26]So, we are ready to go, which is why it's going to be a short pre-order.

[00:12:30]>> Right. How how short?

[00:12:31]>> Well, hang on.

[00:12:33]We're we're in that point where we need to guess how many we're going to make.

[00:12:39]And to do that, we need to give it a price point. So I can tell you now the price point that we've got to will not get any cheaper because we've made a sort of a bold decision that we're going to make a lot of them and for that to come true and to hold that price we have to get the orders. So that's why we've got the five pack available as well with a really crunchy discount. Um and hopefully people will see that and want to buy. But if you're an early adopter and you take um the pre-order option, um you may get a real bargain because I don't think we'll be able to make it that cheap unless we hit those targets of the of the volumes.

[00:13:16]>> So, I was thinking about the five pack for arcade operators, but maybe if you've got you want to do a group buy with some mates.

[00:13:21]>> Yeah, if you Exactly. If you if you want to buy two and you know someone else might wants to buy two, then a five pack's not not the end of not not too far away. Okay.

[00:13:29]>> Um so, yeah, that was the main reason.

[00:13:31]So, we really had to take a bit of a gamble on what we think we're going to sell, what the price point's going to be, because we've tried to keep it as absolutely low as possible. It's it's, you know, it's5 less than a multi system 2 at the moment. So, you know, so it it's a good good price point.

[00:13:45]>> I don't want to come across as like, wow, Richard, that's an amazing price cuz it looks like I'm trying to give it the big sale. But that it's impressive that, you know.

[00:13:54]>> Yeah, considering we that feels like a good price.

[00:13:56]>> It is the audio amplifier, all the control doc stuff, everything else.

[00:13:59]We've not cut any corners. So, I I'm really hoping people will see that and see the value we put into it. Um, you know, you can cobble together your own way of doing these things, but we've tried to make it so you just you shouldn't have to. You just It should be a good drop in drop in board and be able to use for all sorts of things. So, >> yeah. Yeah. So, if I order one now, when can I expect to receive it?

[00:14:21]>> Well, we're aiming for early August. So, from from May the 6th, the pre-orders are going to be placed and we'll immediately start buying all the bare boards and manufacturing. Um, so we're trying to ship in early August. We'll even do it sooner than that if we can, but we're putting on the website early August.

[00:14:38]>> This is the the advantage of having bought up all the components in advance.

[00:14:42]So, you're not going to get any delays with component availability. It's just >> placing them on the boards.

[00:14:46]>> That's right. Some of those components are 16 20 weeks. So, we wouldn't be able to do that if we hadn't. We're just waiting for the bare boards to be manufactured and assembled.

[00:14:54]>> Okay. Um, available internationally.

[00:14:58]>> Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we've uh we've added some more regions as well. That's one thing that's quite quite interesting about designing an arcade board is when you come to EMC testing it, of course, you have to make it representative of an arcade, which means you have to connect every single cable and you have to run them off to a meter and a half or 2 meters long cables, which means you just end up with lots of aerials everywhere, which is a radiating emissions. So, it's actually really difficult. It's harder to get this approved than it was system 2. Wow. Okay. Um, so if anyone's trying to think of doing arcade PCBs to sell, not just for yourself, um, it's quite tricky. So, yeah, that was >> when you think about some of these old arcades we open up and they're just sort of encased in these cages within the cabinets.

[00:15:42]>> That's why. Yeah.

[00:15:43]>> Yeah. Um, and yeah, with all the video signals and everything else, it it's quite a tricky thing to do. So, so yes, we we had to we had to work quite carefully to to get the design laid out to be able to get the approvals for international sale and also be able to, you know, ship it out to people.

[00:15:59]>> Something you haven't mentioned is um one of the benefits of the multi system is the um the Zapperoo project and the NFC. And of course, we set up the the Neo Geo, didn't we? Which has got one of these in in the arcade. Uh and we've got this little display stand next to it with NFC cards with all the Neo Geo games. And then visitors love this. They pick up a card, tap it on the front of the arcade control panel, and the game launches. And then it's just as if you were playing any other Neo Geo system.

[00:16:27]>> Yeah. It makes such a difference to not have to turn the whole machine off, unplug the cartridge, plug it all in, wait for it all to boot up, and you can't really do that in a in a session.

[00:16:36]So having be able to change your game with the Zaparoo.

[00:16:39]>> And that's that's not exclusive to the Neo Geo Core. You can set up your uh your home arcade to have, you know, a nice little pack of collector's cards or >> you could put the NFC things in um shock boxes or or anything really, anything you want to to >> make it a more physical experience to change the game rather than jumping into menus. And >> that moment of losing the immersion of being of of sort of >> not, you know, of not being in a in a real arcade, if you like.

[00:17:08]>> Uh I think those things are really important. Yeah. Yeah. And you can do that with this.

[00:17:13]>> On that side of things as well, it's not just arcades. You could run the PlayStation core on this. You could run your CPC.

[00:17:18]>> You could run Chucky Egg on an Amstrad CPC.

[00:17:20]>> You could you you could have whatever cause you've got on Mister running on your arcade machine. It's, you know, if you want to play Sonic the Hedgehog on an arcade machine. There you go. You can do that now. So, >> well, you would do that on the uh the mega tech arcade. You could do that.

[00:17:34]>> You definitely could. Yeah. So, again, there's there's lots of possibilities.

[00:17:37]It's not just, you know, we we're focusing on the arcade um operator and the arcade enthusiast. So, we want to cover all of the all of the vintage stuff or all of the things that are tricky to get or tricky to keep going, but it can expand out if if you've only got one tabletop at home, you you want to be able to run as much as you as you as you like on it. And you might have just had a a simple system with sort of p Pandora in or something like that which has got a I know it's got a jammer connector. So take that out, put it to one side, never use it again.

[00:18:09]>> Stuffed bean elf to one side and put Pac-Man in.

[00:18:12]>> That's right.

[00:18:13]>> So So yeah, we're really hoping that people will um uh embrace the product and give us lots of feedback about what they would like to see on expansions and um and future upgrades. Yeah.

[00:18:24]>> Yeah. Yeah. Do you think they've got all the facts now?

[00:18:26]>> I I hope so. Yeah.

[00:18:28]>> Do you want to just reiterate then one last time the the the key things?

[00:18:32]>> Yeah, let's see. Reiterate. So >> where where do you go to get it? You go to shop.h.co.uk.

[00:18:37]>> How much?

[00:18:38]>> It is £215 excluding VAT.

[00:18:42]>> That's it. That's the That's the facts, isn't it? That's what you need to know.

[00:18:46]>> And it's on May the 6th at >> Oh, yeah. Which is today.

[00:18:49]>> Yeah. Which is today at 2 p.m. So, if you go today, you can place your pre-order, get in the queue. We always do open pre-orders. And we do um priority shipping for order number priority, which is really important. So, we don't skip people in the queue. If you've placed your order before someone else, you will get your order before someone else.

[00:19:08]>> Thank you, Richard. Um, if you are an arcade operator out there, um, especially, we'd love to hear your feedback as well. Is there a specific use case that we've missed that would need an expansion connector, uh, a machine that you think has got some interesting inputs that we should, um, experiment? Because, you know, we love an excuse to add a new machine to the arcade archive. So, tell us something out there that that we need to get to test this thing on. Um, and any any feedback from anyone else besides, do let us know. Uh, thank you for taking the time to watch, go and order your multi- system to arcade. And, uh, can't wait to see them out there and in use, um, and people sharing their pictures and videos of of the public, uh, and their friends enjoying this in arcade cabinets. Anything Anything else you want to say, Richard?

[00:19:54]>> No, that's it. Thank you ever so much.

[00:19:56]>> Take care. Bye-bye.

[00:19:57]>> Bye-bye.