# Arcade1up Tatsunoko vs. Capcom MOD with Rare Arcade Board - Nintendo Wii **Source:** RetroRalph **Type:** video **Published:** 2019-05-31 **Duration:** 10m 7s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68SZF1vQojk --- ## Analysis RetroRalph showcases a custom Arcade1Up cabinet conversion featuring Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, a rare Japanese-only arcade fighting game, running on original Wii-based arcade hardware. The build includes a 19-inch monitor upgrade, functional coin door, custom artwork, and JBL speakers, with verification that the game exists in only a handful of North American locations (primarily candy cabs). ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Tatsunoko vs. Capcom was never officially released in US arcades, only as Japanese imports in candy cabs — _RetroRalph explaining game rarity and distribution model_ - [MEDIUM] Only nine known locations in North America have Tatsunoko vs. Capcom arcade machines — _RetroRalph referencing a website documenting machine locations; acknowledges uncertainty about accuracy_ - [MEDIUM] Galloping Ghost in Chicago/Illinois is one of the few places with a dedicated Tatsunoko vs. Capcom cabinet — _RetroRalph speculating about other cabinet builds; verification visit confirmed GameWorks in Schaumburg has two units in candy cabs_ - [HIGH] The Wii hardware conversion includes original Japanese arcade PCB with rare Tatsunoko vs. Capcom board — _RetroRalph detailing internal hardware; describes John Papaduke Wii-based arcade PCB as 'super cool and very rare'_ - [HIGH] The cabinet uses a functional coin door that works with both coin input and button credits — _RetroRalph demonstrating coin door operation and explaining dual-input credit system_ ### Notable Quotes > "This game was actually not released in the United States it was in several arcades however but those were Japanese imports and they were often put in candy cabs" > — **RetroRalph**, early segment > _Establishes rarity and import-only nature of arcade release_ > "I've done every versus game on the planet. It better not be a versus game." > — **RetroRalph (Jon)**, intro sequence > _Comedic bit setting up the reveal; demonstrates playful reluctance_ > "So kind of neat I think that there aren't that many of these cabinets around and I happen to have one and it's based on an Arcade1Up which is really freaking cool" > — **RetroRalph**, cabinet introduction > _Highlights rarity and significance of the conversion project_ > "It's a Wii based arcade printed circuit board that actually has the Tatsunoko versus Capcom Japanese release only super cool and very rare and really hard to find" > — **RetroRalph**, hardware deep-dive > _Technical description emphasizing rarity of the actual arcade PCB_ > "He found two Tatsunoko vs. Capcom systems in Candy Cabs as I suspected" > — **RetroRalph**, verification segment > _Confirms theory about candy cab distribution model; validates rarity claims_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Tatsunoko vs. Capcom | game | Rare Japanese-only arcade fighting game; Capcom vs. TatsunokoCrew license crossover; released on Nintendo Wii in US but arcade version Japan-import only | | Arcade1Up | company | Home arcade cabinet manufacturer; cabinet chassis used as base for this Wii PCB conversion project | | RetroRalph | person | YouTube content creator and arcade cabinet builder/modifier; builds and showcases custom arcade conversions | | George Georgopoulos | person | Friend of RetroRalph based in Chicago; identified the game and verified arcade locations; appears briefly in verification segment | | Galloping Ghost | venue | Arcade location mentioned as potentially having a dedicated Tatsunoko vs. Capcom cabinet | | GameWorks Schaumburg | venue | Arcade/entertainment venue in Schaumburg, Illinois; confirmed to have two Tatsunoko vs. Capcom units in candy cabs | | Tyler | person | Contributed cabinet side graphics artwork for the build | | Game On Graphics | company | Provided cabinet side graphics artwork; collaborated with Tyler on design | | Arcade Graphics | company | Provided cabinet side graphics artwork; collaborated on final design mash-up | | Matt Scott Evans | person | Created lit marquee artwork for the cabinet build | | John Papaduke | person | Supplier/creator of Wii-based arcade PCB conversion hardware and breakout board; appears to be the technical architect of the arcade board solution | | DIY Retro Arcades | company | Supplied back panel components including switch for lit marquee control | | Nintendo Wii | product | Console platform; official Tatsunoko vs. Capcom US release available on Wii; PCB-level version used as arcade conversion base | ### Topics - **Primary:** Arcade cabinet modding and customization, Rare arcade game availability and distribution, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom arcade game rarity and import status, Arcade1Up conversion and hardware upgrades - **Secondary:** Wii-based arcade PCB hardware technology, Arcade location hunting and verification - **Mentioned:** Fighting game mechanics and gameplay ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.92) — RetroRalph expresses enthusiasm throughout the build, hardware implementation, and gameplay. Impressed with component quality, rarity of the conversion, and game mechanics. Minimal criticism; presentation focuses on achievement and excitement. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** YouTube content creation around rare arcade hardware conversions generates audience interest and preservation activity (confidence: high) — RetroRalph builds and documents conversions; audience engagement indicated through calls for comments and shares; collector community participation in verification - **[market_signal]** Extreme rarity of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom arcade availability in North America drives collector interest and custom builds (confidence: medium) — Only nine known locations across North America; verification found machines only in candy cabs; scarcity motivates custom cabinet construction - **[product_strategy]** Arcade1Up cabinet successfully adapted as platform for original arcade hardware rather than emulation (confidence: high) — Cabinet uses genuine Wii arcade PCB with John Papaduke conversion hardware; VGA monitor upgrade and custom control harness enable full arcade experience - **[technology_signal]** Wii-based arcade PCB conversion represents novel approach to preserving rare Japanese arcade hardware in dedicated cabinet form (confidence: high) — RetroRalph describes 'Wii based arcade printed circuit board' as 'super cool and very rare' technical implementation; breakout board mimics Naomi IO board design --- ## Transcript Alright everybody, Ryu is here. Quiet on the set. Ah, Jesus. Another day, another day. Hey guys. How's it going? Hey Ryu, how's it going bro? Thanks for coming down man. So, alright guys, what game are we gonna do today? I mean, seriously, I feel like I've done it all. Alright. Ryu, Ryu. Alright, lay it on me. Tell me what it is. Lay it on me. I'll listen Okay Ryu I'll listen This is gonna be super hot It's a really popular game Everyone's super into it right now Trust me Trust me Ryu So I'm just supposed to trust you This is some super hot Cool thing that everyone's into Right now Trust me This is the hot trend right now What's doing wrong bud This is gonna totally kill it With the young gamers They're gonna be all over it man It's gonna be super hot bro Alright fine I'll do it I'll do it Okay Alright I'll do it Alright everybody I've done every versus game on the planet. It better not be a versus game. All right, everybody. Back to positions. And cue opponent. Oh, come on. Seriously? Toasty. Toasty. all right guys what could it be what could it be let's scroll up and see so i'm super excited about this this cabinet is Tatsunoko versus Capcom so this is super cool there's a really interesting history around this game that you may or may not know about so this game was actually not released in the United States it was in several arcades however but those were Japanese imports and they were often put in candy cabs so this is somewhat of a first although the only other place that I think has built a cabinet based on this board is Galloping Ghost in Chicago or Illinois wherever the heck it is so kind of neat to think that there aren't that many of these cabinets around and I happen to have one and it's based on an arcade one-up which is really freaking cool so I will say this game was released on the Nintendo Wii that is an American release but in the arcades it it was candy cabs only and it was Japanese imports So you notice on the actual game all most of the language is in Japanese so super cool Here the graphics on the side Game on Graphics did the graphics as well as Tyler over at Arcade Graphics so I actually mashed up both their designs and put them together. The lit marquee is again by Scott Evans. Thing looks really nice. I did upgrade this with a 19 inch monitor. Just it's fighting game needs a 19 inch monitor, but the artwork is great. I'm really impressed with both Tyler and at Arcade Graphics and the guys over at Game On Graphics. So super great job. And I'm just loving the way that this thing turned. All right, let's go around the back of the cab. And you'll notice I have two five and a quarter inch JBL speakers there and a switch. And that switch is to turn on and off the lit marquee. So that's a DIY retro arcades back panel. And it does come with the switch option. All right, let's keep moving on. guys so right back here you have a 19 inch monitor I did mod the monitor and that is the stock mount I just cut it so that I could fit the 19 inch monitor in it I'll have links in the description of what that monitor is and where to get it it is a little expensive but it produces a really nice image and it is connected via VGA it has a built-in controller board so you don't have to go get a separate controller board I tried real hard to get all the wires looking nice let's ignore that for now and focus on the star of the show that system in the middle is pretty killer it is a Wii based arcade printed circuit board that actually has the Tatsunoko versus Capcom Japanese release only super cool and very rare and really hard to find so kind of neat now this breakout board that connects via USB to the Wii based PCB is actually looks very similar to a Naomi external controller board or an IO board and it has your jam and harness that connects there I used the press your buttons harness all in English pretty sweet easy to read easy to connect there's a USB connects right into that we base board that you saw in the middle so what else we got here so there's RCA cables it goes straight from that printed circuit board right into an amp I upgraded the amp a little bit I put it behind the coin door so I could easily open up the coin door and manipulate the sound so pretty cool pretty simple and easy to do I like that as a modification it's just easy you You have your Wii power supply that powers the Wii. You still do need an arcade power supply, however, and that in the back over there on the right hand side So you gonna still need that in order to make this work And then you can see the back side of the coin door that is wired and working which is pretty awesome and i going to show that in deeper detail in a little bit here all right so let's take a closer look at the coin door so it is a functional coin door i have a quarter right in here if i put this in you will hear the credit sound as a credit is entered into the system so it uh it's fully functional fully working for player one and player two however I still have it wired to the buttons on top of the control panel too so you can you can actually put in credits either by the coins or by the buttons this little this little buddy right here is actually coin collector I put that there because it makes an awesome sound sounds just like you'd expect an arcade you know to sound when you put in a quarter and that is actually the printed circuit board casing from the arcade one up so it's a nice way to recycle something and use it and And it sounds pretty sweet. So kind of cool. So before we dive into gameplay, I came across this website that actually tells you where you can find Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and play it. And it was kind of interesting. So I don't know how accurate this site is. But it actually only showed nine locations. One of which was GameWorks in Schaumburg. So I have a buddy that actually lives out in Illinois. So I decided to send him on a little trip to see could he find This game and see if it's in the arcade and see if my theory is right that these are typically in candy cabs So let's go see what he's up to. I'm here in Schaumburg At the game works. Let's go inside and check out see if They hit Capcom vs. Tatsunoko Alright, my boy George totally came through He found two Tatsunoko vs. Capcom systems in Candy Cabs as I suspected Alright, it is about that time Let's do some gameplay and see how this thing performs Hey, this is George Georgopoulos And you're gaming with Retro Ralph Alright, so let's dive right into this thing So this game's got some crazy features to it. The special moves are, like, over the top. It's super cool. I'm still learning this game. I had never played it before. I printed out some of the moves, and I'm still trying to go through it to try to figure out how to play it. But it is super fun, and it looks awesome. So I'm, like, a big fan. I'm glad that George tipped me off to this game. I knew it existed. I just never had played it But it super fun and really addicting So it seems like the combo systems and everything are highly simplified from you know the fighting games like modern day Mortal Kombat 11 and things like that. So I think I'll catch on to it in no time, but it's super fun game, man. I can't tell you enough how, I don't know, like how much fun I have, even though I'm not really great at it yet. So I'm going to practice and I, but I just, it makes me really happy. Like look how extreme everything is. I love it. It's way over the top and super fun to play. All right, so here's a little bit more gameplay before we wrap things up. I'm so impressed with this custom hardware, this like Wii-based hardware. It's really neat. It runs really, really good and smooth, and the game just is killer. You know, some people might say, why did you build a dedicated cab for this? You know, it was honestly my buddy George that wanted this cabinet, and you know, he lives in Chicago so it's kind of hard for me I'm not going to deliver it to him so but now it's now I get to enjoy the game but he tipped me off on the game it's a really cool fighting game I think I'm going to really enjoy this I mean I've already played it a ton and I'm not even really that good at it so I can't wait to really you know sharpen my skills on it and I'm actually really excited that I have a dedicated cabinet for it so it's going to be fun and I think it's something that I can get my kids into as well so uh so that's a win-win but I'm going to do some final thoughts in a second. I just want to show you one other thing that it came with that I thought was pretty cool. And then we'll wrap things up. All right. So when I told you I was really lucky to have found this board, this is why it came with this awesome poster. It came with all the original sticker, sticker artwork that you put on the candy cabinet to show the moves list and things like that. And even came with the original manual. So I'm super stoked on this. It's all in Japanese, of course, but still, it's just really cool to have this as a collector. I'm pretty stoked on it. So guys, that's it for me i loved this mod it was really neat so in the comments let me know what you think like subscribe and you know don't forget to hit the notification bell but i'm really curious what you thought of this mod this game have you played it before if you haven't you know you should definitely check it out on the nintendo wii if you have one or or uh if you have access to it so anyhow guys that's it for me uh thanks for watching guys and we will see you on the next one Outro Music _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 2852dec3-4d6c-481f-a4b8-25bf28ce3dc1*