Very cool site. I have been a fan of Sega Arcade for quite some time. It is nice to see so much info at one spot. My questions is about the Sega Naomi board which is arguably the most successful Sega Arcade experience thus far. I have heard that its successor(Naomi 2) is already done before it started with only about 4 games to its credit before its demise, similar to the Hikaru board. I was looking around the internet when I found this article from a couple of years ago about the Naomi. I have always been the most facinated about the Naomi with its ability to link boards together and continually make the games more powerful--this is what separated it from all the other arcade boards ever--which you mentioned in your explaination of the Naomi board. If you read the article: http://www.segaweb.com/Features/naomi.html, which is titled Sega's best move in years--it is difficult to realize why this never materialized because as even the author of the article states, it made so much sense and kept the arcade dominance over console a reality, instead of all arcade hardware now going to console based systems. And with Naomi 2 already out of the game, it seems Sega missed a great opportunity with the linking option with the Naomi--you can find Naomi boards already rather cheap(under $500) and 4-6 Naomi boards would not have been unbelievable expensive for operators given they would cost the same as the Naomi 2 and would have been more powerful. I see that Sega seems to plan to continue to support the Naomi with its mobile phone deal,etc. so why is the linking of boards option not being looked at. Just curious, wondering if your insight into Sega or your expertise would clarify this for me as I am disappointed that this never materialized.
Thanks for your info.