Taito F3: History & Review

In 1978 arcade amusement manufacturer Taito released a game that would not only come to define their own work, but the work of the entire Japanese games industry. I’m of course talking about Space Invaders. This singular work by designer Tomohiro Nishikado upended what consumers had thought about video games up to this point and was wildly popular in game centers in Japan and eventually world-wide. The unprecedented popularity of Space Invaders spurred a race by other designers and publishers to overtake Taito’s powerhouse arcade hit by taking some of the tropes established in that game and implementing new and unique approaches to play.

Throughout the 1980’s the "SHMUP" (Shoot'em Up) genre (then known as STGs) saw massive innovation from other publishers like Sega, Namco, and Konami – but also by Taito themselves. Due to the popularity of Space Invaders and other SHMUPs like Namco’s Galaxian and Konami’s Scramble, SHMUPS became the dominant genre in arcades around the world through the 80’s.

Shoot'em Ups were not the only genre available in arcades, though. Numerous other generation defining works, like Taito’s own Bubble Bobble, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Mario franchises, and Sega with their amazing super-scaler technology, were just some of the awesome experiences arcade goers could interact with in the “golden age” of arcade games.

Unfortunately, by the end of the 1980’s the arcade industry began to see a downturn in sales due to the amazing console experiences that were being developed in the home space. Nigh-perfect arcade ports were also becoming more common at home at this time due to the increased processing power of home console hardware like NEC’s PC Engine and Sega’s Mega Drive.

Seeing the writing on the wall, the big names in arcade games like Capcom, Sega, SNK, and others began to devise their own solutions to flagging arcade game sales. Capcom, for example, had a surprise hit on their hands with the 1991 release of Street Fighter 2 on their three-year-old, 16-bit Capcom Play System (CPS) platform. Street Fighter 2 exploded in popularity much like Space Invaders did more than a decade prior and fighting games became the new genre that would oversaturate arcades over the course of the decade.

While Capcom’s success during this time was due to an accidental hit that almost single-handedly saved the arcade industry for another decade, other publishers put their money on developing new hardware platforms that varied greatly in what they brought to the table. SNK, for example, released the Motorola 68000 based Neo-Geo platform with cheap, interchangeable cartridges for arcade operators and an expensive home version of the hardware for consumers who wanted to play real arcade games at home. At the same time other publishers like Sega and Namco were hard at work on expensive, state-of-the-art 3D technology that pushed the boundaries of game development into uncharted territory. 

While many of Taito’s contemporaries were working on hardware kits that could produce full 3D visuals with solid frame rates, Taito continued to focus on tried-and-true 2D sprite-based hardware despite the industry moving in the other direction. Thus, in 1992, Taito unveiled the F3 arcade platform to eager audiences waiting for the next big thing in arcade technology. Using off-the-shelf parts that were almost a decade old at this point, Taito created a modestly powered 2D sprite crunching monster that allowed for richer graphical experiences than what was available from other modular hardware.

The Taito F3’s most recognizable feature are its bright red interchangeable cartridges, like SNK’s Neo-Geo or Capcom’s CPS2. While the majority of games on the F3 were released on cartridge eventually, the first batch of games developed for the platform between 1992 and 1993 were released on integrated PCBs that included the game ROMs and system hardware all-in-one. These all-in-one PCBs are quite rare these days and include some of the standout titles on the hardware like the vertical SHMUP RayForce that, much to the chagrin of modern collectors, never had an official cartridge release.

From 1992-1998 the F3 was home to 37 titles that spanned every genre you would typically find in the arcade: SHMUPS, fighting games, beat-em-ups, side-scrolling and single-screen platformers, puzzle games, and more! The F3 is arguably Taito’s most popular arcade platform and is a treasured collectible amongst arcade aficionados today.

When compared to some of its contemporaries like the upcoming Sega Model 1 and the Namco System board series which ran state-of-the-art 3D technology, the Taito F3 was comparatively modest. Using off the shelf parts and a 32-bit processor that was almost 8 years old at that point, the F3 could produce amazing 2D visuals and struck a good balance with value keeping manufacturing costs low and profits high. Despite its overall modest design, the F3 was still considerably more powerful than other 2D arcade platforms of the time.

There is little data available on the number of sprites that could be on screen at one time (lots), but a US arcade flyer from 1995 claims the F3 can produce 17 million colors. The gist here is that the F3 is a sprite monster that can produce huge, detailed sprites that can morph, scale, and even mimic polygonal 3D on the fly with its advanced rotational effects.

Thankfully, we’ve been able to glean more information about the low-level hardware capabilities of the F3 from rare developer interviews for games like RayForce and Darius Gaiden. For example, in a 2016 interview, the graphic designer for RayForce, Hideyuki Katou, stated (credit: shumplations.com):

“Those in the know are already aware of this, but the F3 system had weird scaling functions. You could only do enlargement/zooming on the entire screen layer, while shrinking was limited to objects and sprites.”

Similarly, in a 1994 interview with the development team behind Darius Gaiden, graphics designer Hisakazo Kato and programmer Naoto Omura commented on how the graphical effects seen in Zones K and O of the game were created:

“…(The F3) can do multiple layers of background scrolling while also applying parallax scrolling at the same time. The effect is created by the combination of those two techniques”

The Taito F3 was really a step above other 2D arcade hardware at the time and was a firm middle-ground between traditional 2D game design and the upcoming leap to full, polygonal 3D. It wasn’t until the Sega Saturn’s release in late 1994 that we would see sprite scaling of this level be achievable at home with many of the arcade ports from the Taito F3 being almost perfect conversions to Sega’s 32-bit home console.

Even today, the standout titles released on the F3 are bonified showstoppers that clearly demonstrate the ingenuity of the most talented Japanese game developers of the day. There really is no other hardware like the F3 and its games are a testament to the timeless nature of the platform.

Taito’s in-house development studios in the early 90’s were split into three groups based in three Japanese cities: Yokohama, Saitama, and Kumagaya. Each development team generally worked on specific genres, but there were times where a team would put together a strong design document to create a game that was outside of their realm of expertise. RayForce is a prime example of this occurrence for the team at Kumagaya. (Source: Shmuplations.com). This type of genre specialization meant that the games that came out of these teams were typically at the top of their class or included unique features that made Taito games standout in the crowded game centers.

Taito also took more risk with their games in the 90’s, creating a rich tapestry of new games (RayForce), strong sequels (Darius Gaiden), and new takes on old formulas (Elevator Action Returns). While the rest of the arcade industry was busy trying to create the next big fighting game, Taito only released a handful of fighting games during the decade and only one on the F3 - Kaiser Knuckle.

Despite a relatively small library of 37 games, those 37 games have a healthy amount of variety and some truly stand-out titles that are considered not only classics today but are also sublime examples of the genres they represent. Of the 37 games developed for the hardware, there are a number of titles that never made it out of the protype phase like the 2D platformer Recalhorn, the odd Qix variant called , and an updated version of Kaiser Knuckle called Dan Ku Ga.

The only real drawback to the game selection on the F3 is an abundance of puzzle games with 10 of the 37 unique titles being in that genre – and four of those games are in the Puzzle Bobble series! Despite being weighted heavy in the puzzle game department, these are some of the best puzzle games of the generation and include some highly praised but underrated puzzlers like the amazing Puchi Carat which is a genre blend between Puzzle Bobble and Arkanoid (Breakout).

If you are a SHMUP fan, though, do not overlook the F3. Aside from RayForce and Darius Gaiden, there are many excellent SHUMPs that often get overlooked in the modern era like Twin Cobra II and Gekirindan - both developed by ex-staff from the legendary STG studio Toaplan after its closure in 1993.

While SHMUPs and puzzle games are the two genres most represented on the F3, there are a handful of highly unique games like the weirdly F-Zero inspired beat-em-up Riding Fight and the boxing game Prime Time Fighter. I wouldn’t consider any of these games must-play classics, but they are solid representations of their genre and present the player with some innovation and quirkiness that was not seen from other developers at the time.

Additionally, you can find most of the game's in Taito's Hattrick soccer series on the F3 if arcade sports games are your thing. And you can also find some best arcade platformers of the day like the highly addictive masterpiece Elevator Action Returns and two direct sequels to Taito’s classic Bubble Bobble series.

Actual game cartridge prices in the modern era for the F3 range around $100 for a few very common titles, but you’ll most likely see prices ranging from $200-$700 in the current collector market. As I stated earlier, titles between 1992 and early 1994 did not get a release on cartridge, so you’d need to purchase stand-alone PCBs for these games which are extremely rare and expensive.

The only way to get access to all games on the cartridge version of the hardware PCB is to get the Darksoft Multi-Kit. This multi-game solution converts (read: sacrifices) one game cartridge into a ROM bank that allows you to select from and load any F3 game ROM into memory and play the ROM on real F3 hardware. Given the astronomical price of owning all the physical games, the Darksoft solution is the most cost-effective way to explore this library on real hardware despite being prohibitively expensive itself.

Much like the Neo-Geo and SNK, your love for this hardware will only go as far as your love for Taito games. It’s not a big library, but it’s a quality library with a game for every one of every skill level along with a few standouts that are essential experiences for arcade game fans.

Thankfully, the F3 has become a bit of a darling for arcade enthusiasts and game preservationists. So, its legacy and story will live on…at least for the time being. Those in the know recognize the F3 as a defining relic of the 90’s arcade scene and a testament to Japanese game development ingenuity. We are continuing to tell the story of this capable piece of arcade hardware and it’s quirky, but quality library of classic games so future gamers can more easily discover some of the most unique arcade titles of the late 20th century...that weren’t fighting games.

The Taito F3 is a fascinating piece of 2D arcade hardware that houses some truly genre-defining games. Despite a small library, the F3’s line-up is overall quite strong with unique spins on familiar genre tropes and an air of signature “Taito quirkiness” and innovation that was lacking in an industry obsessed with fighting games in the final decade of the 20th century.

If you simply must own an F3, there are multiple caveats you need to be aware of before taking the plunge. Chief among these being the strange refresh rate of the hardware. 60hz is the standard refresh rate of not only display technology back then, but it is also the defacto refresh rate most commonly used in our display technology today. The F3 runs at a refresh rate that hovers a little above 57hz. What this means is that unless you have access to an actual arcade CRT monitor that was created specifically to run a multitude of different frequencies, your F3 most likely will not sync to your modern display no matter the middleware solution you use. As far as I know, only the RetroTink 2X Classic is able to produce a perfectly synced image with F3 hardware on modern displays, while other devices like the popular OSSC and RetroTink 5X Pro can sync but usually have visual issues that are hard to even out.

For the die-hard arcade enthusiasts that already have a Jamma equipped arcade cabinet (the vast majority of cabs out there), you'll have everything you need for some F3 goodness so long as your other components still work. The only drawback here is that many games run in the tate screen orientation - turning the monitor 90 degrees to create a longer, vertical playfield. Changing the orientation of a screen in an arcade cab can be quite cumbersome if you don't have the means to easily rotate your monitor or have a dedicated cab set up in tate mode. 

For folks without a JAMMA arcade cabinet, you'll need to piece together an at home arcade rig which includes:

• SuperGun: $150 - $500 - A device that allows you to hook up JAMMA arcade PCBs to consumer displays and control set ups. 

• Upscailer: $100 - $300 - A device that allows you to run your SuperGun/PCBs on modern displays, like the aforementioned RetroTink 2X.

• F3 Motherboard: $200 - $300 - The "console" of the F3.

• Darksoft Multi-Kit: $600 stand-alone up to $800 already installed - A piece of kit that converts an F3 game cartridge into a rom-bank that allows you to switch games from an SD card.

• Arcade Stick: $150 - $300 - Some sort of controller for the games.

• Other Considerations: A rotatable mount for your display (for tate oriented games).

The average cost for all of the above? Roughly $1500. 

For the vast majority of folks interested in these games, I find it hard to recommend owning an actual F3 setup. In the world of 2022 I recommend playing the excellent Sega Saturn ports of the hardware’s best titles and checking out the other more obscure games via emulation (there are plenty of primers and guides out there to get you started). There’s a lot to love here, and the innovation on display is truly refreshing, but owning this physical piece of arcade history is for the die-hard arcade enthusiast only.

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