The DECO Cassette System is an arcade system that was introduced by Data East in October 1980. It was the first standardised arcade system that allowed arcade owners to change games. Developed in 1979, it was released in Japan in 1980 and then North America in 1981.

The arcade owner would buy a base cabinet, while the games were stored on standard Microcassette tapes. The arcade owner would insert the cassette and a key module into the cabinet. When the machine was powered on, the program from the tape would be copied into the cabinet's RAM chips; this process took about two to three minutes. Afterwards, the game could be played freely until the machine was powered off.

The machine contained three processors. The main central processing unit (CPU) was the DECO 222, a modified version of the MOS 6502 running at 750 kHz. This was largely identical to the normal 6502 but included hardware encryption that worked with the cassettes. A second unmodified 6502 running at 500 kHz was used to program the sound, which was produced by two General Instrument AY-3-8910 sound chips running at 1.5 MHz. Finally, an Intel 8041 running at 6 MHz, sometimes known as a I8X41, was used to control the cassette subsystem.

Game list In bold characters are the video games that were also released in dedicated arcade cabinets. †=unreleased

01: Highway Chase (also known as Mad Alien) 02: Sengoku Ninja Tai (also known as Ninja) 03: Manhattan 04: Terranean 05: Missile Sprinter † 06: Nebula 07: Astro Fantasia 08: The Tower 09: Super Astro Fighter 10: Ocean to Ocean 11: Lock 'n' Chase 12: The DECO Kid (also known as Flash Boy) 13: Tournament Pro Golf (also known as Pro Golf or 18 Hole Pro Golf) 14: DS Telejan 15: Lucky Poker 16: Treasure Island 17: Bobitt † 18: Explorer 19: Disco No. 1 (also known as Sweet Heart) 20: Tornado 21: Mission-X 22: Pro Tennis 23: Bramzon 24: Tsumego Kaishō 25: Angler Dangler (also known as Fishing) 26: BurgerTime (also known as Hamburger) 27: Bump 'n' Jump (also known as Burnin' Rubber) 28: Cluster Buster (also known as Graplop) 29: Rootin' Tootin' (also known as La-Pa-Pa) 30: Skater 31: Pro Bowling 32: Night Star 33: Pro Soccer 34: Super Doubles Tennis 35: Flying Ball (also known as Bumpoline) 36: Boomer Rang'r (also known as Genesis) 37: Zeroize 38: Scrum Try 39: Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory 40: Fighting Ice Hockey 41: Ōzumō - The Grand Sumo 42: Hello Gateball 43: Yellow Cab 44: Boulder Dash UX-7: Tokyo Mie Shinryōjo (Tokyo MIE Clinic) UX-9: Geinōjin Shikaku Shiken

Reception In Japan, the Game Machine list of highest-grossing arcade video games of 1981 listed Pro Golf at number three and Tele-Jan at number thirteen. On the list of highest-grossing arcade video games of 1982, Burnin' Rubber (Bump 'n' Jump) was number nine, BurgerTime (Hamburger) was number eleven, and Pro Tennis was number fifteen. Game Machine later listed Pro Soccer as the top-grossing new table arcade cabinet in September 1983, and Scrum Try topped the table arcade game chart in April 1984.

Legacy It was the first interchangeable arcade system board, developed in 1979 before it was released in 1980. It inspired Sega's Convert-a-Game system, which released in 1981. Later interchangeable arcade systems followed from other companies, such as the Nintendo VS. System in 1984.

The DECO Cassette System was revolutionary for its time, but Data East discontinued it in 1985 due to arcade owners' complaints about the potential unreliability of both the tapes (which could be demagnetized easily) and key modules (which EPROMs went bad after a time), as well as the poor quality of most of its games and the medium's long loading times. Despite its bad qualities, the DECO Cassette System was better received in Japan where many more games were released for it.

John Szczepaniak of Hardcore Gaming 101 considers the DECO scrolling action game Flash Boy (1981), based on the manga and anime series Astro Boy (1952–1968), to be sophisticated for its time. It had an energy bar that gradually depletes over time, and some of which can be sacrificed for temporary invincibility. It had punch attacks rather than shooting and a type of combo mechanic where, when an enemy explodes, debris can destroy other enemies. There is also a boss battle at the end of each level as well as bi-directional side-scrolling similar to Defender. Data East released two versions of the game, a side-scrolling one and a vertical scrolling one.

See also Arcade conversion Neo Geo Nintendo VS. System Nintendo Super System PlayChoice-10

Notes

References

External links Data East DECO Cassette System at System16 - The Arcade Museum DECO cassette system at coinop.org DECO Cassette System at UVList