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Ever heard of the Triforce? Yes? Wrong. You heard of The Triforce, not Nintendo’s arcade board developed in conjunction with Sega and Namco, the Triforce.
It is fascinating to go through Sega’s work on arcade machines from the Dreamcast era onwards, as they’re these incredible machines that are essentially prolonging the life of consoles way past their original intended expiration date and even adding in cool new features that you didn’t get at home.
The games weren’t plentiful, but arcade games usually are developed a little weirdly. As they’re intended to draw in large amounts of cash over a course of time for the different arcades they live in, the high cost of selling the full machine or board, along with the lack of need for constant replenishment of different games every single week or month like with home consoles, means that the limited library of the Triforce is actually about average.
What makes the Triforce unique is that it is built on the Gamecube and uses Sega’s proprietary GD-ROM, or Gigabyte Disc, which the Sega Dreamcast and their other arcade systems used (the NAOMI for instance). Combine this with the powerhouse developers at Namco and it is one of gaming’s curiosities that unfortunately doesn’t seem to be getting many places with emulation.
How is emulation for Triforce?
While plenty of videos exists out in the wild of these games running at full speed and without too many issues, along with the hardware already being familiar enough to the scene, it is the additional functions from games like F-Zero AX and Mario Kart GP 1 & 2 that are causing the headaches.
If it needs to connect to something or link up to a camera for instance, like in Mario Kart, it will immediately crash. There are plenty of workarounds, but the common thought is that without reverse-engineering these games, it’ll be tough to do anything with them without a whole list of caveats.
So what games were available for the Triforce?
From Namco:
- Donkey Kong Jungle Fever (2005)
- Donkey Kong: Banana Kingdom (2006)
- Mario Kart Arcade GP (2005)
- Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (2007)
- Starfox (Unreleased)
From Sega:
- F-Zero AX (2003)
- F-Zero AX Monster Ride (2004)
- Gekitou Pro Yakyuu (2003)
- Avalon no Kagi (2003)
- Avalon no Kagi Ver.1.20: Summon The New Monsters (2004)
- Avalon no Kagi Ver.2 (2005)
- Virtua Striker 2002 (2002)
- Virtua Striker 4 (2004)
- Virtua Striker 4 Ver. 2006 (2006)
The Triforce unfortunately is not particularly supported by any emulation scene and getting the hardware or discs for the hardware is wildly expensive. However, Dolphin’s team did work on a fork of the program that does have some support, but is a little finicky as it hasn’t been updated in 8 years, leaving it in the lurch.
However, if you’re up for the task, getting it to run gives you an insight into the weirder side of Nintendo’s business. The company has its video game roots in the arcade, so whenever they release a new one into the wild it usually sees this cult following.
However, if you really want to experience the Mario Kart Arcade games, we’ll be covering Teknoparrot in the near future, along with recommendations on builds you need for it.
How to play F-Zero AX on Dolphin
In the meantime, if you have a copy of F-Zero GX for Dolphin, use these codes in the properties menu for the game, by right-clicking and choosing properties. Then click on Gecko Codes and configure Dolphin to enable cheats if it hasn’t already been selected.
Then in the code section copy-paste this in:
For a PAL copy:
06003F30 00000288 818D8364 280C0000 41820278 3C6C000B 38630640 3883000C 38A0000C 4BFFF5F5 3CAC0019 80857E44 64844001 90857E44 BBC30040 BFC5BAD0 3C6C0011 A003C662 280000A4 4082000C 380000A2 B003C662 380000C0 9803F91A A0A3C65A 3C006000 280500AE 4082000C 3C8C002F 90042A10 28050010 408200C8 3C63001E 9003C784 3C630002 3800002A B0031848 3800002C B003184C 38000029 B003186C 3800002B B0031870 3C6C0030 3C006000 90031AA8 3C003C00 60003FA0 90031C14 3C009001 600000D0 90031C18 3C003C00 60003FCC 90031C1C 3C009001 600000D4 90031C20 3C004800 6000010C 90031C24 3C003CE0 60004323 90031C38 3C0090E1 600000C8 90031C68 3C003800 6000007F 90031D30 38003F40 B0031D36 3C009061 600000EC 90031D38 3C004BFF 6000FEEC 90031D3C 3C004BFF 6000F9E8 9003208C 280500AD 40820050 3C8C002F 3C003C60 60008000 9004BA38 3C003863 60003F1E 9004BA3C 3C003806 60000001 9004BA48 3C007000 6000FFFE 9004BA50 3C0080ED 60008B1C 90049658 3C00809F 600032C0 900401C4 280500B1 40820010 3C8C0030 800499F8 900D8B1C 2805009C 40820040 3C6C002F 38000002 98039C97 98039DCF 98039F9F 9803A12B 9803A21B 9803A8EF 3800000E 98039CD7 98039E13 98039FDF 9803A16B 9803A25F 9803A933 3C8C000C 38846B80 38640028 38A00018 4BFFF419 38000001 980C0133 38000000 900D8338 3C6CFFF8 3C003800 6000000D 9003F958 3C808000 80043F24 28000000 4082001C 3C00000B 6000002E 90043F20 3C000039 6000001D 90043F24 3C6C0007 A0043F20 B0030E42 A0043F22 B0030E4A A0043F24 B0030E52 38003860 B0030E58 A0043F26 B0030E5A 3C6C0009 3C004E80 60000020 90037ACC 80010014 48017750 0401B900 4BFE8630
On NTSC (US):
06003F30 00000284 818D831C 280C0000 41820274 3C6C000B 3863FADC 3883000C 38A0000C 4BFFF5F5 3CAC0019 8085D550 64844001 9085D550 3CAC0018 BBC30040 BFC511DC 3C6C0010 A0032A86 280000A4 4082000C 380000A2 B0032A86 380000C0 98035D26 A0A32A7E 3C006000 280500AD 4082000C 3C8C0033 9004DE1C 28050010 408200CC 3C630022 90037B90 3C630003 3800002A B003C754 3800002C B003C758 38000029 B003C778 3800002B B003C77C 3C6C0034 3C006000 9003CE94 3C803C00 60803FA0 9003D000 60803FCC 9003D008 3C809001 608000D0 9003D004 608000D4 9003D00C 3C004800 6000010C 9003D010 3C003CE0 60004323 9003D024 3C0090E1 600000C8 9003D054 3C003800 6000007F 9003D11C 38003F40 B003D122 3C009061 600000EC 9003D124 3C804BFF 6080FEEC 9003D128 6080F9E8 9003D478 380000D7 98035817 3800002C 9803582B 280500AC 40820054 3C8C0032 3C003C60 60008000 90046E44 3C003863 60003F1E 90046E48 3C003806 60000001 90046E54 3C007000 6000FFFE 90046E5C 3C0080ED 60008A9C 90044A64 3C8C0033 3C00809F 600032C0 9004B5D0 280500B0 40820010 3C8C0033 80044E04 900D8A9C 2805009C 40820038 3C6C0032 38000002 98034FBB 9803509B 980351A7 980352DB 980353B3 3800000E 98034FFB 980350DF 980351E7 9803531B 980353F7 3C8C000C 38845404 38640028 38A00018 4BFFF415 38000001 980C0133 3C6CFFF8 3C003800 6000000D 9003FB50 3C808000 80043F24 28000000 4082001C 3C00000B 6000002E 90043F20 3C000039 6000001D 90043F24 3C6C0007 A0043F20 B0030CEE A0043F22 B0030CF6 A0043F24 B0030CFE 38003860 B0030D04 A0043F26 B0030D06 3C6C0009 3C004E80 60000020 90037428 80010014 48016DF4 00000000 0401AFA0 4BFE8F90
Load up the game and after a couple of messages about GX save data, you should load straight into AX. They’re similar games, but it’s fun to experience the arcade game without much of an issue.
