Franco23444
Member
Hello everyone! I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I've been wanting to share this for quite some time. I know this place isn't an arcade forum but since this hardware is using PlayStation 3 hardware, I think it's pretty appropriate to post it here 
Over the past year, I made a post here about obtaining and maintaining a Namco System 357A Tekken 6BR unit. Since then, I've been trying to see what else I can figure out about the hardware and software of these systems and if we can crack them wide open for other potential stuff like adding custom homebrew apps or adding more than one game on the HDD. I have since then collected more of these units, specifically the later models that used the PS3 slim motherboards (357C and 369). I've also purchased/collected more games for the hardware and dumped them as well as any additional stuff like firmware PUP files.
Since then, I haven't done much until I met a group of my now new friends who wanted to see if we can get these arcade games to boot on the PlayStation 3 emulator, RPCS3. Working on this project and developing the new arcade forks for the emulator has definitely sparked my interest and curiosity in the hardware/software again.
With some new knowledge and with the invaluable help from my friends, we wanted to see if we could bring back any features to the original GEX firmware and on the stock hardware without any additional modifications.
What's interesting about the hardware is that unlike it's predecessors, the Namco system 11/12 (PS1) and the Namco System 246/256 (PS2), which have some significant upgrades from their respective home counterparts, the 357/369 is somewhat not really special, you'll see what I mean in a bit
As you all may have already known for quite some time now, these systems are essentially very stripped down PlayStation 3s with "custom"firmware, a custom Namco daughterboard I/O (USJ H0XX or USIO) which plugs directly into one of the USB ports on the PS3 motherboard and a custom metal enclosure which varies per system model. As is, I think these systems are pretty cool and are the only PlayStation 3 units used in arcades. They, of course, didn't get much widespread support like its predecessors. All the games released on the system were first party releases, no third party releases from Capcom, Taito, or Banpresto (before they were purchased by Bandai Namco). The most popular games released on the system are the Tekken series (T6-TAG 2) and other notable games like the Taiko No Tatsujin series and Mobile Suit Gundam series.
There were some rumors around for a while in which it was thought that the hardware had more RAM or extremely overclocked RSX/CELL, but that simply isn't the case.
In my personal collection, I have the following 357/369 hardware:
Tekken 6.0 Namco System 357A GEX FW 2.51
Tekken 6BR Namco System 357A GEX FW 3.70
Tekken 6.0/BR Namco System 357C GEX FW 3.60
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Namco System 369 GEX FW 3.60
I don't have a 357B system
Honestly, the early units are not worth it as all are now mostly dying. I will get rid of the ones I have currently. As for what I can do with them, I can't do much about fully unlocking the XMB. What I have in the video/pictures below is what we're stuck with in terms of fully unlocking the XMB on those systems (without the need of a hardware flasher). The motherboards in those systems (Namco System 357A-B) used the COK-002 (357A) and VER-001 (357B). These systems are also quite bulky and heavy.
The later systems, the 357C and 369 are the most interesting as they used the slim ps3 motherboards (model JTP-001). Since these systems used NOR, we could bring stuff back to turn that boring black XMB to colorful XMB. The GEX XMB is very limited in what you can do such as no in-game XMB or being able to explore it due to the autoboot feature. Well, with some modifications, in-game XMB can be added back as well as some other features.
Here's the interesting part though, it was thought that one reason for stripped XMB and no other features was to free up system resources to get the games to run more efficiently. That's not the case as the games still run perfectly fine with all the features back. Pretty cool stuff. Modding even further, we can see that these are nothing more than DEX with stripped features.
There's still some stuff we CANNOT do like run and install DLC for games or install custom PKGs (you can only install ARCADE INSTALLX.PKGs) or run homebrew apps efficiently. I'm hoping the community can have some support and I'll definitely be very interested in testing out stuff. I'm currently also running 3.60 GEX firmware although I can install and use other firmware on these systems from 3.60 to the latest 4.70 GEX firmware. The 357C and 369 do allow you to upgrade or downgrade firmwares easily (GEX 3.60-4.70). The early units DON'T let you downgrade, only upgrade firmwares.
Here's some things I have tried before without any success. First thing I tried was installing any other FW (that wasn't GEX) like DEX,CFW,or HFW. None of these worked and would bring a "DATA IS CORRUPTED" error message. Same thing with custom PKGs or game PKGs, they don't install and will spit out an error as they aren't supported by the system.
Homebrew apps like multiman or retroarch don't fully work as they aren't supported for GEX although the DEX versions, while they do sometimes work, have issues.
And normal PS3 games do run but they need to have some work done to play and DLC content doesn't work or install. As I said before, I hope the community might be interested enough in these systems to add some custom support and since I have these systems, I'll be happy to do some tests.
Before I sign off, I want to thank my friends, Brian218 and Backyard Posse, without them and especially the incredible research from Brian218, none of this would have been shown
Hope this was pretty interesting to look at and thanks for reading!
Videos:
Namco System 369 multi??!! (TEKKEN TAG 2 MULTI)
Namco System 357C multi (TEKKEN 6 MULTI IDEA)
Namco System 357A multi (TEKKEN 6 MULTI IDEA)
PS3 game on Namco System 357
Mortal Kombat on Namco System 357C
Namco System 369 multi updates: TEKKEN TAG 2 MULTI version 1
Namco System 357C multi updates: TEKKEN 6 MULTI version 1
TAKING A LOOK AT ARCADE GEX PS3 XMB
Over the past year, I made a post here about obtaining and maintaining a Namco System 357A Tekken 6BR unit. Since then, I've been trying to see what else I can figure out about the hardware and software of these systems and if we can crack them wide open for other potential stuff like adding custom homebrew apps or adding more than one game on the HDD. I have since then collected more of these units, specifically the later models that used the PS3 slim motherboards (357C and 369). I've also purchased/collected more games for the hardware and dumped them as well as any additional stuff like firmware PUP files.
Since then, I haven't done much until I met a group of my now new friends who wanted to see if we can get these arcade games to boot on the PlayStation 3 emulator, RPCS3. Working on this project and developing the new arcade forks for the emulator has definitely sparked my interest and curiosity in the hardware/software again.
With some new knowledge and with the invaluable help from my friends, we wanted to see if we could bring back any features to the original GEX firmware and on the stock hardware without any additional modifications.
What's interesting about the hardware is that unlike it's predecessors, the Namco system 11/12 (PS1) and the Namco System 246/256 (PS2), which have some significant upgrades from their respective home counterparts, the 357/369 is somewhat not really special, you'll see what I mean in a bit
As you all may have already known for quite some time now, these systems are essentially very stripped down PlayStation 3s with "custom"firmware, a custom Namco daughterboard I/O (USJ H0XX or USIO) which plugs directly into one of the USB ports on the PS3 motherboard and a custom metal enclosure which varies per system model. As is, I think these systems are pretty cool and are the only PlayStation 3 units used in arcades. They, of course, didn't get much widespread support like its predecessors. All the games released on the system were first party releases, no third party releases from Capcom, Taito, or Banpresto (before they were purchased by Bandai Namco). The most popular games released on the system are the Tekken series (T6-TAG 2) and other notable games like the Taiko No Tatsujin series and Mobile Suit Gundam series.
There were some rumors around for a while in which it was thought that the hardware had more RAM or extremely overclocked RSX/CELL, but that simply isn't the case.
In my personal collection, I have the following 357/369 hardware:
Tekken 6.0 Namco System 357A GEX FW 2.51
Tekken 6BR Namco System 357A GEX FW 3.70
Tekken 6.0/BR Namco System 357C GEX FW 3.60
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Namco System 369 GEX FW 3.60
I don't have a 357B system
Honestly, the early units are not worth it as all are now mostly dying. I will get rid of the ones I have currently. As for what I can do with them, I can't do much about fully unlocking the XMB. What I have in the video/pictures below is what we're stuck with in terms of fully unlocking the XMB on those systems (without the need of a hardware flasher). The motherboards in those systems (Namco System 357A-B) used the COK-002 (357A) and VER-001 (357B). These systems are also quite bulky and heavy.
The later systems, the 357C and 369 are the most interesting as they used the slim ps3 motherboards (model JTP-001). Since these systems used NOR, we could bring stuff back to turn that boring black XMB to colorful XMB. The GEX XMB is very limited in what you can do such as no in-game XMB or being able to explore it due to the autoboot feature. Well, with some modifications, in-game XMB can be added back as well as some other features.
Here's the interesting part though, it was thought that one reason for stripped XMB and no other features was to free up system resources to get the games to run more efficiently. That's not the case as the games still run perfectly fine with all the features back. Pretty cool stuff. Modding even further, we can see that these are nothing more than DEX with stripped features.
There's still some stuff we CANNOT do like run and install DLC for games or install custom PKGs (you can only install ARCADE INSTALLX.PKGs) or run homebrew apps efficiently. I'm hoping the community can have some support and I'll definitely be very interested in testing out stuff. I'm currently also running 3.60 GEX firmware although I can install and use other firmware on these systems from 3.60 to the latest 4.70 GEX firmware. The 357C and 369 do allow you to upgrade or downgrade firmwares easily (GEX 3.60-4.70). The early units DON'T let you downgrade, only upgrade firmwares.
Here's some things I have tried before without any success. First thing I tried was installing any other FW (that wasn't GEX) like DEX,CFW,or HFW. None of these worked and would bring a "DATA IS CORRUPTED" error message. Same thing with custom PKGs or game PKGs, they don't install and will spit out an error as they aren't supported by the system.
Homebrew apps like multiman or retroarch don't fully work as they aren't supported for GEX although the DEX versions, while they do sometimes work, have issues.
And normal PS3 games do run but they need to have some work done to play and DLC content doesn't work or install. As I said before, I hope the community might be interested enough in these systems to add some custom support and since I have these systems, I'll be happy to do some tests.
Before I sign off, I want to thank my friends, Brian218 and Backyard Posse, without them and especially the incredible research from Brian218, none of this would have been shown
Hope this was pretty interesting to look at and thanks for reading!
Videos:
Namco System 369 multi??!! (TEKKEN TAG 2 MULTI)
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