Get Lucky Twice!? - The War Gods Arcade HDD Problem

Feeling confident after scoring a relatively cheap Killer Instinct arcade PCB, I decided to see what else I could find on the cheap. I came across Midway's War Gods, a one on one 3D fighting game that leaves a little to be desired. It was missing a hard drive but I figured that was no problem since I've dealt with replacing those before on arcade pcbs. Let's see how that assumption worked out.
For those curious about the details and how to actually go about creating a new HDD for War Gods, good luck...tinyurl.com/WarGodsHDD
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#scarletsprites #arcade #midway #retrogaming #arcadegames #wargods #arcaderepair

[@garogercade7850]

Glad you’re back, Scarlet! You’ve got a nice piece of Midway history there. And it was a good learning experience.

[@ScarletSprites]

Thanks man! Yeah this one is all about the collecting and the history. I do like the idea/theme here but execution is definitely lacking a bit.

[@super-retro-city]

Glad you’re feeling better brother. Great to see you back at it.

[@googleboughtmee]

Wow. He's healthy for 5 minutes and already sending shock waves through the entire War Gods community

[@ScarletSprites]

😂

[@djgeki]

If you're an actual fan of War Gods, you already knew what you were getting yourself into. 🤭

[@stgenerations]

The dozens of them

[@isaias630]

Back to back conventions especially a video game convention pretty much explains how are you got sick however I am happy to hear you got better and you’re bringing us contact again very exciting and fun stuff the WarGod PCB was hilarious😂

[@ScarletSprites]

I definitely got sick at the second one. Not Covid though. I tested negative five times lol. My doctor kept saying “you have to have Covid, no one is sick this long”. Never tested positive though. Not sure it really mattered as I still had to quarantine from my wife and child and I still felt like shit.

[@robbiej111]

Glad you are feeling better!

[@ScarletSprites]

Thanks Robbie!

[@MotoXrhino]

I love the cabinet artwork on this one def one I am on the lookout for to add to the lineup.

[@ScarletSprites]

Same! The cabinet itself is really sharp looking. I love the blue and green color scheme.

[@snkfightfan0187]

I'm glad you are feeling better. Awesome that you were able to get the PCB up and running. Another arcade PCB has been restored and saved. $180 total seems fair. I don't know if the sticker and CF card is worth the $100 but you got it up and running. Congrats.

[@ScarletSprites]

I might be nitpicking about the CF, but like $60-$75 seems more in line. Whatever. Like you said, it’s up and running and I don’t have to worry about it.

[@Evercade_Effect]

As always found your journey very entertaining. Kudos to you for getting this working. Since I work in tech all day I don't want to troubleshoot when I'm off work. I totally get it's part of the fun for the hobby which I think is awesome. This is why I live vicariously though you and Ralph. 😂 The good new is that it sounds like you could sell it on ebay for $400 and double your money. Sorry to see that you have been sick and I wish you a speedy recovery.

[@ScarletSprites]

Thanks man! Yeah I totally understand the not wanting to bring work home thing. I think for me it helps that it doesn’t involve any other people, it’s my stuff, and there is no deadline. If any of those three things changed then I’d not want to do this either.

[@GameJunctionMedia]

Great video man, hate that I’m just now catching the content!

[@ScarletSprites]

This is who I used to be before a child, lol.

[@GameJunctionMedia]

@@ScarletSprites so relatable 🤷‍♂️

[@snklover3]

Thank you for uploading all these great videos. I really enjoy watching yours and retro ralphs channel. By the way, you are right: Neo Geo is a gateway drug.

[@ScarletSprites]

I’m glad there is a niche audience out there who enjoys this nonsense. Thanks for the kind words and feedback.

[@XeCuTioNR]

Good to see you're back & healthy, Joe!

[@ScarletSprites]

Hanging in there lol. Thanks man!

[@XeCuTioNR]

@@ScarletSprites same here, gone through a lot since I saw you at TMG. One day at a time..

[@ScarletSprites]

@@XeCuTioNR Sorry to hear that man. That's all you can really do though. I kind of just reflect at the end of a day that I got through it and take some comfort in the quiet moments.

[@coffeecuparcade]

Bro, I understand. I say it's fine. I often collect unusual games for retro consoles... just cause they are interesting and there might be some fun in exploring that game. You do it with Arcade boards now :) Love it

[@ScarletSprites]

That's pretty much the idea! Same mindset here!

[@Harineto]

Nice work! 😃

[@ScarletSprites]

It works at least. Would have liked to have knocked that card out on my own but, eh, probably wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

[@stevesimmons6500]

just sitting in front of those cabs would make me feel better

[@hdrgb]

The Neo King has returned!

[@ScarletSprites]

Trying my best here!

[@walkerpierce5446]

I appears that unfortunately the seller no longer has any of these Compact Flashes left. That sucks, I think I have a lead on an original PCB and will need the rom to run it, dang.

[@ScarletSprites]

I’d try to hunt down a Seagate HDD in that case. An ST9420AG will work. It was used for War Gods, Gretzky, and one or two others. That’ll hold you over until you can find the correct CF or someone else begins selling them (Hopefully for less than $100 😂)

[@GenesHand]

That was interesting. I had to do a very similar thing with HDAT2 for the PS3 out of all things. The PS3 for some reason can't read Hard Drives above 1.75 TBs and finding HDDs of that specific size is pretty much impossible (I think that they exist but you will never find them new or easily) So I had to use HDAT2 to limit the viewable size to the max amount that the PS3 can see. It had to be done with a sata port that could work in Ide mode and also not all Hard Drives allow you to edit that information... it took me weeks to figure that out lol.

[@ScarletSprites]

Yep, that is pretty much the process needed for this as well. What a pain. At some point I’m going to go back to this and see what I can get worked out with some other hardware I have.

[@vplacke]

I'm in the process of restoring a War Gods cabinet. I went down the hole of trying to write a cf card with no luck also. My problem though was I had the medium res only harddrive. I did eventually find an original drive that will run in both standard and medium res. Now that I think about it, I probably could've overwritten my original drive.

[@ScarletSprites]

The cabinet is beautiful imo. The blue/green color combo is really a good look. Love the big 3D button on the CP too. Definitely a worthy pursuit. I’d be tempted to toss MK in that cabinet as well.

[@JT-bzzzt]

Glad you are feeling better, just got over a nasty sinus infection myself. I never played War Gods, it doesn't look great but until I actually try it, I wont have much of an opinion.... With the protection methods used back in mid to late 90s, I have to wonder if the manufacturers really cared about their games in the long run or did they just want to get them out be done with it?

[@ScarletSprites]

Definitely wanted to ship stuff and not have it pirated. I think everything else was an afterthought. It’s hard playing this and not thinking about Virtua Fighter 2 which was out almost a full year prior. Obviously VF2 being the far superior game. I think this one must have just been a learning curve thing for Midway. Glad to hear you are doing better too. The sinus infection was my first illness after RetroWorld.

[@adidas1984x]

If you decide to sell the war gods . I’ll seriously buy it

[@spazda_mx5]

Glad you're feeling better. I don't think you did too bad for $180 all in, even if the games a pile of old shite 😅 Looking forward to the Vewlix vid, I definitely want to get one myself at some point.

[@ScarletSprites]

Thanks man. Yeah overall it’s not terrible I guess. Just kind of pissed about that CF card.

[@KillerArcadeGames]

I’ve yet to find a hardcore War Gods fan. I don’t hate the game I just feel they made the combos and fatalities far too difficult to pull off. I’m not sure if the arcade devs purposely locked so many games to specific hardware, or if that was just how games were made then. I assume newer arcades are similar, even though they run PCs now. I know my Hydro Thunder is screwed if the GPU goes out.

[@ScarletSprites]

Yeah that’s another good point; games being locked to certain graphics cards. Even the Vegas hardware has variations of this by game. It makes keeping replacements on hand expensive and tough sometimes.

[@dartkick04]

1. Another great video. 2.Glad you’re on the mend. 3. Can’t be too hard on yourself. You don’t know what barriers you’d be encountering beforehand, right? You found the solution, unfortunately, it took being gouged to complete it.

[@ScarletSprites]

Overall i guess it still kinda worked out as I ended up with a working board for less than what they typically sell for. Just mad at myself for not researching ahead of time and making the assumption I’d figure it out. I guess I kind of did, lol.

[@nickmadsen2572]

War God is definitely not the best game, but I do remember enjoying as a kid on N64. Besides the headache I think you came out ahead with that board for $180 all in. As always, great video man!

[@ScarletSprites]

Thanks Nick! Yeah overall it’s still a “deal” I suppose. Just definitely not a “steal” like I thought it would be. Live and learn!

[@Charlie-Cat.]

!Phew! I mean...Woo-Wee. What a stinker this game was for me Scarlet. I try so hard to forget this game for Midway. In fact, many games from them in the mid-late 90's I tend to avoid as much as possible. War Gods definitely wasn't for me bro. Don't get me wrong, I'm always enjoying your videos and listening on what you have to say. Just don't mind my thoughts with War Gods. 8^) Anyway, glad your feeling better Scarlet. In the meanwhile, I'm enjoying all your units you have in your collection bro. 8^) Anthony..

[@ScarletSprites]

Yeah War Gods isn’t a great one, no shame in not liking that one. I do appreciate you always stopping by and supporting the channel Anthony!

[@yarayar1]

Interesting video! Before you said the price of the card, I thought to myself "$100 sounds about right". He printed a sticker, that's worth something right, haha. Opinions will differ, but I think 100 seems fair and 50 would have been a steal.

[@ScarletSprites]

Yeah I go back and forth on it. It's not totally wild, I agree. I guess I'm just used to writing them myself and on occasion flipping them to friends for free or other community members at cost. I've never seen this as a way to make money off of other hobbyists. But yeah, I get it. I see both sides.

[@kevinthorn9672]

What dip switch is it to turn on to get into menu to turn down game volumes? Im on a switcher and the cab buttons wont go to service menu? On the war gods pcb board

[@ScarletSprites]

That’s odd, I’m pretty sure mine works. The game is stupidly loud each time it boots and I turn it down. On the board itself, P17 is a 7pin connector that also controls volume. Pin 2 decreases and Pin 3 increases volume. These are what route to the volume up and down switches on the coin door and allowed you to change it without going into the menu.

[@ant64b]

Hey dude! Nice to hear you're doing Vewlix stuff - quick question, have you replaced your monitor yet? I have the mount from Hadouken Arcade just sitting in a box because I'm unsure how I want to go about it.. or how you actually SHOULD..

[@ScarletSprites]

I’ve not done the replacement yet. I have the bracket as well and a 1440p monitor but just haven’t had the time. It might be a winter project for me.

[@ant64b]

​@@ScarletSprites​ Sounds like we're in similar situations then, I look forward to your progress report but yeah that mount does not seem to be as well documented as I'd like. His instructions mention drilling and stuff, but if you go on forums everyone says they don't drill and then conveniently leave out all the necessary information to replicate their install.

[@briangarvin8867]

Good to see you amongst the living Personal health #2 Family #1 Arcade #1.5. Stay sane!

[@ScarletSprites]

Staying sane has been the hardest part lol

[@briangarvin8867]

It’s all about strategic napping for both the child and the parents (always and when possible!!)

[@DigitalConfusion]

War Gods is not a great game. But it is midway... so gotta have it.

[@GhaleonStrife]

$100 for a CF card? That's highway goddamned robbery.

[@ScarletSprites]

I go back and forth as to whether I was being nit picky but $100 does feel excessive.

[@BillB808]

I'm pretty sure the wargods defenders are going to stay in the woodwork!

[@ScarletSprites]

I’ll keep you posted.

[@Emceemur]

Sure, you can do all this. But have you ever cleaned an nes cart with a Qtip? You have to use alcohol. Lol this stuff here is way above my pay grade but this was a fascinating journey start to finish. And hell yes on the vewlix video.

[@ScarletSprites]

What!? You can do that!? Is there a tutorial available for such wizardry?

[@AndreVandal]

Don't think I have even ever seen War Gods or tried to play it on anything. Now I have to give it a try soon on my GRS cabinet and see how bad it really is. :)

[@ScarletSprites]

Don’t do it.

[@Pitbull0669]

I was Great with Voodoo and Anubis lol I wish they remade that in HD lol

[@ScarletSprites]

The few times I played in the arcade I always used Anubis as well.

[@Pitbull0669]

@@ScarletSprites he was basicly subzero crossed with sector lol

[@DavidGarcia-qf7gc]

if it is worthy for you, it is well spent

[@ScarletSprites]

It’s a piece of history. A Midway collectible. That’s how I have to look at it. Certainly not from a game standpoint lol.

[@philipnapier3382]

Wasn't war gods on n64 ? Seems like I played this a few times over at a friend's house

[@JeffYPbPr]

it was and it sucks

[@ScarletSprites]

Haha, I see you got the correct answer already.

[@philipnapier3382]

@@ScarletSprites lol I thought I had played this before . I remember my friend bought it and my memory of it was that it wasn't very good .

[@Riz2336]

100 seems a bit pricey for the card but I guess it's better than having a bricked pcb laying around that doesn't do anything

[@ScarletSprites]

That’s pretty much the option I had to weigh. Lose $80 completely, or, spend another $100 and be done with it.

[@Demokirby]

After a complete MVS collection, clearly your new path is to start collecting shifty arcade fighters.

[@ScarletSprites]

Oof, I’m going to resist that one I think.

[@PabstOban]

I've run into this trap trying to piece together CIB games I collect. As many collectors have found, the box is always the hardest thing to find, but it's not always the most expensive. There have been times I've found a decent box to a game I don't want to pay the CIB price for, and hope I can find a good manual and cart... The cart I can usually find, but those manuals (or any sort of maps) can be tricky... its hit or miss. Sometimes you spend way less, and sometimes you pay exactly the same once you factor in 3 different shipment costs. So my point in bringing this up is falling pray to the sunk cost fallacy... in that you were in for $80, but not $180... but what you bought for $80 is absolutely worthless... so do you take the L? Or do you pay double what you were originally in for? Nobody likes seeing anything go to waste, especially their time... so, yeah, I get it. You did exactly what I woulda done... with buyers remorse.

[@ScarletSprites]

That’s exactly the mindset. Keep going or recognize you’ve wasted $80. Also, if I didn’t do this now it would for sure sit around and be a paper weight FOR YEARS.

[@K1NGARTH3R]

Now you have the card, just clone it and burn other cards to sell at a lower price to get your money back on the board and card outlay 😊

[@ScarletSprites]

Mine are now for sale at $98 a piece. 😂

[@Lu50516]

you should clone those cards and sell them for cheaper.

[@ScarletSprites]

You can make an image of them but the device you’re writing to would still need to be configured and formatted with the correct Set Max values. It’s a bit of a headache. I’m pretty sure I can do it now but it’s too much of a pain in the ass to setup. I’d also need to secure proper media that could handle that setting. I do understand why the seller ran a bunch of these off when he was setup right.

[@Lu50516]

@@ScarletSprites So making a 1:1 image copy wouldnt work like using balena etcher? That sucks, so i guess its tweeking files to spoof drives ID huh?

[@ScarletSprites]

You got it

[@justysilverman]

Nice shirt. War Gods sucks.

[@ScarletSprites]

I’m so glad you’re a reasonable person.