X68000

The YM3438 was made by Yamaha and is used in several Sega Arcade Boards. It is mostly the same as the YM2612, which is found for example in the Mega Drive or the FM Towns. The Chip is also known as the OPN2C.

A very similar chip, the YM2612 (OPN2), was used inside the Sega Mega Drive or the FM Towns. Maybe they changed the name to differentiate between Arcade and Home usage.

Technical Specifications

• Channels: 6
• Channel 1-6: FM-Sound synthesis with 4 Operators
• Channel 6: FM could be disabled on this channel to replay an 8-bit PCM Waveform.
• Stereo: Yes (Channels can be assigned to hard left, hard right & center)
• DAC: Internal

Thunder Force AC uses a YM3438 for its Music

Used in

Arcade Systems

• Sega Mega-Play
• Sega Mega-Tech
• Sega Multi 32
• Sega System 18
• Sega System 32
• Sega System C-2

Special Applications

• Sega Mega-Play | Uses it together with 2x SN76489
• Sega Mega-Tech | Uses it together with 2x SN76489
• Sega Multi 32 | Uses it together with a custom, so-called Sega MultiPCM Chip, thats used for Sample Playback
• Sega System 18 | Uses 2x YM3438 together with an Ricoh RF5c68 for Sample Playback
• Sega System 32 | Uses 2x YM3438 together with an Ricoh RF5c68 for Sample Playback
• Sega System C-2 | Uses it together with an SN76496

Variants

• YM2612 | The two chips are mostly identical.

Emulation

• Arcade | The Music of the Arcade Systems can be emulated with M1. M1 is a music player which is based on MAME and thus supports a lot of Arcade Games, although the Sega Mega-Play and Mega-Tech seem to be missing from it. More about M1 can be found here.

Air Rescue from the Sega System 32 running in M1